MOSCOW - (5) SUBURBS

Suburbs. -- Moscow is surrounded by beautiful parks and picturesque suburbs. Of the former one of the most frequented is the Petrovsky Park, to the north-west. A little farther out is the Petrovskoye Razumovskoye estate, with an agricultural academy and its dependencies (botanical garden, experimental farm, &c). Another large park and wood surround an imperial palace in the village of Ostankino. The private estates of Kuzminki, Kuskovo, and Kuntzevo are also surround by parks; the last has remains of a very old graveyard, supposed to belong to the pagan period. Twenty-eight miles westward from the city is the Savvin-Storojevsky monastery, situated, like so many other Russian monasteries, in a very fertile country, amidst beautiful forests; it has a pretty cathedral, a rich treasury, and library. Farther westward still is the New Jerusalem monastery erected by the patriarch Nikon.

In the south-west, on the right bank of the Moskva, which here makes a great bend to the south, are the Vorobiovy hills, which are accessible by steamer from Moscow, and afford one of the best views of the capital. In the bend of the Moskva is situated the Novo-Dyevitchly convent, erected in 1525, and connected with many events of Russian history. It is now the burial-place of the Moscow aristocracy, and one of the richest nunneries in Russia. The village Arkhangelskoye has also a good park and a palace built by Rastrelli. Iliynskoye, formerly a private estate, was purchased by the imperial family in 1864.

In the south, on the road to Serpukhoff, is the village of Kolomenskoye, the residence of Alexis Mikhailovitch, with a church built in 1531 (a striking monument of Russian architecture, restored in 1880). Diakovo has also a church built in the 16th and 17th centuries—a pure example of the architecture of Moscow, recalling the temple of Vasili Blajennyi. One of the best sites in the neighborhood is occupied by the park of Tsaritzyno (11 miles from the Kursk railway station), purchased by Catherine II., with an unfinished palace and a beautiful park. The monastery Nikolo-Ugryeshskiy, 12 miles from the city, between the Kursk and Ryazan railways, also occupies a beautiful site, and is much visited by Moscow merchants, to venerate a holy picture by which Dmitry Donskoy is said to have been blessed before going to fight the Mongols.

In the north, the forest of Sokolniki covering 4 1/2 square miles, with its radial alleys and numerous summer residences, is the part of Moscow most frequented by the middle classes. Close by, towards the east, is situated the Preobrajenskoye suburb, the centre of the noncomformists, and farther south the village of Izmailovo, with a home for invalids and model farm for apiculture. To the west of Sokolniki is situated the wood of Mariina, the favourite resort of the merchants and "merchants’ sons," who there spend fabulous sums of money on choirs of Gipsy singers.





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