The count's mansion of Kushelev-Bezborodko is located on the Sverdlovsk embankment of St. Petersburg. On the contrary, across the Neva, the Smolny Monastery is located . The area and the manor house have a rich and interesting history.
History of a summer residence
The name Kushelev-Bezborodko will say something to a rare person in Russia. But the building of the Count's dacha, which is currently located within the city of St. Petersburg and bearing this name, is known to many.
It is known with certainty that this area was populated before the construction of the city. On the map of the XVII century, you can see the estate of the commandant of the Swedish fortress Nyenschanz. According to legend, from her passed the system of underground passages to the Neva River. Nearby was the Swedish city of Nien.
After this territory was returned to Russia and St. Petersburg was built , the estate with surrounding territories was donated by Peter I to his wife Catherine. In those days, Cossack gardens were located not far from the estate, it was on them that natural springs with mineral water were opened, which, according to the emperor Peter I, who was treated with it, was in no way inferior to the Belgian one. Sources brought fame to this place.
The first owner of the estate
After some time, the Chancellery, which was in charge of the territories, offered those who wish to buy out the estate along with the Cossack gardens. The real secret adviser G.N. Teplov expressed his desire, who was sick and was forced to go abroad for treatment. The acquisition of the site gave him the opportunity to be treated not far from home. It is on it that in our time is the building known as the Kushelev-Bezborodko Palace in St. Petersburg.
G. N. Teplov populated the nearby village with his peasants, named it and the estate of Polyustrovo. This name was not given by chance, since the area in the district was swampy, and the word “swampy” in Latin sounded like palustris.
The Privy Councilor set about arranging the estate. To do this, he invited the famous architect V. Bazhenov. Under his leadership, she was rebuilt in the Gothic style. According to legend, the architect restored underground communications that went to the Neva. In addition, the ensemble of the house included greenhouses, where flowering plants, fruit trees, tobacco and vegetables were grown.
Polyustrovo and its new owner
In 1782, G. N. Teplov died, and his son sold Polyustrovo 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, as there is evidence to say that the reconstruction of the estate may have been led by the famous architect Lvov. One thing is certain that the famous fence with lions was made by a Russian architect.
It is known that Quarenghi did not begin to 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, his niece inherited the estate, the daughter of his brother - Princess K.I. Lobanova-Rostovskaya, who raised his nephew A.G. Kushelev, who later began to bear the double surname Kuleshev-Bezborodko, combining the names of the father and mother.
What the reconstructed palace looked like
After the reconstruction of the former Gothic look, there is no trace left. The mansion has become light and elegant. In the center of the building was the main building, from which semicircular and open galleries diverged to the sides. During the construction of the Quarenghi estate, he used the technique used in Italy for the construction of suburban villas with open galleries in which hay was dried.
In the humid climate of the Northern capital, it was impossible to use them for this purpose. Therefore, later they were reconstructed and closed. Around the palace, according to the design 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 genuine antique fragments were used. This building has not been preserved, but the main building of the estate ensemble, owned by Alexander Grigoryevich Kushelev-Bezborodko after the death of his grandmother, has survived to the present day.
The building overlooked the Neva with its facade. It was decorated with a portico with columns and a pediment, having a triangular appearance. The territory from 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
Received a brilliant education. After passing the exam at Moscow University, he received the title of Doctor of Ethical and Political Sciences, enlisted as a Kolyezh adviser. His father got him a trip abroad, where his duty was to be with the Chancellor of Russia at the Congress in Vienna. His service did not work, and he remained to travel around Europe.
A year later, he returned to Russia. Here he was interested in one thing. The brother of his maternal grandfather, Chancellor of Russia A.A. Bezborodko bequeathed a lot of money for the device of the Grammar School of Higher Sciences in Nizhyn. This question was dealt with by I. A. Bezborodko, the grandfather of the count, who died without solving the matter to the end. He decided to finish Alexander Grigorievich Kushelev-Bezborodko. In 1820, a gymnasium was established. Now it is the University of Nizhyn.
The 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 youth he began to lead a reckless life in a circle of rich young offspring of famous surnames. This 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 Polyustrovo, was sad. Having the ability for literature and being known as a well-known philanthropist, philanthropist, he was weak and pliable in character. Count Kushelev-Bezborodko traveled extensively throughout Europe, about which he will subsequently write in his notes to the traveler. He was drawn into 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 by birth belonged, has been closed. According to the memoirs of the Russian writer D.V. Grigorovich, the Kushelev dacha in Polyustrovo was a strange sight - not the building itself, but what was happening inside it.
Countless little-known people, distant relatives, and other Russian and foreign rabble, consisting of insignificant journalists, players, various rogues, often with wives, children, replacing each other, lived here, ate, drank, and used count crews. The house was like a caravanserai. Everyone did whatever he liked, taking advantage of the owner’s weakness and soreness. 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, poetry by A. N. Maikov was published, he published the first collected works of the great Russian playwright A. Ostrovsky and others. After a London acquaintance with A. I. Herzen, he made a significant financial contribution to the fund, created to help young immigrants and called the “General Fund”.
Grigory Alexandrovich wrote short stories, essays and travel notes, later published in a two-volume collected works. It was 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 Polyustrovo all summer. He was visited by A.K. Tolstoy, D.V. Grigorovich, A.V. Pisemsky. Literary evenings were held. At his invitation, in 1858, A. Dumas visited the country house, with whom he made friends in Paris.
The last offspring of the richest kind, Count Kushelev-Bezborodko Grigory Alexandrovich, died at the age of 38 years. It happened in 1870.
Resort Polyustrovo
At the beginning of the 19th century, the wetlands of the Kushelev-Bezborodko estate were drained, new wells of mineral water were drilled at the source, and a small resort with a hydropathic center was organized. Part of the manor park was given under its territory. He existed 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 begin to restore it. The user of the sources was the company of a mining engineer, who organized the production, bottling, carbonation and sale of mineral water under the name “Water of the Polyustrovsky sources”.
The further fate of the estate
The territory of Polyustrovo gradually turned into the working outskirts of St. Petersburg. The cottage, which was owned by Kushelev-Bezborodko, was given to the Elizabethan community of sisters of mercy, which was founded by the empress’s sister, Princess Elizabeth Fedorovna. 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 a TB dispensary is located in the summer house. Currently, the construction of a new dispensary building is nearing completion. The building of the Kushelev-Bezborodko estate was transferred to investors for restoration and use as a cultural and business center.