Moscow museums · Architecture and estates
Architecture and estates · since 1918
Ostankino
The Ostankino Palace-Theatre
A palace wholly of wood and wholly pretending to be stone, with a theatre hall that a turn of the machinery converted into a ballroom. Buildings of the kind can be counted on the fingers, and surviving eighteenth-century stage machinery is rarer still: the Georgian Theatre Royal at Richmond keeps its, Drottningholm keeps its, and this is the third name on that short list. It was built by serf architects for a serf theatre, and that fact cannot be subtracted from the estate: the brilliance here stands on unfreedom, and the museum says so. Go knowing the main thing: after years of restoration the museum is opening in parts, and in August 2026 the palace-theatre itself was still at work.
Minimum route
1–2 hours
Founded
1918
Ticket
from ₽250
What to see
The theatre hall with its machinery, which turned it into a ballroom. The Egyptian and Italian pavilions. A collection of light fittings and carved wood. The Church of the Life-Giving Trinity of 1683 beside the palace.
Minimum route — 1–2 hours for the essentials
An hour and a half, by what is open.
- 30 minutesthe Egyptian Pavilion, open again after a century.
- 30 minutesthe park and the palace seen from outside.
- 20 minutesthe Trinity church, which has stood here since the seventeenth century.
Reference
About the museum
A Sheremetev estate built in 1792–1798 around its theatre. A museum since 1918. Restoration ran from 2013; from 2025 the museum has been opening in stages, the Egyptian Pavilion first.
The building
The palace is of wood, plastered to look like stone, with columns and porticoes. It had no single author: the design passed through Camporesi, Starov and Brenna, and it was built by the Sheremetevs’ own serf architects, Mironov and Argunov.
Good to know
The palace-theatre, the chief thing here, was still under restoration in August 2026. The museum is unheated on principle, as it was meant to be: this is a summer residence.
What to read
Orlando Figes, “Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia” — the chapter on the Sheremetevs and their serf actress tells what this brilliance cost and who paid. London: Allen Lane, 2002.
ISBN 9781466862890
Getting in
How to get there
Metro VDNKh, then by tram or fifteen minutes on foot through the park.
Opening times
A summer museum: the building was never heated and closes for the winter. Check hours and what is open before setting out.
Tickets
Only the exhibition halls are open for now: admission 250 ₽; concessions (pensioners, disabled visitors of the third group, children 7–17, schoolchildren and students) 150 ₽; free for a number of categories.
from ₽250
tickets online · timed entry
When to go
Summer, and summer only: for the winter the museum closes altogether. Before setting out, check what exactly is open — the museum is coming back in parts.
Contactschecked on 17 August 2026, the museum website
Of interest to children
Stage machinery interests children, but it is not yet shown. From 9, and better once the palace opens.
· No. 68