Gus-Zhelezny (the photos in this article demonstrate the sights of this locality) is an urban-type settlement. It is located in the Ryazan region (Kasimovsky district), is the administrative center of the Gusevsky urban settlement. Located on the Gus River, near the dam, built in the eighteenth century, about twenty kilometers from the administrative center - Kasimov. The village is surrounded by mixed and coniferous forests.
“We lived with a granny ...”
“Two funny geese lived at the granny: Goose-Iron and Goose-Crystal,” - this is how the inhabitants of the Vladimir province joked in the old days . Both of these villages with similar names were located in Melenkovsky district, on the same Gus river. If the first of the Gusey brothers, located at the head of the river, was the center of the glass industry of the famous Maltsev master breeders, then the brother in the lower reaches of the Goose (near the confluence of the river with the Oka) became the capital of the no less famous and illustrious “iron kings” - the Batashev brothers. For more than a hundred and fifty years, “two funny geese” were in the Vladimir region, but in the twentieth century, the fate of the villain shared them with one movement of the pen. So, after a series of administrative-territorial reforms, at the will of officials, Gus-Zhelezny found himself in the Ryazan region. However, its history is inseparable from the past of the Vladimir region, and even today it is only ten kilometers to the border with it from Goose.
Let's hit the road ...
Usually Gus-Zhelezny (Ryazan region) tourists visit in passing, on the way to the ancient merchant city of Kasimov. Two paths lead to these parts. The first - from Moscow to Ryazan along Novoryazanskoye Shosse (M 5), and from there - along the road P 123 - P 105. The second - from Moscow immediately to Kasimov (or Goose) along Yegoryevskoye Shosse (P 105). Most often, tourists choose the second option to visit the Goose-Iron (the map will help to figure out the route), because this is a direct path. However, not all that glitters is gold. It has many disadvantages, the Yegoryevskoye highway is mostly narrow and winding, it is not easy to overtake it. Along it there are many summer cottages, so the workload is large, as a result, the average speed is 60-70 kilometers per hour. But after the ninetieth kilometer (summer villages become noticeably smaller) to go is a pleasure.
And the tale comes to an end ...
And Moscow is behind, the harsh Russian roads begin. Only the car crosses the sign "Ryazan region", the road becomes either bad or very bad. Here there are areas with continuous potholes (and of considerable size), which alternate with relatively good, but, unfortunately, very short segments. In some areas, sometimes up to ten kilometers, you have to move (if you can call it movement) at a turtle speed (15 km / h). Riding here at night is not recommended.
First impressions
The first thing you pay attention to when you get to this settlement is the majestic silhouette of the temple. He literally reigns over a small river and squat houses. Here the temple subjugates everything to itself, you can see it from everywhere. It seems that it is exclusively around him that the life of the people of the Goose-Iron is concentrated. There is a small provincial market in front of the temple. And even among the merchants there is a leisurely measured rhythm of local life. In the town there is a “relic” of the Soviet era - a traditional statue of V. I. Lenin. As in any other locality of the former Union, it occupies a central place. In Gus-Zhelezny it’s a square, but here the leader of the world proletariat timidly peeks out from behind the bushes, he does not even claim to have any more or less significant role in the life of the village. The bulk of the temple simply reduces Ilyich to the rank of an ordinary object. Previously, during the heyday of metallurgical production, this Trinity Church was a real city cathedral. But we'll talk about him a little later.
Andrey Batashov
The active development of the surrounding villages on the Gus rivulet began in the mid-eighteenth century, when representatives of the famous dynasty of Tula blacksmiths and gunsmiths Ivan and Andrei Batashovs (a monument was erected on the main square of the town of Gus-Zhelezny) established their iron foundry. It was part of an impressive empire, which included 18 metallurgical plants in different provinces (second only to the Yakovlev and Demidov factories in the smelting of pig iron). This village first received the name of Gus-Batashovsky, and then, over time, was renamed Gus-Zhelezny, unlike its brother Gus Maltsovsky-Khrustalny, and its sole owner was one of the brothers - Andrey Batashov.
Manor of Batashov
Andrei Rodionovich built the Eagle's Nest estate in the village. In addition, a dam was erected on the river for his money (it was partially preserved). The main manor house (end of the 18th century) is close in architectural style to typical urban public buildings of that period: it is very elongated along the longitudinal axis, has strict facades almost devoid of decorative elements. He is not so remarkable. But among the provincial contemporaries, the mansion evoked completely different feelings, with all its appearance resembling "either a medieval castle or a fortress." And this is easily explainable, because a house with a garden adjoining it was surrounded by a stone wall up to seven meters high (today it is partially preserved), and at the entrance to the dam a watchtower was erected with a huge iron goose on its spire. In addition, the estate housed a poultry house, menagerie and fortress theater. In a garden divided into three parts, greenhouses and gazebos were arranged in which various exotic fruits were grown: peaches, oranges, lemons.
Goose-Iron: health resort
Today on the territory of the mansion is a children's sanatorium. This specialized medical institution provides rehabilitation for children after acute illnesses they have suffered, and also works to prevent chronic diseases and increase the level of health in children aged 5-15 years.
Legends of an old manor
One of the parts of the park zone had a very eloquent name - "Garden of Horrors." Her appointment was appropriate for the name - for torture and punishment. In addition, according to legend, under the estate there is a rather extensive underground complex, thanks to which the main house was connected to the factory and various buildings. A lot of eerie legends are associated with the estate. For example, according to one of them, fugitive convicts minted fake money in the Batashov dungeons . And when the commission of inquiry arrived to investigate these rumors, Andrei Batashov ordered the fall asleep, thereby burying the workers alive. According to another legend, the police officer who arrived at the plant to investigate the criminal case disappeared without a trace, and after some time a human skeleton was found in the factory wall, and only by the copper buttons on the suit could the missing official be identified in it.
In general, the legends of secret burials and innumerable treasures hidden in the dungeon of the estate throughout the nineteenth century excited the minds of many people, but to this day they have not found reliable evidence. Andrei Rodionovich Batashov peacefully ended his century in the estate, without ever being put on trial, despite the fact that his “track record” is very impressive: it includes murders, kidnapping, bribing officials, seizing property.
Goose-Iron: temple
The monumental Trinity Church was laid after the death of A.R. Batashov, with his son, already in 1802. The completion of construction work took place in 1840-1860. In the church, the features of various trends and styles (classicism, neo-Gothic, baroque) are interwoven in an interesting way; there is something Moorish in the arrow-shaped niches directed upward. All elements (profiles, pilasters, arches, lancet windows) are not just decor, but “flesh from flesh” of the building’s architecture itself. All of them make up a single whole, it is this harmony of the image that affects most of all: the church and now, despite the cracks appearing in the walls and the crumbling masonry, it resembles a monolithic block sticking out of the ground.
Today, Batashov’s estate is somewhat reminiscent of the idylls depicted in the paintings of old masters. So, in the park against the background of pavilions and walls, cows graze, somewhere in the distance stands a church with a long-standing tower clock. Observing such a picture, you involuntarily catch yourself thinking that all this exists as if in timelessness, and life boiling nearby does not have power over this space.