Architecture and Landscape

The Russian estate «Znamenskoye-Rayok» was built in the second half of the XVIIIth century and is the summit of works of the great Russian architecht N.A. Lvov. It was planned and laid out as the place of reception and rest of the royal persons on the way from Saint-Petersburg to Moscow.

Russian architects K. Butsy, A. Trophimov, English architecht W. Irwin and the Italian F. Ruska have taken part in the creation of the estate ensemble. Tile stoves, parquet, household necessities and dishes were made by the drafts of Lvov.

The estate layout, nearly concerned in the lie of the ground, has an axial structure and a vivid symmetry. The pergola joins the main house with four side outhouses and the gate, resembling a triumphal arch. Vast oval front court is at the core of the whole estate complex.

Beautifully painted vault of the main house and the portraits of the imperial family in the elegant moulded frames, underlining the owner's belonging to the royal family, are the main decorations of the estate.

In front of the house we can see a graceful park, proceeding with the clear axial composition of the whole estate. The deeper we penetrate into the park, the more it resembles the nature. The most pucturesques places are marked by the pavilions, summer-houses, grottoes. The main park lane leads to the river Logovez. The most remarkable ornament of the house is two systems of ponds with cascades in the southern and nothern part of the parc. In the center of the upper pond of the southern system we can see an island.

The ancient Znamenskaya church, built in 1766, dominates above the main house of the estate.

The estate «Znamenskoye-Rayok» enters the number of «The Most Well-Known Estates of Russia».