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      Kosino: three lakes and old churches

      ⏱ 4 h🚶 3.7 km🍽 3📍 9 stops
      🚶 Moderate — 3–7 km

      The only lakes of glacial origin in Moscow, the churches of the old village and a yacht club with Dutch-style houses in the middle of new-build blocks.

      👶 With kids🏛 History and architecture🌳 Parks and nature🏘 Off the centre
      👶 3–6, 7–12 years · ✗ hard with a stroller

      The paths to Holy and Black lakes are dirt, with boggy shores — an ordinary stroller won't get through. Phoenix Park and the White Lake embankment are passable.

      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        ☕️ Truffel coffee shop
        ул. Наташи Качуевской, 3
        ▮▯▯▯▯
        A snack: 15 minutes on foot from Lukhmanovskaya metro. A latte and syrniki (cottage-cheese pancakes) before the walk, truffles to take away
        🍴 A small cozy coffee shop by Feniks Park, with its own desserts and baked goods. What to order: a latte, syrniki (fried curd pancakes), handmade truffles, lokum (Turkish delight).
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🌳 Feniks Park (Phoenix)
        Святоозёрская ул. / Салтыковская ул.
        A fairy-tale garden inspired by Bilibin's illustrations: mature trees, flower beds and dry stone riverbeds.
        A fairy-tale garden inspired by Bilibin: three trails, dry stone streambeds; opposite is the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Kozhukhovo
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        • The 0.6-hectare garden was laid out in August 2019 as part of the Flower Jam festival.
        • The concept was created by the landscape designer James Basson.
        • The paths are paved with artificially aged tiles, like "magic trails", with boulder "waymarkers" along them.
        • It is named after the Phoenix bird, a relative of the Russian Firebird.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        🍽 Zamania restaurant in Kosino · 🧸 play area
        Святоозёрская ул., 1а, 2-й этаж
        ▮▮▮▯▯
        About 350 m from Phoenix Park, a restaurant on the 2nd floor. A kids' room and entertainers, so it's better to call before you go.
        🍴 A family restaurant by Feniks Park. It has a kids' room, entertainers and workshops for children. Try: dishes from the kids' menu, and breakfast or lunch for adults.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🏛 Church of the Life-Giving Spring Icon by Holy Lake
        Оранжерейная ул., вл. 24, стр. 1
        A small church right on the shore of Holy Lake, about which there is a legend of a church that sank underwater; a religious procession comes here every year.
        A small church right by Holy Lake, which a religious procession visits every year
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        • Svyatoozyorskaya Street got its name in 2004 — after Holy Lake, the Life-Giving Spring church and the Trinity church.
        • In spring 2023 a mosque was to be built on the lake shore; after protests by residents and parishioners, construction was moved closer to Kosino metro.
        • Over the years of draining the surroundings the lake by the church has become noticeably shallower; the Kosino Biological Station has studied it for a long time.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🌳 Holy Lake (Svyatoe Ozero)
        Косинский природно-исторический парк
        The smallest of the three Kosino lakes — round and considered to be of sinkhole origin; its water is noticeably colder than in the neighboring ones.
        A round sinkhole lake: legend has it a church sank under the water here. The shores are boggy — stay on the path
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Holy Lake (Svyatoe Ozero)
        © Ulaisaeva · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • In the old days the lake was called Kuporosny (Vitriol); the remains of big trees were found on its bottom.
        • The lake is round like a plate: its average depth is 3 m and the greatest is 5.1 m.
        • It is not easy to reach the water: the lake is surrounded by a bog quagmire 200–250 m wide.
        • Despite a thick layer of silt, the lake has never bloomed, and its water is cold and clear.
        • The bottom silt contains iodine, silver and bromine; peasants treated themselves with the silt and lake water.
        • Holy, White and Black lakes together cover only 65 hectares and are part of the Kosinsky nature-and-history park.
      10. 🚶 on foot
      11. 6
        🏛 Kosino church complex on White Lake
        Большая Косинская ул., 29
        Three churches on the shore of White Lake: Dormition, the stone St Nicholas and the wooden St Tikhon; the Dormition church holds the revered Modena icon.
        Three churches on the shore of White Lake; look in at the wooden Tikhonovsky church
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Kosino church complex on White Lake
        © Lodo27 from Moscow, Russia · CC BY-SA 3.0
        • The wooden St Nicholas church is first mentioned in 1617 in a deed of gift from Tsar Mikhail Romanov.
        • The stone Dormition church was built in 1823–1826 with funds from the merchant Dmitry Lukhmanov.
        • After the closure in 1939, kerosene lamps were made in the St Nicholas church, and during the war bomb shelters were set up in the churches' undercrofts.
        • The old wooden St Nicholas church burned down in 1947; in its place the wooden St Tikhon church was built in 1986.
        • White Lake by the churches is up to 19 m deep, and the deepest spot is precisely in the eastern part, by the church.
      12. 🚶 on foot
      13. 7
        🏛 Kosino Children's Sea Club
        Большая Косинская ул., 45
        A yacht club on White Lake founded in 1987; the buildings are styled after old Dutch houses.
        Yachts on a lake in the middle of Moscow and "Holland-style" houses — view them from the shore
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        • In the late 17th century Peter I kept a shipyard and a "play" flotilla on White Lake, later moved to Lake Pleshcheyevo.
        • Every year the Kosino Sea Club launches Peter I's little boat and stages a theatrical show.
        • White Lake is the biggest of the Kosino lakes: 27.5 hectares of water.
        • In 1908 the Kosino Biological Station opened on the shore of White Lake — one of the cradles of Russian limnology.
      14. 🚶 on foot
      15. 8
        🍽 Panorama café on White Lake
        Большая Косинская ул., 41А
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        Lunch: shashlik and khachapuri with a view of White Lake; better to book at weekends in the daytime
        🍴 A café with a grill, a veranda and gazebos right by White Lake, a local favorite after a walk. What to order: shashlik, Adjarian khachapuri, carrot cake, raspberry mors (berry drink).
      16. 🚶 on foot
      17. 9
        🌳 Black Lake (Chornoye Ozero)
        Косинский природно-исторический парк
        A small glacial lake surrounded by sphagnum bogs and pines — a natural monument.
        The quietest and most wooded of the three lakes, with dark water. To get back to Kosino metro, take a bus from Bolshaya Kosinskaya
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Black Lake (Chornoye Ozero)
        © Kemal KOZBAEV · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • Until the 1940s Black Lake was the smallest of the Kosino lakes, but after peat extraction on its shores it grew considerably.
        • In the north of the lake the remains of a lowland bog survive, with bog arum and other plants rare for the Moscow region.
        • The water in the lake is cold and brownish; it is fed by bottom springs, and floating islands drift near the shores.
        • In 1999 a flamethrower tank based on the T-34, which had fallen through the ice in December 1942, was raised from the bottom.
        • The raised tank was restored and is now in running order — at the Uralvagonzavod museum.

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