The palace Palace of Lefort – of Peter I - of Menshikov was built by order of Tsar Peter I in 1697-1699. It is the most ancient architectural monument in the historical area of German Quarters and Lefortovo district. Although the palace was officially presented by the Tsar to his confidant Franz Lefort, at the same time it served as a habitation of Peter I himself. It was a real imperial palace, used for official state receptions. This building is a symbol of the beginning of Peter the Great’s age, the first palace of Peter’s Russia and the unique house of Tsar Peter I in Moscow. Now the Russian state military-historical archive is disposed in the Lefortovsky palace.

Specially for placing the privileged Lefort regiment in Lefortovo there was the Soldier's quarters (Soldatskaya Sloboda) built on the left bank of the river. It was constructed according to the united geometrically correct plan. There were also a regimental parade-ground and the Church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul. The temple preserved its original appearance. It was the Lefort regiment which gave the name to the left bank of the Yauza River. This district bears the name of Lefort until recently.

In 1706 by the imperial decree not far from the Soldier's Sloboda on the Yauza River bank the construction of the Military hospital was started and this hospital was the first Russian regular medical and educational institution. Physician-in-ordinary of Peter I - Dutchman N. Bidloo was the founder, first administrator, head doctor and professor of the Hospital.

In 1700 on the left Yauza bank down the River from the residence of Peter I in the German Quarters there was a country estate of one of the Tsar’s well-known confidants – a boyar F. A. Golovin. Several years later Golovin’s house and garden were bought by the Tsar, and on the base of this estate there was the main Moscow imperial residence of the 18th century created. In preparation for coronation of the Empress Catherine I, Golovin’s estate was widened and decorated under the direct guidance of doctor N.Bidloo, and at the same time there was the main part of the complex ponds and channels system formed.

During the reign of the Empress Anna Ioannovna the residence on the Yauza River was called "Annenhof", and it was the golden age of this place. According to the projects of architect F. B. Rastrelli there were Summer and Winter palaces built here, as well as a huge regular park, numerous fountains and pavilions. In the time of the Empress Elisaveta Petrovna merry and eventful court life flourished here too: well-known masquerades took place here, for example. In the Assumption church (which is situated here) Ekaterina Alekseevna, the future Empress Catherine II, became engaged to the future Emperor Peter III. Among many palaces of Golovin only the latest and the greatest one has survived until recently – it is the Ekaterininsky (Catherine’s) palace, which was completed by 1796, but never hosted the Empress. The buildings of the palace services – Red barracks remained whole.

After the death of the Empress Catherine II the court history of Golovinsky residence came to an end. Emperor Pavel I ordered to use the Ekaterininsky palace as the garrison regimental barracks. Later there were the First, the Second and the Third Moscow Cadet Corps accommodated there, and the rest of the palace park was used for parade drill. Even today the Military department owns the building of the Ekaterininsky palace: there is the Military academy there.

Nowadays the Moscow State United Museum-Reserve owns only a part of the ensemble “Lefortovo”– the territory of the former Golovinsky garden. The ensemble of the modern Golovinsky (Lefortovsky) park was created in the 18th century. Firstly the Garden was arranged by F. A. Golovin, then it was reformed by N. Bidloo, and finally it acquired its complete composition of a regular European park. By 1723 the old Golovinsky estate was supplemented with parterres, figured Krestovy pond and Octahedral Island surrounded by the channel. At the same time the central lane, so-called “hedge” road was laid.

The whitestone pavilion (Rotunda) was built in 1805 according to the project of M. F. Kazakov. It is dedicated to the "repose place" of Peter the Great. Eight columns of the rotunda support its cupola, and inside there is a granite stele with the Emperor’s dictum: «Service of my Minikh made me healthy. Some day I hope to sail with him from St. Petersburg to Moscow and go ashore to the Golovinsky garden». The pavilion-rotunda was destroyed in the hurricane of 1904 and restored in the same year by order of Great Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich.

Another interesting monument of the Golovinsky Garden is a Grotto planned by N. Bidloo at the beginning of 1720. Instead of the initially planned statue of Hercules there was a stone Samson with gilded sphinxes - a symbol of victories of Peter I. Later F. B. Rastrelli while renewing small architectural forms of the garden remade the grotto breastwalls according to the baroque style, adding new fountains with stone bowls and cast iron pipes. Together with the grotto N. Bidloo erected a dam of Venus, which separated Golovinsky pond from Octahedral Island. The central part of the dam breast wall was made in the form of extension with a semicircular niche, which was decorated with a statue of Venus with cupids. In 1730 F. B. Rastrelli reconstructed the dam of Venus. Now only a breast wall remained from a grotto.