In 1870, Savva Mamontov – railway tycoon and patron of the arts – bought this lovely estate 60km north of Moscow. Here, he hosted a whole slew of painters, who sought inspiration in the gardens and forests: painter Ilya Repin; landscape artist Isaak Levitan; portraitist Valentin Serov; and the quite un-Slavonic painter and ceramicist Mikhail Vrubel. Other artists came to dabble at the woodworking and ceramics workshop, and musicians (including Fyodor Shalyapin, who made his debut here) performed in the private opera.
