The State Museum-Estate «Ostafyevo» ‒ «Russian Parnassus»

Moscow
Ryazanovskoe settlement, village Ostafyevo, Moscow
Phones: +7 (495) 920 49 99
Web site: www.ostafyevomuseum.ru

The most valuable collections of the museum are the collection of books, magazines, almanacs of the XVIII-first gender. XIX centuries, collection of books of the family of Counts Sheremetevs, herbarium of E. P. Sheremeteva.
The basis of the museum's book fund is made up of publications corresponding to the catalogues of books by A. I. Vyazemsky and P. A. Vyazemsky, memorial books of S. D. Sheremetev and his mother with owner's marks, the Ostafyev Archive, periodicals of the XIX century, Pushkinian, works of poets of the Golden Age, almanacs of the first half of the XIX century, issues of the newspaper "Moskovskie Vedomosti" of the 1820s, issues of the magazine "Russian Archive", etc. Also, the most valuable are the lifetime editions of N. M. Karamzin, which reflect almost all the pages of his biography and work.
The granddaughter of P. A. Vyazemsky and the wife of S. D. Sheremetev, Ekaterina Pavlovna, was an active person. On her initiative, a unique natural history museum was created in the Mikhailovskoye estate of the Podolsk district of the Moscow Province. One of its sections was the flora section, which includes a collection of seed and higher spore plants and a collection of lower plants. The first one contained 639 herbarium sheets. It was one of the most significant sections of the collection of local flora. The museum has become widely known in the scientific world. In 1918, the estate was nationalized, and the museum's collections were removed.

In the 1990s, the funds of the Ostafiev museum were replenished with 103 sheets from the herbarium of E. P. Sheremeteva. The fate of the other sheets remains unknown.

The Karamzin cabinet is the dominant part of the museum's exposition. Here, for 12 years, N. M. Karamzin worked on the "History of the Russian State". The interior of the office was recreated according to the description of the historian M. P. Pogodin ‒ " bare stucco walls painted with white paint, a wide pine table in the front corner... not covered with anything, several trestles with superimposed boards on which manuscripts, books, notebooks, and papers are laid out." Visitors to the museum enter this hall with a sense of awe, remembering the work of the historiographer.

Ostafevo Manor, where the museum is located, is a federal monument of the XVIII-beginning. XX centuries.
From 1792 to 1898 Ostafevo belonged to the Princes of Vyazemsky: A. I. Vyazemsky (1746-1807), a statesman of the Enlightenment era; P. A. Vyazemsky (1792-1878), a poet, literary critic; P. P. Vyazemsky (1820-1888), a literary historian, collector. The historiographer N. M. Karamzin lived here in 1804-1816. Among the guests of the estate were I. I. Dmitriev, V. A. Zhukovsky, V. L. Pushkin, K. N. Batyushkov, A. S. Pushkin, who called Ostafevo "Russian Parnassus", poet, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812 D. V. Davydov, Polish poet A. Mickiewicz, novelist, playwright N. V. Gogol, historian M. P. Pogodin.
S. D. Sheremetev, who bought the estate in 1898, opened a public historical and literary museum of the Pushkin era here and installed monuments to Karamzin, Pushkin, Zhukovsky, and Vyazemsky in the estate park.
Currently, the palace complex of the beginning is preserved on the territory of the museum. XIX century, buildings of the cloth factory of the XVIII century, the estate park with the linden alley "Russian Parnassus" and a cascade of ponds.
There are permanent exhibitions "Ostafevo Manor: history and fate", "N. M. Karamzin: life and works", "Decoration of the Ostafevo house", temporary exhibitions.

The Ostafievo estate is one of Russia’s main cultural attractions. For over a hundred years (1792 - 1898) it was owned by the Princes Vyazemsky, descendants of Vladimir Monomakh.
During the time of Prince Andrei Vyazemsky, a statesman under Catherine II, the Ostafyevo park and manor house took the shape, which has been preserved to our days.
The historian Nikolai Karamzin lived and worked in the estate for twelve years. It is here that he wrote his "History of the Russian state".
At various times, well-known literary figures stayed at the estate. Among them were Ivan Dmitriev, Vasily Zhukovsky, Konstantin Batiushkov, Alexander Griboyedov, Denis Davydov, the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Pogodin.
Alexander Pushkin came here three times to visit his friend Pyotr Vyazemsky, a poet and literary critic. In Ostafyevo, Pushkin read the final chapters of "Eugene Onegin".