According to archaeological data, the small settlement of Yaropolets, which has about one and a half thousand inhabitants, arose about a thousand years ago. In the annals of the Book of the Keys of the Volokolamsk Monastery, dating from 1551, its name is referred to as the Eropole.
general information
It would seem that this unremarkable village, located fifteen kilometers from Volokolamsk in the Moscow region, should not have been of interest to historians and tourists. But really not. It turns out that an incredible amount of interweaving of the fates of wonderful people and events is associated with this place. It is first mentioned in chronicles dating back to 1135. Then on the right bank of the Lama there was a fortified point of Prince Yaropolk - the son of Vladimir Monomakh, who fought with Novgorod. Some experts believe that it was from him that the name of the village went, although there are a lot of versions on this issue.
For a long time, the district Yarolets belonged to the Joseph-Volotsky Monastery. Subsequently, it was bought by Ivan the Terrible, making it a favorite place for imperial hunting.
Located twenty versts from the Volokolamsk railway station on the Lame River, the Yaropolets in the seventeenth century was also the property of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. According to documents, there was a sovereign patrimonial office and a small menagerie at the estate. According to legend, the autocrat often came here and loved this place very much. Subsequently, already during the reign of Tsar Peter the Great, the estate was donated to the hetman Petro Doroshenko. It happened in 1684. It was here that he died in 1698 and was buried.
sights
The names of Natalia Goncharova and A.S. Pushkin are also associated with the village of Yaropoltsy. Here was the family estate of the mother-in-law of the great poet, where, according to the testimony of historians, he came several times to visit. And after the revolution, Yaropolets was not forgotten. At the beginning of the twentieth century, local peasants built a hydroelectric power station here on the Lama River. V. Lenin came here, who was implementing his GOELRO plan at that time. He was accompanied by N. Krupskaya and some party associates. Interestingly, the hydroelectric power station built by illiterate peasants is still in working condition today.
In the Great Patriotic War, near the village of Yarolets, there were strong battles for the Volokolamsk direction, which opened the way to Moscow. Numerous fortifications, bunkers and a mass grave in which the Kremlin cadets who held the defense are buried have survived to this day.
Today, excursion tours are organized here. Most of all visitors are interested in the Goncharovs estate and the Chernyshevs estate in Yaropoltsi. We will present a photo, description, history and many interesting facts related to it in this article.
Both of these cultural monuments are inextricably linked and intertwined with the history of the Russian state. The Goncharovs estate was more or less preserved. Today it houses the departmental rest house of the Moscow Aviation Institute. But the abandoned estate of the Chernyshevs leaves the most difficult impressions. It is about her that we will try to tell in detail. Indeed, today the abandoned estate of the Chernyshevs in the Moscow region is associated with the names of many famous people.
How to get from Moscow
This amazing historic site can be easily reached in any weather. Every local resident knows where the Chernyshevs' estate is in Yaropolets. Those who are going to explore the sights of this town on their own can take the train from Volga station in the direction of Volokolamsk. She leaves every day at eight in the morning. Upon reaching Volokolamsk, you need to transfer to the bus of the 28th route to Lotoshino. He stops in Yaropolets in two places. The second stop is at the crossroads of three roads. It is closer to the estate of the Counts Chernyshevs. At the intersection, you need to orient yourself as follows: the bus arrives along one road, leaves along the other, and you need to go along the third. A few minutes walk along the rural road - and you can go to the estate of the Goncharovs.
And right across the road from it is the very estate of the Chernyshevs. In Yaropolets, even small children will show how to get to it. Once it was called pompously - "Russian Versailles". But today a completely different picture opens before my eyes. Everything is in terrible desolation - both the park and the buildings. And, nevertheless, the main thing that Yarolets is famous for is the Chernyshevs' estate. How to get back to Volokolamsk, you can see the schedule of suburban buses at the bus stop near the gate of the once incredibly beautiful "Russian Versailles". In Yaropolc, located on the high bank of the Lama, you can walk and explore the surroundings. You should definitely look at the abandoned Kazan Church, go to the dam of the hydroelectric power station, see the chapel next to the grave of Hetman Doroshenko, visit the local museum and just walk around the picturesque places of this small town. And then at 15:45 on the bus you can go back to Volokalamsk.
About Chernyshevs and their estate
Guides tell those who come to Yaropolets on an excursion about the owners of the “Russian Versailles”, about their difficult fate and, of course, about their family nest. The first of the Chernyshevs - Grigory Petrovich - is considered an amazing personality. His ancestors are known by the name Chernetskys. They were Poles. Gregory himself was an orderly of Peter the Great. The sovereign especially praised him for the successes achieved during the years of the Swedish campaign. Grigory Petrovich was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of St. St. Andrew the First-Called, he became Earl and Senator. And in 1717 he was allowed to purchase half of the Yaropolets estate, the part where the Chernyshevs estate is today.
His son Zakhar Grigorievich, a well-known commander, Field Marshal, took Berlin in 1760. His career was much brighter than that of his father: at thirteen he was enlisted in the guard, at nineteen he became captain, at twenty he became ambassador in Vienna, later he participated in the war for the Austrian inheritance and in the Seven Years with the Prussians. At thirty-six, he was already a lieutenant general. Under Catherine II, he managed the Military College, became the governor of Belarus, and in 1782 - the commander in chief and the mayor of Moscow. After death, his house on Tverskaya was redeemed by the treasury and subsequently became the official residence of the highest echelon of the city administration. His other property, the estate of Aleksandrino (Chernysheva Dacha) within the boundaries of St. Petersburg, subsequently passed to Sheremetyevo.
The career of this remarkable figure was cut short. In 1762, after getting into the favorites of the previously unknown Orlov brothers, Zakhar Grigoryevich unexpectedly resigned. It seemed to him that the new empress had ignored him. And although two years later he was recruited again and brought closer to the court, it was during this short-term resignation that the Chernyshevs estate was built in the Moscow region and brought to the point that it was called the “Russian Versailles”.
Construction
Zakhar Grigorievich was a very proud man. His unsatisfied ambitions, not realized during the coming to the throne of Catherine the Second, he transferred to the creation of a luxurious palace park ensemble on the site of his family estate. The most talented architects of that time, such as Bazhenov and Kazakov with their best students, were involved in the work. The Chernyshevs' estate in Yaropoltsy was the residence of a nobleman. The ensemble included a two-story palace, built in the style of early classicism and having some motifs of the French Rococo, several farm buildings and the then existing Kazan church with a bell tower.
Description and photo
With its interior decoration, the estate of Zakhar Chernyshev was fully consistent with its pompous architecture. In particular, the main hall and the “gallery of ancestors” in it with portrait bas-reliefs on the walls deserved special attention in the palace. Right on the banks of the Lama River, Chernyshev ordered to set up a magnificent park and build greenhouses, which he also decorated with bas-reliefs. Their main part was brought from the Crimean Cafe. A temple was erected in honor of Catherine II on the territory of the estate; there was also a theater, a mosque with two minarets. The latter was built to commemorate the victorious peace concluded with Turkey in 1774. The whole ensemble was surrounded by a stone fence.
The breadth of the plan and how skillfully the Chernyshevs estate was built in conjunction with the integrity of the entire artistic ensemble, at that time gave reason to call it “Russian Versailles”.
This palace and park complex, created in the middle of the eighteenth century, was considered the most beautiful in the suburbs. They say that when in 1775 Catherine the Great herself came here on an official visit, she was greeted with enormous scope. Guns were beating and fireworks rattled, tables were laid everywhere. The empress spent only two days in the estate, although she said that she would have remained for life.
Interior decoration
This name of the ensemble was due to the fact that it is based on early classicism, interwoven with French Rococo both in the manor house and in the outbuildings. Decor elements, a lot of elegant stucco moldings with ornaments, the structure of the park - all this is typical of this Versailles. The name corresponded to the interior decoration of the master’s chambers, including one consisting of numerous expensive trophies brought by the count from military campaigns. Obviously rebellious manners of Chernyshev were also manifested in Masonic symbols, which were generously represented both in the decor of the palace, in particular stucco molding, columns and a pattern of ornament, as well as in the interior decoration of the Kazan Orthodox Church, which is part of the ensemble. It is said that, in addition to Kazakov and Bazhenov, Jean-Baptiste Wallen-Delamot also worked on the estate. Most likely, these famous architects put their talented hand at different stages of the creation of this unique complex.
Kazan Church
In the estate ensemble, it occupies a special place. The Kazan Church is a two-domed church , which is completely uncharacteristic of the then Russia. It was built in 1798. And today, her appearance, despite the deplorable state in which the entire Chernyshev estate is in Yaropoltsi, recalls the former splendor of the temple.
The hall inside the church, decorated around the perimeter with half columns, is blocked by a huge mirror vault. From its center hangs a chain that once held a luxurious chandelier. Walls and half-columns, the frame of the altar barrier with gold columns, modeling with ornaments under the domes, a snow-white arch, walls on which there is no painting, statues of saints in niches - all this looked incredibly solemn in its time.
About the park and its surroundings
A park descends to the pond behind the estate. Many come here to a small town in the Moscow region to look at it. Wide alleys and old linden trees, beautiful trees of other species and different sizes, overgrown ponds, the Lama river flowing through the garden, a pine forest in the far corner ... All this is so beautiful and thought out that it involuntarily makes you think about how beautiful it was in its time the entire Chernyshevs estate in Yaropolets. Photos that tourists take with them today do not transmit even a tenth of what the park looked like in the era of its former luxury.
In the center of it stands a granite obelisk, commemorated on a visit to the estate of Empress Catherine the Second in 1775. Its analogues can also be seen in Arkhangelsk and Kuskovo.
Gradually going down the slope, you can hear a gradually increasing rumble of falling water. And indeed, here, in an eighteenth-century park on the almost flat calm river Lama, there is a man-made waterfall. It was created in 1918, when a drama club organized in Yaropolets decided to stage a play by Ostrovsky for local residents. But there was a problem with the lighting. The artists refused to play in the light of a torch. And then the local agronomist, a very advanced person, came up with the idea to build a small power station. The peasants liked this idea so much that they used a water mill to electrify the village.
Manor buildings today
The main entrance, framed by the once picturesque towers, as well as the palace itself, is dilapidated. There are no gratings on the windows of the first floor, the doors are tightly closed. The same sad picture is observed both in the outbuilding and in the outbuildings. The heirs owned this manor complex until 1917, and then the revolution began, followed by nationalization and ruin. As a result, complete oblivion came. Today, the abandoned estate of Chernyshevs in the Moscow region requires urgent reconstruction, and a comprehensive one. More than fifty years ago, it was transferred to the balance of the Moscow Aviation Institute, whose money was only enough to develop a restoration project.
The front gates, which have round towers, are closed by a high metal fence. Today, the example of beauty and grace - the Chernyshevs estate in Yaropoltsi - is going through difficult times. His snow-white facades, all decorated with exquisite stucco molding, slowly showered.
Pages of complex history
"Russian Versailles" after the revolution began to gradually collapse. In the period from 1920 to 1928, a rural hospital was located on its territory, and then a P. Morozov sanatorium. Almost all valuable items, including trophies brought by Count Chernyshev, were taken out of the estate. Most of them were transferred to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which operates on the territory of the New Jerusalem Monastery closed in 1920. Later it was renamed the Museum of Local Lore. In December 1941, during the battles in the direction of Volokolamsk, sappers from the Reich division "New Jerusalem" was blown up. During the fire, almost the entire museum exposition was destroyed, including the collections hidden in the storage facilities. In general, during the war, the Chernyshevs estate in Yaropolets was destroyed, and therefore it was no longer used, however, with one exception. In 1953, the shooting of the film "On the Count's Ruins" took place on its territory.
The Kazan Church - part of the estate ensemble - has functioned smoothly from its opening until the sixties of the last century. But after the death of the last rector, the temple closed. After that there was a lumber warehouse. The church was also used for other needs until it was transferred to the MAI. In the seventies of the last century, small restoration work was carried out here, the roof was updated and the ceilings were strengthened.
Visitors reviews
Regret and bitterness ... That is how those who saw the estate in their current state speak of their feelings. Everything that was built on such a scale by its brilliant owner, Count Chernyshev, fell into decay. The walls crumbled, the building fell into decay, the fence disappeared. Only relict trees, reminiscent of the once magnificent park, remained from the former luxury. And although a sign hangs on the gate that the complex is protected by the state, it becomes embarrassing for what our compatriots did with the walls, leaving not only their names on them, but also obscene inscriptions. Almost all reviews express the hope that the “Russian Versailles” will be restored and will be no worse than its French counterpart.