🏛 Kuskovo Grotto

An 18th-century Baroque pavilion with a domed hall decorated with shells and tufa.

The stone grotto was built in 1756–1761 under the serf architect Fyodor Argunov.
The German grotto master Johann Voigt decorated it with shells for about 14 years, from 1761 to 1775.
It is the only pavilion in Russia that has kept its 18th-century grotto decoration.
The patterns use 24 kinds of shells; during restoration some of them turned out to be in the Red Book (endangered).
The curved steps of the stylobate represent water spreading out in front of the grotto.
After restoration the grotto reopened in 2019.

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