Neskuchny Garden

This guide to Neskuchny Garden in Moscow traces three rival noble estates along the Moskva River, starting with Prokofy Demidov, an iron heir who opened his rare-plant garden free to serfs and merchants in 1756, an unusually generous gesture for the era. It follows the estate through Count Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky's horse-breeding obsession, whose arena once stood where the Fersman Museum of Mineralogy sits today, and the Golitsyn and Trubetskoy families who owned the neighboring grounds. Look for the old lindens and stone bridges as you walk between the three former estates.