Moscow news
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28-Oct-2009
Autumn colours
Phoebe Taplin
"Dear to me is your elegiac beauty, and the splendid fading of the woods, in crimson and in gold..."
So wrote Alexander Pushkin in his poem "Autumn". There are still plenty of opportunities to share his appreciation of this beauty in Moscow as parks, gardens, cemeteries, and forests are shedding their multi-coloured leaves in response to "grey winter's distant warnings".
Wild woods
Moscow is rich in natural forests and cultivated parks. Sometimes it is tricky to distinguish between the two as the old aristocratic estates get overgrown and the ancient woods are tamed into "recreational zones".
Russia's first national park, Losiny Ostrov or "Elk Island" spreads out beyond the city limits from the Tsar's old hunting grounds near Sokolniki. There are acres of evergreen pine forest, mixed at the fringes with the ubiquitous birch and lime, whose yellow leaves already cover the paths.
A much smaller, but more accessible tract of woodland is the Pokrovskoye Streshnevo Park near Voikovskaya. The undulating hills are also covered with a mixture of coniferous and deciduous forest. There are some beautifully shaped willows near the lake and small groves of birch trees, whose golden leaves and silver bark make them look like something straight out of Tolkein's Lothlorien.
Bittsevsky Forest-Park is another huge area of woodland where you can wander for hours among the tree-covered ravines. If you don't fancy getting lost and muddy, the restaurant Shchi on Balaklavsky Prospekt has windows facing the forest so that you can watch the leaves fall in comfort.
Utopian gardens
The neighbouring Troparyovsky Park also has wild forest, but one area, just off Leninsky Prospekt, has been planted as an arboretum with avenues of different trees radiating out from a central flowerbed. Spruce, lime, birch, maple and poplar all take on different shades with the passing weeks. The trees don't end at the edge of the park. Many of the high rises in the leafy suburban quarters have landscaped grounds where decorative foliage is an integral feature.
The ultimate example of trees as a feature of urban planning is the "artists' village" near Sokol. The planning of this 1920s garden city involved planting particular trees as part of the overall design. Although the buildings are increasingly under threat from developers, many of the trees are still growing. Each of the lanes running through the village had different types of tree planted along it: central Ulitsa Polenova had golden maples and small-leaved lindens, while another variety of lime trees decorates Ulitsa Surikova. Ulitsa Shishkina is planted with ash trees and tiny Ulitsa Bryullova with red-leaved sugar maples.
More centrally, the river walks at Neskuchny Sad and nearby Vorobyovy Gory also turn into a blaze of yellow and red at this time of year.
Imperial orchards
The lovely Kolomenskoye Park is worth visiting at any time of year, but autumn is especially attractive. The same apple trees that delight visitors in May with their showers of blossom have recently been heavy with fruit. These orchards were originally planted by the Romanov Tsar Alexei in the 17th century to surround his palace (now being rebuilt at one end of the park). Armies of apple-pickers descend on the park in September with harvesters made out of half-bottles strapped to a pole. The giant oak trees around Peter the Great's cabin are all yellowing as they have done every year for the last four centuries.
Similarly, the remains of the royal estate at Izmailovo still have the ponds laid out for Alexei's model farm and, in them, the venerable trees of the world's largest city park are reflected.
Noble estates
There are some fine old oak trees near the Sheremetyev palace at Ostankino, especially the small, forgotten grove near the TV tower, behind Twin Pigs restaurant. The estate at Kuzminki, which now houses a museum of Russian estate life, also has some fine old trees, including horse chestnuts, whose shiny conkers in their spiky cases are beginning to drop off. In the museum, there is a much-reproduced watercolour of Kuzminki Park in the mid-19th century when it was, as it is today, a favourite place for relaxing in the woods. The view has hardly changed.
If you have time to get out of town, the possibilities are endless. The palace and gardens at Arkhangelskoye have sweeping views down to the yellowing riverside willows, a lime grove to the north, a creeper-covered pergola and copper maples flanking the entranceway.
More modest, but just as beautiful, the artists' colony at Abramtsevo, just an hour away by train, inspired works by Serov, the Vasnetsovs, Repin and Nesterov.
Elegaic beauty
The golden maple trees of the Vagankovskoye Cemetery make this one of the most radiant autumnal settings. It is a popular place for a weekend stroll under the falling leaves. Near the modern columbarium, a small boulder marks the tomb of bard-poet Bulat Okudzhava, famed for his own lyrical verses on autumn.
How to get there
Abramtsevo
Train from Yaroslavsky Vokzal
Arkhangelsoye Palace
Ilinskoye Shosse
m. Tushinskaya plus bus 541 or 549
Bittsevsky Forest-Park
m. Novoyasenevskaya
Kolomenskoye Estate
m. Kolomenskaya
Kuzminki Park
m. Kuzminki, Volzhskaya, or Ryazansky Prospekt plus bus 29
Losiny Ostrov
Numerous points of entry, none of them very easy to get to. One of the simplest is to take tram 2, 13, 29 or 36 from Ulitsa Podbelksogo metro station.
Ostankino Park
m. VDNKh plus tram 11 or 17
Pokrovskoye Streshnevo
m. Voikovskaya
Shchi Restaurant
48 Balaklavsky Prospekt, 122 0223, m. Kaluzhskaya
Sokol Village m. Sokol
Troparyovsky Park
m. Yugo-Zapadnaya plus bus 667 takes you straight to the arboretum
Vagankovskoye Cemetery
15 Ulitsa Sergeya Makeyeva
m. 1905 Goda
The Moscow News