The regular French park is a pride of the Kuskovo estate. It is between the Grand Palace and the Stone greenhouse. An English garden with big trees and alleys is in the eastern part of the regular park. Kuskovo forest park is on the opposite side of the Big palace pond.
It would be better to begin your tour of the park after a visit to the palace. From the porch of the palace at the exit to the park you can see the whole parterre with beautiful flowerbeds and alleys up to the Stone greenhouse. Three big sculptures are on the main alley between the palace and the greenhouse. The obelisk devoted to Empress Catherine II with a commemorative inscription is nearer the palace.
The sculpture «Allegory of the Scamander River God» by an Italian architect of 18 century is in the middle of the alley. According to the myths of ancient Greece, the river flowed by Troy. And when Achilles filled up the river with the corpses of the Trojans, Scamander went from the river to drown Achilles, but Hephaestus, a Greek god of fire, defended him and Scamander was forced to retreat.
The column with the sculpture of Minerva is at the greenhouse. The column was installed to commemorate the visit of Catherine II to Kuskovo in 1785. And it has an appropriate inscription.
The Italian house was built in 1754 by an architect Kologrivov. Sheremetyev sent him to study in Rome. It was used for small receptions of close people, as well as for exhibitions of especially precious canvases of Italian painters from the collection of Sheremetyev. The park also has the Swiss house and the Dutch house.
The elegant pavilion Hermitage was intended for the friends of Sheremetyev who wanted to retire from the ball. The two-floor pavilion has four semicircular wings. The rest rooms were on the first floor. You could get there only using a special mechanical lift, which was located in one of the wings. The refreshments were also delivered in this lift.
Apart from the main pavilions, the park has many other structures such as open-air cages. There are over 60 marble sculptures in the alleys of the park.
