Grebnevo
Encyclopedia
Galitzine
For Orthodox clergyman and theologian, see Alexander Golitzin.The Galitzines are one of the largest and noblest princely houses of Russia. Since the extinction of the Korecki family in the 17th century, the Golitsyns have claimed dynastic seniority in the House of Gediminas...
, Trubetskoy
Trubetskoy
Trubetskoy , Трубецкой , Трубяцкі , Trubecki , Trubetsky , Трубецький , Troubetzkoy , Trubezkoi or Trubetzkoy , is a Ruthenian Gediminid gentry family of Black Ruthenian stock, like many other princely houses of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later prominent in Russian...
, and Bibikov noble families. The manor is situated about 30 km east of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, on the outskirts of Fryazino
Fryazino
Fryazino is a scientific town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Lyuboseyevka River northeast of the city of Moscow. Population: Fryazino is a center of the Russian microwave electronics.-History:...
, on the bank of the Lyuboseyevka River.
Among the early owners were Bogdan Belsky
Bogdan Belsky
Bogdan Yakovlevich Belsky was a Russian statesman and a close associate of Ivan the Terrible.Bogdan was not related to the great Gedyminid princely family of the same name. It is believed that he became welcome at the royal court owing to his kinship with Malyuta Skuratov...
and Dmitry Troubetskoy
Dmitry Troubetskoy
Dmitry Timofeyevich Troubetzkoy , Prince, was the claimant to the Russian throne 1612, governor of Siberia, "duke of Shenkursk"....
. The last Russian boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
, Ivan Trubetskoy
Ivan Trubetskoy
Ivan Yurievich Trubetskoy was a Russian Field Marshal, promoted in 1728. He was a member of the inner circle of Tsar Peter I of Russia and husband to a daughter of Fyodor Golovin. Made a boyar in 1692, Trubetskoy commanded part of the Russian fleet during the Azov campaigns in 1696. In 1699, he...
, gave the property to his daughter Anastasia, the wife of Prince Dimitrie Cantemir
Dimitrie Cantemir
Dimitrie Cantemir was twice Prince of Moldavia . He was also a prolific man of letters – philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer....
, whose daughter Catherine further expanded the estate. Mikhail Kheraskov
Mikhail Kheraskov
Mikhail Matveyevich Kheraskov was regarded as the most important Russian poet by Catherine the Great and her contemporaries.Kheraskov's father was a Romanian boyar who settled in the Ukraine...
, the foremost poet of Catherine the Great's time, was the next owner. It was in Grebnevo that he completed the Rossiad, arguably the longest Russian poem.
The surviving Neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
buildings were constructed between the 1780s and the 1830s by Major General Gavrila Bibikov and Prince Sergey D. Galitzine. These include the palatial house of three stories with the six-columned portico (1790s), the Doric
Doric
Doric may refer to:* Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode* Doric dialect...
entrance gate resembling a Roman triumphal arch
Triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...
(1821), and two Neoclassical churches. An elaborate network of ponds also dates from that period.
The blood-red church (1791) is the earlier of the two. It is dedicated to the Theotokos
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
of Grebnevo, an icon reportedly presented to Dmitry Donskoy after the Battle of Kulikovo
Battle of Kulikovo
The Battle of Kulikovo was a battle between Tatar Mamai and Muscovy Dmitriy and portrayed by Russian historiography as a stand-off between Russians and the Golden Horde. However, the political situation at the time was much more complicated and concerned the politics of the Northeastern Rus'...
. "Its four arms finish in elegant portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
es with pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
s under a domed rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
over which a shining gilded angel holds the cross".
In the late 19th-century the estate was owned by a merchant family which built several small factories on the grounds. Fyodor Grinevsky, one of Moscow's most popular physicians, bought Grebnevo in 1913. He operated the property as a sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
.
The Soviets proclaimed Grebnevo a museum in 1960. In the 1990s and 2000s the palace survived several fires. Apart from the churches, the manor is currently in a state of disrepair.