Abramtsevo Estate
From Moscowiki
Address: Moscow Region, Pushkkinsky district, Abramtsevo
(Train from the Yaroslavsky railway station, “Abramtsevo” station)
Tel: 8 254 3-0278 / 0668
Open: Wed – Sun from 10:00 until 17:00
Closed: Mon, Tue
Abramtsevo was mentioned in official documents for the first time in the 17th century. Once it was a noble estate with a mansion and a park on the bank of the Vorya-river. In 1843 Abramtsevo became property of a famous Russian writer Sergey Aksakov and after Aksakov’s death it was bought by a successful manufacturer and patron of arts Savva Mamontov. Mamontov dedicated his life to discovering new bright talents, thus he was the one to introduce to the world one of the best ever opera singers Fyodor Shalyapin and to open the way to fame for such brilliant Russian artists as Konstantine Korovin, Valentin Serov, Mikhail Vrubel and some others. They often stayed in Abramtsevo, finding local nature and artistic atmosphere of Mamontov’s house incredibly inspiring. Many of their most famous works were created here and some are still on display in Abramtsevo.
Every artist, every friend of Mamontovy family left an unusual autograph: they would leave their signature with a piece of chalk on a table-cloth, and later Mamontov’s daughters would embroider it with colourful threads. This unusual “document of the epoch” still covers one of Abramtsevo tables. Several rooms in the main house are occupied by a permanent exposition dedicated to former owner Sergey Aksakov and his friends: Nikolay Gogol and Ivan Turgenev.
Abramtsevo was also the cradle of several architectural styles: architect V. Gartman, one of the founders of so called “Russian style” designed a studio for guest-artists in Abramtsevo, his colleague I.Ropet built a fairy-tale wooden house “Teremok” and the construction of the church in Abramtsevo park after designs by V.Vasnetsov and E.Polenova was the beginning of the “Neo-Russian style”, one of the tendencies in Art Nouveau.
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