The Naryshkin estate in Filevsky Park. The second house of the Naryshkins on Prechistensky Boulevard. entrance to the park
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Once I found myself in the west of Moscow, I decided to take a walk in Filevsky Park. It was once part of the vast estates of the famous Naryshkin family, who were close relatives of Emperor Peter the Great. They owned, among other things, two estates, Kuntsevo and Fili, which I want to talk about in more detail. What remains of the first estate is a dilapidated, heavily rebuilt house and the restored Znamensky Church, and in Fili you can see a real masterpiece of the “Naryshkin baroque” - the Church of the Intercession. This is where we will begin our walk. You can get to the temple from the Fili metro station by walking a little along Novozavodskaya Street. Already from a distance you can see a chic pink church, decorated with carved white stone decor.
It was built in 1690-1693, when these lands became the property of Peter the Great's uncle, Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin. Until now, scientists are arguing about who was the author of the project of such a stunning architectural object.
Some attribute the authorship to Yakov Bukhvostov, who similarly decorated the Assumption Cathedral in Ryazan and the Spassky Church in Ubory. Others claim that the architect of the Intercession Church in Fili was a certain Pyotr Potapov, who allegedly built Novodevichy Convent. Still others see a clear similarity of this church with the Church of the Sign in the center of Moscow, where the city residence of L.K. used to be. Naryshkina. Personally, the Intercession Church reminded me very much of Spassky in Ubory near Moscow. Likewise, there are several tiers, an open walkway, to which stairs lead and stunning white stone carvings decorating the windows and pediments of the building.
The upper church, which is open only in the warm season, now houses a branch of the museum named after. Andrey Rublev. However, I was unable to get there, since for some reason the stairs were closed. It’s a pity, because it was in the upper temple that the unique interiors, which were lost in the lower one. I walked around a little, the church is surrounded by a small green park, where there are very few people.
A huge contrast with this ancient architectural masterpiece is the modern towers of the Moscow City complex, which are visible in the distance.
Bolshaya Filevskaya Street goes by. Previously, people used this road to go on pilgrimage to the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery in Zvenigorod. Walking along this street, you can get to another estate of Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin - Kuntsevo. It, along with the surrounding villages, was taken away by Peter the Great from the Miloslavskys and presented to the mother’s relatives - the Naryshkins. In 1744, Alexander Lvovich Naryshkin ordered the construction of a new stone Church of the Sign of the Mother of God in Kuntsevo on the site of an old wooden church. At the beginning of the 20th century, under the new owners of the Soldatenkov estate, it was rebuilt in a very rare neo-Byzantine style. Thus, the appearance of the renewed temple began to differ strikingly from what it was like under the Naryshkins. During Soviet times, the church was partially destroyed; it was restored in the 90s of the 20th century. They say that only the floor has been preserved since 1913.
Opposite this temple, Filevsky Park stretches for several kilometers, also laid out at the end of the 17th century. Citizens love to walk in this park; there are recreation areas, cafes, well-groomed alleys and a cozy embankment. One of the ponds is still called Naryshkinsky.
For a long time I tried to find the remains of the main manor house, and only when I entered some sluggish construction site, I realized that the Naryshkin mansion was in front of me. Now it is an extremely sad sight, but once it was a stunning, very elegant building.
The building was rebuilt after the War of 1812 and later, in late XIX century, when the estate became the property of the entrepreneurs Soldatenkovs. It was built of wood, the roof was decorated with a belvedere. There were two wings on the sides, and the space around was decorated with a marble obelisk and statues of Juno and Jupiter. The Kuntsevo estate was visited by top officials of the state and members imperial family, and artists. Catherine II and Nicholas I's father-in-law, King Frederick William III, and Alexander II and his wife visited here. Visited Kuntsevo M.Yu. Lermontov, later L.N. Tolstoy, A. Herzen and N. Ogarev, artists A. Savrasov and I. Kramskoy painted views of the estate. Indeed, the house is located on a high hill, and if now there are thickets around and the Moscow River is practically invisible, then before the area was well-groomed and the plants were carefully looked after, and there was a convenient descent to the river.
IN last decades main manor house burned repeatedly. Another fire in 2014 practically destroyed the building - only the walls remained, and although it has been officially restored since then, there has been no significant improvement in its appearance not visible. The statues have long disappeared from the park, and in the place of the obelisk stands a dusty plaster vase. It’s good that at least Filevsky Park has been preserved, which is a real green oasis in the west of Moscow. This is a wonderful place with an extraordinary hilly topography, its wooden stairs in some places they resemble Kolomenskoye, perhaps main house will be restored someday. I would like to hope so.
In 1813, the favorite Emperor Alexander I, Maria Antonovna Naryshkina, son was born Emmanuel, whom contemporaries considered the son of the emperor (although, according to another version, the baby’s father was Prince Grigory Gagarin). So, not for the first time, the Naryshkin family became intertwined with the reigning Romanov family.
And the first time this happened was during marriage. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich With Natalia Kirillovna Naryshkina, expectant mother Peter I.
Moscow was surrendered here
The Naryshkins are one of the most ancient and wealthy noble families in Russia. He comes either from the German tribe of Narists (who owned, among others, the Hungarian city of Eger, whose coat of arms became the coat of arms of the family), or from the Crimean Karaite Kurbat's muzzles nicknamed Narysh (translated from Turkic as “camel”). Be that as it may, they owned the estates of Kuntsevo, Cherkizovo, Petrovskoye. The latter became part of the dowry Ekaterina Ivanovna Naryshkina, married to Kirill Razumovsky. Therefore, from then on it was called Petrovsko-Razumovsky. The family also owned Trinity-Lykov, Sviblovo, and Bratsevo. The last two estates were granted Kirill Alekseevich Naryshkin, the first commandant of St. Petersburg, and later the Moscow governor.
Kuntsevo, bought in 1690 by Peter's uncle Lev Kirillovich, head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, remained in the hands of the family for almost two centuries. With his son Alexandra Lvovich, senator and president of the Commerce Collegium, a manor house was built (now B. Filevskaya St., 65) ➊, which has survived after fires and reconstruction to this day. Before your visit to Kuntsevo Catherine II in 1763, a front alley was built through the estate park, which became Bolshaya Filevskaya Street.
In 1818, on the occasion of the birth of the heir to the throne, the future Alexandra II, in Belokamennaya they received Frederick William III, father of the empress Alexandra Fedorovna. His path lay along the Mozhaisk road past the estate. In honor of this event, an obelisk appeared in the park with a memorial plaque with the following content: “On July 4, 1818, the King of Prussia, seeing Moscow from Kuntsev, thanked her for saving his state.”
It was on the Naryshkin estate that there was a hut in which the military council was held: at it it was decided to leave Moscow to the French. Today, the “Kutuzovskaya Izba” (38 Kutuzovsky Prospekt) ➋ has become a museum.
IN early XVII V. here (at that time Kuntsevo belonged to the rivals and enemies of the Naryshkins, the Miloslavskys) a wooden Intercession Church was built. Under Lev Kirillovich it was rebuilt in brick and white stone. Today the church in Fili is one of the most beautiful Russian churches (Novozavodskaya St., 6) ➌.
On turn of XVIII-XIX centuries Chief Jägermeister came here for the summer from St. Petersburg, away from family shame Dmitry Lvovich Naryshkin, son of Catherine II's jester Lev Alexandrovich and famous cuckold. His wife, a beautiful Polish woman Maria Antonovna(nee Chetvertinskaya), maid of honor of the Empress, favorite of Emperor Alexander I, gave birth to three, if not four children from him. “In gratitude” for his patience, the emperor generously rewarded Naryshkin by granting him extensive possessions in the Tambov province. Jr, Emmanuel, studied at
School of Guards ensigns and Horse Guards cadets together with Lermontov And Martynov. The poet, teasing his good comrade, called him only the Frenchman (Naryshkin spoke French better than Russian).
According to the professor Alexander Kirillovich Naryshkin, a modern historiographer of the family and great (five times) grandson of Kirill Alekseevich, the current speaker of the State Duma is very similar to Emmanuil Dmitrievich Sergey Evgenievich Naryshkin.
In 1828, 14-year-old Misha Lermontov stayed with his grandmother at the Kuntsevo dacha. Here he first fell passionately and unrequitedly in love. And the rejected one, in a fit of despair, exclaimed: “And the devil managed to be born in this Russia!”
In the middle of the century, the chamber-junker Vasily Lvovich Naryshkin sold the estate to a book publisher and art collector Kozma Soldatenkova. By the way, I sold it along with all the paintings and sculptures stored there. Later this collection moved to the Tretyakov Gallery.
How the looter went broke
To the Sviblovo estate, which has also survived to this day (L-Azorevy Prospect, 19) ➍, Kirill Alekseevich Naryshkin brought from the Baltic cities of Narva and Dorpat (now Tartu) he captured a lot of goods (even window frames for the manor house, contemporaries mocked the looter). However, he came into conflict with an influential neighbor Menshikov(Peter I even had to persuade a relative not to “offend” the field marshal) and with Pleshcheevs, former owners of Sviblova. Having lost both disputes, he parted with the rich estate he had furnished.
Bratsevo in the north-west of modern Moscow (Svetlogorsky Prospect, 13) ➎ with a beautiful park belonged to the same Kirill Alekseevich, and the preserved palace, one of the best in Moscow, was built in early XIX V. according to the project of the St. Petersburg architect Andrey Voronikhin, builder of the Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt.
From the estate in Trinity-Lykovo, granted Martemyan Kirillovich Naryshkin, uncle and steward (courtier who held high positions) of Peter I, was left with the most beautiful Trinity Church (24 Odintsovskaya St.) ➏. In recent years, a writer and laureate lived in Trinity-Lykovo Nobel Prize Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
From the city houses of the Naryshkins, the mansion at Gogolevsky Blvd., 10 (architect Matvey Kazakov) has survived to this day ➐ - the Decembrist Mikhail Naryshkin lived here and gathered members of the Moscow council of the Northern Society headed by him; estate on Prechistenka, 16 (now the House of Scientists) ➑, where the senator lived Ivan Aleksandrovich Naryshkin- the imprisoned father at the wedding of Pushkin and Goncharova. House No. 14 ➒ on Strastnoy Boulevard, formerly called Naryshkinsky Square, and part of the city estate on the street also survived. Solyanka, 14/2 ➓, and the so-called Little Russian courtyard (Maroseyka St., 11) with magnificent platbands from the early 18th century preserved in the courtyard.
Only our own photographs were used - shooting date 06/22/2010
G. Moscow, st. Bolshaya Filevskaya, 32, building. 3, t. 146-05-31
Directions: st. metro station "Bagrationovskaya"
Open daily from 10:00 to 20:00
Free admission
The forest park was laid out on the basis of the Naryshkins’ Kuntsevo estate and the forests adjacent to it. What remains of the Naryshkin estate is an 18th century palace.
Its name comes from old word"kunka", i.e. "Darling". Crowned heads have been here more than once, and it belonged to famous Russian princes.
In 1572, Ivan the Terrible donated the lands of Kuntsevo to boyar Mstislavsky for special merits.
In 1689, the estate fell into the hands of the Naryshkins. Peter I's uncle Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin annexed Fili and the Kuntsevo estate to his estate in 1690.
N.M. Karamzin, L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Turgenev, P.I. Tchaikovsky, A.K. Savrasov, V.G. Perov and others once lived, rested and worked in this estate famous people. However, the most famous visitors to the estate were Catherine II in 1763, the Prussian king Frederick William III, who met here with his daughter and Grand Duchess Alexandra Fedorovna (1818), Alexander II with his wife (1861).
Centuries-old lindens, oaks and elms grow here; 130-year-old pines have been preserved from the pine forests. The depths of the park are home to 90 species of animals and birds. Among the man-made attractions is the unique “Cursed Place”, the Kuntsevo settlement of the Vyatichi Slavs. In this ancient fortified settlement on the territory of Moscow, earthen ramparts and ditches have been preserved.
In 1744 A.L. Naryshkin began to build stone church in the name of the Sign of the Mother of God. Under him, the boyar buildings acquired modern shape. Was laid big house, gardens and alleys were laid out, greenhouses were built.
The main house was built in the 18th century. with Tuscan pilasters, wide niches and a belvedere, from where beautiful views opened in all directions.
In 1812, the Kuntsevsky house burned down and was rebuilt in 1817. At the same time, two symmetrical one-story outbuildings were built, built in Empire forms and emphasizing the main axis of the complex.
In 1865, Kuntsevo was sold to K. T. Soldatenkov. Until the beginning of the 20th century. the lands were a dacha area with big amount owners (Soldatenkov, Shelaputin, Sadovnikov).
In 1913, the Church of the Mother of God of the Sign was rebuilt in the Byzantine style according to the design of the architect S.L. Solovyov. The last owners of the estate, V.I., were buried near the church. and N.G. Soldatenkovs.
Until 1974 it was made of wood, but lost its belvedere. In 1976, after a fire, the house was dismantled and rebuilt in brick.
In the western part of the forest park on the high right bank of the Moscow River, on the cape of the main bank formed by two deep ravines, the oldest earthen fortress in Moscow was located. To this day, this hill with ramparts and ditches, covered with coal-black soil - the strata of a settlement, an ancient fortified village, has been preserved in the protected Kuntsevo Park. The site of the settlement has an oval-rectangular shape, its length from southeast to northwest is 72 m, and its width is 20 - 27 m, from the north - 30 m. The surface of the site has a slope to the north, which is 1.5 m. The ancient settlement - “Cursed Place” in Naryshkinsky Park near Kuntsevo - was inhabited in the 5th - 4th centuries. BC, as research has shown. Initially, one patriarchal clan lived here - 50 - 60 people. In 1838, Voskresensky’s novel “The Damned Place” was published, the events of which unfold here. The novel was very popular among contemporaries.
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Well-preserved beautiful estate of Peter I's uncle Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin
Description:
Peter I after the suppression Streltsy riot gave his uncle, Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin, the former estate of Prince Miloslavsky. Lev Kirillovich built himself an estate here in the European style - with ponds and greenhouses. There were marble figures around, and the house was surrounded by a regular park.
The Naryshkins owned the estate for 175 years. IN different time, in the 17th - early 19th centuries. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Catherine II and the Prussian king Frederick William III visited here.
From the large estate, the manor house, 2 outbuildings, a park and the Church of the Sign have been preserved.
In 1744, Alexander Lvovich Naryshkin began to build a stone church in the name of the Sign of the Mother of God. Under him, the boyar buildings acquired modern shape. A large house was founded, gardens and alleys were laid out, and greenhouses were built. The main house was built in the 18th century. with Tuscan pilasters, wide niches and a belvedere, from where beautiful views opened in all directions. The house was built according to central axis plot with a front yard flanked by service buildings on one side and regular garden, with another. The composition was built strictly symmetrically with respect to the main axis of the central building of the estate. The estate had a closed chamber character. A straight three-kilometer alley leading to it from Pokrovskoye, ending at the Church of the Sign. This alley corresponds to the route of modern Bolshaya Filevskaya Street. and, according to I.E. Zabelin, it was specially arranged before visiting the estate of Catherine II on July 7, 1763. In front of the house, from the entrance, in the middle of the curtain there was a blue marble column with the monogram of Catherine II. The inscriptions on the pedestal stated that the marble pillar was brought from Siberia to St. Petersburg in 1764, delivered by Catherine II to Ober-Stalmeister L.A. Naryshkin in 1769, and installed in Kuntsevo in 1841.
The base of the building from the side of the Moscow River is reinforced with a brick retaining wall, designed as open terrace with staircases leading to the park. There is a small two-column portico in the retaining wall of the house. On its sides stood marble statues of Jupiter and Juno (Italian copies of ancient originals), now they are lost, only their pedestals on the sides of the arched grotto of the terrace have been preserved. The main facade of the house faces the Moscow River, the steep bank slopes down like a smooth green slope. At the end of the 18th century. on its sides there were wooden ramps, and below, near the river bank, there was a wide wooden platform. Later, the marble sculptural group “The Abduction of Proserpina by Pluto”, made by the master Paolo Friscorni, was placed there. Several marble sculptures and busts, mostly comic, decorated the regular park near the house. In 1812, the Kuntsevo house burned down and was rebuilt in 1817. At the same time, two symmetrical one-story outbuildings were built, built in Empire forms and emphasizing the main axis of the complex.
In memory of the visit of Kuntsev by the King of Prussia, Frederick William III in 1818, Alexander Lvovich erected an obelisk from white stone with a bronze monogram and the name of Emperor Alexander I. In the 40s of the 19th century, an iron statue of Russian work, dated 1732, depicting a naked woman with her arm raised, stood in the garden. At the end of the last century, an ancient mushroom-shaped gazebo, built from the base of an old oak tree with a hollow, covered with a thatched roof, was also preserved.
In addition, in the middle of the 19th century, the so-called “Polovtsian women” were installed in the park - ancient sacred sculptures taken from the steppes southern Russia to decorate it.
Moscow , Bolshaya Filevskaya, 22 (opposite the Temple of the Sign (house 65), go 50 meters into the park)
Pionerskaya (to metro 7)
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sight, estate , architectural monument, Naryshkins, Fili Park, Suvorov Park
Added:
Yulia Kozlova
(24.09.2014 09:00)
Yulia Kozlova
Peter I gave this beautiful estate on the high bank of the Moscow River to his uncle Lev Naryshkin, and it belonged to the family for almost two centuries. Unfortunately, this summer the main house of the estate was damaged in a fire. I don’t know whether it was an accident or a deliberate arson, but the estate has been under reconstruction for a long time. Over the years since the start of reconstruction, the house was whitewashed and glass was installed, but the matter never progressed beyond that. Even from the outside it was clear that inside was an empty room with bare walls. About 10 years ago, someone’s office was located here and business was going on, and then the building fell into disrepair. It's a shame that the reconstruction was never done properly. After all, a wonderful museum could be opened here. In addition to the main house, outbuildings have also been preserved. They are used by some organizations.
The territory of the estate is perfectly preserved. Today, part of the estate park is part of Fili Park, and the second part is lined with houses on Bolshaya Filyovskaya Street. Directly opposite the manor house, across the road from it, stands the beautiful Church of the Sign, which was part of it. Holy Mother of God. The church is functioning and its reconstruction is almost completed. The Naryshkins had a hand in its construction, but then it was redone.
About 500 meters from the manor house there is a beautiful artificial pond with old willows. Now it has been improved and in the summer it is very pleasant to sit on its banks, either on the numerous benches or just on the grass. Now the pond has small cafe working until late in the evening. So, after taking a promenade through the park or around the pond, you can have a snack here. If you get tired of walking along the upper level of the regular park, you can go down to the river. I don’t know what the embankment looked like in the time of the Naryshkins, but now it is a modern embankment with a lane for cyclists, benches and fences.
By the way, at the top level of the park there is a large ancient Apple orchard. It was looked after and updated during Soviet times and therefore it still bears fruit. Local residents are happy to collect the free harvest there and take home whole bags.
In general, the former regular park of the Naryshkin estate now has everything that is typical of any city park: rental of sports equipment and bicycles, panda towns, playgrounds, gazebos, summer concert venues, benches and tiled paths, flower beds and flower beds. The fact that this is part of a historical estate is reminded here and there by information boards and rare tourists trying to walk from the nearest metro to the manor house. Still, it’s a pity that the house is ruined. Even in its unfinished state it was good, but now the upper wooden part - the decoration of the house and the beams - were burned, and the windows were broken. But it would be possible to do something like Tsaritsino and conduct excursions. A place of stunning beauty!
The Trubetskoy-Naryshkin mansion (29 Tchaikovsky St.) finally opened its doors after restoration.
The Trubetskoy (Naryshkin) house is a federal architectural monument. Since the 1750s, on the site of house No. 29 on Tchaikovsky Street, there were two houses, one of which belonged to A.S.’s great-grandfather. Pushkin
The one-story mansion was built in 1779-1780. for Abram Petrovich Hannibal - “the blackamoor of Peter the Great.”
Ivan Abramovich Hannibal was a major figure of that time: a famous military man, the hero of the Battle of Navarino and the Battle of Chesme, the builder of the fortress and city of Kherson, he was so famous that even when he quarreled with the Empress’s favorite, Prince Potemkin, Catherine II took the side of Hannibal. However, the hot-tempered son of “Blackamoor Peter the Great,” despite the Empress’s mercy, retired and moved to St. Petersburg. For some time he lived in this house, periodically traveling to Ingria.
After the death of the old man Hannibal in 1781, the house passed to his sons, who ceded the rights to it to their elder brother, Ivan. After Ivan’s death in 1823, the house became the property of Senator I.N. Neplyuev, and after his death in 1823, his daughter Maria settled in the house along with her husband, Lieutenant E.P. Engalychev.
Prince Pyotr Nikitich Trubetskoy (4 (15) August 1724 - 12 (23) May 1791) - Russian senator, writer and bibliophile from the Trubetskoy family
In 1855, Prince P. N. Trubetskoy became the new owner of the mansion. For him, G. A. Bosse is rebuilding the mansion. The facade on the street was significantly expanded. Tchaikovsky due to the demolition of a small outbuilding and gate.
Soon Trubetskoy married Elizaveta Esperovna Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya. This lady wanted to set up a high-society salon here, but their house failed to gain such fame. Moreover, due to large financial expenses, the prince was forced to rent out the mansion. The house was rented English ambassador Napier, Italian embassy.
In 1874, the house was purchased by the prince’s son-in-law Pavel Pavlovich Demidov (heir to a huge inheritance), who bore the title of San Donato, not recognized in Russia. The following year, Demidov resold the plot to Vasily Lvovich Naryshkin.
For the Naryshkins, the house was rebuilt in 1875-1876 according to the design of the architect R.A. Goedicke. A garden was preserved in the courtyard, and new service buildings were built along Kirochny (now Druskeniksky) lane. This is where the architect created Big hall for 200-250 people. Vasily Lvovich Naryshkin was married to Princess Fevronya Orbeliani, his son married Sergei Yulievich's daughter Witte.
After 1917, the owners of the mansion left Russia. The fact that the building was then occupied by various organizations (for example, in 1918 - the Foundry District Food Administration) saved it from the looting that many mansions were subjected to in those years. After the Naryshkins fled abroad, a significant amount of valuable art objects remained here. In 1920, they were taken to the Hermitage on three carts, and some of the valuables were then transferred to the Russian Museum.
Since 1923, there has been a Children's Room here. art studio, which bore the name of Zlata Lilina, the wife of the then Petrograd leader Zinoviev. Then Lilina’s name was removed from the name, and the studio itself, transformed into a House for the Artistic Education of Children, remained here and there. After the war, the building entirely belonged to the Dzerzhinsky district party committee: the office of political education, the department of propaganda and agitation were located here. One of the rooms in the former Naryshkin mansion was occupied by the regional society “Znanie”.
In 2009, Intarsia LLC bought all residential apartments and transferred them to non-residential status.
The building will be adapted to St. Petersburg international center preservation of cultural heritage.
In St. Petersburg, experts are studying a rare treasure. Family treasures were found in the Naryshkin mansion, which lay in a secret room for almost a century after the revolution in 1917. The cache was discovered during renovations, when the floors were opened. The find may well not be the last - at that turbulent time in Russia, nobles and simply rich people often tried to hide accumulated treasures.
The family silverware of the old noble family of the Naryshkins was discovered on Thursday, March 29, during the reconstruction of the mansion at 29 Tchaikovsky Street by a foreman of the Intarsia group of companies. This company specializes in restoration work. Workers found her small room, which was not on any plan of the building. In a room with an area of 6 square meters there were 40 bags with silver dishes decorated with the Naryshkin coat of arms, as well as medals and orders from the times of the Russian Empire.
The valuables were wrapped in newspapers dating back to 1917. Note that at the end of 1917 the Naryshkins left Russia, and the valuables preserved in the mansion were transported to the Hermitage and the Russian Museum in 1920.
None of the heirs ever mentioned that the Naryshkins’ family dishes might still be kept in the mansion.
Now the KGIOP experts from the government of St. Petersburg who arrived at the site are trying to describe the values. They wear gloves to avoid damaging valuables.
Tens of kilograms of silver: unique sets, candelabra - everything was carefully packed in newspapers of the terrible year 17. And poured with vinegar, it protects noble metal from oxidation. The mansion on Tchaikovsky belonged to the Naryshkin family, and it was their coat of arms that was engraved on most of the items. “Impressive! These are ceremonial sets of noblemen, that is, this is a unique treasure, which simply had no equal,” says the head of the department for combating the theft of cultural and historical values of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg and Leningrad region Vladislav Kirillov.
Even from the operational footage, it is clear that in St. Petersburg they found something so extraordinary that even the leading experts of the State Hermitage have not yet encountered.
Marina Lopato, Doctor of Art History, Head of the Western European Sector applied arts State Hermitage Museum, believes: “In my opinion, Sazikov is one of the largest silversmiths who worked in St. Petersburg and had a branch in Moscow. Things are very expensive. Even in those days. This should be in a museum and even in permanent exhibitions.” If not major renovation grand ducal mansion, who knows how many decades the treasure would have lain between the second and third floors. The stone bag was discovered by workers who were opening the floors. A real secret room is not that uncommon in period homes. The Baroque effect - to amaze, to amaze - has found a unique application.
“In Russia, the fashion for hiding places especially arose in the 18th century. Mechanics are in vogue. That is, I was interested in the mechanism, I was interested in the tricks. For example, you touch it, move it, and it will open,” said Ekaterina Stanyukovich-Denisova, architectural historian, senior lecturer at the Department of History and Russian Art at St. Petersburg State University.
Starting from hidden keyholes in household cabinets, ending with very complex structures, something was in the air at that time: the desire to have a secret, to hide something from prying eyes did not escape even representatives of the Romanov family.
In the office of the grandson of Nicholas the First, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, the same president of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and poet who signed with the initials Ka Er, there was a secret that other inhabitants of the Marble Palace probably guessed about, but it was still a secret for the majority. Looks ordinary bookshelf, but if you click on wall panel is a button.
That is, this is not a closet at all, but a secret door. It did not lead to a back door, nor was it used for any secret purposes. Behind the door was a chapel. And communication with God was so personal and delicate that Grand Duke ordered the entrance to be hidden from prying eyes and left the door only when there was no one in the office.
About Grand Duke Constantine, who died in 1915, they now say: he was lucky, meaning that he did not live to see the revolution. The Bolsheviks brutally killed three of his sons in Alapaevsk. The fashion for hiding places at that time turned into a necessity. If enterprising merchants transferred money into diamonds, then nobles tried to hide property in their own homes.
“This is a cache discovered on October 12, 1925. Even traces of hacking are visible from those very distant times. Perhaps the richest treasure was found in the Yusupov Palace - the same one where Grigory Rasputin was killed. Here, by the way, is the secret door through which the Siberian elder was carried out. One of the best collections of paintings in Europe, Amati violins, jewelry, unknown letters from Pushkin and autographs of other celebrities that belonged to Felix Yusupov and his family were distributed throughout Soviet museums,” the specialist shows.
The hereditary Russian aristocrat and classic of literature Vladimir Nabokov, who fled at the same time as the Naryshkins, Sheremetyevs and Yusupovs, kept a photo of the family mansion on Bolshaya Morskaya Street in St. Petersburg until the end of his life. Separated from Russia by an entire ocean, he recalled home in his autobiography “Other Shores.”
“I was born in a room on the second floor - where there was a cache with my mother’s jewelry: the doorman Ustin personally led the rebel people to him through all the rooms in November 17,” Nabokov wrote many decades later. This is the secret place - a safe hidden in the wall. Closed - the key was lost a long time ago. This is where the Nabokovs fled the revolution. And probably, like thousands of others, they didn’t think it would be forever. And they hoped that the valuables would await their return to their homeland.
The Naryshkins' house is now being alarmed and armed guards have been posted. It is possible that there are still mysterious cavities in the masonry in the grand ducal mansion.
A representative of the Naryshkin family, currently living in South Africa, and a St. Petersburg lawyer bearing the same surname announced their rights to the heritage of their ancestors.
"By Russian laws, as far as I know, I have nothing to claim, because I am not a relative in the direct line... But perhaps, if there are no other relatives, and if there is a lawyer who is ready to take on this case, why not apply,” - said 65-year-old Pyotr Naryshkin
