Palace in Neskuchny (G. M. Antsiferova)

The house in the Neskuchny Garden, called the Alexandrinsky Palace (see illustration), is considered to be a work of late classicism. His palace appearance was associated with the activities of the architect E. D. Tyurin in the 30s of the 19th century, when he was the chief architect of the Moscow Palace Office. But, as will be shown in the article, the appearance of the building was formed much earlier. It belonged to the Orlovs from the 90s of the 18th century, before that the Vyazemskys owned the house, and in the middle of the 18th century. here stood the house of P. A. Demidov.

The purpose of this article is to identify the building of the Alexandrinsky Palace with the house of P. A. Demidov and to clarify the time of its restructuring in the period of classicism.

The view of the garden facade of P. A. Demidov’s house has come down to us on an engraving in the book of Academician P. S. Pallas, published in 1781 and dedicated to the description of the famous Demidov botanical garden (see illustration) *.

* (P. S. Pallas. Catalog of plants located in Moscow in the garden ... Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov. SPb., 1781.)

The assumption about the identity of the house in this engraving and the Alexandrinsky Palace was made by L.P. Aleksandrov, who, based on the coincidence of the number of floors and the number of window axes, considered only the decoration of the building * to have changed. He saw the facade depicted in the book as plastically dissected as the modern garden facade of the palace. However, there is no doubt that the central part of the building is buried in the engraving, although the cornice is not unraveled in this image, which can be explained by the architectural unprofessionalism of the engraver (this is also evidenced by the inconsistent arrangement of the shadow shading of the volumes). At the same time, an open balcony with a railing, supported by columns, is in line with the side parts, which, therefore, are nothing more than risalits.

* (A. P. Alexandrov. The past of the Neskuchny Garden. Historical reference. M., 1923, p. 45.)

But the garden facade of the Alexandrinsky Palace has a small ledge in the center. Apparently, between the risalits of the Demidov house, some volume was built into the entire height of the facade. If this is so, then we should not talk about changing the decor, but about a significant restructuring of the house. The study of graphic materials and full-scale analysis of the interiors of the Alexandria Palace also lead to the conclusion about a decisive change in the original space-planning structure of the building.

On the floor plans of the house, dated 1831 (see ill.) *, in the central part of the garden facade, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe main double-height hall (the entire height of the second and third floors) and the same area of ​​vaulted rooms in the first and basement floors are clearly visible. Window openings of the original facade are left on the inner wall of the hall; they are also easily guessed on the first floor, although they are partially blocked.

* (State. Research Museum of Architecture named after. A. V. Shchuseva, b. I, No. 5673. Facades and plans presented by A. A. Orlova-Chesmenskaya. They are all undated, made on Whatman paper with a watermark of 1829, and apparently date back to 1831, when negotiations began for the sale of the house.)

What can be seen in the modern interior of the palace? On the third floor, before light windows* were made in the ceiling and roof in 1856, the entire central part had no natural light, although five semicircular second-light windows on the inner wall of the large columned hall open into these rooms. Obviously, before the building was rebuilt, the central rooms and the staircase on the right side of the house faced the garden facade and were illuminated by their own windows.

* (TsGADA, f. 1239, op. 3, part 20, no. 18199, AL. 25-31.)

Similarly, in the mezzanine, the oval columned hall in the center with a painted ceiling turned out to be semi-dark; daylight entered it through the windows of the large columned hall adjacent to it. Undoubtedly, initially this hall overlooked the garden facade, as well as the premises of the entrance hall located on the sides of it. The same can be said about the central rooms of the lower floor. All this means that the rooms in the center of the building, now deprived of natural light, were blocked by new rooms built between the risalits. The new facade has the same five window axes, corresponding to the built-up central part of the house *.

* (These observations and studies conducted by the author of the article in 1959-1960. (the manuscript is in the archive of the Inspectorate for the Protection of Monuments to Glavap), confirmed by the discovery by V. T. Shmakova of the original plan of the house, a description of which see: "In the vicinity of Moscow. From the history of Russian estate culture of the 17th-A1A centuries." M, 1979, p. 387-388.)

The new order decor, which the building received during the reconstruction, changed the ratio of its facades. If Demidov's house was turned with its main facade towards the garden and the Moskva River, which corresponded to the methods of estate construction in the middle of the 18th century, now the representative decoration of the opposite facade with an impressively highlighted central part made this facade oriented to B. Kaluzhskaya Street the main one, respectively with the principles of construction in the era of classicism.

Before trying to determine when the restructuring of the Demidov house could have taken place, it is necessary to briefly trace, starting from the middle of the 18th century, the history of the property in Neskuchny. (Let's note in advance the trend of enlargement of plots on the territory of Neskuchny by buying neighboring estates, which began at that time and ended a hundred years later with the unification of the entire territory of Neskuchny - a garden that already belonged to the royal Alexandrinsky Palace).

In the middle of the XVIII century. on the site from the Kaluga outpost to the place where the Golitsyn hospital was subsequently built, between the Moskva River and B. Kaluzhskaya Street, there were several estates *. The very first large property from the outpost in the 40s and back in the late 70s belonged to the Prosecutor General, Prince N. Yu. Trubetskoy. In 1804, the court of V.I. Zubov was listed on this territory. After Zubov, the estate was owned by Prince L. A. Shakhovskoy, and in 1826 it was bought by the Moscow Palace Office. The plot to the right of Trubetskoy in the 18th century. belonged to N. M. Golitsyna. It was bought by the palace department only in 1842.

* (Information about the location of the estates is taken from the following sources: A. Mikhailov. Architect Ukhtomsky and his school. M., 1954, p. 184; Moscow state. historical archive, f. 105, op. 9/1, no. 664; MGINTA, Serpukhov part, No. 731-733; TsGADA, f. 1239, op. 3, part 20, no. 18758, fol. 3.)

Possession to the right of Golitsyna in the second half of the 18th century. consisted of four sections: Pokhodyashin, Soymonov, Demidova and Serikov. It is on the common territory of these four sections that the Alexandrinsky Palace with the entire complex of buildings related to it is located *.

* (Information about this part of Neskuchny is found in the case of buying a house from Orlova-Chesmenskaya (TsGADA, f. 1239, op. 3, part 60, no. vol. VIII. M., 1898 (purchase certificate No. 585 for 1754).)

In 1754, M. A. Demidova bought the neighboring yard of the Soimonovs. Pokhodyashin's yard in 1786 was bought by F. G. Orlov. The Serikov and Demidov yards were bought by E. N. Vyazemskaya * (probably after the death of P. A. Demidov in 1788, since he himself could hardly sell his estate with a botanical garden, which was his brainchild). In 1793, Vyazemskaya sold all this property to her neighbor F. G. Orlov, who thus became the sole owner of all four plots simultaneously to Demidov and the owner of the Vyazemsky house **, that is, the former Demidov house.

* (E. N. Vyazemskaya, daughter of N. Yu. Trubetskoy, owner of the estate in Neskuchnoye.)

** ("Indicator of Moscow, showing in alphabetical order the names of the owners of all the houses of this capital ...". M., 1793.)

In 1796, the entire property in Neskuchny was inherited by F. G. Orlov’s will by his niece A. A. Orlova-Chesmenskaya, who at that time was eleven years old. The actual owner of the estate was her father, the famous Catherine's nobleman (then retired) Count A. G. Orlov-Chesmensky. In the same year, after the accession of Paul, A. Orlov went abroad, and returning in 1801, he settled in this house and lived in it until his death in 1808. A. A. Orlova-Chesmenskaya owned the estate and the house until 1832, when all this property was sold by her to Nicholas I.

Thus, evidence from the act books of the middle of the 18th century, the alphabetical index of Moscow in 1793 and the bill of sale fortress of 1832 through the chain of owners connect the building of the Alexandria Palace with the house of P. A. Demidov.

In the book of P. S. Pallas, devoted to the description of the famous Demidov garden, it is also said about the house: “This garden was started together with a huge house around 1756 ... the garden goes from the courtyard to the Moscow River with ledges ... the upper platform is separated from the courtyard beautiful iron grate..." * .

* (P. S. Pallas. Decree. op.)

Let's return to the engraving depicting the house. If the constructive solution of the facade in this image (even with errors of illiterate shading) is beyond doubt and provides a starting point for recognizing the future Alexandrinsky Palace in it, then the ambiguity, surprise, and some curiosity in the depiction of facade details make it extremely difficult to attempt a stylistic attribution of the Demidov house.

What signs link this building to the middle of the 18th century? We see in the engraving the beautiful baroque railings of the garden, balcony, roof; the baroque descents of the naively shown staircase seem to be of the Corinthian order. The magnificent frame of the windows in the risalits on the ground floor seems to be rusticated, and in the center it seems to be picturesque. But the corner rustications of the risalits are archaic for that time, and the mutulus of the cornice are premature. Steep pediments above the windows and a continuous edge on the third floor are not clearly depicted - is this a roller or painting?

Demidov's house, chronologically fitting between the house of N. Yu. Trubetskoy in Neskuchnoye built in the 50s and the house of Apraksin on Pokrovka built in the 60s, does not stay on the axis of this well-articulated baroque architecture, but somehow moves back in the early years first half of the 18th century There is some archaism in it, although the author paid tribute to modernity by introducing a large warrant and baroque lattices (probably Demidov casting) into the architecture of the house.

Three names are associated with the authorship of the Demidov house. The first of them - the fortress builder Sitnikov - is named in Bessonov's book: "The name of Sitnikov is mentioned in 1755 in connection with the construction of the Demidov Palace in Moscow. In the 80s of the 18th century, he participated in the construction of the Moscow Orphanage" *. It can be noted that in the letter of P. A. Demidov, dating back to the time of the construction of the Orphanage, Sitnikov is mentioned, who is called here the architect **. The name of Ivan Fedorovich Sitnikov arises in 1828 in connection with the construction of a cast-iron staircase in the house of the Orlova-Chesmekskaya according to the project of Beauvais ***. The documentary reliability of this name in the affairs of the palace department in 1828 makes it impossible for the same Sitnikov to participate in the construction of the Demidov house in 1755. Perhaps this name should be associated not with the construction of the house, but with its later restructuring?

* (S. V. Bezsonov. Fortress architects. M., 1938, p. 84. Bezsonov says that Sitnikov is a serf of I. A. Demidov. But of the three Demidov brothers, there was no one with the initial I (Prokofy, Grigory and Nikita Akinfievich). This is apparently a typo.)

** (K. Headman. The clan of nobles Demidovs. Yaroslavl, 1881. Applications, p. 26.)

*** (Correspondence of O. I. Bove and I. F. Sitnikov regarding the estimate for the construction of the stairs. Appeal to Bove: "His Excellency I. F. Sitnikov." See: TsGIAL, f. 472, op.58/893, no. 35, ll. 5, 11.)

Fragment from the materials for the "Atlas of Moscow". 1806-1808 Philistine buildings on Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya st. near the Golitsyn hospital. TsVIA, f. VUA, No. 22174

The second name is the architect Iecht. He is credited with the authorship of the Demidov house. This name appears for the first time in the Sobko Dictionary * ; in the guidebook of 1913 ** . it is attributed to the Orlov house, which is chronologically impossible if Iecht died in 1763; the house of Demidov in 1913 is no longer remembered; in the architectural guide published in 1959 *** the architect Iest is mentioned, and in this version this name is enshrined in the latest edition of Moscow ****. Be that as it may, we do not have data in order to be able to get an idea of ​​​​the creative face of this architect. We also cannot rely on any documentary evidence, so the question of his participation in the construction of this house is best left open. And, finally, V. T. Shmakova published another name - V. Yakovlev, the architect who signed the original plan of the house *****.

* ("Iecht Wilhelm, a foreign architect in Russia ... d. 1763 ... built Alexander, a palace in Moscow ...". - "Dictionary of Russian artists, sculptors, painters, architects ...". Compiled by N. N. Sobko, vol. II, no. 1. St. Petersburg, 1893, p. 513.)

** ("Guide to Moscow...", edited by I. Mashkov. M., 1913, p. 18.)

*** ("Moscow. Architectural guide". M., 1959.)

**** ("Moscow. Monuments of architecture of the XVIII-first half of the XIX century." M., 1975. Album, p. 349.)

***** (V. T. Shmakova. The building of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. - "Nature", 1974, No. 1, p. 99. See also: "In the vicinity of Moscow. From the history of Russian estate culture of the 17th-19th centuries", p. 387-388.)

The new façade decor of the palace makes it possible to date the rebuilding from the 80s of the 18th century. It is possible that the house was rebuilt by P. A. Demidov himself after the publication of the book by Pallas in 1781; it should also be remembered that Orlova-Chesmenskaya sold the already rebuilt house to the tsar. Let's make a list of the owners of the house in these extreme dates:

P.A. Demidov 1781-1788

A. A. and E. N. Vyazemsky ..... 1788-1793 F. G. Orlov .............. 1793-1796 A. G. Orlov .............. 796-1808 A. A. Orlova................1808-1832

Now we will introduce into the study the earliest (of the found by us) drawing. This is the plan of the courtyard of Orlova-Chesmenskaya, dating back to 1804 (see illustration) *, with a schematic plan of the house, the main volume of which is outlined as an even rectangle, and the steps of the stairs on the garden facade, the balcony and two symmetrical semicircular colonnades of the current main facade. This means that by 1804 the house had been rebuilt.

* (MGINTA, Serpukhov part, No. 731-733.)

If the old garden facade of the house is depicted in an engraving of 1781, then the opposite facade also turned out to be imprinted on one of the drawings made for compilation in 1806-1808. "Atlas of the capital city of Moscow". This is a "profile" done in watercolor * . It starts from the Kamer-kollezhsky shaft, goes along Bolshaya Kaluga street and beyond. On B. Kaluzhskaya we see a group of buildings with the following explication: "1 - Kaluga outpost, 2 - philistine buildings, 3 - Golitsyn hospital." Among the "philistine buildings" a house is depicted, which, by a number of signs, is recognizable as the house of Orlova-Chesmenskaya (see ill.). It seems to be located too close to the Golitsyn hospital, but when measured to scale from the center of the building to the left wing of the Golitsyn hospital, 150 fathoms are obtained, just like on the plan of the adjacent properties of the Alexandrinsky Palace, the Golokhvastov site and the Golitsyn hospital. In addition, the "profile" shows a long one-story building, which is on the plan of 1804 and is visible in the engraving and, therefore, is an additional landmark.

* (Central Military Historical Archive, f. VUA, No. 22174.)

Since the topographic reference is beyond doubt, that the "profile" depicts the house of Orlova-Chesmenskaya, it can be said with certainty that it has already been rebuilt. The cornice, so magnificent on Demidov's house, is missing here. Instead, three attics torn off from each other complete the risalits. There are no columns or balconies marked on the facade, and the scale of the image is so small that it is impossible to determine the shape of the window openings, except for the semicircular windows at the top of the side risalits. But it is impossible to imagine a large house of the late XVIII - early XIX century. without the classic order. It is clear that the compiler of the "profile" simply omitted the details of the facade due to the meagerness of the scale. And this has a certain effect. Deprived of decor, the facade in its purely constructive scheme is associated with the architecture of the first half of the 18th century. Its triple risalits, located close to each other, are typical for the buildings of that time. Peter's Winter Palace (in Zubov's engraving) and the Anichkov Palace, and in Moscow Gagarin's house on Tverskaya, constructively represent the same compositional scheme. And thus, the façade on the "profile" confirms its "oldness", its kinship with the garden façade on the engraving in Pallas's book.

On the other hand, it is important that semi-circular windows are fixed on the street facade, albeit conditionally and exaggeratedly - a characteristic attribute of the new classicist decor of the building, and their shape corresponds to the motif of semi-circular windows on the garden facade. The semi-circular windows testify to the rebuilding of the house by the time it was depicted on the "profile", i.e. by 1808, and with the corrections of the reviewed plan of MGINTA - by 1804 *.

* (Although it is known that the works of 1792-1795 were used for the Atlas. on the preparation of the general plan of Moscow (P.V. Sytin. History of planning and development of Moscow, vol. II. M., 1954, p. 396), we have no reason to date this particular "profile" and will rely on 1804.)

So, in the period from 1781 to 1804, the house could be rebuilt: Demidov himself, Vyazemsky, F. Orlov and A. Orlov. What arguments can be here "for" and "against"?

In 1781, P. A. Demidov was already over 70 years old and it is hard to imagine that, having lived a quarter of a century in his house, in his old age he would begin to remake it in a new fashion.

It is very tempting to assume that it was A. A. and E. N. Vyazemsky who rebuilt the house. They buy a rich estate with greenhouses, services, with a huge, but already old-fashioned house. 1788-1793 - the heyday of classicism, then it would be to rebuild the house. But, from our point of view, this is done by the next owner - Fedor Orlov.

As you know, the Orlov brothers - Grigory, Alexei, Fedor and Vladimir - having retired in 1775, moved to Moscow. In the book "Biographical Sketch of Count Vladimir Grigorievich Orlov", published by his grandson, there are the following lines about Fyodor Orlov: "He lived for several years now with Vladimir, then with Alexei, who each pulled him to his own side; having a great taste in architecture, he built a palace on the beautiful banks of the Moskva River, exceeding in elegance the mansions of Count Alexei (on the Donskoy field, which later gave way to the City Hospital) and Count Vladimir (on Nikitskaya) "* .

* (V. Orlov-Davydov. Biographical sketch of Count V. G. Orlov, vol. II. SPb., 1878, p. 25.)

Consider two versions arising from this family tradition. If here we mean the house of F. Orlov on the former site of Pokhodyashin, then we are talking about a relatively small, summer (without stoves) * really elegant house (now the so-called Tea House), built in the style of classicism, like the "bathroom" pavilion below at the pond. But the word "palace", of course, is more suitable for the former house of Demidov, and the essential nature of the perestroika that took place is equivalent here to the concept of "built".

* ("In the garden of the Alexandria Summer Palace on the banks of the Moskva River, there is a very solid and beautiful stone building without stoves, which is called the Summer House." - From a report in the affairs of the Moscow Palace Office for 1833, TsGIAL, F. 472, op. 12/846, No. 43, l. 94.)

In addition, in 1878, when V. Orlov-Davydov wrote his essay, they no longer remember Demidov's house, but they know that the Orlovs' house became the royal Alexandrinsky Palace.

Thus, the family memoirs of the Orlovs give us the greatest reason to believe that the house was rebuilt in 1793-1796. Fedor Orlov.

On the plan of possession of Orlova-Chesmenskaya 1804 and on the "profile" of B. Kaluzhskaya st. we see a house with the features that it has retained to this day - semicircular columned balconies, attics, semicircular windows. Apparently, significant work on the facades was not carried out under Orlova. Orlova herself moved to St. Petersburg in 1820 (she was a maid of honor), and in 1832 the tsar bought a house from her with the entire estate.

Nicholas I's interest in Orlova's house arose as early as 1826, when during the days of the coronation the royal family lived in her house in Neskuchny *. To this year belongs the case of the vacation from the "Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty" 12,850 rubles for the construction in the house of Orlova-Chesmenskaya of a hanging cast-iron staircase, cast at the Shepelev factory according to O. I. Bove's bruillon **. Note that this is the first name of the architect extracted from documents in the construction chronicle of the house.

* (TsGIAL, f. 472, op. 12/846, No. 43, l. 14.)

** (TsGIAL, f. 472, op. 58/893, no. 35, ll. 1-16. The author owes the reference to these documents to A. N. Petrov.)

The condition of the building is carefully documented when preparing the house for sale. In 1831, an appraisal commission headed by the architect Mironovsky made a graphic fixation, inventory and estimates for all buildings *. From a comparison of these materials with the plans presented by Orlova-Chesmenskaya ** and with the modern building, it can be seen that the interior of the house in its basic layout has not been changed, retaining the planning structure obtained during the restructuring in the 90s of the 18th century. and largely inherited from the middle of the XVIII century.

* (TsGADA, f. 1239, op. 3, part 60, no. 29712.)

** (State. Research Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchuseva, b. 1, no. 5673.)

High entrance steps made of gray stone lead to the front vaulted vestibule. In the right half of the house from the first to the third floor there are flights of oak stairs on creeping vaults. In the left half, the main cast-iron staircase of 1829 leads to the mezzanine. Two more narrow white stone staircases, located symmetrically along the garden facade, lead to all floors and to the basement.

The front drawing rooms located in the mezzanine suite, lined with artificial marble, with painted shades, were called the blue, raspberry and large yellow drawing rooms according to the color of the furniture sets; towards the southern end were, also with paintings on the ceilings, a small living room and a corner dining room. The doorways of the enfilade are directed along an axis starting from the southern end facade of the building. At the other end, the prospect of the suite is closed by a high white marble fireplace in the blue living room, from which the suite turns, stringing on its axis the front bedroom with a columned alcove and the corner study room. The enfilade opened on both sides of the middle large living room, to which a solemn approach led from the main staircase through the entrance hall and the small columned hall.

A number of living rooms were located on the lower and upper floors: on the third floor there was a library, on the first floor there was a kitchen in the left half, near the utility stairs, and a bathhouse near the front entrance. All rooms on the ground floor are vaulted, including the part along the garden façade, which was added at the end of the 18th century.

Almost all the mezzanine rooms are decorated with picturesque plafonds and stucco moldings. The plafond of the large columned hall, erected in the 90s of the 18th century, is close to the painting of the large double-height living room on the opposite facade. Both plafonds have components of the late classical large grisaille ornament with brightly colored inserts and flower garlands. In the same features, the painting of the plafond in the small living room, in the corner living room and in the bedroom was done. The painting of the main staircase* and the entrance hall are the same in style. The nature of the ornament and the severity of the one-color grisaille give these rooms a certain formal coldness. The painting of all these rooms, although somewhat different in emotional character, can be dated to the first third of the 19th century. It can be assumed that these paintings are simultaneous with the work carried out in the house during its preparation for the coronation in 1826.

* (The painting was made in 1829 after the installation of a cast-iron staircase. See: TsGIAL, F. 472, op. 58/893, no. 35, l. 16.)

A completely different painting of the plafond of the small columned hall was discovered under the latest layer during the restoration of painting in 1959. The ornamental motif of the plafond and the combination of tones - pale green amphoras on a muted pink background - force us to attribute this painting, as well as the painting in the corner room at the beginning of the enfilade on the left side, to the period of early classicism, i.e., in all likelihood, to the time before the reconstruction of the house in the 90s.

A new stage in the construction history of the building, when it became the Alexandria Palace, is associated with the activities of E. D. Tyurin in 1833-1870, when he was the chief architect of the Moscow Palace Office *.

Here is a strict list of works carried out in the palace under the direction and according to the projects of Tyurin, compiled by us according to the documents of the Moscow Palace Office for 1833-1860. * :

* (TsGADA, f. 1239, op. 3, part 21, no. 19327, fol. 5, No. 19326, l. 59; State. Research Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchuseva, b. 1, Nos. 3520, 3524, 3651, 3665. 3699, 5673, 5674, 5676; TsGADA, f. 1239, op. 3, part 16, ll. 321, 426, part 60, no. 29712, fol. 32, no. 29748, l. 51, no. 29790, ll. 4-8, no. 29818.)

1833 Installation of cast-iron lattice balconies at the bottom of the mezzanine semi-circular balconies on the main facade. Arrangement of a room for a church on a mezzanine with a ceiling raised by two and a half arshins, arrangement of a flagpole.

1856 Installation of light openings over the dark rooms of the third floor. Addition of a wooden terrace on the left side of the garden facade near the new corner living room on the ground floor and alteration of the arched column opening of the portal in connection with this, replacing the columns with pillars. The device of a through interfloor hatch for the mechanical lifting of a chair near the corner living room. Replacement of the Ionic capitals of the colonnade of the side semicircular balconies of the main facade with Corinthian ones.

1860 Construction of a kitchen building in the distance behind the right wing and an extension to the end facade of the palace of a connecting wooden gallery.

1833-1836 Construction of a wooden guardhouse on a stone foundation, and in 1836 - a stone one.

1836-1870 Installation of allegorical sculptural groups on the pylons of the entrance gate.

That's all that was done by Tyurin (not counting periodic repairs).

In subsequent years, the palace was run by the architects Gavrilov and Kolbe. During the preparation of the building to accommodate the courtyard at the time of the coronation in 1881-1882. marble, stucco and paintings of a restoration nature were made in the interiors *. Later, the facades of the palace were not altered **.

* (TsGADA, f. 1239, op. 3, part 35, no. 24095, ll. 19-24.)

** (The good condition of the Alexandria Palace was certified by the commission of the architectural restoration subdivision of the museum department of the Glavnauka on December 28, 1918 (Academy of Architecture, Archive of the TsGRM, op. 1, No. 248, fol. 5(132), A-1028, No. 3772(6). Commission noted that, for artistic reasons, it was necessary to remove the later wooden coverings of the balconies, dismantle the wooden terrace on the garden facade and restore the arches with columns, which were replaced by pillars in 1856. In the photograph of the palace, signed on October 30, 1927 (State Historical Museum, department architectural graphics, Gubarev's photo album, A-1028, No. 3772(6), the wooden terrace is no longer there, but the columns in the arched opening have not yet been restored. The stone fence with vases at the top, connecting the outbuildings with the palace, adjoins on the right side directly to the portal, blocking the lower part of the garden facade in the same way as it is depicted in a watercolor of the middle of the 19th century. A photograph from it is in the photo library of the State. Research Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchuseva, K. V., neg. 21970.)

So, in addition to partial and, in any case, not decisive changes, the building has retained to our time the architectural appearance obtained during the restructuring in the 90s of the 18th century, and the planning structure of the middle of the 18th century has been preserved in the interior.

Relatively close to the new building of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, there is also the old building of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The official address of the building located in the Neskuchny Garden is Leninsky Prospekt, Building 14. Pundits occupy the building of the Alexandria Palace (also known as the Neskuchny Palace) in the Neskuchny Garden.

Prokopy Akinfievich Demidov - the eldest son of the largest Ural mining plant A.N. Demidov, the largest owner of mining enterprises. He founded the Moscow Commercial School in 1772, he is known for donations of many thousands to Moscow University and millions of contributions to the construction of the Moscow Orphanage, of which he was a member of the Board of Trustees. He was famous for his eccentricities, and was characterized by his contemporaries as a rude and independent person, so much so that he aroused the indignation of Catherine II, who spoke of him as a "daring talker". He enthusiastically indulged in botany, collected a herbarium, transferred to Moscow University, wrote a study on bees, and was very fond of songbirds.
Demidov over the course of a number of years acquired land in the name of his wife from several Moscow owners. To these possessions in 1754, a yard with a house by F.I. Soymonov, a famous navigator and cartographer. This rounded out the site, and the estate occupied the entire space lying between "the moat and the road that travel from the Church of the Rees-Position to the Moscow River." The “pleased nobleman P.A. Demidov and his wife Matryona Antipova” dated April 10, 1756 that they want to build “stone chambers”. There is also a resolution: "it is allowed to be built according to the attached plan of the architect Yakovlev."

The Demidov Neskuchny Palace, located on the banks of the Moskva River, is an architectural monument of the mid-18th century and perfectly represents the classical style. The palace had an enviable fate. During the life of the owner, he was filled with thousands of cages with birds. All Moscow nobility went to admire such miracles. There were painters, writers, statesmen, scientists... After the death of the owner, at one time the palace belonged to the Counts Orlovs. Later, the building, along with the land, was bought by Nicholas I and settled in it by his wife Alexandra Feodorovna (sometimes the palace was also called Alexandria). After the revolution, the unique historical monument was turned into a museum. People came here to get acquainted with the richest collections of exquisite furniture. They say that Ilf and Petrov wrote their famous novel about the ill-fated chairs not without a hint heard within these walls.
The fence lattice was made in the 50s of the 18th century at the Nizhny Tagil Demidov plant according to the project of F.S. Argunov. Cast iron doors are not assembled from separate parts, but cast as a single piece.
During the tenure of Prokopiy Demidov, the estate of the Neskuchny Palace was famous for its famous botanical garden. Demidov, being fond of collecting exotic plants, back in the 1740s. asked brother Gregory for cuttings and seeds from his Solikamsk garden. After Grigory's death, Procopius brought the most interesting plants from the Ural collection to Moscow. The garden itself attracted the attention of visitors, access to it was open, and it was always filled with visitors. The eccentric inventions of the owner also contributed to the popularity of the garden. For example, once, instead of plaster copies of Roman statues, he placed men smeared with chalk on the flower beds, who called out to everyone who dared to pick a flower. The rumor about the living statues stirred up Moscow, people poured into the garden. It was then that the name of the current place arose - Neskuchny Garden.

"Garden Ring road. Arena. Arbat.
So much noise and so much prose.
I like Neskuchny Garden better,
His aspens and his birches "(Sergey Bozin)

Neskuchny Garden is a landscape park in Moscow, preserved from the noble estate Neskuchnoye. Located on the right bank of the Moskva River, considered as part of Gorky Park.

This is the largest park in the historical center of Moscow. Together with the nature reserve "Vorobyovy Gory" and the parterre part of the TsPKiO im. Gorky forms a single natural complex along the right bank of the central part of the Moscow River.

Not far from the entrance from Leninsky Prospekt, the sculpture "Autumn" from Vuchetich's workshop was recently installed. The hand languidly thrown behind the head reminded me personally of the pose of a monkey, which scratches its right ear with its left hand.

There is nothing special to see in the park, just go over the main attractions. Before us is the "Hunting Lodge" - a rotunda of the middle of the 18th century, where since 1990 the television game "What? Where? When?"

Somewhere in the thicket we found these caryatids. Caryatids are Atlantean women who, for lack of hands, hold some kind of heavy horseradish on their heads.

Rotunda in honor of the 800th anniversary of Moscow. The opening of the monument took place in 1951. The rotunda is presented in the form of a small white-stone pavilion, which is decorated with bas-reliefs inside, depicting important historical events related to the city and the country.

One of the bas-reliefs depicts the Moscow armed uprising and the organization of the first fighting squads of the proletariat in Moscow, and another one depicts the capture of the Kremlin by the Red Guards and the establishment of Soviet power in Moscow.

It was here that the Eglador group of Tolkienists gathered in the old days, and the entire arbor was painted with their elven inscriptions, such as: “Arwen Undomiel”, “Kirdyk to Sauron”, “Spartak the Champion”, “Vovik Was Here”, “Asshole” .

If you write your name and the name of your loved one on paper, fold it several times and bury it in the ground near the rotunda-arbor and fountain, then your loved one will certainly pay attention to you. And if here at dawn three times loudly shout to the East: “Do not fly, Nazgul!”, then they really will not arrive.

Andreevsky and Elizabethan ponds were cleaned for the last time when Isildur cut off the finger of the General Enemy with a fragment of Narsil and took possession of the Ring of Omnipotence. Or maybe even earlier.

Below we see the Summer (Tea) House of Count Orlov. In 1796, Count Aleksey Grigoryevich Orlov set up an "English garden" and built a small pavilion on the edge of a high hill above the river, which later received the name Summer.

With one façade, it closed the upper part of the park, and from the balcony of the other one opened a view of the panorama of the south of Moscow - from the Kremlin to the Sparrow Hills. Directly in front of the house, the park descended steeply down the slope, and a pond was dug below, another “Bathroom” pavilion and a romantic “mysterious” grotto were arranged.

During the stay of the royal family in Moscow, the neighboring Alexandrinsky Palace became its residence, and the Summer House until 1917 was used for outdoor tea drinking by members of the imperial family.

I did not remove the bathroom pavilion and the grotto, the first one was boarded up and packed in green cloth, and the second one was filthy to the point of impossibility. But the Tea House looks neat, and inside we even found a piano.

The pianos in the park are generally all right. A few years ago, a piano cemetery was arranged near the house.
- Lyusk, and Lyusk, I bought you a piano! Where will we put it?
- So right away in the Neskuchny Garden, so all the lads do.

The Neskuchny Garden was formed in the first half of the reign of Nicholas I from noble estates that previously belonged to the Trubetskoy (in the south), the Golitsyns (in the center) and the Orlovs (in the north). From the point of view of landscape gardening art, the most significant is the northern part, which belonged to Count Orlov-Chesmensky and his daughter Anna at the beginning of the 19th century.

Since 1831, the Neskuchny Garden became the property of Nicholas I. More precisely, at first only a part. The palace department acquired the Neskuchnoye estate directly from the Shakhovskys in November 1826.

But the tsar was able to buy the property of the Golitsyns only in 1842 - the harmful N.P. Golitsyna ("Queen of Spades") categorically refused to sell the site, and even inserted into her will that it could be sold only 5 years after her death. And only then all three parts were combined and the current Neskuchny turned out.

Under the Summer House between the Elizabethan Pond and the embankment, we see the statue of the "Diver" by Ivan Shadr, primarily famous for his sculpture "Girl with an oar".

Two sculptures of "Pioneers", which are popularly called "Fisherwomen", were attached at the feet of the "Diver".

A fisherman in a red tie, and, judging by his adult face, a repeated repeater, looks at the fish with undisguised disgust.

There are several "Grotesque" bridges in Neskuchny. Three bridges go down from the "Manezh", which houses the Mineralogical Museum named after A. Fersman and cross the ravine one after another.

They say that lovers who cross the bridge holding hands will never part, and those of them who, while standing on it and kissing, will live together in constant peace and harmony. And if the ancient worn-out bridge under them collapses, then they will die in one day.

The squirrels here are so tame and love to pose for the photographer so much that it is very difficult to choose the most interesting one out of five hundred photos.

The building of the Russian Academy of Sciences rises to a great height above Neskuchny.

The Academy is divided into two equal parts like a trace from a giant saw.

At its foot is a tiny St. Andrew's Monastery.

This is the most inconvenient monastery for photographing of all that I know. He is nowhere to be seen.

Near the monastery, all sorts of elite houses were set up, into which the people needed by the country moved in.

It is worth noting the virtuoso witty work of local gardeners - the entire area around these houses is overgrown with Giant Hogweed - one of the most poisonous plants in the middle zone.

We are separated from the Metrobridge only by Andreevsky Ponds, which are surprisingly clean. Secluded benches have now been set up around where you can kiss, smoke, drink drinks straight from your throat and even swear.

Well, we will go down to real water, to the Moscow River.

Once upon a time, after school, we went here to swim and dive right from this place.

There was such a show off: to swim out into the fairway and, to the squeal of frightened girls, dodge a huge barge at the last moment. On the left we see the building of Moscow State University.

Well, on the right, very far away, we see the tall "Peter" Tsereteli and even further - the bell tower of Ivan the Great in the Kremlin.

This name was on my hearing all the time and I suspect that I often wandered into its territory, but I could not accurately identify its location. That's finally decided to figure out the departure of the place in preparation for the summer season. . As a result of the research, it was found that, in the modern sense, the Neskuchny Garden is located between the Moskva River and Leninsky Prospekt. From TsPKO them. Gorky is separated by Titovsky passage and Pushkinsky bridge (relocated Andreevsky), and from the Sparrow Hills - the Third Transport Ring. The main entrance is located between houses 18 and 20 on Leninsky Prospekt. For the history of this place, read on.

In 1728, Prince N. Yu. Trubetskoy bought from the archimandrite of the Zaikonospassky Monastery “a yard mansion building with trees planted on the banks of the Moscow River.” The site was located near the Andreevsky Monastery near the courtyard of Prince Boris Vasilyevich Golitsyn - the southeast of the modern Neskuchny Garden, not far from Gagarin Square. In the early 1750s, a Neskuchny country house (two-story, with 4 outbuildings) was erected here in the Baroque style, according to the project of the architect D.V. Ukhtomsky. Of the vast regular park with a "bird house", orderlies' houses and guardhouses, only the Hunting Lodge survived - a covered brick gazebo, known to the general public as a traditional venue for the game "What? Where? When?". A "maze" and greenhouses were arranged behind the house, and a menagerie in a deep ravine.

After the death of Nikita Yurievich, the estate was put up for sale. A buyer was not found, and in 1776 his son, Prince P.N. Trubetskoy, arranged a place for mass celebrations in the garden - the entrance cost 1 ruble per person and included food and drinks. The Trubetskoys constantly rebuilt the estate: a "Versailles garden" was laid out with covered wooden galleries; between the menagerie and the main house there is a poultry house, next to it is a stone grotto; a straight alley behind the house ended with stone and wooden galleries. At the beginning of the 19th century, the estate passed into the hands of the court adviser V. N. Zubov, who continued to use the garden for entertainment events, including hot air ballooning with a huge crowd of people. Since 1823, Neskuchny was owned by Prince L. A. Shakhovskoy, who discovered supposedly healing waters in the estate and built the first institution of artificial mineral waters in Moscow. However, the enterprise collapsed and in 1826 he sold Neskuchnoye to his neighbor, the Moscow mayor D.V. Golitsyn, and he sold it to Nicholas I. He sold his own 11 acres of land to the Ministry of the Imperial Court only in 1843. The inventory indicates that 2,500 lindens, birches and maples grow in the park, as well as dilapidated buildings (stone and wooden). A public hospital adjoined the Golitsyn site, built with money bequeathed by Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn (1721–1793) “for the construction of an institution in the capital city of Moscow that is pleasing to God and useful to people.” Now there is one of the buildings of the First City Clinical Hospital, which was built according to the project of the architect Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov.

The part of the Neskuchny Garden, which is closest to the center of Moscow, was bought in 1754 from different owners by the industrialist Prokofy Demidov, who concentrated in his hands all the lands "between the moat and the road that travel from the Church of the Reese Position to the Moscow River." The Demidov Palace was built in the Baroque style according to the design of the architect Yakovlev. At the palace, Demidov set up a whole botanical garden in the form of an amphitheater with two greenhouses (winter and summer), as well as "herbalists". Contemporaries argued that his garden "not only has no equal in all of Russia, but can be compared with many in other states both in rarity and in the multitude of plants contained in it." After the death of the owner, E. N. Vyazemskaya, the wife of the Prosecutor General, who spent her childhood in these places, on the estate of her father N. Yu., acquired the empty Demidov estate. Trubetskoy. In 1793, Count Fyodor Orlov, one of the famous Orlov brothers, bought the former Demidov estate from Vyazemskaya. Earlier, the neighboring land plot, which was occupied by the factory of the merchant Serikov, had already passed into his ownership. Fyodor Grigoryevich wanted to build "mansions" outside the city that would surpass in elegance the estate on the Donskoy field of his brother Alexei Chesmensky. Before his death in 1796, Orlov managed to rebuild the Demidov house in accordance with the requirements of classicism. At the same time, an elegant eight-column portico appeared at the palace. Having no legitimate offspring, F. G. Orlov bequeathed the estate to his 11-year-old niece Anna Chesmenskaya. All management of Neskuchny on behalf of her daughter was carried out by her famous father. In the former Demidov Palace, the old count gave feasts for the amusement of his only daughter, after which fireworks were fired. . In 1804-06. in the estate of Orlov, a two-story Tea House with 4 Corinthian columns was erected.

The count's garden in Neskuchny was located on a semi-mountain, divided into many paths, hills, valleys and cliffs and dotted with ordinary buildings in the form of temples, baths, arbors; all the monuments and buildings in this garden resembled the deeds and victories of the count. Other park pavilions have also been preserved - a grotto made of boulders and a bathroom house with a dome.

On the occasion of the coronation of Nicholas I in 1826, Countess Orlova gave a huge ball, which was attended by 1200 guests. Some candles in the palace burned up to seven thousand, silver and bronze were rented for 40 thousand rubles. Perhaps it was during this ball that the empress expressed her desire to acquire Neskuchnoe. In 1832, Orlova sold the estate to the treasury for one and a half million rubles.

Thus, by the middle of the 19th century, all the lands described above were concentrated in the Ministry of the Imperial Court. After that, the architect E. D. Tyurin was instructed to bring the territory in line with the tastes and needs of the new owners. The Demidov Palace was renamed Alexandrinsky and renovated in the late Empire style. From Kaluzhskaya street to the palace there is a main entrance. The entrance to the park is decorated with pylons with allegorical sculptures representing abundance. The regular terraced layout was replaced by a landscape one, bridges were thrown over the ravines, the arena was rebuilt, where they arranged a ballroom (now there is the Mineralogical Museum named after A.E. Fersman).

The main palace and the front yard were renovated, which overlooks two buildings - the maid of honor and the cavalier; Doric columns of the Empire Guardhouse overlook the same courtyard. A cast-iron fountain was moved to the center of the courtyard from Lubyanka Square. The sculptural decoration of the park, as is commonly believed, was supervised by Ivan Vitali. In Soviet times, the former palace was given over to the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences.

In general, a worthy place to spend your free time in the summer.