Uzkoe (russian: Узкое) is a historic estate in the southwestern part of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. Before 1629, the area belonged to

Prince Gagarin The House of Gagarin (russian: Гага́рин) is the name of a Russian princely family descending from sovereign rulers of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma. Origins The descendant of the Great Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, the Christianizer of Rus ...

, then it passed to Maksim Streshnev, a cousin of

Tsarina Tsarina or tsaritsa (also spelled ''csarina'' or ''csaricsa'', ''tzarina'' or ''tzaritza'', or ''czarina'' or ''czaricza''; bg, царица, tsaritsa; sr, / ; russian: царица, tsaritsa) is the title of a female autocratic ruler (mona ...

Eudoxia Streshneva. Upon the death of Maksim's grandson in 1692, the ownership passed sideways to a cousin,

Tikhon Streshnev Tikhon Nikitich Streshnev (russian: Тихон Никитич Стрешнев; 1649 – 15 January 1719, in St Petersburg) was a Russian boyar and statesman during the reign of Peter I of Russia, one of the first members of the Governing Se ...

. It was he who commissioned a singular five-domed church to be built there in 1698-1704. Its four-petaled plan was of Ukrainian Baroque inspiration; but all five towers are equal in height and crowned by typical Russian

onion dome An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point. It is a ty ...

s. This five-towered church, dedicated to the Theotokos of Kazan, is quite extraordinary in

Russian architecture The architecture of Russia refers to the architecture of modern Russia as well as the architecture of both the original Kievan Rus’ state, the Russian principalities, and Imperial Russia. Due to the geographical size of modern and imperial ...

. Its design is attributed to Osip Startsev, who was responsible for some of the major Baroque cathedrals of

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

but also worked in Moscow. Tikhon's granddaughter Sophie was the last of her race; she married Prince Galitzine, whose son Alexis built a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

residence flanked by two wings. Alexis also built a regular park on the grounds and laid out a series of ponds. His daughter Marie was wife of Count

Pyotr Aleksandrovich Tolstoy Count Pyotr Aleksandrovich Tolstoy (russian: Пётр Александрович Толстой) (1769 – 28 September 1844) was a Russian general and statesman. Pyotr Tolstoy came from the Oryol branch of the Tolstoy family, Tolstoy family, ...

, who received Uzkoe as a dowry and had a larch alley planted there. In the mid-19th century the estate passed through marriage to the

Troubetzkoy The House of Trubetskoy (English), Трубецкие (Russian), Трубяцкі ( Belarusian), ''Trubecki'' (Polish), ''Trubetsky'' ( Ruthenian), Трубецький (Ukrainian), ''Troubetzkoy'' (French), ''Trubic'' (Croatian), ''Trubetski'' ...

s who had the old

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

swept away and replaced with a Neoclassical mansion, which borrowed many details from its predecessor. It was there that the Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov died in 1900. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Troubetzkoys were expelled from Uzkoe and their estate was given over to the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

, which has used it as a rest home for its members. Ski treks of Uzkoe were popular with Lev Landau, while Andrei Kolmogorov liked swimming in the local ponds. The church had been stripped of its 17th-century

icon screen In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis ( gr, εἰκονοστάσιον) is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. ''Iconostasis'' also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed a ...

(its whereabouts are still unknown) and until 1995 it housed libraries which were looted in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

.Sutter, Sem C. 1994. “The Fall of the Bibliographical Wall: Libraries and Archives in Unified Germany.”'' College and Research Libraries'' 55 (5): 403–11. In 1995 it reverted to the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

References

External links

Official website Uskoe

Website of the church in Uzkoe

{{coord, 55, 37.40, N, 37, 32.34, E, region:RU_type:landmark, display=title Geography of Moscow Buildings and structures in Moscow Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Moscow