Ostankino:

Among the numerous artistic and architectural landmarks near and around Moscow the forme estates of the Russian nobility stand out in their inimitable beauty. Built by gifted Russian architects and decorated by outstanding sculptors, painters and craftsmen in the seventeenth-nineteenth centuries, many of these ensembles have been converted into art museums which are today visited by large numbers of tourists. Some estates, once located outside the city, are now integrated into Greater Moscow which has expanded enormously, in the last few decades. The Ostankino estate, a masterpiece of eighteenth-century Russian architecture, is only one instance of this development.