Ostrov
Ostrov (Island) was so named because it is on a prominent mound in the flat Moskva-River valley. From here Ivan the Terrible and Alexei Mikhailovich enjoyed hunting expeditions and pilgrimages to the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery on the opposite bank. Catherine II presented Ostrov to Count Alexey Orlov who planted gardens, laid out the park in the English manner, and founded a stud farm in which the famous Orlov Trotter, Rysak, was bred.
The glorious white stone Transfiguration Church was built in the second half of the 16th century as a part of royal estate by order of Ivan the Terrible in commemoration a withdrawal of armies of khan Muhamed-Gireja.
Tent-roof churches began to be seen at the end of the 15th century and were widespread in the 16th and 17th centuries, but construction of tent-like churches (of which Saint Basil's Cathedral is a prime example) was strictly forbidden by Patriarch Nikon, who was famous with his reforms in Russian Orthodox Church in the middle of 17th century, in an attempt to bring the Rus church closer to the Byzantine models. It was Patriarch Nikon, who built the famous New Jerusalem in Istra.
tent-roof church
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Transfiguration
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Ivan the Terrible
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