Skhodnya Bowl and Bratsevo Estate

⏱ 1 h 5 min🚶 1.6 km🍽 1📍 3 stops

🐢 A little — under 3 km

A descent to the bottom of a huge natural funnel above the Skhodnya — an almost mountain landscape in the middle of Moscow — then the Stroganovs' estate with ponds and coffee with waffles in a loft in the middle of the park.

🏛 History and architecture🌳 Parks and nature🏘 Off the centre⏱ An hour or so

🗺 Open in Yandex Maps

1
🌳 Skhodnensky Kovsh (Skhodnya Bowl)
долина реки Сходни, Южное Тушино
A huge natural basin with steep wooded slopes, a nature reserve where the Skhodnya winds along the bottom.
About 20 minutes on foot from Skhodnenskaya metro. The Bowl is a huge natural funnel above the Skhodnya; go down the path to the bottom and look at the slopes from below
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Triburon · CC BY-SA 4.0
- The bowl is up to 1 km across and about 40 m deep; by one estimate it is the third-largest natural monument in Moscow by area.
- It was dug by the Skhodnya itself: after the glacier, the full-flowing river ran along the upper edge of the cliff and gradually cut deeper.
- The "Skhodnya skullcap", the remains of a person from the Upper Paleolithic, was found here.
- The bowl holds the Tushino hillfort of the Dyakovo culture, excavated in 1927 by the archaeologist Konstantin Vinogradov.
- An ancient trade route linking Moscow with Vladimir and Suzdal ran through these places.
- Moorhens, nightingales and bluethroats nest on the marshy bottom.
🚶 on foot
2
🏛 Brattsevo Estate
Светлогорский пр., 13
A Neoclassical estate of the 1810s, whose design is attributed to Voronikhin: the main house, the Milovid rotunda and a landscape park above the Skhodnya.
The Stroganovs' Classical estate with a park and ponds; the house from outside, the park is open
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Mike1979 Russia · CC BY-SA 4.0
© Mike1979 Russia · CC BY-SA 4.0
- By one account, the stone house was built in 1813–1815 on the site of a wooden one that burned in 1812.
- In 1780 Count Alexander Stroganov bought the estate as a settlement for his wife Ekaterina Trubetskaya; she lived here with Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov, a former favorite of Catherine II.
- The last owner, Prince Nikolai Shcherbatov, was director of the Historical Museum and had a telephone line run to the estate from Moscow.
- In 1925 an experimental station for new crops of the Institute of Applied Botany worked here, led by Nikolai Vavilov.
- After the Chelyuskin in 1934, Otto Schmidt rested here and arranged for the estate to become a rest home for polar explorers.
- In the 1830s–1840s views of Brattsevo itself were painted on the vault of the domed belvedere.
🚶 on foot
3
☕️ Idu Lesom Coffee Shop at Brattsevo Estate
Светлогорский пр., 13, стр. 7
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A snack: coffee and waffles in a loft in the middle of the park; in summer sit on the veranda
🍴 A loft-style coffee shop right in the estate park, with a terrace, board games and toys for kids. What to order: waffles, a croissant or a sandwich, the house tea.