Of all the other estates of Moscow and Greater Moscow Area, Arkhangelskoye has the largest and the most beautiful park. It is divided into three areas: an Italian terraced park, a French regular park and an English landscape park.
A small terraced park is just behind the palace. There are a lot of marble sculptures in ancient Greek and ancient Roman styles on the terraces of the park. Two big sculptures by Kozlovsky are on the upper terrace of the park: «Menelaus Supporting the Body of Patroclus» and «Heracles Fighting Antaeus». Wax copies of these ancient sculptures were also made by Michelangelo.
The giant Antaeus, the son of Poseidon and Gaia, asked all passers-by to fight with him. But no one could win him as long as he remained in contact with his mother, the earth. And only Heracles was able to win him. He held him aloft and then crushed him to death in a bearhug.
Having descended from the terrace you get in the French regular park. It is called prater. Lime alleys of strict forms and proportions are around the sides of the lawn. Two buildings of a military sanatorium are now on the opposite side of the prater, on the high bank of the Moscow river. In the time of the Yusupov there were large conservatories for rare southern plants and trees there.
The English landscape park is on both sides of the prater. Now giant carvel pines, fir trees and lime trees grow there. The height of these trees is dozens of meters. There were open-air cages at the parks of Arkhangelskoye. You could see peacocks, camels and many other exotic animals in the alleys of the parks.
The pavilions and buildings of Arkhangelskoye were among the trees of the English park to the right of the prater. They are: the church of Saint Michael the Archangel, after whom the estate was called, the small palace «Caprice», a tea house, theatre, an office building, a storehouse over the ravine and many other buildings.
The latest buildings of the Arkhangelskoye park are the Yusupov temple and burial vault with a colonnade. It was built in 1910 after the elder son of Zinaida and Felix Yusupov, Nikolai, lost the duel in 1908. His mother wanter to build the temple and the burial vault just at Arkhangelskoye. However, this building with a large colonnade has never been used for intended purpose.
