Almazovo Estate: History and Contemporaneity

Abstract

The paper is based on the analysis of Russian, Inglish and Italian sources and represents the reception of the Demidov’s estate Almazovo by our contemporaries. The electronic resources about the estate containing legends, fictions and often unreliable information are analyzed for the first time. The estate of the Moscow Region and especially its park preserved now attracts the attention of Russian and foreign travelers. However, nobody managed to discover the mystery of this ‘mysterious ensemble of the Moscow Region estate of the Ural mine owners Demidov’ (L.A. Perfilyeva). According to the researchers, the garden and park of Almazovo estate are unique because of its Masonic signs. The multi-valued system of Masonic signs in the arrangement of the park such as the system of canals and labyrinths, the hill and the pavilion, the location of islands can be perceived as a manifestation of the bizarre plan of the rich owner inspired by Venice which was quite common in the manor culture of the end of XVIII–XIXth centuries and as ‘a secret signs’ artfully embodied in the Masonic park, the only one park preserved in the suburbs of Moscow.