In 1973, Eldar Ryazanov filmed the film “The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia” here. But few people know that this ancient estate of Count Alexander Bezborodko, since 1896, was occupied by a community of sisters of mercy of the Red Cross, founded by Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Our next story is about the activities of the Elizabethan community and the history of these places.
A still from the film by E. Ryazanov: the heroes are standing at the fence of the estate, next to statues of lions supporting chains. On the other bank of the Neva the ensemble of the Smolny Monastery is visible
Before the city was founded
This one is old and very interesting house located in that part of St. Petersburg that was inhabited even before the founding of the city.
In 1698, two years before the start of the Northern War, the Swedish general Baron Abraham Kroniort, who lived in the city of Nyen (Nyenschanz), drew up a plan of the area from the Okhta River to the Neva delta. In the place where house No. 40 on the Sverdlovskaya embankment is now located, the plan of the Swedish general shows a manor (estate) that belonged to a Swedish officer, the commandant of the Nyenschanz garrison. A system of underground passages was created here, which the commandant could use in the event of an unexpected appearance of Russian troops. Adjacent to the manor grounds was a hospital for elderly soldiers.
During the Northern War with Sweden (1700 -1721), this territory was annexed to Russia. And soon after the founding of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great gave the empty Swedish estate to his wife Catherine.
Polustrovo
This territory became especially famous thanks to the mineral water springs discovered in 1718 in the nearby Cossack vegetable gardens. In the winter of 1719, Peter the Great treated himself with the waters, and recognized them as no worse than the Belgian ones. Thanks to the Latin word “poluster”, that is, “swampy”, local mineral water began to be called Polyustrovsky.
During the reign of Catherine, Grigory Nikolaevich Teplov became the second owner of the lands. In the 1760s. The building office offered to purchase land with a Cossack vegetable garden for those wishing to do so; Actual Privy Councilor Grigory Nikolaevich Teplov, who knew about the healing properties of local springs (Teplov was sick and had to go abroad for treatment), decided to use Polyustrovo water for the sake of economy, and purchased the plot.
So, on the site of the Cossack vegetable garden, the Polustrovo manor appeared. In 1773 -1777 The architect Vasily Bazhenov built a manor house here in the Gothic style. It is assumed that Bazhenov resumed the already existing underground communications. The stone house had greenhouses where fruits, vegetables, flowers, and tobacco were grown.
A two-tiered front terrace-pier was built on the embankment. On both sides of the pier there were cannons for signals and fireworks. The side staircases and the grotto were lined with granite, and the terrace was decorated with vases and four sculptures of sphinxes: one pair on the upper platform, the other on the lower one.
It is not known for certain whether Teplov managed to recover with Polyustrov water. His contemporaries claimed that Grigory Nikolaevich recovered without leaving the estate. But the historian P.N. Stolpyansky refers to Teplov’s confession that in 1771 mineral water almost killed him.
In 1782, after Teplov’s death, his son sold the manor for 22,500 rubles. Chancellor Alexander Andreevich Bezborodko became the new owner of Polustrovo. For him in 1783-1784. According to the design of Giacomo Quarenghi, a new mansion was built on the site of the old manor house. Quarenghi did not rebuild the house, but made the most of the existing building. Thus, the mansion contains not only the remains of the Bazhenov building, but possibly also traces of the Swedish estate. Bezborodko's dacha is one of the few suburban works of the famous architect.
Chancellor of the Russian Empire Prince A.A. Bezborodko; portrait by Johann Baptist the Elder (1794)
At the beginning of the 19th century. The estate was decorated with the famous fence consisting of sculptural images of 29 lions. Its creator could be Nikolai Alexandrovich Lvov.
Count Bezborodko, who shortly before his death received the title of prince, died in 1799, asking that his fortune be used for charitable deeds.
Dacha of I. A. Bezborodko in Polustrovo. Watercolor by G. S. Sergeev (1800)
His possessions passed to his brother, Ivan Andreevich. After the death of childless I.A. Bezborodko, his niece, Princess K.I. Lobanova-Rostovskaya, lived here, raising her son Alexander Grigorievich Kushelev. In 1816, the surname Bezborodko was added to his surname. Since then, he became Count Kushelev-Bezborodko, and the estate acquired its now famous name - Kushelev-Bezborodko's dacha.
Count Alexander Grigorievich Kushelev-Bezborodko, philanthropist, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, constantly followed everything that was remarkable in the field of science and literature.
A.G. Kushelev-Bezborodko, State Controller of the Russian Empire; portrait by Franz Kruger (1851)
Estate plan; sketch by G. Quarenghi
It was under Alexander Grigorievich that the Polustrovo estate became famous as medical resort. In 1840-1850 there was a popular kursaal of Polustrovsky mineral waters here. To study the water, the count invited famous doctors and pharmacists, who at different times gave positive reviews. The pharmacist Fischer opened baths with rooms for residents on one of the plots leased by the count.
“View of the Neva and the Smolny Monastery from the fence of the Kushelev-Bezborodko dacha”; unknown artist sir. 19th century
The next owner of Polustrovo in 1855 - 1870. There was a writer and philanthropist, Count Grigory Aleksandrovich Kushelev - Bezborodko.
A. N. Radishchev, N. N. Novikov, D. I. Fonvizin visited his dacha. And with his funds, books of poems by A. N. Maikov, the first collected works of A. N. Ostrovsky, and works by L. A. May were published. In 1861 he visited A. I. Herzen in London, and in 1863 he made a significant contribution to the “General Fund” created to help needy young emigrants.
Count Grigory Alexandrovich Kushelev-Bezborodko (1832-1870), state councilor; photograph 1856
The works of G.A. himself Kusheleva-Bezborodko were published both in magazines and in separate publications. In 1857, in St. Petersburg, under the pseudonym Gritsko Grigorenko, his “essays and stories” were published; they were also published in two volumes “Essays, Stories and Travel Notes.”
In 1858 G.A. Kushelev-Bezborodko invited Alexander Dumas, his father, to travel around Russia and received him at his dacha in Polustrov. He met the French writer in Paris. Dumas had long been interested in Russia, but came here only after the death of Nicholas I.
The Emperor could not forgive Dumas for writing the novel “Notes of a Fencing Teacher”, the heroes of which, under fictitious names, were the Decembrist I. A. Annenkov and the Frenchwoman Polina Gebl, who followed him into Siberian exile.
“We stopped in front of a large villa, two wings of which extended in a semicircle from the main building. The count's servants in ceremonial liveries lined up on the steps of the entrance. The Count and Countess got out of the carriage, and the kissing of hands began. Then we went up the stairs to the second floor to the church. As soon as the Count and Countess crossed the threshold, a mass began in honor of the “safe return,” which the venerable priest was smart enough not to delay. At the end, everyone hugged, regardless of rank, and by order of the count, we were each escorted to our own room. My apartment was located on the ground floor and overlooked the garden. They adjoined a large beautiful hall used as a theater, and consisted of an entrance hall, a small salon, a billiard room, a bedroom for Moinet (an artist and translator who accompanied Dumas on a trip to Russia) and me. After breakfast I went to the balcony. A wonderful view opened up in front of me - large granite stairs descending from the embankment to the river, above which were erected six feet fifty high. At the top of the pole flutters a banner with the count's coat of arms. This is the count’s pier, where the Great Catherine set foot when she showed mercy to Bezborodko and took part in the holiday organized in her honor” (from the letters and memoirs of A. Dumas the Father)
G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko was a major philanthropist, a member of the Imperial Humane Society, maintained a care home for elderly women on Okhta (later named after him), and helped other institutions.
Trustees and patrons at the building of the House of Charity for Elderly Poor Women in memory of Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko and K. K. Zlobin (the second major donor) of the Imperial Philanthropic Society (Malookhta Almshouse); 1913, photo studio of K.K. Bulla
At the same time, the count was a great eccentric, surrounded by various random people.
“This house, or rather the society that was in it, had a strange appearance at that time. It gave it the character of a caravanserai, or rather a large hotel for visitors. Relatives and next to them a rabble of foreign and Russian newcomers, players, petty journalists, their wives, friends, etc. came here out of old memory. All this was located in different departments of the vast, once manor house, lived, ate, drank, played cards, took walks in the count's carriages, not at all embarrassed by the owner, who, due to his endless weakness of character and part of his morbidity, did not care for anything. intervened, giving everyone the freedom to do whatever they wanted.” D.V. Grigorovich "Literary Memoirs".
The last representative of the richest family died in 1870 at the age of 38. He bequeathed the springs to his peasants. The estate was inherited by his sister L.A. Musina-Pushkina, who rented out the dacha.
Portrait of Lyubov Alexandrovna Musina-Pushkina, née Kusheleva (1833 – 1913), maid of honor, lady of state, by Karl Johann Lasch (1856)
In 1873, the estate was divided into plots, and some of them were purchased, including for the construction of factories.
A year before the count's death, a fire destroyed a significant part of the resort, which was never restored. And the landscape park surrounding the dacha was gradually shrinking, as various industrial enterprises were built on its territory. The New Bavaria brewery, now known as the Sparkling Wines CJSC, produces Soviet champagne.
Elizabethan community
Many Orthodox people know Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna as the founder of the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy in Moscow, but little known fact Her biography is that on her initiative, on December 9, 1896, a community of sisters of mercy was founded in St. Petersburg. By order of Empress Maria Feodorovna, the community was named Elizabethan.
In 1896, the abandoned building of the Bezborodko estate and part of the park with an area of 9 hectares became the property of the Red Cross Society: they were purchased for the community with funds from the Imperial Family.
Photo from the beginning of the 20th century.
On the first floor of the main building there was an outpatient clinic and a kitchen, on the second floor there were rooms for nurses and the apartment of the head of the community. On the third floor there were rooms for subjects who lived several people together.
The mansion also housed a pharmacy and apartments for employees, and behind the house in the former county park, construction began on surgical and medical pavilions, a clergy house and sisters of mercy. All buildings were equipped with crosses on the facades - symbols of the Red Cross
A modern restored view of one of these buildings
Several ladies-in-waiting of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna took part in the activities of the community. The first abbess was Baroness A. A. von Dreyling. One of the organizers of the Elizabethan community was Princess M. S. Golitsyna. On the initiative of Elizaveta Fedorovna, in 1898 a Committee was created to strengthen the community’s funds, the chairman of the board of which was the maid of honor M. A. Vasilchikova. The committee included donors without distinction of class or religion. An honorary member of this committee was Father John of Kronstadt. In the Tauride Palace in 1901, the Committee was provided with premises, the consecration of which was attended by Elizaveta Fedorovna. It was the activities of the Committee that allowed the community to build new hospital buildings and a temple in the garden behind the main building.
Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, monastically Martha; photo after 1909
“The further existence of the community without the temple of God is unthinkable: the sisters need it to strengthen them in the feat of serving the suffering, and only then will I consider the creation of the community ready, when the good news is heard from the bell tower of the temple” (from the rescript of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna dated August 26, 1900 on name of the chairman of the board committee, maid of honor M. A. Vasilchikova)
In the park behind the main building, according to the design of the architect N. F. Pashchenko, a church was built in the name of the holy great martyr and healer Panteleimon. The church was consecrated by St. Petersburg Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky) on June 14, 1901 in the presence of Elizabeth Feodorovna.
Church in the name of the Great Martyr. Panteleimon at the Elizabethan community of sisters of mercy (photo from the 1900s)
The temple had the shape of a basilica with three gilded domes, and the façade was decorated with red crosses.
Red crosses also decorated all the grilles in the temple. The artificial marble iconostasis was made by M. M. Popov, the icons were painted by academician A. V. Troitsky.
After the revolution, the church became a parish church. In 1918, the chapel was consecrated in the name of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.”
Elizaveta Fedorovna ruled this community from Moscow. But, despite this, all the most important events did not take place without her participation. She was present at the consecration of all new buildings being built in the community, received reports from the community board, and wrote orders. Managing this particular community was an important experience for Elizaveta Feodorovna, which preceded the creation of the Marfo-Mariinsky monastery. She did not forget the Elizabethan community she created even when she was already the abbess of the Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy.
The source of funds for the community was income from charity balls and lotteries, as well as donations for which commemorative tokens were issued.
Such tokens were issued to those who contributed at least 10 rubles at a time, as well as to those who contributed to the activities of the community through personal work
The Elizabethan community was one of the few in which there were children's and gynecological departments; other communities focused primarily on helping wounded warriors. Elizaveta Feodorovna believed that nurses should be able to provide medical care to both women and children. In addition to outpatient visits, the sisters cared for patients at the Mariinsky Barracks Hospital (which was maintained by the community), and the chief physician of which was S.S. Botkin.
A carriage at the entrance to the manor house; photo 1910
The Elizabethan community of sisters of mercy was one of the few medical institutions for the 50 thousand population of the Polustrovsky working-class suburb. Mainly outpatient care was provided here. Thus, the number of visits to the surgical department of the Community Hospital in 1900 reached 11 thousand. The surgical department was filled with patients without a choice - that is, as the Community report said: “there are no Hellenes and no Jews.”
The working day of the sister of the Elizabethan community began at 8 o'clock in the morning and lasted until 8 o'clock in the evening. The only hour allotted for rest is from 4 to 5 o’clock in the afternoon: “At 4 o’clock the sisters drink tea, rest until 5 o’clock, and after 5 to 7 they listen to theoretical courses in medicine, perform rehearsals, etc.” (from the Community report).
The outpatient appointment lasted from 13:00 to 16:00 in the afternoon. By 1904, due to the large influx of visitors, the reception continued until 17, 18 and even 19 hours, depriving the sisters of even a little rest. Residents of the surrounding villages came, including Finns. In the summer, the activities of the Community were reduced - renovations were carried out on the premises. During the year, sisters were sometimes sent to private homes on duty or for bandages, massage, physiotherapy (electrification, as they said then), and worked during epidemics.
A group of Brothers of Charity at the entrance to the building of the Elizabethan community; 1912, photo by Karl Bulla
During the Russian-Japanese War, community sisters and orderlies - brothers of mercy, being in the Harbin hospital-infirmary, took part in the fate of the wounded.
The community sent 6 doctors, 40 nurses and 35 orderlies to the Russian-Japanese War; in Harbin; photo 1904
The street closest to the community was named Elizavetinskaya Street - after the name of the community. The exact date of closure of the Elizabethan community is unknown.
To the present day
After the October Revolution, the community buildings housed a tuberculosis hospital named after Karl Liebnecht. And the Community continued to work, but, like other sisterhoods, the hospital complex was taken away from it. On the basis of the Community in 1920, the Normal School of Sisters named after. Rose Luxemburg. The temple was closed on April 6, 1923. After the Great Patriotic War, the temple was used as a maternity hospital.
Until 2011, Kushelev-Bezborodko’s dacha was occupied by an anti-tuberculosis dispensary.
In 1959 -1960 The terrace-pier, destroyed during the war, was restored, with the reconstruction of lost sculptures. During the construction of the modern Sverdlovsk embankment underground passage to the bank of the Neva was destroyed, the entrance from the estate was walled up.
One of the four sphinxes on the pier. Behind the bars is a walled-up underground passage leading to the estate (in the photo behind you can see the turret and the slope of the building's pediment)
The famous fence with the figures of twenty-nine sitting lions was restored in 1999.
Modern view of the building and fence
After the tuberculosis clinic moved from the estate to a new building, local residents expected that the building would house a Wedding Palace. But no; For several years the building remained closed, and various rumors circulated about its future fate.
In 2014, cultural figures and representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in St. Petersburg wrote a letter to the authorities with a request, in memory of the Little Russian origin of the owner, Count Kushelev-Bezborodko, and also in connection with the deterioration of interstate and interethnic relations, to transfer the estate building to a Ukrainian cultural center. We got a refusal.
Now the building is leased to the leisure center of the Azerbaijani diaspora in St. Petersburg. The first thing the tenants did (at the beginning of January 2015) was to demolish the four-story clergy house of the Sisters of Mercy community.
The demolished house of the clergy of the Elizabethan community of sisters of mercy; photo 2013
The building of the former church of the Great Martyr. Panteleimon the Healer at the Elizabethan Community of Sisters of Mercy; photo 2009
Old oak tree in the garden of the Bezborodko dacha; photo 2013
Address: St. Petersburg, Sverdlovskaya embankment, 40.
Site materials used: saint-petersburg.ru; citywalls.ru; mikle1.livejournal.com; rusarchives.ru; encblago.lfond.spb.ru; blagotvoritelnost-spb.ru; sestr-elizaveta.narod.ru; cabinet-auction.com; blagotvoritelnost-spb.ru; babs71.livejournal.com.
The history of the Kushelev-Bezborodko estate goes back to the pre-Petrine era. The first owner of the land was the commandant of the Swedish fortress Nyenschanz. Then the estate changed owners many times and experienced periods of prosperity and decline.
History of the estate
After the end of the Northern War and the founding of St. Petersburg, Peter I gave these lands to his wife Catherine. It is he who is credited with the title of discoverer of healing waters called Polyustrovsky (from the Latin paluster - swamp). Then the owner became the actual Privy Councilor Grigory Teplov, who received the manor from Catherine II as a gift in October 1770. Teplov decided to use local waters to restore his health. In 1773, construction of a house in the Gothic style began under the leadership of Vasily Bazhenov. During the construction, Swedish communications and foundations were partially used, and already in 1777 the house and the surrounding park with greenhouses for fruit trees and flowers appeared before the owner.
At that time, a 2-tiered front terrace-pier was built on the embankment, with fireworks cannons on both sides. The side staircases and the grotto were lined with granite, and vases and sphinxes became decorations for the corner elements. Unfortunately, the original building was destroyed during the Great Patriotic War. The restoration was carried out according to the design of the architect Rotach in 1960, based on old photographs and surviving fragments. The underground passage leading to the grotto was filled in during the construction of the Sverdlovsk embankment.
Alexander Bezborodko Landscape Park
The life of man is short-lived and after Teplov’s death the dacha and lands passed to his son, Alexei, who did not plan to “get healthier”, but needed money. The estate was sold for 22,500 rubles to the influential chancellor Alexander Andreevich Bezborodko, with whom the heyday of this estate is associated. It was during this period that the now lost park ensemble and according to the design of Giacomo Quarenghi, the estate was rebuilt, which has generally survived to this day. The estate was lucky this time too - during the restructuring, elements of the creation of Vasily Bazhenov and partly Swedish ones were preserved. Along with the reconstruction of the main building, an extensive landscape park with ponds. The main building was connected to outbuildings. Initially, the wings were open and intended for drying hay, but then, due to the climate of St. Petersburg, they were made closed. In its decor, the park was comparable to the best estates in the suburbs of St. Petersburg at that time: Tsarskoe Selo and Orienbaum. The chancellor's guests were the nobles of that time and the empress herself.
Healing waters of Polustrovo
After the death of Alexander Bezborodko in 1799, the dacha passed to his brother, Ilya. The will stated that the deceased’s fortune should be used for charitable deeds, but in 1815 Ilya dies and his daughter, Princess Cleopatra Lobanova-Rostovskaya, becomes the new owner of the dacha. The princess had no sons and transferred the estate to her sister's son, who was in her care. In order to prevent the Bezborodko family from being lost, in 1816, by order of Alexander I, the name of his outstanding ancestor was added to his surname. This is how the surname Kushelev-Bezborodko appeared, which has remained attached to the estate to this day.
The boy received a good education and rose to the position of director of the State Treasury Department. It is with this period in the history of the estate that its development as a mud bath, as well as a source of healing waters, is associated. A resort town was built, a restaurant on the shore of the pond, and baths were equipped. Mineral water was sold, and those wishing to improve their health received subscriptions to use baths with healing water.
Dividing the estate into parts
In 1855, Alexander Kushelev died, and the estate was inherited by his son Georgy. He was fond of literature, was friends with many outstanding writers of that time, and published the magazine “Russian Word”. At different times, the following people came to improve their health with Polyustrovka water: Alexander Dumas Sr., Mikhail Glinka, artist Karl Bryullov, and others.
After the fire of 1868, and soon after the death of Count Kusheleva, the estate passed to his sister Lyubov Musina-Pushkina, who divided the estate and sold it in parts. The New Bavaria brewery was created on one of the sites. By that time, the area around the dacha had become an industrial zone. In 1887, industrial bottling of mineral water with a total volume of more than 200,000 liters per day began on the site; the resort and mud baths became a thing of the past.
Medical background
After the division of the estate, its main building, together with the adjacent park, was transferred to the Red Cross Society in St. Petersburg. In 1896, the Elizabethan Community of Sisters of Mercy was opened in the building. New buildings are being built, medical care is being provided to workers of nearby enterprises and city residents.
After the revolution, the community was repurposed as an infectious diseases hospital, and then an anti-tuberculosis dispensary was located in the building. The dispensary is currently closed.
Church in the name of the healer Panteleimon
The Church of Panteleimon the Healer at the Elizabethan Community of Sisters of Charity was built between 1899 and 1901 according to the design of the architect A. V. Kashchenko. Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna attended the lighting ceremony. After the revolution, the church was closed, and the building was transferred to the Promet plant. In 1940, the building was transferred to the Karl Liebknecht Infectious Diseases Hospital.
The dacha, built in 1773 according to the design of the architect Vasily Bazhenov, refurbished a decade later by the famous Giacomo Quarenghi and bearing the name “Dacha with Lions”, is in fact a much earlier monument. This place was developed back in pre-Petrine times. It has outlived many of its owners and different times was used in completely different ways: from the community of sisters of mercy to the cultural center of the Azerbaijani diaspora.
History of the place
At the end of the 17th century, in the place where the Kushelev-Bezborodko dacha is located today, there was the estate of the commandant of the Swedish fortress Nyenschanz. Peter I took it during the Northern War, and then gave it to his wife Catherine. Already in 1773, Privy Councilor Grigory Nikolaevich Teplov became the owner of the territory; he received it as a gift from Catherine the Great. It was for Teplov that the architect Bazhenov created and implemented the very first version of the house. It was a building surrounded by a garden and fountains, sculptures made of white marble. After the death of Grigory Nikolaevich, his son sold the estate to Prince Alexander Andreevich Bezborodko in 1782. The new owner decided to remodel the house and entrusted the project to Giacomo Quarenghi. Bezborodko had big plans for the territory of the estate, and it is no coincidence: in this area, known as “Polyustrovo” (from the Latin - swampy), healing iron springs were found even under Peter. The count also moved some of the peasants to the estate in order to develop the new settlement. Even then, the house had a main façade facing the Neva, with a portico and a triangular pediment. It was connected to the main building by wings with colonnades. Later they were rebuilt into closed galleries.
Dacha Kushelev-Bezborodko. History of the name
After the death of Alexander Bezborodko, his niece, Princess Cleopatra Ilyinichna Lobanova-Rostovskaya, became the mistress of the house. Her son, Alexander Grigorievich Kushelev, gave a new name to the entire building: in 1816, by a special decree, he was allowed to bear the name Kushelev-Bezborodko. Contemporaries remembered him as a lover of a riotous lifestyle; he dabbled in alcohol and loved parties. The dacha at that time was the refuge of a good half of the literary society of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Alexey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky, Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Dmitry Vasilyevich Grigorovich and others loved to be here. Grigory Alexandrovich himself is known as a publisher, philanthropist and prose writer. He died at the age of 38, and was the last representative of a wealthy family that owned a dacha.
Construction and reconstruction
At the beginning of the 19th century, the dacha was a magnificent house overlooking the Neva, framed by a cast-iron fence of 29 sitting lions. From the pier-terrace there was a view of the river, and the peace of the inhabitants was guarded by the figures of sphinxes.
FOR REFERENCE. The fence with lions is attributed to the authorship of Nikolai Alexandrovich Lvov.
After the death of Kushelev-Bezborodko, the estate passed to his sister Musina-Pushkina. She rented out the cottage. In 1873, the area was divided into small plots and sold, partly for the construction of factories and other industrial enterprises. For example, the “New Bavaria” brewery was located here (today this enterprise is known as JSC “Sparkling Wines” with the famous brand “Soviet Champagne”).
The next tenant of the dacha with lions was the Elizabethan community. The Sisters of Mercy moved into the building in 1896. The building was rebuilt to make it more convenient for the community, and hospital buildings were also added. Workers and artisans were received here.
FOR REFERENCE. The community was founded by Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, the sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. It was one of the few organizations that had children's and gynecological departments; the rest of the communities provided assistance mainly to wounded military personnel.
In the early 30s, the building was transferred to the balance of the Promet plant, and in 1940 it was transferred to the use of the hospital named after. Karl Liebknecht. In the early 60s, the house was restored; during the construction of the Sverdlovsk embankment, the underground passage to the Neva was filled up, and the entrance to it was walled up. Until 2011, the building housed an anti-tuberculosis dispensary; for several years after that it was ownerless; in 2014, representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in St. Petersburg asked to transfer the house to a cultural center. However, in 2015 the building was leased to the leisure center of the Azerbaijani diaspora of St. Petersburg. At this time, the historic clergy house of the Sisters of Mercy community, consisting of four floors, was demolished. Until 2018, the Small Palace of the Kushelev-Bezborodko dacha housed the European Institute, then the lease agreement was terminated.
Resort
At the beginning of the 19th century, after the drainage of the swamps, the territory became a real resort. A hydropathic clinic was set up here, which extended into the territory of the dacha itself. In 1868 there was a fire that destroyed the resort and park. The hydropathic clinic was no longer restored. But medicinal drinks continued to be given to the suffering. Sigismund Wislawo sold sparkling water from Polustrovo in and around St. Petersburg, and by 1887 he had drilled a well capable of producing up to 20,000 buckets of water per day. The next owner of the source was Prince Semyon Semenovich Abamelek-Lazarev. He created and released mineral water called “Natural Mineral Water of the Polyustrovsky Springs.” In 1918, the economic department of the Vyborg District Council became the owner of the mineral waters. But the new owners did not have the financial capabilities and administrative forces to manage the waters. Only towards the end of 1925 did the drilling of new wells begin.
IMPORTANT! The waters of these sources enjoyed authority among the creative intelligentsia. They were visited by composer Mikhail Glinka, painter Karl Bryullov, poet and playwright Nestor Kukolnik, as well as many others.
Interesting Facts:
- Twenty-nine lions were restored in 1999.
- An episode for Eldar Ryazanov’s film “The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia” was filmed near this building (view through the fence with lions).
- The street located closest to the Elizavetinskaya community was named Elizavetinskaya.
- The building is surrounded by two fences: after the lions, most likely already at the end of the 19th century, a number of metal copies rose behind them.
- According to one legend, Nestor Kukolnik composed a comic poem about the Kushelev-Bezborodko dacha (at the height of the party, when the alcohol ran out):
Dacha Bezborodko –
Bad land!
No wine, no vodka
You can't get it in it.
- In the summer of 1858, Alexandre Dumas visited St. Petersburg. He stayed at the dacha with the lions. If you believe the memories, he loved to go out onto the balcony and admire the Neva and the Smolny Monastery on the opposite bank.
- An underground passage was found on the territory of the dacha in the 1990s. While laying the heating main, workers opened the brick floor and saw the dungeon. It led in the opposite direction from the Neva. We managed to walk only ten meters, then the passage was blocked.
- In 2017, the lions were again sent for restoration.
- Despite the numerous lion statues throughout St. Petersburg, the Kushelev-Bezborodka dacha is the main place of their concentration. No other house has so many lion figures. And each of the animals has its own special smile, there is not a single repetition.
Helpful information
The dacha with lions is located on Sverdlovskaya embankment, building 40. The nearest metro station to it is Ploshchad Lenina or Chernyshevskaya, red line. In 2017, it was planned to open here first a jewelry center and then a museum. The building was transferred to the balance of Smolny and is planned for reconstruction.
The historical monument often attracts tourists with its unusual fate and amazing architecture. It can be found on foot and bus routes tourist routes“The main attractions of St. Petersburg, the architecture of Giacomo Quarenghi” and “Historical estates.” You can get to the building yourself and admire it from the outside. Other attractions such as the Smolny Cathedral and the Tauride Palace are within walking distance.
The difficult fate of the dacha, which has changed owners so many times, is under the close attention of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments in 2019. We are actively looking for an investor to restore all compositional ensembles. The dacha with lions is considered a unique architectural monument of the late 18th century and is rightfully the pearl of St. Petersburg.
In St. Petersburg, in Polustrovo, an architectural monument of the 18th-19th centuries has been preserved - the Kushelev-Bezborodko estate. It was built on the banks of the Neva in 1773–77 by Senator Teplov on the site of a tree nursery granted to him in 1773 by the Russian Empress Catherine II. For the foundation of the manor house, they used the foundation of a Swedish house built in pre-Petrine times.
The design of the manor house in the Gothic style was completed by the great Russian architect Vasily Bazhenov.
In 1783–84, the new owner of the estate, Chancellor Count Bezborodko, decided to rebuild the mansion, for which the Russian architect Giacomo Quarneghi was invited. In his project, Kvarneghi made the most of the original appearance of the building, which is why Bazhenov’s features can still be seen in the estate. The house was rebuilt in pseudo-Gothic style. Its walls were completely lined with marble. There are only two such buildings in St. Petersburg, which is why the Bezborodko estate is sometimes called Maly marble palace. The manor house is a central three-story building, with round towers at the corners. The house was connected to two symmetrical side wings with arcuate galleries in plan. As a result, the estate began to correspond to the style of classicism. In the northern part of the estate, an extensive landscape park in the English style was laid out. The park became a favorite place for country celebrations. Canals, pavilions, gazebos were built in the park, and marble sculptures were installed. The estate was surrounded by a metal fence decorated with 29 lions. On the embankment in front of the house there was a pier with granite sphinxes (during the Second World War the terrace-pier was destroyed). In 1857 - 1860, the mansion was rebuilt again, the author of the project was the architect E.Ya. Schmidt. After the death of Prince Bezborodko, his niece, Princess K.I. Lobanova-Rostovskaya, lived in the estate, raising her sister’s son, A.G. Kushelev. As an adult, he received the highest permission to call himself Count Kushelev-Bezborodko. Since then, the estate received its current name - the Kushelev-Bezborodko dacha. In the 18th century, a source of healing mineral water was discovered in Polustrovo. The count carried out drainage work around the estate and set up a resort in Polustrov. In 1831, on the territory of the estate, a house church in the name of the Icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Spring” was consecrated (it was closed on April 28, 1880). In 1855, the dacha was inherited by the son of A. G. Kushelev, publisher of the magazine “Russian Word” G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko. In 1868, due to a fire, a significant part of the resort was destroyed, which was never restored. After the death of Count Kushelev, the Polustrovo estate was inherited by his sister L. A. Musina-Pushkina. In 1873, Bezborodko-Kushelev’s dacha was divided into plots, some of which were purchased, including for the construction of factories. In 1896, the manor house and part of the park with an area of over 9 hectares became the property of the Red Cross Society, and the Elizabethan community of sisters of mercy was located there. Now on the territory of the former Kushelev-Bezborodko estate there is an interdistrict anti-tuberculosis dispensary.
In the 1960s, the Bezborodko-Kushelev estate was reconstructed. In the mid-90s of the 20th century, while laying a new heating main through the basement of the former Church of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, an underground passage was discovered under the estate, probably dug by the first owner of the site - a Swedish officer.
In the summer of 1858, Alexander Dumas Sr. stayed for some time at Bezborodko-Kushelev’s dacha.
In continuation of the previous comment - an excerpt from the memoirs of the artist A.N. Benois: Alexander Benois. My memories. M., "Science", 1980, p. 311-318. (This book is easy to find on the Internet. I downloaded it onto an e-reader and am reading it right now.)
A.N. Benois (1870 - 1960) saw this park as a child, which was still almost not destroyed. The text is long, but, I think, interesting.
"Must be a desire to be closer to my eldest daughter[Camille, sister of A.N. Benois - S.P.] , who was expecting the birth of her second child, as well as a need for dad[architect N.L. Benois - S.P.] Frequently visiting the construction of the bell tower at the church at the Catholic cemetery (on the Vyborg side) prompted my parents to settle on Kushelevka in the summer of 1877. Sister Kamishenka and her Mat lived here for the second year[Matthew (Matvey Yakovlevich) Edwards - entrepreneur, Camilla's husband - S.P.] and with their first child, Jommie. Kushelevka was the name given to the dacha near St. Petersburg of the Kushelev-Bezborodko counts, located before Okhta, along the Neva embankment.<…>.
In the 50s of the XÍX century. The magnificent and wasteful Count Kushelev could still, without risking losing his face, give refuge to Alexander Dumas the father “himself” in the palace of his ancestor, the famous chancellor, and during these years a luxurious life, full of lordly whims, took place on Kushelevka. But since then, an English paper-spinning factory has grown up near the park in Okhta, and one of its red buildings, with its chimney throwing out clouds of black smoke, and with its incessant noise, completely changed the character of the entire area. In addition, the awakened passion for profit through the sale of land pushed the heir to the Kushelev counts, Count Musin-Pushkin, to part with some part of his estate, and just in 1875 it was built on one of these plots (two steps from the palace) Another building, no less grandiose than the paper spinning factory, is the Slavyansky Brewery, also with a chimney, with smoke and with its own peculiar noises.
My uncle Cesar Cavos also took advantage of Count Musin-Pushkin’s tendency to “sell” his lands.[architect Ts.A. Kavos (junior) - uncle of A.N. Benois - S.P.] - an enterprising man in himself, and then he fell under the influence of a new member of our family, the husband of my sister Camilla M. Y. Edwards, who persuaded his uncle to invest some capital in a rope factory. For this enterprise, my uncle acquired another significant piece of the park, and in 1876 the first building of the plant was laid there, which then grew over the course of several years into an entire factory village.
Both factories, a brewery and a paper spinning factory, located on the banks of the Neva, crowded on both sides the estate created for the leisure of Catherine’s nobleman, nevertheless, in 1877, both the palace built by Quarenghi and the granite pier, descending with monumental stairs to the Neva itself, as well as and many of the buildings scattered throughout the park were still intact. Several rooms in the palace were rented in the first time after the Edwardses' marriage, and I remember that empty, smooth marble hall, in which their small round dining table sat in complete disproportion under a huge chandelier. The entrance to the sister was from the garden, but not through a door, but through a window, to which one had to climb a cast-iron staircase attached to the facade, while from the vestibule of the palace there was no way into their apartment, which was carved out of the main apartments. The Edwardses lived there for only a little over a year, and then moved to a house located nearby in the park and, finally, settled in a specially built house in the immediate vicinity of the rope factory.
<…>
We lived on Kushelevka in 1877, 1878. and then back in 1882, and these three summers gave me a lot. Of course, at that time I could not fully realize what I was witnessing, namely, that before my eyes the remnants of the glorious past were being decomposed; but when daddy scolded the commercialism of Count Musin-Pushkin, when he bitterly recalled what Kushelevka was like in the days of his youth, when the Ludwigs told me about those festivities that they themselves “quite recently” witnessed, when other old-timers reported details about , what kind of statues and vases stood in the park and how cleanly the canals along which gilded gondolas slid were kept, all this aroused in me a vague sadness, and what was living out its life in the same places awakened in me a kind of anxious foreboding, as if it all didn't die. It died, but much later.
A year before we settled on Kushelevka, and just when the Slavyansky plant was being built (the builder of which was my cousin Jules Benoit[architect Yu.Yu. Benois, cousin of A.N. Benois; elsewhere in the memoirs he is given an unflattering description - despite his profession - as a business man completely devoid of a sense of beauty; I personally still doubt its fairness - S.P.] ), I visited Kushelevka for the first time, and on this first visit I was most struck by the Ruin. This was one of those ideas in which, in anticipation of romantic trends, already in the 18th century, the dream of the Middle Ages was expressed. This ruin, built in the days of Catherine by the famous Quarenghi (its image is in the exhibition dedicated to his creation), was supposed to represent the ruins of a castle, with a “surviving” round tower. At that time I had no idea about Quarenghi, about the Middle Ages - very vague and rather “fabulous”, but I, like many children, was easily excited by everything that simply bore the imprint of mystery. If Dad had not taken me by the hand then, I would never have dared to walk past these grandiose columns and cornices thrown to the ground and climb the moldy, rolly steps of what seemed to me an endless spiral staircase. But with dad, the fear disappeared, and I really liked the view from the top platform of the Ruins. On the other side of the Neva, reflected in it, the heads of the Smolny Monastery shone, the imposing building of the Bezborodkinsky Palace rose in the foreground, on the other side a park merged with distant forests, in which white pavilions and statues stood. In the same place where the construction of the brewery was being prepared, the soil was all dug up for the foundation; there were piles of rubbish, beams, boards, and bricks. Naturally, when we settled on Kushelevka in 1877, the first thing I did was ask to go to the Ruin, but it turned out that the Ruin no longer existed; it “had to be demolished” to make way for some sheds for beer barrels, and it seems to me that it was then that I understood for the first time (without knowing the word itself) the horror of artistic vandalism. I even hated my cousin Jules, on whose orders this monstrous act was committed, destroying the very thing that remained in my memory as a wonderful dream.
Our generation, which still saw a mass of relics of the beautiful antiquity and at the same time found itself witnessing the beginning of the systematic destruction of this antiquity under the pressure of new living conditions (and theories), could not help but cultivate in me some kind of special bitterness at the sight of the ongoing process that was in connection with an ever greater fragmentation of life. Everything in the world is subject to the law of death and change. Everything that is old, obsolete, and even the most beautiful must at some point give way to something new, caused by the needs of life and at least ugly. But to see how such gangrene spreads and especially to be present at that moment when the gangrene has just touched something, when the doomed body as a whole still seems healthy and beautiful - to see this gives incomparable grief. Similar feelings of something infinitely sad and pitiful, which I experienced in childhood, left a deep imprint for the rest of my life. They undoubtedly predetermined my historical sentimentalism, and indirectly my “Kushelian sentiments” played a role in the formation of that cult of the past, which at the beginning of the 20th century. I was led by a significant group of artistic figures who set themselves the goal of preserving historical and artistic values.<…>.
Kushelevsky Park, also called Bezborodkinskaya Dacha, occupied an irregular quadrangle, stretching along the Neva on one side and going perhaps a mile deep. Standing almost in the middle of the embankment<…> summer palace Chancellor Prince Alexander Andreevich Bezborodko<…>
The Bezborodkinsky Palace overlooked the garden with a terrace with wrought iron railings. Wide linden alley, approaching the garden façade itself, was lined on both sides with marble busts of Roman emperors; it reached a bridge, again decorated with lions, and the end of this alley abutted (since 1877) a wooden fence that separated the site of the Neva plant from the rest of the park. To the left of the palace, in the garden under the trees, stood a graceful gazebo, the so-called “Coffee House,” similar to the Turkish Pavilion in Tsarskoe Selo. Inside, this house was painted on a yellow background with birds and arabesques, but already in 1877 it served as a warehouse for all sorts of junk and, looking through the crack in the locked door, one could discern inside piles of broken sculptures interspersed with benches, tables, parts of trellises and garden tools. Even more to the left of the palace, until 1878, in a fairly open place, stood the aforementioned Ruin, the purpose of which was to serve as a “belvedere”, and nearby there was a manager’s house built in the English Gothic style<…>. Near the Gothic house stood a simple triumphal arch, through which, as legend has it, Mother Catherine the Great herself entered more than once on holidays given by Count Bezborodko. To the right of the palace, the park was closed on the embankment side by a solid plank fence with stone pillars. The gate closest to Okhta led to holiday village, in which we also lived. Almost at the very gate, next to a small two-story yellow dacha, a granite pedestal was preserved, on which a vase once stood, the stone lid of which was still lying right there in the grass; another beautiful polished granite vase survived near my son-in-law's factory. A cubic house with a domed cover (typical of Quarenghi), next to our dacha, served as the home of the half-deaf janitor Sysoy and his grumpy old woman; but once upon a time this lodge was a bathhouse, and Alexander Dumas himself took a steam bath in it.
A neglected path led from the gate into the depths of the park, which was replete with trees of all kinds. Centuries-old oaks, birches, lindens, spruces stood either in close-knit groves or formed the center of small clearings. The path led to a wooden “Chinese” bridge, of which only pitiful fragments remained of the Chinese decoration. One day, the fragile railings of this bridge, on which one of our guests carelessly leaned his elbows, broke, and he almost broke his neck, falling into the shallow waters of the canal. Since then, the dilapidated patterned railings have been replaced with new, simple but durable ones, and the entire bridge has been remodeled in the simplest way.
Behind the bridge there was a “slide”, a must in every park, it was all overgrown with wolfberry bushes<...>A few more steps around the bend of the canal opened up a view of the main curiosity of the Kushelevsky Park - the Kvarengievskaya Rotunda, perhaps too colossal for its location, but an exemplary monument of classical architecture. The rotunda consisted of a low granite base and eight majestic columns with magnificent Corinthian capitals supporting a flat dome, richly decorated inside with stucco coffers. The columns were white, the roof was green. Back in the 60s, this monumental gazebo served as a canopy for the monument to Catherine II in the image of Cybele, but in my time the statue was no longer there, and they said that Count Kushelev gave it to the sovereign. Isn't this the same statue that stood in the Tsarskoe Selo "Grotto"? The Quarenghi rotunda itself stood, despite the absence of any repairs, completely intact until the 90s, and only then was it sold for scrap for a pittance by my cousin Sonia Kavos, who inherited this part of the park from her father.[Note by A.N. Benois: "I recently learned that at the time of sale for scrap, the rotunda was a ruin. A monstrous storm that swept over St. Petersburg tore off the roof and knocked down one of the columns."]
Fifteen years later, she dealt the final blow to Kushelevka, selling her land in plots on which the most ordinary houses and small houses soon grew. Only here and there trees and half-dried ponds that survived among them continued to remind us that once upon a time one of the most magnificent manorial estates was located here.
To the left of the rotunda there was a once famous, but gradually completely neglected orchard, from which only a few bushes of wild raspberries and gooseberries survived; further, behind the main alley at the bridge with lions, a view opened onto the first large pond, in the waters of which two pavilions connected by one common marble staircase were reflected. These buildings, already standing on the territory that belonged to the Slavyansky plant, resembled the Peterhof Ozerki.
The first pond was connected through a strait with the second, which was in the full possession of my son-in-law[Edwards - S.P.] and famous for its white and pink water lilies. Here, in places on the banks, one could discern the remains of granite piers with terracotta sculptures, and here stood a “farm” - a large building painted red with a round tower, similar to the farm in Tsarskoe Selo. Next to her, rusty water flowed down broken marble bowls and along ledges of porous stone, carried through a straight channel from the iron spring of the village of Polustrovo. This village stretched “inland” for about a mile on both sides of the aforementioned canal, the waters of which became redder and redder as they approached their source. At the very source, the canal widened in the form of a “bucket”, on the bank of which stretched the long, dark red building of the “Mineral Water Establishment”, which enjoyed considerable fame in the 40s and 50s, but was languishing in our time. miserable existence. In the neglected garden of this “Establishment,” all that remained of its former splendor was a kiosk for music and some crooked barracks for benches, but in our days music never played here, and the benches stood boarded up, from which it was clear that faith in healing “ iron water" was shaken. Accordingly, dachas in Polustrovo, once inhabited by fairly wealthy people, were now rented exclusively by small people. Right outside the village of Polustrovo there began a forest, a real forest, where we went to pick blueberries and mushrooms and in which, they said, there were wolves and foxes. On the other side of Polustrov, a distant expanse of fields and vegetable gardens opened up, and in the distance, right next to the horizon line, the domes of the church at the Powder Factories barely shone."
