According to archaeological data, a smallThe settlement of Yaropolets, which has about one and a half thousand inhabitants, arose about a thousand years ago. In the chronicles of the "Book of keys of the Volokolamsky Monastery", dating back to 1551, his name is mentioned as Erolopolch.
It would seem that this is an unremarkable village,located fifteen kilometers from Volokolamsk in the Moscow region, should not have been of interest to historians and tourists. But in fact, no. It turns out that this place is associated with an incredible number of interlacing the destinies of remarkable people and events. For the first time it is mentioned in chronicles dating from 1135. Then on the right bank of the Lama was the 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 Yaropilets belonged to the monastery of St. Joseph of Volos. Later it was bought by Ivan the Terrible, making it a favorite place for royal hunting.
Located twenty versts from the railwaystation Volokolamsk on the Lama River Yaropolets in the seventeenth century was also the property of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. According to the documents, here was the emperor's patrimonial office and a small menagerie at the estate. According to the legends, the autocrat often came here and was very fond of this place. Subsequently, already during the reign of Emperor Peter the Great, the estate was donated to Hetman Peter Doroshenko. It happened in 1684. It was here that in 1698 he died and was buried.
With the village of Yaropolets also namesNatalia Goncharova and Alexander Pushkin. Here was the family estate of the mother-in-law of the great poet, where, according to historians, he came several times to visit. And after the revolution, Yaropolets was not consigned to oblivion. In the early twentieth century, local peasants built their own power on the Lama River hydroelectric power station. Here came V. Lenin, who at that time was implementing his GOELRO plan. He was accompanied by N. Krupskaya and some party companions. It is interesting that the hydropower plant built by illiterate peasants is still in working order today.
In the Great Patriotic War near the village of Yaropoletsthere were strong battles for the Volokolamsk direction, which opened the way to Moscow. Numerous fortifications, pillboxes and a mass grave, in which Kremlin-guarded cadets were buried, have survived to this day.
Today, excursions are organized here.Most visitors are interested in the Goncharov estate and the Chernyshev estate in Yaropolets. Photo, description, history and many interesting facts related to it, we will present in this article.
Both of these cultural monuments are inextricably linkedand intertwined with the history of the Russian state. The Goncharovs' estate was more or less preserved. Today it houses the departmental recreation center of the Moscow Aviation Institute. But here the abandoned Chernyshev estate leaves the most difficult impressions. It's about her and try to tell in detail. After all, with the names of many famous people today is linked to the abandoned estate Chernyshev in the suburbs.
Before this amazing historical place, you caneasy to reach in any weather. Where the Chernyshev estate is located in Yaropolets, every local resident knows. Those who are going to explore the sights of this town on their own, you can take the train from the Riga railway station towards Volokolamsk. She leaves every day at eight in the morning. Having reached Volokolamsk, you need to transfer to the bus of the 28th route to Lotoshino. He stops at two places in Yaropolets. The second stop is at the crossroads of three roads. It is closer to the territory of the estate of Count Chernyshev. At the intersection, you need to orient in the following way: on one road the bus arrives, on the other it leaves, but you need to go on the third. A few minutes walk along the country road - and you can go to the Goncharovs' estate.
And right across the road from him is the mostthe Chernyshev estate. In Yaropoletz, how to reach it, even small children will show. Once it was called pompously - "Russian Versailles". But today a completely different picture opens before our eyes. Everything is in a terrible desolation - both the park and the buildings. And, nevertheless, the main thing, what is famous for Yaropolets is the Chernyshev estate. How to get back to Volokolamsk, you can see the timetable of suburban buses at the stop near the gates of the once incredibly beautiful "Russian Versailles". In Yaropolets, located on the high bank of the Lama, you can walk and explore the surrounding area. It is worth to look at the abandoned Kazan church, go to the dam of the hydroelectric station, see the chapel next to the grave of Hetman Doroshenko, visit the local museum and just take a walk in the picturesque places of this small town. And then at 15:45 by bus you can go back to Volokalamsk.
For those who come to Yaropolets on an excursion, guidestalk 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 under the name Chernetsky. They were Poles. Gregory himself was the orderly of Peter the Great. His sovereign was especially grateful for the successes achieved in the years of the Swedish campaign. Grigory Petrovich was awarded the title of Chevalier of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, he became a count and a senator. And in 1717 he was allowed to buy half of the fiefdom of Yaropolets, the part where the estate of the Chernyshevs is today.
His son Zakhar Grigorievich, a well-known commander,General-Field Marshal, took in 1760 Berlin. His career was much more brilliant than his father's: at the age of thirteen he was enrolled in the guard, at nineteen he became a captain, in the twenty-ambassador in Vienna, later took part 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 ran the Military Collegium, became governor of Byelorussia, and in 1782 - the commander-in-chief and mayor of Moscow. His house on Tverskaya after death was bought by the treasury and subsequently became the official residence of the highest echelon of the city administration. His other property, the estate Alexandrino (Chernysheva dacha) in the city of St. Petersburg, later transferred to Sheremetyevo.
The career of this remarkable figure is very dramaticbroke off. In 1762, after falling into the favorites of the unknown before the Orlov brothers, Zakhar Grigorievich unexpectedly resigned. It seemed to him that the new empress had overlooked him. And although two years later he was again recruited and brought to court, it was during this brief retirement that the Chernyshev estate was built in the Moscow suburbs and brought to the point that it was called "Russian Versailles".
Zakhar Grigorievich was a veryproud. His unfulfilled ambitions, not realized during the advent of the throne of Catherine II, he moved to create a luxurious palace park ensemble on the site of his ancestral estate. The most talented architects of the time were involved in the work, such as Bazhenov and Kazakov with their best students. The Chernyshev Manor in Yaropolets was the residence of a grand dignitary. The ensemble consisted of a two-storeyed palace, built in the style of early classicism and having some motifs of French rococo, several economic buildings and then the already existing Kazan church with a bell tower.
The interior of the estate is ZaharaChernyshova fully corresponded to her pompous architecture. In particular, in the palace, a special hall deserved special attention and the "gallery of ancestors" in it with portrait bas-reliefs on the walls. Right on the bank of the river Lama Chernyshev ordered to break a magnificent park, build greenhouses, which he also decorated with bas-reliefs. Their main part was brought from the Crimean Kafa. On the territory of the estate was erected in honor of Catherine II temple, 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 entire ensemble was surrounded by a stone fence.
The breadth of the idea and how skillfully the Chernyshev estate was built, combined with the integrity of the whole artistic ensemble, at that time gave rise to calling it "Russian Versailles".
This palace and park complex, created inmid-eighteenth century, was considered the most beautiful in the suburbs. It is said that when in 1775 Catherine II came here on an official visit, she was met with a huge scale. The cannons were beating and salutes were thundering, tables were laid everywhere. The Empress spent only two days in the estate, although she said that she would remain for life.
This name of the ensemble was due to the fact thatit is based on early classicism, intertwined with the French rococo in both the master's house and in the economic buildings. Elements of decor, a lot of elegant stucco molding with ornamentation, the structure of the park - all this is characteristic of this Versailles. The name corresponded to the interior of the master's rooms, including one consisting of numerous expensive trophies brought by the Count from military campaigns. Chernyshev's rebellious habits also manifested themselves in Masonic symbols, which were generously presented both in the decor of the palace, in particular stucco molding, columns and ornamentation, and in the interior of the Kazan Orthodox Church, which is part of the ensemble. They say that, in addition to Kazakov and Bazhenov, Jean-Baptiste Wallen-Delamot also worked on the manor. Most likely, these famous architects put their talented hand at different stages of creating this unique complex.
In the manor ensemble, it occupies a special place.The Kazan church is a two-dome church, which is completely uncharacteristic for the then Russia. It was built in 1798. And today its appearance, in spite of the deplorable state in which the entire Chernyshev estate in Yaropolets is, recalls the former grandeur of the church.
Hall inside the church, decorated around the perimeterhalf-columns, is blocked by a mirror huge vault. From its center hangs a chain that once held a luxurious chandelier. The walls and semicolumns, the framework of the altar barrier, having golden columns, modeling with ornaments under the domes, snow-white vaults, walls on which there is no painting, statues of saints in niches - all this looked incredibly solemn in its time.
The park goes down to the pond behind the manor.Many come here, in a small town in the Moscow region, to look specifically at him. Wide alleys and old lindens, 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 one think about how beautiful it was in its time the whole estate Chernyshev in Yaropolets. Photos taken with tourists today, do not pass and a tenth of what the park looked like in the era of its former luxury.
In the center of it stands a granite obelisk, placed in memory of the visit to the estate of Empress Catherine II in 1775. Its analogs can also be seen in Arkhangelsk and Kuskovo.
Gradually going down the hill, you canto hear a gradually increasing rumble of falling water. Indeed, here, in an eighteenth-century park on the almost flat calm Lame River, there is a man-made waterfall. It was created in 1918, when a drama club, organized in Yaropolets, decided for local residents to stage Ostrovsky's play. But there was a problem with lighting. The artists refused to play by the light of the luncheon. And then a local agronomist, a very advanced man, came up with the idea of building a small electric station. The peasants liked this idea so much that they used a water mill to electrify the village.
The front entrance, framed once by the picturesqueThe towers, like the palace itself, are half ruined. On the first floor windows there are no lattices, the doors are tightly closed. The same sad picture is observed in the wing, and in office buildings. The heirs owned this estate estate until 1917, and then the revolution began, followed by nationalization and ruin. As a result, complete oblivion ensued. Today, the abandoned estate Chernyshev in the suburbs requires urgent reconstruction, and complex. More than fifty years ago it was transferred to the balance of the MAI, the money of which was enough only to develop a restoration project.
The front gates with round towers are closedhigh metal fence. Today, a model of beauty and elegance - the estate Chernyshev in Yaropolets - is going through difficult times. Its snow-white facades, all adorned with exquisite stucco molding, slowly fall apart.
"Russian Versailles" after the revolution was graduallyto be destroyed. Between 1920 and 1928, a rural hospital was located on its territory, and then a sanatorium named after P. Morozov. Virtually all valuable items, including trophies brought by Count Chernyshev, were taken out of the estate. Most of them were transferred to an art and historical museum, functioning in the territory closed in 1920, the New Jerusalem Monastery. Later it was renamed into the museum of local lore. In December 1941, during the fighting 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 depositories. In general, during the war the Chernyshev estate in Yaropolets was destroyed, and therefore it was no longer used, though with only one exception. In 1953 the shooting of the feature film "On the Count's Ruins" took place on its territory.
Kazan church - part of the estate ensemble -functioned properly from the time of its discovery until the sixties of the last century. But after the death of the last abbot, the temple was closed. After that, there was a warehouse of lumber. The church was also used for other needs, until it was transferred to the MAI. In the seventies of the last century, small restoration works were carried out here, the roof was renewed and the floors were reinforced.
Regret and bitterness ... That's how they say abouttheir feelings are those who saw the estate in its present state. All 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. From the former luxury there were only relict trees, reminiscent of the once splendid park. And although there is a sign on the gate that the complex is protected by the state, it becomes a shame to do what our compatriots made with the walls, leaving not only their names on them, but also obscene inscriptions. Almost all the reviews express the hope that "Russian Versailles" will be restored and will be no worse than its French counterpart.
