About the "green dacha" on the Sverdlovsk embankment. Dacha Bezborodko (beginning) - Elizabethan Community of Sisters of Mercy - Interdistrict Tuberculosis Dispensary

The area and the building of the estate have a rich and interesting history.

History of the cottage

The surname Kushelev-Bezborodko will say something to a rare person in Russia. But the building of the count's dacha, which is currently within the city of St. Petersburg and bears this surname, is known to many.

It is known with certainty that this area was inhabited before the construction of the city. On the map of the 17th century, you can see the estate of the Swedish commandant. According to legend, a system of underground passages passed from it to the Neva River. Nearby was the Swedish city of Nyen.

After this territory was returned to Russia, and was built with the surrounding territories, it was donated by Peter I to his wife Catherine. In those days, not far from the estate there were Cossack gardens, it was on them that natural springs with mineral water were discovered, which, according to Emperor Peter I, who was treated with it, was in no way inferior to Belgian. Springs brought fame to this place.

The first owner of the estate

After some time, the office in charge of the territories offered those who wished to buy the estate along with the Cossack gardens. The real Privy Councilor G. N. Teplov, who was ill and was forced to travel abroad for treatment, expressed his desire. The acquisition of the plot gave him the opportunity to be treated close to home. It is on it that in our time there is a building known as the Kushelev-Bezborodko Palace in St. Petersburg.

G. N. Teplov settled the nearby village with his peasants, named it and the estate Polyustrovo. This name was not given by chance, since the area in the area was marshy, and the word "marshy" in Latin sounded like palustris.

The Privy Councilor began to arrange the estate. To do this, he invited the famous architect V. Bazhenov. Under his leadership, it was rebuilt in the Gothic style. According to legend, the architect restored the underground communications that led to the Neva. In addition, the ensemble of the house included greenhouses where flowering plants, fruit trees, tobacco and vegetables were grown.

Polustrovo and his new owner

In 1782, G. N. Teplov died, and his son sold Polustrovo to the Russian Chancellor A. A. Bezborodko. A year later, he invited the famous architect D. Quarenghi to reconstruct the estate, which, in a rebuilt form, has survived to this day and is known as the Kushelev-Bezborodko mansion. But this statement is controversial today, since there is evidence that allows us to say that the famous architect Lvov led the restructuring of the estate. One thing is certain, that the famous fence with lions was made by a Russian architect.

It is known that Quarenghi did not destroy the existing building of the estate, but only reconstructed it, giving it a completely different look. The architect took part in the construction of many country mansions, but some of them, including this one, have survived to our time.

A. A. Bezborodko was childless, and after he died, the estate was inherited by his niece, the daughter of his brother - Princess K. I. Lobanova-Rostovskaya, who raised her nephew A. G. Kushelev, who later began to bear the double surname Kuleshev-Bezborodko, combining the names of the father and mother.

What did the reconstructed palace look like?

After the reconstruction, not a trace remained of the former Gothic look. The mansion became light and elegant. In the center of the building was the main building, from which semicircular and open galleries radiated outward. During the construction of the estate building, Quarenghi used the method used in Italy for the construction of country villas with open galleries in which hay was dried.

In the humid climate of the northern capital, they could not be used for this purpose. Therefore, later they were reconstructed and became closed. Around the palace, according to the project of Quarenghi, a garden was laid in a fashionable English style, garden structures were built.

The decoration was an artificial ruin, in the creation of which authentic antique fragments were used. This building has not been preserved, but the main building of the estate ensemble, which Alexander Grigoryevich Kushelev-Bezborodko became the owner of after the death of his grandmother and father, has survived to this day.

With its facade, the building overlooked the Neva. It was decorated with a portico with columns and a triangular pediment. The territory from the side of the Neva was framed by an unusual fence, which consisted of twenty-nine figures of stone lions holding chains in their teeth.

Count A. G. Kushelev-Bezborodko

He received an excellent education. After passing the exam at Moscow University, he received the title of Doctor of Ethical and Political Sciences, entered the service as a collegiate adviser. His father arranged for him to travel abroad, where his duty was to be with the Russian Chancellor at a congress in Vienna. His service did not work out, and he remained to travel around Europe.

A year later he returned to Russia. Here he was interested in one thing. His maternal grandfather's brother, Russian Chancellor A. A. Bezborodko bequeathed huge sums of money for the establishment of the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nizhyn. This issue was dealt with by I. A. Bezborodko, the grandfather of the count, who died without solving the matter to the end. Alexander G. Kushelev-Bezborodko decided to finish it. In 1820 the gymnasium was established. Now it is Nezhin University.

Last owner - Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko

Grigory Alexandrovich was the heir to the huge fortunes of his ancestors Kushelev and Bezborodko. He was educated and capable. But despite the fact that he was brought up by his father in severity and severity, from his youthful years he began to lead a wild life in the circle of rich young offspring of famous families. This also affected his health, by the age of 25 he was hopelessly ill.

The story of Count Kushelev-Bezborodko, the last owner of the estate in Polustrovo, was sad. Having a talent for literature and being known as a well-known philanthropist and philanthropist, he was weak and malleable by nature. Count Kushelev-Bezborodko traveled extensively in Europe, which he later wrote about in his travel notes. He was drawn to the society of writers and journalists, most of whom were, to put it mildly, failed personalities.

In recent years, his path to the high society, to which he belonged by birthright, was closed. The Kushelevs' dacha in Polustrovo, according to the memoirs of the Russian writer D. V. Grigorovich, was a strange sight - not the building itself, but what was going on inside it.

Countless little-known people, distant relatives and other Russian and foreign rabble, consisting of insignificant journalists, players, various kinds of swindlers, often with wives, children, replacing each other, lived here, ate, drank, used the count's carriages. The house looked like a caravanserai. Everyone did whatever he wanted, taking advantage of the weakness and sickness of the owner. This continued until his last days.

Patron, philanthropist and writer

G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko remained in the memory of history as a philanthropist, philanthropist, publisher, writer. With his participation, the poems of A. N. Maikov were published, he published the first collected works of the great Russian playwright A. N. Ostrovsky and others. After his London acquaintance with A. I. Herzen, he made a significant financial contribution to the fund created to help young emigrants and called the "General Fund".

Grigory Alexandrovich wrote stories, essays and travel notes, later published in a two-volume collected works. He published under the pseudonym Gritsko Grigorenko in various magazines.

Even during the life of his father, in 1850, G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko lived at his dacha in Polustrovo all summer. A. K. Tolstoy, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Pisemsky visited him. Literary evenings were held. At his invitation, in 1858, A. Dumas, with whom he became friends in Paris, stayed at the dacha.

The last offspring of the richest family, Count Kushelev-Bezborodko Grigory Alexandrovich, died at the age of 38. It happened in 1870.

Resort Polustrovo

At the beginning of the 19th century, the marshy places of the Kushelev-Bezborodko estate were drained, new wells of mineral water were drilled at the site of the springs, and a small resort with a hydropathic facility was organized. Part of the estate park was given under its territory. It lasted for about fifty years.

In 1868, two years before the death of the last count, a large fire in the resort completely destroyed it and part of the park. They did not restore it. The company of a mining engineer became the user of the springs, which organized the extraction, bottling, carbonation and sale of mineral water under the name "Water of Polyustrovskie springs".

The further fate of the estate

The territory of Polyustrovo gradually turned into a working outskirts of St. Petersburg. The dacha, owned by Kushelev-Bezborodko, was given to the Elizabethan community of sisters of mercy, which was founded by the sister of the Empress, Princess Elizabeth Feodorovna. New hospital buildings and the church of the healer Panteleimon were built here.

After the revolution, a children's infectious diseases hospital was located in the church, and an anti-tuberculosis dispensary is located in the dacha building. Currently, the construction of a new dispensary building is being completed. The building of the Kushelev-Bezborodko estate was transferred to investors for restoration and use as a cultural and business center.

The site on which the estate of Kushelev-Bezborodko is located was inhabited even before the founding of St. Petersburg. Nearby, in the 17th century, the Swedish city of Nyen grew. Here, a map from 1698 shows a Swedish manor with a garden of the commandant of the Nyenschanz fortress. Perhaps a system of underground passages was created here, which the commandant could use in the event of an unexpected appearance of Russian troops. Shortly after the founding of St. Petersburg, Peter I presented the deserted Swedish estate to his wife Catherine.

This territory gained particular fame thanks to the mineral water sources discovered in the nearby Cossack gardens in 1718. In the winter of 1719, Peter I was treated with them and recognized the water as no worse than the Belgian. Thanks to the Latin word "paluster", that is, "swampy", local mineral waters began to be called Polyustrovskiye.

In the 1760s, the Office of the Buildings offered to purchase a plot with a Cossack garden for those who wished. The real Privy Councilor Grigory Nikolaevich Teplov, who knew about the healing properties of local sources, drew attention to him. At this time, Teplov was ill and had to go abroad for treatment. For the sake of economy, he decided to use Polyustrovskaya water.

The plot was granted to Teplov in October 1770. On the site of the Cossack garden, the Polustrovo manor appeared. In 1773-1777 architect Vasily Bazhenov a manor house in the Gothic style was built here. It is assumed that Bazhenov renewed the underground communications that existed here. At the stone house there were greenhouses where fruits, vegetables, flowers, tobacco were grown.

Whether Teplov managed to recover with Polyustrov's water is not known for certain. 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.

After Teplov's death, his son sold the manor in 1782 for 22,500 rubles. Chancellor Alexander Andreyevich Bezborodko became the new owner of Polyustrovo. For him in 1783-1784 according to the project 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 buildings already there. Thus, the building contains not only the remains of a Bazhenov building, but also traces of a Swedish estate. Bezborodko's dacha is one of the few such country works of the famous architect.

Originally open galleries depart from the central body of the building to the sides. When creating them, Quarenghi used the often used method of building Italian villas, in the open galleries of which hay was dried. In the cold climate of St. Petersburg, it was impossible to maintain such a function. During subsequent reconstructions, the galleries were turned into enclosed spaces. Quarenghi also laid out a garden in the English style, built some garden structures, among which was a ruin assembled from authentic antique fragments. The garden was decorated with marble sculptures, man-made canals, pavilions.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the estate was decorated with the famous fence consisting of 29 lions. Its creator could be Nikolai Alexandrovich Lvov.

After the death of the childless 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 the now known name - Kushelev-Bezborodko's dacha.

It was during the reign of Alexander Grigorievich that the Polustrovo estate became famous as a medical resort. In the years 1840-1850 there was a popular Kursaal of Polyustrovskiy mineral waters.

The next owner of Polyustrovo in 1855-1870 was the writer and philanthropist Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko. In the summer of 1858, Alexandre Dumas Sr. stayed with him for some time. The writer arrived in Russia at the personal invitation of Kushelev-Bezborodko. The author of The Three Musketeers wrote:

We stopped in front of a large villa, two wings of which departed 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 they climbed the stairs to the second floor of the church. As soon as the count and countess crossed the threshold, the mass in honor of the "safe return" began, which the venerable priest had the sense not to drag out. At the end, everyone embraced, regardless of rank, and by order of the count, we were each shown to our quarters. My apartment was arranged 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 and myself. After breakfast I went to the balcony. A wonderful view opened before me - from the embankment down to the river there are large granite stairs, over which six feet and fifty are erected. At the top of the pole flutters a banner with the count's coat of arms. This is the pier of the count, where the Great Catherine stepped when she showed mercy to Bezborodko and took part in the holiday arranged in her honor.

The guests of G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko were also I. A. Goncharov (in 1856), A. Maikov, A. F. Pisemsky.

To Polustrovo from public library there was an omnibus, and from the end of the 1840s a steamship service was established here.

In 1868, the resort burned down, but even after that, they continued to pour mineral water here. The resort has ceased operations.

In the second half of the 19th century, the huge park surrounding the Kushelev-Bezborodko dacha was gradually reduced due to the construction of various industrial enterprises on its territory. The suburban area turned into a factory outskirts of St. Petersburg. The New Bavaria brewery, now known as the CJSC Sparkling Wines, which produces Soviet champagne, began to work here.

The user of mineral springs in 1886-1898 was the "soil research bureau" of mining engineer S. G. Vislavo. For the first time, he organized the spill of water before its carbonation, and he sold water not only in St. Petersburg, but also in the suburbs. In 1887, a well was drilled here, giving up to 20,000 buckets of water per day. The old sources were gradually forgotten.

In 1896, the Kushelev-Bezborodko dacha was occupied by the Elizabethan community of sisters of mercy of the Red Cross, founded by the sister of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. The community conducted an outpatient reception of local workers and artisans. For her needs, architects were engaged in the reconstruction of the estate Pavel Syuzor, Nikolai Nabokov, Alexander Kashchenko. They built typical hospital buildings here, which became the prototype of future Soviet housing estates. In 1899-1901, according to the project of Kashchenko, a church was built in the name of the healer Panteleimon. Its main attraction was the first marble iconostasis in Russia created by Mikhail Popov.

The owner of the mineral springs since 1898 was Prince S. S. Abamelek-Lazarev. They belonged to him until 1917. Under the new owner, the mineral water was produced under the brand name "Natural Mineral Water of Polyustrovskiye Springs".

In 1918, the Polyustrovskaya springs came under the jurisdiction of the economic department of the Vyborg District Council. But one region did not have enough strength to manage production. Only in 1924-1925, when a large-scale improvement of the city outskirts was launched, new wells were drilled here.

After the closure of the Panteleimon Church in 1932, its dacha Kushelev-Bezborodko was transferred to the Promet plant, and in 1940 to the hospital. Karl Liebknecht. The premises of the Panteleimon Church now house a children's infectious diseases hospital. In 1960-1962 the building was restored. During the construction of a modern Sverdlovskaya embankment the underground passage to the bank of the Neva was destroyed, the entrance from the estate was walled up. Currently, the dacha of Kushelev-Bezborodko is occupied by an anti-tuberculosis dispensary.

The dacha, built in 1773 according to the design of the architect Vasily Bazhenov, re-equipped a decade later by the famous Giacomo Quarenghi and bearing the name "Dacha with Lions", in fact, the monument is much earlier. This place was mastered in the pre-Petrine time. It outlived many of its owners and at 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. It was taken by Peter I during the Northern War, and then presented 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, white marble sculptures. 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 not by chance: in this area, known as "Polyustrovo" (from Latin - swampy), healing iron springs were found under Peter. The count moved some of the peasants to the estate in order to develop a new settlement. Even then, the house was the main facade overlooking the Neva, with a portico and a triangular pediment. It was connected to the main building by outbuildings with colonnades. Later they were rebuilt into closed galleries.

Dacha Kushelev-Bezborodko. Name history

After the death of Alexander Bezborodko, his niece, Princess Cleopatra Ilyinichna Lobanova-Rostovskaya, became the mistress of the house. Her son, Alexander Grigoryevich Kushelev, gave a new name to the entire building: it was he who, in 1816, was allowed to bear the name Kushelev-Bezborodko by special decree. Contemporaries remembered him as a lover of a wild lifestyle, he dabbled in alcohol and adored feasts. The dacha at that time was a haven for a good half of the literary society of Russia in the second half of the 19th century. Alexei Feofilaktovich Pisemsky, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Dmitry Vasilyevich Grigorovich and others liked to visit 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 who owned a dacha.

Construction and rebuilding

At the beginning of the 19th century, the dacha was a magnificent house overlooking the Neva, framed by a cast-iron fence of 29 seated lions. From the pier-terrace, a view of the river opened, and the figures of sphinxes guarded the peace of the inhabitants.

FOR REFERENCE. The fence with lions is attributed to the authorship of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Lvov.

After the death of Kushelev-Bezborodko, the estate passed to his sister Musina-Pushkina. She rented out the property. In 1873, the territory 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 CJSC Sparkling Wines with the famous Soviet Champagne brand).

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 become more convenient for the community, and hospital buildings were completed. 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 where there were children's and gynecological departments, the rest of the communities provided assistance, mainly to the wounded military.

In the early 1930s, the building was transferred to the balance of the Promet plant, and in 1940 it was transferred to the use of the hospital. 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 a tuberculosis dispensary, for several years after that it was abandoned, 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 in St. Petersburg. At this time, the historic house of the clergy at the community of sisters of mercy, consisting of four floors, was demolished. Until 2018, the European Institute was located in the Small Palace of Kushelev-Bezborodko, then the lease was terminated.

Resort

At the beginning of the 19th century, the area became a real resort after the swamps were drained. Here they arranged a hydropathic clinic, which also entered the territory of the dacha itself. In 1868 there was a fire that destroyed the resort and the park. The hydropathic has not been restored. But medicinal drinks continued to be given to the afflicted. Sigismund Wisławo was selling sparkling water from the Polustrovo in and around St. Petersburg, and by 1887 he had drilled a well capable of producing up to 20,000 buckets of water a day. The next owner of the source was Prince Semyon Semyonovich Abamelek-Lazarev. He created and released mineral water called "Natural mineral water of Polyustrovskiye 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 financial opportunities and administrative forces to manage the waters. Only by 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, and many others.

Interesting Facts:

• Twenty-nine lions were restored in 1999.
• Near this building (view through the fence with lions) an episode for Eldar Ryazanov's film "The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia" was filmed.
• The street closest to the Elizabethan community was named Elizabethan.
• The building is enclosed by two fences: later than the lions, most likely already at the end of the 19th century, a row of metal spears ascended behind them.
• According to one of the legends, 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 Petersburg. He stayed at the dacha with lions. According to his recollections, he liked 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. During the laying of the heating main, the workers opened the brick floor and saw the dungeon. It led in the opposite direction from the Neva. I managed to walk only ten meters, then the course was filled up.
• 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 house has so many lion figures. And each of the animals has its own special smile, there is not a single repetition.

Useful information

The dacha with lions is located on Sverdlovskaya embankment, building 40. The nearest metro station to it is Ploshad Lenina or Chernyshevskaya, the 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 in the walking and bus tourist routes "The main sights of St. Petersburg, the architecture of Giacomo Quarenghi" and "Historical estates". You can get to the building on your own and admire it from the outside. Within walking distance from it are other attractions, such as the Smolny Cathedral and the Tauride Palace.

The difficult fate of the dacha, which changed owners so many times, is under the close attention of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments in 2019. An investor is actively sought for the restoration of all compositional ensembles. The dacha with lions is considered a unique architectural monument of the late 18th century and is rightfully considered the pearl of St. Petersburg.