Ucha River, sovkhoz, Moscow region, Russia, 141052
Before the Petrine era, the hunting grounds north of Moscow were successively owned by Boyar Vasily Petrovich Golovin, clerk Vasily Shchelkalov, and council clerk Semyon Zaborovsky. The first mention of the Marfino estate dates back to 1585. Prince Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn, after acquiring Marfino in 1698, renamed it Bogorodskoye. By his order, the serf master V. I. Belozyorov built the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos between 1701 and 1707—a monument of the so-called Golitsyn Baroque. Next to the church, the architect’s tombstone has been preserved.
The younger son of the boyar, Prince Sergey Borisovich, sold the village of Bogorodskoye along with the chambers and a French-style park in 1728 to pay off debts. In the mid-18th century, the future Field Marshal Pyotr Semyonovich Saltykov erected a new palace in the Baroque style—stone, two-story, with side wings.
Marfino during the Saltykovs’ time was an exemplary noble estate of the Catherine era, featuring a kennels, horse and carriage yards, park gazebos, and two summer theaters. Southern fruits were cultivated in the orangery. In 1777, the winter church of Saints Peter and Paul was built.
The period of Field Marshal Ivan Petrovich Saltykov and his wife Darya Petrovna, née Chernysheva, is written in golden letters in the estate’s history. They were married here, and every summer they gathered the best Moscow society for hound hunts and theatrical performances. The Marfino festivities are described in Vigel’s notes, who wrote about its mistresses:
"I do not know where they could have taken the perfection of their inimitable tone, all the dignity of Russian noblewomen combined with effortless courtesy, with the precision of decorum that distinguished the duchesses of former times. If they had been much older, one might think they spent part of their youth in the chambers of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, with his sisters and daughters, and the other part at the court of Louis XIV. Neither the licentious and coarse Russia from Peter to Catherine, nor the vilely depraved France from the regency to the revolution could offer them models worthy of imitation. From the traditions of both lands, they formed for themselves the noblest character of aristocracy, blending the hospitality of old Russia with the education of the most enlightened times."
After the death of Field Marshal Saltykov, the festivities ceased, and from the early 19th century, the estate gradually fell into neglect. During the Patriotic War, it was plundered by the French. After the death of the last Count Saltykov in 1813, the estate passed to his sister Anna Orlova, who, living abroad, ceded Marfino to her father-in-law Orlov.
Count Orlov did much for the economic development of Marfino: a smithy, brick factory, and carpentry workshop appeared at the estate. His daughter and heiress, Sofya Vladimirovna Panina, continued the reconstruction of the manor house and park structures from the 1820s. Initially, the work was supervised by the serf architect Tugarov, under whom the estate buildings acquired Empire style features. But soon, between 1837 and 1839, the estate was rebuilt in the spirit of "Nicholas-era Neo-Gothic" according to the project of architect Bykovsky.
"The most unexpected thing in the manor house is not so much the pseudo-Gothic style as the coloring—a delicate pink tone of the walls. It’s as if someone wanted to play at the knightly era, to create here, near Moscow, an atmosphere resonant with Walter Scott’s novels" — Grech, "A Wreath to the Estates."
The work at Marfino was finally completed in 1846, two years after the death of the estate’s mistress. The new owner, Count Viktor Nikitich Panin, served in St. Petersburg and visited his "Moscow suburb" relatively rarely. Before the October Revolution, the estate was owned by Panin’s granddaughter, Countess Panina, and her husband Polovtsov.
The Panin estate was nationalized by decree on April 15, 1918. Two years later, valuables and 15,000 books were transferred to the Historical Museum and the former English Club building.
Since 1944, the estate has housed a military sanatorium (since 1953 — the sanatorium of the Moscow Military District; since 1986 — the Marfino Central Military Clinical Sanatorium), with 356 rooms for 550 guests and a staff of about 300 people. By February 1990, a complex of modern residential buildings for vacationers was built on the sanatorium estate grounds. From 1990 to 2009, under the leadership of chief Eduard Maev, a comprehensive restoration of the estate was carried out, and a fitness and wellness complex with an indoor pool was built. By 2016, the construction of an internal passage between the residential buildings and the pool was completed. During the reconstruction, the original color scheme of the estate buildings was changed: instead of the authentic delicate pink color mentioned in historical descriptions, the structures received an uncharacteristic terracotta hue.
In 2009, reconstruction and major repairs of the estate’s historic buildings were completed. Since then, the palace has acquired a residential appearance, and sanatorium facilities, including luxury apartments, have been housed there.
In 2012, the "Marfino" sanatorium became part of the holding of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Sanatorium and Resort Complex 'Podmoskovye'" of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
In 2016, following directives from Russian President Putin to expand domestic tourism, the Ministry of Defense of Russia for the first time opened free access to the estate’s garden and park ensemble and the sanatorium for all visitors—for educational, non-commercial purposes, upon presentation of a passport. As of October 10, 2020, the entrance sign stated that since March 2020, due to quarantine measures, entry of outsiders to the territory was closed.
The head of the sanatorium-estate since 2010 is Colonel of the Medical Service, Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Medical Sciences Pyotr Vasilyevich Kozyrev.
The composition of the estate’s master plan is based on a combination of elements of regular and free planning.
The core of the ensemble is the two-story main house in pseudo-Gothic style (1760–80s, reconstructed in the 1830s). To the north of the manor house are two wings (built in the 1820s according to the project of serf architect Tugarov, rebuilt in the 1830s by Bykovsky’s design; dismantled and rebuilt in 1940 while preserving Neo-Gothic decorative elements). Nearby are the richly decorated Neo-Gothic entrance gates with an attached watchtower. Two two-story residential buildings from the 18th century—decorated with eight-column Tuscan order porticos—close the main compositional axis of the ensemble from the north and play an important role in the composition. Other Catherine-era buildings—the horse yard and carriage shed—have been poorly preserved. The horse yard building, erected in the 18th century and reconstructed in the 1830s, is a wall with two passage towers. The building is in ruins; in 2005, a fire destroyed its roof. The facade decoration resembles that of the main house walls but is executed in more restrained forms. The red-brick carriage shed with white-stone details has similar decoration.
In the southwestern part of the estate are the patrimonial churches—the summer Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos and the winter Church of Saints Peter and Paul. The Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos was built between 1701 and 1707 according to the project of serf architect Vladimir Ivanovich Belozyorov. According to legend, this amazingly light, fresh, and elegant building did not please the patron—Prince B. Golitsyn, who was suffering from severe alcoholism at the time and ordered his serf architect to be beaten to death. This cross-shaped central-plan building is crowned with a wide light drum topped by a dome with a small cupola. The church’s design combines features of the Golitsyn variation of Moscow Baroque and the later Petrine Baroque. The protruding vestibules with gable roofs are finished with pediments. The building is decorated with Corinthian pilasters with carved white-stone capitals. The windows are adorned with strict white-stone casings. The interior’s expressiveness is enhanced by four massive pilasters arranged in a circle supporting the light drum. The ornamental painting of the vaults and arches was done in the 1840s. The small Church of Saints Peter and Paul, built in the 1770s in the Classical style, belongs to the rare type of "under the bell" churches for its time. The main volume of the church, shaped like a rotunda, is covered by a light drum with a dome. The octagonal light drum housed the bells. The white-stone decoration of the church, created according to Bykovsky’s project, bears Renaissance features. The side entrances are emphasized by risalits. The interior retains Classical treatment; eight Doric columns support the choir, enclosed by a balustrade. The wall paintings of the church have been lost.
A large park with gazebos and ponds has been preserved. The two-tier semi-rotunda gazebo was built in the 18th century during the Saltykovs’ time. Its rusticated lower tier has an octagonal shape and is pierced by entrance openings. The second tier is an eight-column gazebo resting on a Roman-Doric colonnade, housing a statue of Apollo Belvedere. At the end of one of the alleys of the linden park is a semi-rotunda gazebo, also built during the Saltykovs’ time, probably serving as a music pavilion. It is a Tuscan colonnade covered by half a spherical dome. A two-arched pseudo-Gothic bridge spans one of the ponds; it was built in the 1770s during the Saltykovs’ time and rebuilt in 1837–1839 according to Bykovsky’s design. The bridge gallery is topped with an arcade and battlements. By 2016, the bridge, located in the joint responsibility zone of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the municipal authorities of the Mytishchi district, was closed due to its emergency condition and lack of funds for reconstruction. From the main manor house to the pond descends a white-stone staircase with griffin figures, also designed by Bykovsky; at the upper tier is an open gazebo, and at the foot of the stairs are a fountain and a pier. Sculptural groups originally adorned the staircase parapets.
Beyond the southern boundaries of the estate’s cadastral territory and the modern fence remain three of its objects of cultural and historical value: the triangular horse yard, the carriage shed, and the manager’s house. All three objects, whose transfer within the estate’s territory was blocked by the administration of the Mytishchi district, are abandoned and slowly deteriorating.
This estate is very cinematic, which is why it has been used for filming many movies, including:
"Noble Nest" (1969)
"Drama from an Old Life" (1971)
"Friend Among Strangers, Stranger Among Friends" (1974)
"The Great Space Journey" (1975)
"A Merry Dream, or Laughter and Tears" (1976)
"The Woman Who Sings" (1978)
"A Glass of Water" (1979)
"The Forest" (1980)
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (1980)
"The Recruiter" (1991)
"The Master and Margarita" (1994), scenes of Satan’s ball
"The Crusader" (1995)
"Knight’s Romance" (2000), tournament scenes at the beginning of the film
"Poisons, or a Global History of Poisonings" (2001), episode
"Andersen. Life Without Love" (2006)
"The Best Movie 2" (2009)
Sources:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfino_(estate)
