Moscow arts centre - Abramtsevo Situated 30 miles from Moscow, in a forest in close proximity to the Trinity Monastery at Sergiev Posad, lies the Abramtsevo museum and artists colony, an intellectual and artistic center that played a significant role in the development of Russian culture in the 19th Century. Abramtsevo first came to prominence in 1843, when the estate was bought by Sergei Aksakov, a writer famous for his semi-autobiographical tales of aristocratic Russian life and treatises on country pursuits. In 1870, the estate was bought by Savva Mamontov, heir to a railroad fortune and one of the most significant figures in