Situation in between two sections of the Third Ring Road in between Aviamotornaya, Baumanskaya and Eletrozadvodskaya metro stations on the banks of the River Yauza is Lefortovo Park. The park's history really starts in 1721 when Peter the Great bought a manor house here and had it made into a residence. The gardens outside the residence became known as Golovinsky Gardens after their former owner.

The successors of Peter the Great also had residences built here; Empress Anna had Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli build a wooden summer palace here in 1731 and Empress Elisabeth had a winter palace added here in 1741. The most famous palace though was built in 1773 on the orders of Empress Catherine the Great after whom it gained its name of the Catherine Palace. Catherine's son Emperor Paul built his residence on the other side of the River Yauza and had the Lefortovsky Bridge constructed which still stands today as the oldest surviving bridge in Moscow.

In 1824 the Catherine Palace was given over to the military who used it for the Moscow Cadets Corps. Today the palace is occupied by the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2005 the complex became part of the Moscow State Unified Art, Historical, Architectural and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve which includes the Izmailovo, Kolomenskoe, and Lyublino Estates. Within the park ruins of a red-brick terrace, Rastrelli's semi-ruined grotto and a monument of Peter the Great can be found, as well as several ponds.