Through the efforts of Benoit: a splendid church, a Gothic poultry house and a palace in a mixture of styles
In a previous publication in our author's column "Expedition to the Past" I promised to return to my unforgettable journey to the Novoduginsky district and tell about what I happened to see in the village of Vysokoe. I have been planning to visit for a long time here - in the famous Sheremetev estate. This is a legendary place.
House of the old countess
And I'll start with the mysterious House of the Old Countess. That is, I will describe what I saw along the way, bending around the High with an impressive arc.
But, if you still dwell a little on the history of this place, then for the sake of brevity I will use a small reference by Kirill Solok (now the general director of Smolensk Military-Patriotic Cluster LLC), published on his blog back in 2013:
“We had such a tsar who became the first emperor, his name was Peter I. In 1706 he granted the title of count to Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, and he became the first count in Russia (no one had received such a title before him). The grandson of Boris Petrovich, Dmitry Nikolaevich Sheremetev, at the age of 54, married Alexandra Grigorievna Melnikova, who after that also became Sheremeteva. In the village of Vysokoe, Smolensk province, on the banks of the Vazuza River, her family estate was located. In 1867, by order of Sheremeteva, the famous architect Nikolai Leontyevich Benois began work on the arrangement of Vysokoye. The estate was re-planned, a manor house, a church "In the name of the Most Holy Theotokos of Tikhvin", a stud farm and a number of auxiliary buildings were built, as well as a garden with a pond. And everything would be fine, but in 1917 there was a revolution,The Sheremetevs emigrated from the country, and the estate was nationalized."
So, today 19 objects have survived from the estate complex. And that's a lot. All the more so what! Benoit did his best here.
Promotional video:
But back to the Countess's house. From the very entrance to the estate, visiting along the way a lot of all kinds of outbuildings of that time, I came across an eerie wooden house. It was built for Alexandra Grigorievna's mother even before the reconstruction of the estate by Nikolai Benois, which is why it stands out from the general concept of the estate and is called the House of the Old Countess.
The countess who lived there avoided people. Locals say that there are ghosts in the house …
The building with lions and what remains of the palace
Further, a house with lions opens in front of us. Today it houses a college. Previously there was a school and a library. Lions with the coats of arms of Count Sheremetev at the entrance to the building are very heavy and majestic. In the old days, they guarded the entrance to the estate, clutching shields with the image of a crown, wreath, doe, ship and weapons in their paws. These lions are mentioned in passing by Bulgakov in two works at once. In "Fatal Eggs" we read: "The motorcycle, slowing down, went to the gate with green lions." In "Blizzard" it was the gate that caused the girl's death. The doctor is told: “Yesterday there was an engagement, and after the engagement, the clerk wanted to ride it in a sleigh. The trotter harnessed, sat her down, and into the gate. And the trotter took it from its place, it shook the bride, and his forehead on the jamb. So she took off."
And what a wonderful example in the story of a cabman-fireman …
Yes, the count had one very unusual hobby. He liked firefighting. A well-trained fire brigade equipped with the latest technology was formed in Vysokoe. Even a fire engine was purchased; at that time, even the provincial Smolensk could not boast of such a level of equipment for the fire department. The count personally took part in the exercises of the squad and even in extinguishing real, not training fires.
The Count became the founder of the Russian Fire Society, until his departure for France in 1917 he headed it and published at his own expense the monthly magazine "Fireman".
Under such circumstances, the death of his palace from a fire that happened due to a child's prank in the late 80s of the twentieth century looks like a cruel mockery.
And here is the palace itself. Unfortunately, now it is a ruin overgrown with bushes and trees. In very poor condition. All buildings of the estate are made of bricks produced by the Sheremetevs' own factory. Embossed bricks, no, no, and they come across underfoot. But what can I say, even in the ruins, a truly royal scale cannot be hidden.
One gets the impression that the palace was built in all possible architectural styles at once … Let me remind you that the author of this architectural monument (as well as almost all the buildings of the estate) was the very master who created Peterhof. That is, the destroyed and plundered estate in the Smolensk outback and the famous palaces of Peterhof are the work of one world-famous master.
It's sad that they didn't save …
Gorgeous church in the pseudo-Russian style
Here, not far from the palace, there is one of the most gorgeous ruined churches that I have seen in the Smolensk region (a little more - and I can say that I saw them all).
She is the legend of Vysoky, the Sheremetev estate in the Novoduginsky district. Fortunately, today it is slowly but surely being restored. The Church of the Tikhvin Mother of God in the pseudo-Russian style is, of course, the dominant feature of the estate.
The temple was made on the model of the church in the Ostankino estate, but more majestically and on a larger scale. Built in 1868-1871.
The windows of the temple had painted glass based on Russian frescoes. Made according to Benois's drawings, at the factory of the Russian painter Sverchkov in Munich, the tower clock on the bell tower played a prayer specially chosen by Count D. H. Sheremetev, and the melody of the prayer was transferred to the notes for the bells by the composer Balakirev.
There was an icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God, especially revered in the Sheremetev family. This icon, Field Marshal B. P. Sheremetev took with him during military campaigns.
In March 1917, Sheremetev went abroad, taking with him a family relic - the icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God.
Monster pond
And here is the same pond from which the terrible monsters and reptiles crawled out in Mikhail Bulgakov's story "Fatal Eggs". The future writer, working in the 1916-17th years as a doctor in the village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district, indeed, more than once came to Vysokoe, as well as to many other villages and villages in the district, on duty.
We read in “Fatal Eggs”: “The moon shone and brought such beauty to the former estate of the Sheremetevs that it is impossible to express it. The state farm palace, like a milk, sugar, shone, the shadows in the park trembled, and the ponds became two-colored in half - a jamb of a moon pillar, and half of it was bottomless darkness.
A greenhouse was also built on the estate; it has not survived to this day, but remained in the Fatal Eggs. Remember, it was there that Rokk installed cameras giving an amazing red beam: "All day Alexander Semyonovich fussed with his assistants, installing cameras in the former winter garden - the Sheremetev's greenhouse …". It was there that instead of chickens, giant anacondas and crocodiles were born.
Ponds were created in different parts of the estate. In the story, one of them became the place of death of the wife of Alexander Semyonovich Rocca: “He briskly ran out of the palace … and went along the willow alley to the pond … The grayish and olive log began to rise … growing before our eyes … It began to stretch, bending and stirring, and stretched out like this high, which overtook the low, gnarled willow … The snake in front of Rocca, opening its mouth for a moment … grabbed Manyu with its teeth ….
It is not known exactly whether there was a willow alley, but on the bank of a pond located not far from the palace, a very old gnarled willow grows …
Horse yard in the shape of a square and a colorful aviary
The decoration of the Sheremetevs' estate in Vysokoe is an impressive horse yard in the form of a closed square, the entire perimeter of which was occupied by one-story stables with high gable roofs.
In terms of decoration, the horse yard resembles the old Russian chambers. It is decorated with various elements such as curly columns and patterned cornices. All decor on the main facade of the southern building imitates the decoration of the facades of the Grand Kremlin Palace and the 17th century Kremlin towers in Moscow. Today the local recreation center is located there, if I'm not mistaken.
Almost the most colorful, for my taste, building out of 19 surviving in Vysoky in the Sheremetev estate seemed to me a unique poultry house. Benoit, to whom the Sheremetevs gave complete freedom in the embodiment of their architectural fantasies, broke away and on it. What styles and their mixtures were not used in the buildings of the estate!.. And this seems to be Gothic.
Wow: a building with a utilitarian purpose, and in the form of a Gothic castle! The tower even has mashiculi in its upper tier. Behind the poultry house there is a miraculously preserved wooden house of the poultry. Well, that's what they say. Now it looks like residential.
Julia Dyakova