Vorontsovo Park: ponds, mazes and gardens

⏱ 1 h🚶 1.1 km🍽 1📍 3 stops

🐢 A little — under 3 km

The Vorontsovs' estate church and a park with a cascade of ponds, mazes, and Chinese and Italian gardens; boats in summer. You can finish with lunch at a family café by the entrance.

👶 With kids🏛 History and architecture🎨 Art🏘 Off the centre⏱ An hour or so

👶 under 3, 3–6, 7–12 years · ✓ stroller-friendly

Nakhimovsky and Profsoyuznaya have wide pavements; Vorontsovo Park has asphalt and gravel, and there are steps by the cascade of ponds — go around along the avenue.

🗺 Open in Yandex Maps

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🏛 Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Vorontsovo
ул. Академика Пилюгина, 1
A white mid-18th-century church with Baroque decoration and a bell tower at the entrance to the former Vorontsovo estate.
The Vorontsovs' estate church — the park starts here.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Aniacra · CC BY-SA 4.0
- The 1990s restoration showed that all parts of the building were laid in the same brick at the same time — the wings had previously been thought to be later additions.
- An unusual detail is the rounded west wall, which holds the main entrance.
- In 1838, under the estate's owner Sergey Mukhanov, a two-tier bell tower and a side chapel were added to the church.
- In Soviet times the building housed a plastics factory that made dominoes, photo-printing trays and children's toys.
- By the 1980s the church stood in ruins without a dome; restoration began in the winter of 1990, and the bell tower was rebuilt almost from scratch.
- Services resumed on 23 May 1990 — at first in the open air, among ruined walls.
🚶 on foot
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🌳 Vorontsovo Park (Vorontsovo estate)
Воронцовский парк, 3
The former estate of the Vorontsovs and Repnins, where a balloon was secretly built in 1812 to use against the French.
A cascade of ponds, mazes, the Chinese and Italian gardens; the stable-yard wings and the greenhouse are viewed from outside. Boats are available on the pond in summer.
📖 More about the placeCollapse
© Maria Ushanova · CC BY-SA 4.0
© karel291 · CC BY 3.0
© MarinaZarembo · CC BY-SA 4.0
- The estate is named after Fyodor Vasilyevich Vorontsa, a boyar of Dmitry Donskoy who owned these lands in the second half of the 14th century.
- From 1744 Prince Pyotr Repnin created his "Versailles near Moscow" here: a Baroque house, terraced ponds and a French park.
- At the main entrance Field Marshal Nikolay Repnin built a "Turkish fortress" in memory of the capture of Machin in the Russo-Turkish War.
- The dirigible balloon was built in 1812 by the German Franz Leppich: it was supposed to lift up to 50 people.
- The French learned of the secret construction and captured 26 people in the area; a military court shot 16 of them as "arsonists".
- From 1923 the estate served as a prison for privileged inmates — the Left SR leader Maria Spiridonova was held here.
- The cascade of five ponds is declared a natural monument; the Ramenka and Kotlovka rivers begin here.
- The park, about 48.7 hectares, was restored and opened to visitors on 14 July 2007.
🚶 on foot
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☕️ AnderSon family café by Vorontsovsky Park · 🧸 play area
ул. Академика Пилюгина, 18
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AnderSon is at the north entrance of Vorontsovo Park — the finish of the walk. The play area with an entertainer is free, for children aged 2–12, with a parent up to age 5; there is a mother-and-baby room.
🍴 A café-pastry shop at the northern edge of Vorontsovsky Park: a play room with an entertainer and a separate room for mom and baby. What to order: the signature syrniki (fried curd pancakes) with raspberry puree and sour cream, kids' "Bunny Syrniki", homemade blini with sour cream.