To the south of Moscow are a number of medium-size cities that serve as industrial and residential areas for the great metropolis. Among them is Podolsk (population around 200,000), located on the Pakhra River and perhaps best known for the heroic sacrifices of its cadet schools in the defense of Moscow in October 1941. Although the reputation of Podolsk has little to distinguish it from its peers, in its vicinity is the site of the Dubrovitsy estate of Prince Boris Alekseevich Golitsyn (1651?-1714), Muscovite grandee and tutor of Peter I.
Visitors to Dubrovitsy are greeted by a palatial estate house, originally built in the 1750s and rebuilt in a neoclassical style in the early 19th century. Used as an agricultural institute since the 1930s, the structure was restored after a fire in 1964 and can be visited on request. But the primary landmark at Dubrovitsy is not the mansion, grand though it is. Rather, it is the estate church, one of the most astonishing monuments in Russian architecture, a structure so odd and unexpected as to defy all expectations of what a Russian church should resemble.
Picturesquely situated on a rise near the confluence of the small Pakhra and Desna Rivers, the Church of the Znamenie Icon of the Virgin was begun in 1690. Prince Golitsyn was a dedicated Orthodox believer, yet he was also among the first of the Muscovite elite to associate in the 1680s with the community of foreigners in Moscow's "German Quarter." As a mentor to Peter (born in 1672), Golitsyn was able to share with the young tsar his extensive knowledge of Western culture.
After the death in 1682 of Peter's older half-brother, Tsar Fedor Alekseevich, Peter became co-tsar with his feeble half-brother Ivan V. During this divisive period, real power was held by another relative, Sophia Alexeyevna, who was opposed to Peter and his mother's family, the Naryshkins. In 1689, Peter openly rebelled against the authority of Sophia in a dramatic confrontation at the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery to the north of Moscow. Despite his precarious position, Boris Golitsyn maintained unwavering support for Peter.
During these fateful years, the Dubrovitsy estate served as a refuge for Golitsyn. The church that he undertook at Dubrovitsy proclaimed both his devotion to Russian Orthodoxy and his abiding interest in Western forms of religious expression. Although the basic structure was completed in 1697, work continued for several more years on its unprecedentedly elaborate exterior and interior decoration. Even before its completion, the church was consecrated – in 1704 in the presence of Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky and Tsar Peter himself. Golitsyn obviously intended that such a remarkable structure be officially presented on the highest level.
By the turn of the 18th century the Golitsyn and Naryshkin families had constructed of a handful of churches whose design embodied a distinctive centralized tower form. The saturation point of this style was reached in the Dubrovitsy church, clad in limestone (rather than the usual brick) and accented throughout with sculpture. Indeed, the Dubrovitsy church itself resembles a statue, and it is dedicated to one of the most statuesque icons of Mary--the Znamenie, or Orante, depicting Mary with hands outstretched in prayer and a medallion of the Christ Child on her torso.