In 1715, Tsar Peter the Great awarded the village of Kuskovo to Graf Boris Sheremetev, a Russian general, for his excellence at the battle of Poltava. Patriarch of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Russia at that time, Graf Sheremetev built a summer country residence there, and the estate was used by several generations of the Sheremetev family. The estate comprises the central palace and a number of smaller out-buildings dotted throughout an extensive landscape park, which includes formal French gardens, ponds, lakes, and Russian and Italian sculptures. The buildings, designed and built by both French and Russian architects, took over 40 years to complete. The centerpiece of the estate, the wedding cake-like Main Palace, was constructed entirely of wood, and although damaged by the French during the Napoleonic Wars of 1812, has since been completely restored.

Separate from the Estate is Kuskovo Park, which comprises the territory of the former Kuskovo village. The village houses and buildings were torn down by 1977 to clear the way for a large and beautiful public park. Vika's mom actually grew up in one of the houses that formerly stood in the village, and Vika can even remember visiting her grandmother there at a very early age. The man-made lake that delineates the Estate from the Park on one side was commissioned and constructed by Graf Sheremetev, and in the wintertime is dotted with ice fishermen and skaters.

Vika and I are lucky to live only about a 5-minute walk from Kuskovo, and take our walks with Masha there as often as possible, especially in the summer when it stays light out until 11pm. Below are some pictures from both the Estate and the Park, taken at various times of the year as you can see.

A note about the first four shots: they were taken on September 13, 2003, our first wedding anniversary, which we decided to celebrate by walking around the Estate with our daughter Maria and a bottle of champagne. We were making our first toast of the day to each other when we caught the eye of a newlywed couple, Pavel and Anya, who along with their entire wedding party were quite tickled to find out we were celebrating our first anniversary on their wedding day, and were especially enchanted by Maria. We shared a short but wonderful time with them, traded a few toasts, congratulated them on their wedding and wished them a bright, happy future with a houseful of kids.

In front of Main Palace	With Pavel and Anya	Behind Main Palace	Beers in the park later
Main Palace from across the lake	Same view at night	Another perspective	Italian Cottage, so named due to its architectural style
Guest cottages	The Grotto	Swiss Cottage, currently curator's residence	Kuskovo Park, wintertime
More Winter...	...still more Winter...	...and even more...	...bloody hell, does it ever stop???!!!
	...apparently not...	...oh well, at least it's gorgeous, no?	Fall colors 2004

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