Ostankino Palace is a former summer residence and private opera theatre of Sheremetev family, originally situated several kilometres to the north from Moscow but now a part of the North-Eastern Administrative Okrug of Moscow. Extant historical Ostankino includes the main wooden palace, built in 1792–1798 around a theater hall, with adjacent Egyptian and Italian pavilions, a 17th-century Trinity church, and fragments of the old Ostankino park with a replica of Milovzor folly. History 16th century to 1787 The first documentary evidence of Ostankino—then known as Ostashkovo—dates to the middle of the 16th century, when Tsar Ivan IV of Russia granted these lands to the hold of Alexey Satin, relative of statesman Alexey Adashev. Satin, however, was executed by Ivan in 1560, and the lands passed to one Horn, a German mercenary, and, in 1585, to notable diak (statesman) Vasily Schelkalov. Under Schelkalov, the unpopulated lands of Ostashkovo developed into a relatively prosperous manor estate with ponds and cedar park. This manor was destroyed by plunder and fire in the Time of Troubles. The end of hostilities and ascension of the House of Romanov brought the new owners: the princes Tcherkassky. They replanted the parks and established a spacious hunting reserve, expanding east to Alekseyevskoye village. A 1677 marriage between the Tcherkassky and Odoyevsky families brought in a valuable asset: architect Pavel Potekhin, a slave of Odoyevsky family, who designed and built the still-extant Trinity church (1678–1683, 1691–1692). In the first half of the 18th century Ostankino was gradually converted from a permanent country manor to a temporary retreat with hunt, house theater and other entertainment of the period; empress Elizabeth of Russia herself paid a visit to Ostankino in 1742. The following year, through a marriage between princess Varvara, the sole heir of Tcherkassky fortunes, and Peter Sheremetev, son of field marshal Sheremetev, Ostankino passed to the Sheremetevs and remained their property until 1917. Throughout the 18th century the Sheremetevs lived primarily in Kuskovo, and Ostankino retained its temporary entertainment atmosphere. Construction of the palace In 1787 Nikolai Sheremetev inherited Ostankino upon the death of his father. Well-educated and extremely wealthy, Nikolai Sheremetev was a patron of theater; his extravagant shows earned him nickname Croesus Junior. In the three following years Sheremetev established house theaters in Kuskovo, Kitai-gorod and Markovo. In 1790 he held an architectural contest for a Palace of Arts in Moscow, but eventually preferred to build it