How many unexplored places and unusual people in Russia! In the Yaroslavl region, a striking castle was built a hundred years ago.
Now this place on the left steep bank of the Volga is called Red Profintern, and earlier the village was called Guzitsino. A little more than 1700 people live in it.
Village History
In 1862, a peasant Nikita Ponizovkin came to the village of Durkovo with one bag. He came and got rich. How? Unknown In 1863, enrolled in the guild of merchants of the first degree. He began to build factories for the production of molasses from starch. There was enough potato in the district, and the plants worked at full capacity, making starch. In addition to molasses and starch, an initiative entrepreneur produced varnishes and paint. They quickly dispersed. In the 1880s there were fourteen enterprises throughout the neighborhood. In 1866, he began to build a large factory, and then in 1867 he left for Yaroslavl. They did not hear anything more about him. Gone, gone forever. He was about sixty years old.
The heirs completed a large and modern factory for that time, continued the founder’s business and opened the Nikita Ponizovkina Sons trading house. A new large factory produced its first products in 1868. Things were going well. Economic results were exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889. The Ponizovkins received a large silver medal. They no longer knew the problems with money and could afford the construction for personal needs in the village, which is now called the Red Profintern. Ponizovkina Castle was distinguished from other buildings by its magnificent beauty and splendor of decoration. Now it is being restored. Most of the outbuildings are preserved and even used. At its base, the starch-syrup factory Yarpatoka operates.
New building and its owners
Who has not heard about the village in the Yaroslavl region Red Profintern? Ponizovkina Castle attracts guests here, and residents enthusiastically talk about it. He was beautiful, and now they began to revive him. Old photographs taken in the village (now Red Profintern), Ponizovkina castle show in all its splendor. The history of its construction is gradually overgrown with legends. Legend has it that the grandson of Nikita Petrovich Nikita Andreevich married a beautiful Frenchwoman. More precisely, his wife was a girl from Russified Germans - Rosa Bursian.
For a young wife on the banks of the Volga, from where a wonderful view of the expanse of water and the far shore opened up, the castle of Ponizovkin was built in the Russian outback (now Red Profintern) by an architect, whose name is unknown. The young couple, while the palace was being built from 1912 to 1914, had a daughter Tatyana and a son Andrei. But they did not have time to live together, but soon divorced. The fault was the love of Nikita Andreevich. The wife and daughter left for Moscow, and Nikita Andreevich remained with his son in his native land. In Moscow, before the revolution, Roza Petrovna worked as a librarian, and then she got married and began to lead her house. Nikita Andreyevich went headlong to work, but later married. When revolutionary events came, well-being ended. What happened to him next, no one knows. This is a mystery to local historians. Built near Yaroslavl (Red Profintern), the Ponizovkina castle did not become a tribal nest, as might have been planned.
What the castle looked like
The center of the building is a two-story cube protruding forward with high arched Venetian windows. Under them on the ground floor is the main entrance. It is completed by a spacious semicircular terrace. This risalit is connected by a two-story passage with a high quadrangular three-story tower on the right, which has an observation deck at the top and a balcony, the fence of which reminds of the Middle Ages.
On its ground floor there are three deep oval niches. The round tower also has two floors. It is completed by a conical roof. This is the facade of the building, which is clearly visible in the old photograph. The windows were often made of small elements. In the Nekrasovsky district (Red Profintern) Nikita Ponizovkin’s castle is a unique creation. In this building, various styles were mixed, which is why it is called eclectic. The palace was most attracted to Gothic and Art Nouveau. Passengers traveling on ships along the Volga admired him for a long time. And around was a park with linden trees and fragrant jasmine. Silver poplars and Chinese apple trees grew in it.
What was inside
Judging by the descriptions, the mansion was luxurious: the front entrance staircase emphasized the interior of the building, the lobby was decorated in Egyptian style, there were columns, mosaic parquet floors, the ceilings were painted, there was colorful stucco molding, gilded cornices, mahogany panels covered part of the walls of mahogany In the winter garden with a glass roof it was summer all year. The walls were decorated not only with frescoes, but also with silk and brocade.
The house was heated from a boiler room located in the basement. The pipes hidden in the walls (they were double) received warm air. The walls were warming up, and the house was dry and warm. Everyone admired this beauty, which everyone saw only from the outside. So unique, one of a kind and strange was the castle of Ponizovkina. Red Profintern is proud of this place.
Guest House
Near the castle there is a two-story room for relatives and guests. Traditionally, the first floor is made of bricks, and the second is made of wood.
The tree allowed to decorate it with complex carvings. On the second floor you can climb the heavy patterned cast-iron stairs. In some places stucco ceilings were preserved. Stucco was once gilded. Now in places it is lost altogether or is covered with whitewash. The rooms have Dutch ovens. Tall doors are decorated with frosted glass. They depict fantastic herbs and griffins. Parquet flooring.
After the revolution
First, the castle of Ponizovkina (Red Profintern) was looted. Then they made a school in it, changing the heating. It became steam, and the house began to damp. Repair was not made, since there was no money. Then there was a club, then a library. By the way, the rich Ponizovkin library was lost. By the end of the 20th century, the Ponizovkin castle stood empty and gradually collapsed. City authorities refused him. The roof was leaking, the interior was a miserable look.
The nineties
In 1993, the castle was bought, but by 2001 its owners went bankrupt without doing anything for the palace. Something managed to be taken to the art museum of Yaroslavl.
Rebirth
The Tashir group of companies in 2008 acquired the Ponizovkin Palace and quickly began its restoration.
The facade was strengthened, the interior was cleaned of debris and brought to a decent view. The household territory is also put in order.
Bashmet Festival
In May 5, 2016, Yuri Bashmet held a music festival in the already-equipped palace. In the castle of N. Ponizovkin, in the atmosphere of the Middle Ages, a trio played, performing works by Brahms.
Later, in July, Lyubov Kazarnovskaya also visited the castle, who, having given a concert, noted its excellent acoustics.
Museum expositions
Some of the halls were given for art exhibitions of contemporary painters. Other premises will represent office items of the late XIX - early XX centuries.
There you can see copying, calculating and printing machines, gramophones, telephones, cameras.
Where is the palace
In the Yaroslavl region, in the Nekrasovsky district, is the castle of Ponizovkina (Red Profintern). Palace address: st. Naberezhnaya, 16. If you drive from Yaroslavl along an asphalt road, you will come directly to the village. On the other, right side of the Volga to Ponizovkina Castle (Red Profintern) how to get there? On the Yaroslavl - Kostroma highway, turn right to the village of Nekrasovsky. From it is not far from the ferry. On the ferry call in reverse. Its exact schedule is not yet known. When the museum is fully operational, it is hoped that the ferry will go regularly. Buses run from the bus station in Yaroslavl. They work from 5 a.m. to 19.15 p.m. Travel time is approximately an hour and ten minutes.
Group visit
The palace can be visited by a group of at least ten people through the Vyatskoye historical and cultural complex, which is under the auspices of the Tashir group, leading its restoration and rebirth. Ponizovkina Castle (Red Profintern), tours of which are held by appointment by phone at 8 (961) 160-81-17, will reveal many of its secrets. The cost of a ticket for one person is 200 rubles, for schoolchildren, pensioners and the disabled - 150.
Red Profintern, Nikita Ponizovkina castle: reviews
The castle was opened for visiting recently - May 4, 2016. Those who have been there have already managed to lay out all their impressions of this masterpiece in the outback of Russia.
A guide guides visitors around the castle (this is a modern miracle, as the guest put it) and around it. Standing next to the tower is incredibly beautiful. The story of the Ponizovkin family, which now reveals everything previously hidden from the inhabitants of the village, is extremely interesting. No one regretted coming here. All thank the patrons and restorers. Such causes the Ponizovkin castle reviews of visitors. This place is gradually becoming a historical and cultural center.