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.
Here is another view from the hill at the village Ostrov on a beautiful monastery, called Nikolaevsky-Ugreshsky.
In 1380 Moscow's Grand Prince, Dmitry Donskoy, experienced a vision of St. Nicholas on his way to the famous Battle of Kulikovo and is reputed to have called out in ecstasy "ugresha" (this sets my heart aflame) and founded a monastery on the very spot. Of course, I have some interesting pictures from inside this amazing monastery and I am going to tell you more history about it a bit later.
Nowadays, it is located in downtown of industrial city, Dzerzhinsky, named at the beginning of Soviet times by the name of the head of secret police of USSR, Felix Dzerzhinsky. It is also located not far from the World's biggest heat power plant and, believe me, the such contrast of architecture makes it even more attractive, amazing.
From this hill, where I took this picture using telephoto lenses and tripod, in Medieval times, Ivan the Terrible enjoyed hunting expeditions and pilgrimages to this monastery on the opposite bank of Moskva-Reka (on this picture the river is hidden by first rows of the trees after wide fields in the middle). Oh, almost forgot to tell you, when we spoke with artist (restorer)of Transfiguration chirch, which located on this hill, he told us that it was (partly survived) a secret tunnel underground between the church and this monastery specially built for Ivan the Terrible. He told us that somewhere here it could be hidden some papers and treasures of the famous tsar in a case of rebellion, revolt.
Nikolo-Ugreshsky
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Monastery
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Dzerzhinsky
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