House-Museum of Abbess Maria

About museum

The memorial house of the first abbess of the Spaso-Borodino Monastery — Abbess Maria (Tuchkova), born Margarita Mikhailovna Naryshkina (1781–1852) — tells visitors the most touching love story connected with the Borodino Field. She was the widow of General Tuchkov the 4th, who was killed in the Battle of Borodino, and the only woman who risked going to the Borodino Field to search for her husband's body soon after the battle. Having failed to find the remains of her dearly beloved husband, she decided to build on the spot of his presumed death the first church — essentially the first memorial to those who died in the Battle of Borodino. Over time she became the first abbess of the monastery that grew up around the church. She spent the rest of her life in a modest cottage on the monastery grounds. In 1942 it was burned down by the retreating Nazi invaders. In 1994, through the efforts of the Borodino Field museum-reserve, the cottage was restored on its original foundation in accordance with drawings, photographs, and descriptions of its appearance and furnishings.