My favorite park in Moscow, Kolomenskoye 18 photos

Kolomenskoye village was first mentioned in the testament of Ivan Kalita (1339). As the time went by, the village was developed as a favourite country estate of grand princes of Muscovy. The earliest extant structure is the exceptional Ascension church (1532), built in white stone to commemorate the long-awaited birth of an heir to the throne, the future Ivan the Terrible. Tsar Alexis I of Russia had all the previous wooden structures in Kolomenskoye demolished and replaced them with a new great wooden palace, famed for its fanciful, fairy-tale roofs. The foreigners referred to this huge maze of intricate corridors and 250 rooms, built without using saws, nails, or hooks, as 'an eighth wonder of the world'. The future Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was born in the palace in 1709. You'll notice a little wide angle distortions from the WCON lens in a couple of photos, I tried to correct the distortions the best I could without making it worse.
JD

guide at the palace

fall princess

another fall princess with her crown of maple leaves

Ascension church (1532), built in white stone to commemorate the long-awaited birth of an heir to the throne, the future Ivan the Terrible, seen from the river bank.

Ascension church seen through the palace gate

palace water tower

St. George Chapel and belfry

main palace gate

The five-domed Kazanskaya church (1662)

view from the embankment

Entrance gate to the Church of St John the Baptist Beheaded, tentatively dated to 1547. Actually, the church's origin is enshrouded in mystery. Some say the masters were Italians, others assign it to Postnik Yakovlev, reputedly the author of Saint Basil's Cathedral on the Red Square.

Church of St John the Baptist Beheaded built in 1547

icon to Tsar Nicholas II and his family