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Arkhangelskoe
http://www.moscow.info/suburbs/arkhangelskoe.aspxAbout
This historic estate dates back to the 16th Century, although it first came to prominence when Prince Nikolai Golitsyn, a favourite of Catherine the Great, began to build a magnificent palace on the site in the 1780s. The project took decades, and he died long before it was finished. In 1809, Prince Nikolai Usupov, the biggest landowner in Russia, bought the estate and continued the building of the house and park. Usupov, the owner of over 20,000 serfs, was a famous epicurean and dilettante, whose social position did not prevent him from expressing admiration for Rousseau and Voltaire, the latter of whom he met and corresponded with. His collection of art contained over 500 paintings, and was renowned throughout Europe. He also found time to dabble in science and the theater, and lived to the age of eighty, surrounding himself with beautiful works of art, rare books, oriental porcelain and a harem of slave girls. Although the palace itself, a splendid neoclassical pile with sweeping terraces and ionic-pillared arcades, has long been shut for restoration work, part of Usupov's collection is now housed in one colonnade, and there is still enough to see in the park to make Arkhangelskoe an excellent destination for a summer excursion.
