In the 18th century, Prince Nikolai Golitsyn commissioned French architects to craft an elaborate palace and grounds on the outskirts of Moscow. The Arkhangelskoye country estate was finished in 1810, after it was purchased, while under construction, by Prince Nikolai Yusupov (1751-1831), a politician and important art collector. (...)
In the 18th century, Prince Nikolai Golitsyn commissioned French architects to craft an elaborate palace and grounds on the outskirts of Moscow. The Arkhangelskoye country estate was finished in 1810, after it was purchased, while under construction, by Prince Nikolai Yusupov (1751-1831), a politician and important art collector. A product of the Enlightenment, Yusupov altered the palace to better display his 16,000-volume library and impressive collection of paintings, which included works by Tiepolo, Boucher, and van Dyke. Hubert Robert, an artist best known for his depictions of ruins, adorned the walls of several rooms with monumental painted landscapes. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Arkhangelskoye left the hands of the Yusopov family and became a museum and theater that attracted thousands of visitors annually. The palace was closed for repairs in the mid-1980s but these supposed improvements never materialized, leaving the house and its contents in a state of advancing decay.
