Kolomenskoye Estate

Kolomenskoye was a country residence of the Moscow rulers from the fourteenth century, on a bluff above the Moskva, and its centrepiece is the Church of the Ascension, built in 1532 and listed by UNESCO in 1994. Its significance is architectural: it was the first stone church in Russia built with a shatyor, the tall tent-shaped roof previously used only in wooden building, and it transferred that form into masonry - a move that shaped Russian church architecture for the following century and produced, among others, St Basil's. Around it are the Kazan church, the seventeenth-century gates and service buildings, orchards, ancient oaks and the Golosov ravine with its boulders. The vast wooden palace of Alexis, demolished in the eighteenth century, was reconstructed nearby in 2010 from surviving drawings - a full-size replica on a different site, which the museum states plainly.

What you actually see

• The Ascension Church - the 1532 building that first put the tent roof into stone.
• The UNESCO listing - recognition of that architectural transfer, since 1994.
• The wooden palace - a 2010 full-size reconstruction, built on a different site.
• The bluff - orchards, old oaks and the Golosov ravine above the Moskva.

When to go

May to September for the park and orchards; the apple blossom in May is a Moscow fixture. Two to four hours. Museums close on Mondays.

Honest expectations

The wooden palace is a modern replica, not the original, and is often misunderstood as authentic. The park is large and the sites are spread out. Very busy at weekends. Interiors are ticketed separately from the free grounds.

Nearby

Tsaritsyno is east across the river; central Moscow is north.