Moscow

Kolomenskoye Palace Estate

First mentioned in documents in the late 1330s, Kolomenskoye was originally a Grand Ducal residence and later became a Tsar’s residence. Its only and oldest architectural landmark is the Church of the Ascension built in 1532.

The golden age of the Kolomenskoye estate was under the reign of Alexey Mikhailovich when the wooden royal palace, a building consisting of numerous interconnected terems (tower houses) with carved decorations, was rebuilt.  The palace had more than 250 rooms and its total area was 10,250 square meters. In addition to the palace connected with the stone Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (1649-1653) by a passage, the Tsar’s Court complex included numerous maintenance buildings surrounded by a fence with three gates. The area around was occupied by gardens.

Tsarevich Peter Alekseevich visited Kolomenskoye for the first time at the age of three, in the summer of 1675. The royal family went to Kolomenskoye every year. In 1690, Peter I established a custom to go from Moscow to Kolomenskoye by yacht. In 1695 and 1696, after each of the Azov campaigns respectively, Kolomenskoye was, by the Tsar’s order, where regiments gathered before proceeding to enter Moscow triumphantly. In December 1709, captured Swedes were gathered in the neighborhood of the royal residence for the participation in a triumphal celebration of the victories of the Russian army at Lesnaya and Poltava. On December 18 to 20, 1709, Kolomenskoye saw Peter’s celebrating the birth of his daughter Elizabeth, the future Empress. The last time Peter I visited Kolomenskoye was on May 12, 1724, however, the status of the estate as a royal residence remained for a long time after that. In particular, it was there that the coronations of Catherine I, Peter II, Anna Ivanovna and Elizabeth Petrovna were celebrated.

In 1923, a museum was established in Kolomenskoye which began to accumulate old wooden buildings. In 1932-1934, a wooden Cabin of Peter I brought from Arkhangelsk was installed in the estate. The cabin is built from thick logs and has four rooms, a hallway, a corridor and a kitchen.  Currently, the building houses an exhibition dedicated to Peter I. A life-size monument to Peter I (by sculptor Georgy Frangulyan) is standing in front of the Cabin. It is an author’s copy of a monument which was inaugurated during the Days of Peter the Great festival in Antwerp, Belgium in 1998.  Peter visited Antwerp in 1717, during his second trip to Western Europe.  

In 1960, Kolomenskoye was included within the limits of Moscow.
On July 8 and 9, 2009, Kolomenskoye hosted festivities dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. It was then that a memorial sign installed next to the cannons that took part in the Battle of Poltava was inaugurated in Voznesenskaya Square of the former estate.

In 2010, a life-size model of the palace of Aleksey Mikhailovich was built in Kolomenskoye. However, it is situated away from the surviving buildings of the Sovereign’s Court (at 27 2-ya Dyakovo Gorodishche Street). The facades and the general layout repeat the original building of the 17th century, but the building is not entirely wooden — logs are covering in-situ reinforced concrete structures.
In 2013, the Kingdom of the Netherlands presented the Dutch Cabin of Peter I to Kolomenskoye in the framework of the Year of Russian-Dutch Cooperation. A copy made by Dutch builders is a life-size reproduction of the Cabin installed in Zaandam which was visited by Peter I in August 1697 during his Grand Embassy travels and where he stayed for eight days to learn shipbuilding at a local shipyard. Two small rooms show recreated fragments of the interior, including a fireplace with Delft tiles and the Tsar’s bed. A multimedia part of the exhibition demonstrates the story of the Grand Embassy.

The architectural and park ensemble of the royal residence is a monument of federal significance, and the Church of the Ascension is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.  Kolomenskoye is part of the Moscow State Integrated Art and Historical Architectural and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve.