Lefortovsky Park

About museum

Lefortovsky Park — formerly Golovinsky — is one of the oldest parks in Moscow, and in Russia. Built in 1703, it is considered the first formal park in Russia and the prototype for many parks in Saint Petersburg. Golovinsky Garden is the park's alternate name. It was laid out at the behest of General-Field Marshal Fyodor Alekseevich Golovin, a companion of Peter I, and was named after Franz Lefort, Peter's friend and mentor, in the early years of his reign. 'The Versailles on the Yauza'.
Researchers believe that it (the park), built in 1703, served as a model for future parks in Saint Petersburg. It was about this park that Emperor Peter I wrote: 'I hope in time to travel by water from Petersburg and to disembark in Golovinsky Garden on the Yauza in Moscow.'
Subsequently Peter bought the Golovin palace with its estate, intending to erect a new one here. In 1723, at his instruction, Dr. Bidlow (formerly the first head of the military hospital) began laying out the garden, which rose from the Yauza and was decorated with ornamental ponds, islets, dams, cascades and other 'improvements'. Contemporaries called it 'the Versailles on the Yauza'.
Under Empress Anna Ioannovna a new stage in the history of Golovinsky Garden began (from 1730). Architect F.-B. Rastrelli designed a palace-and-park ensemble, 'Annenhof', on its upper terrace in the Baroque style. The estate occupied very large grounds — up to the line of the modern Kazan railway. It was the largest garden in Moscow of the 17th century.