The lands of the ancient and wealthy village of Izmaylovo were granted to Nikita Romanovich Zakharin-Yuriev, the grandfather of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Later, this estate passed to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who decided to create a model farm of a new type here. The Serebryanka River was dammed, and the village became an island. Peasants were relocated, and the construction of the Tsar's court began on the island. Fields, gardens, and manufactories emerged around it, including the first glass factory in Russia. A 14-span arched bridge over 100 meters long was built for the ceremonial entrance, adorned with colorful tiles. The bridge ended at the Bridge Tower, which has survived to this day and resembles the towers of the Moscow Kremlin. The first tier of the tower housed a guard platform, while the third tier served as the bell tower of the Pokrovsky Cathedral. Currently, the Bridge Tower hosts a permanent exhibition of tiles and a branch of the State Historical Museum.

The main decoration of Izmaylovsky Island is the Cathedral of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. The wooden church was built in the late 1610s. Shortly before the death of Alexei Mikhailovich, the architect Ivan Kuznechik began the construction of a stone church, allegedly in honor of the birth of Tsarevich Peter. It was here, in the Izmaylovsky linen yard, that the young Peter I found his famous boat, the 'grandfather of the Russian fleet.' The cathedral is adorned with polychrome tiles made by Stepan Ivanov (Polubes). During the reign of Fyodor Alexeyevich, a wooden royal palace similar to the Kolomenskoye was built at the Tsar's court, along with a two-story stone church of Ioasaph, Tsarevich of India, one of the first buildings in the 'Russian Baroque' style in Moscow. Unfortunately, they did not survive: the palace burned down in the early 18th century, and the church was dismantled in the 1930s.

In the early 18th century, Queen Praskovya Fyodorovna (widow of Ivan V) lived in Izmaylovo with her daughters Catherine, Anna (Anna Ioannovna), and Praskovya. After Anna Ioannovna ascended the throne, she often visited here and lived for an extended period. Subsequently, the tsars rarely visited this place, and the Tsar's court began to decay. Under Catherine II, part of the buildings was dismantled.

A new life in Izmaylovo began in 1837 when Nicholas I established a military almshouse here, entrusting the project to his favorite architect Konstantin Ton. Ton transformed the Pokrovsky Cathedral into a house church, rebuilt the Front and Rear Gates, and erected additional buildings. The grand opening took place in 1850. The almshouse existed until 1918. In the 1920s, a sapper regiment was stationed here, and later, the 'Bauman Workers' Town' existed until the early 1970s when the barracks were demolished, and various offices were set up in the stone buildings.

In recent years, almost all non-core institutions have been evicted from the island, and now there is a museum-reserve with exhibition halls, a storage facility of the State Historical Museum, and restoration workshops. Lectures and excursions are held, and the 'Izmaylovo History Lovers Club' operates.