Kratovo – a holiday village in Moscow region

Kratovo is a holiday village in the Ramensky urban district of the Moscow region of Russia. Population – 15 565 people.

It is located 20 km southeast of the Moscow Ring Road on the 40th kilometer of the Ryazan direction of the Moscow Railway. It borders in the east with the city of Ramenskoye, in the south – with Zhukovsky, in the west – with the village of Ilyinsky. To the north of Kratovo are the villages of Popovka and Khripan.

The nearest railway platforms: Kratovo, Otdyh and Yeseninskaya.

The Khripan and Kunilovka rivers flow through the territory of the village, near the railway platform there is Kratovsky Pond – a popular vacation spot for summer residents and residents of surrounding cities. The reinforced concrete bridge at the dam, built according to the project of A. O. Tamanyan, was replaced in 1999 with a marble copy.

Kratovo is the former patrimony of the princes Golitsyn-Prozorovsky. Since the time of the Golitsyn princes, this area has been used for summer cottage construction and since then has remained the most popular place for Muscovites’ country holidays.

In 1899, the owner of the land, A. A. Prozorovsky-Golitsyn, founded a holiday village called Prozorovsky. In 1910, the owner of the Moscow-Ryazan railway, Nikolai Karlovich von Meck, bought Prozorovsky village from the Golitsyns to build a unique garden city. For the implementation of the project, famous architects and urban planners were involved – A. V. Shchusev, A. O. Tamanyan, V. N. Semenov, A. P. Ivanitsky.

The nature of the village is distinguished by coniferous trees, under the canopy of which a special cool microclimate is formed. This nature still distinguishes Kratovo from numerous summer cottage complexes in Moscow region. There are no industrial and agricultural enterprises on the territory of the village.

Main attractions

The Moscow Children’s Railway is the only children’s railway in the Moscow Region and the nearest operating narrow-gauge railway (750 mm gauge) to Moscow. Its construction began in 1936, and traffic was opened on May 2, 1937. The length of the track is 4,962 km, the railway includes 2 stations, Pionerskaya and Yunost, and 2 platforms – Shkolnaya and Detskaya. All the workers of this road – conductors, drivers, controllers and heads of stations – are children of different ages in real form. The Children’s Railway is a unique educational and transport enterprise. Here, students in grades 5-9 are trained and have the opportunity to try themselves in any profession in railway transport.

Marble bridge in Kratovo. The symbol of Kratov is the pedestrian bridge on the Kratovskoe Lake, which is a dam between the Khripanka River and the lake, holding back the water in the lake. It was built in 1912-1914 according to the design of the architect I. A. Tamanyan. The bridge was originally made of reinforced concrete, but in 1999 it was replaced with a marble one.

Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The temple began to be built in 1997 at the initiative of local residents, who found it difficult to get to other churches because of their remoteness. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in December 1998, and since that time divine services have been regularly held in the church. A few years ago, interior work was completed in the church. All the walls, vaults and dome of the temple are painted from the inside with ornamental patterns with various inserts.

Temple of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God was founded on September 21, 1999. The three-altar building is made in the Novgorod – Pskov style. Services have been held since May 2002. Until January 23, 1999, services had been held in the old building located next to the church, which currently temporarily houses a bookstore.

Football training center “Saturn”. In the early 2000s, on the territory of the former pioneer camp, which belonged to the printing house “Red Proletarian”, a base for the local football club “Saturn” was built, which until 2010 had played in the Premier League. Currently, the territory of the base is 11.5 hectares. The base has 3 football fields, as well as basketball, volleyball, mini-football and a sports hall.

During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the base in Kratovo was home to the Portuguese national team, whose leader is one of the best players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo. More than 500 people came to the first open training session of the team in Kratovo.

Notable residents and natives

  • Olovyannikov Nikolai Efimovich, attack pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union
  • Zoshchenko, Mikhail Mikhailovich – writer
  • Molodtsov, Vladimir Alexandrovich – Soviet intelligence officer, Hero of the Soviet Union
  • Malenkov, Georgy Maksimilianovich – Soviet statesman and party leader, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR
  • Novodvorskaya, Valeria Ilyinichna – politician, dissident, human rights activist
  • Rozhdestvensky, Boris Leonidovich – mathematician
  • Prokofiev, Sergei Sergeevich – composer
  • Okudzhava, Bulat Shalvovich – poet, performer
  • Talyzina, Valentina Illarionovna – actress
  • Churilin, Arseniy Pavlovich – pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union
  • Eisenstein, Sergei Mikhailovich – film director
  • Shainsky, Vladimir Yakovlevich – composer, lived for many years in Kratov in the country
  • Mercader, Ramon – agent of the Soviet state security agencies, Hero of the Soviet Union, Trotsky’s murderer
  • Ilyukhin, Viktor Ivanovich – Russian statesman, died on March 19, 2011 at a dacha in Kratovo
  • Romanov, Boris Ivanovich – Russian writer, director and actor
  • Borzakovsky, Yuri Mikhailovich – Russian athlete, Olympic champion in 2004, world champion and three-time European champion, Honored Master of Sports of Russia (2001)
  • Ustinova, Tatyana Vitalievna – writer, author of detective stories
  • Shergova, Galina Mikhailovna – journalist, writer, screenwriter
  • Khairova, Ksenia Leonidovna – actress
  • Marietta Shaginyan – writer.

How to get to?

From Kazansky railway station the Ippodrom direction train (55 minutes). Kratovo station.

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