Alexander Palace. Manor Neskuchnoe House in the garden Neskuchnoe garden

The Alexander Palace is located in the landscape Alexander Park not far from the Catherine Palace. It is located in the depths - a beautiful, quiet and picturesque place to live. Walking to the palace, I imagined how the imperial children, and adults too, walked here, frolicked in the fresh air, fished and even hunted.

Once upon a time there was a forest in this place - so dense that even a wild beast could live in it. When you reach the palace and take a look at what you see, you catch yourself thinking: “Modestly, but with taste.” Of course, modestly, if you compare it with the flashy luxury of the Catherine Palace.

It's a completely different atmosphere here! Here you want to live and spend time. A cozy country residence, of course, with royal scope. For me, as for others, probably, the Alexander Palace is best known as the birthplace and life of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II. Later, his children were born and raised here. Unfortunately, the palace also became the last refuge of Nicholas, who had already renounced the crown. From here, he and his family were transported during the events of 1917.

Story

The Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo was built by order of Empress Catherine II. It was her gift for her beloved grandson Alexander I. As you know, the Empress did not want to leave the throne to her son Pavel Petrovich. Their views on the future fate of the country were so different. But the Empress doted on her grandson Alexander Pavlovich.

He was born on December 12, 1777. From the very first months, the empress herself took up the upbringing and training of Alexander. He was not yet a year old when he was transferred to Tsarskoye Selo. A happy childhood passed here for Alexander Pavlovich and his younger brother Konstantin Pavlovich.

In 1793, Alexander was betrothed to Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alekseevna. In 1792, the construction of the palace began. The architect was Giacomo Quarenghi. By that time, this genius owned such works as:

1. English Palace in Peterhof.
2. Concert Hall in Tsarskoye Selo.
3. Hermitage Theatre.
4. The building of the Academy of Sciences.
5. Assignment bank.

Architectural features

The palace became his most famous and best work. As conceived by the architect, the castle was a two-story building with the letter "P". Outbuildings were attached to the left and right. Thanks to this closed space on three sides, a small front yard was formed at the entrance - the court-doner.

The main entrance to the palace passes through a double colonnade. It sort of moves away from the building a little, forming a small courtyard inside. Thanks to this, there is a gradual transition from the park to the palace halls. The entrance through the colonnade is decorated with two statues. One of them depicts a young man playing money, the other shows a young man playing pile. Both of these games were very popular at the time. From the windows of the palace there was a wonderful view of the pond and the surrounding park.

This is what the front of the building looks like.

On the first floor there were the halls of the Front Enfilade. On the second floor - rooms for children and servants, on the sides - private quarters.

Notable residents and visitors

Emperor Alexander I did not use the apartments of the Alexander Palace for long. After ascending the throne, he moved to Catherine. The rooms were more often used by guests and close associates of the emperor. He himself was almost always on the road or at war and rarely had the opportunity to visit Tsarskoye Selo.

Almost all subsequent emperors spent their childhood here. They lived here from spring until late autumn. They played on Children's Island, where a house was built for them, and even with furniture; roamed the parks, studied animals, birds and plants together with adults. In addition to teaching science and secular etiquette, they were engaged in horse riding, fishing and much more.

The brother of Alexander I, the future Emperor Nicholas I, loved Tsarskoe Selo and spent a lot of time there with his family. They preferred a simple way of country life and lived with the whole family in the Alexander Palace, and held official receptions and balls in the Catherine Palace. Under him, the interiors of the palace underwent significant changes. But, after the death of the daughter of Nicholas I, Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna (Adini), the emperor and his family began to appear less and less here, where every corner reminded of a huge loss.

Emperor Nicholas II lived in the palace for the longest time with his family. Under him, some rooms were rebuilt, the heating and water supply systems were improved. The summer residence has become suitable for year-round use. After 1905, in a turbulent time for the country, the emperor and his family lived almost inseparably in Tsarskoye Selo. Here they felt safe under the protection of officers. As I mentioned earlier, it was from the Alexander Palace in 1917, after a long house arrest, that the whole family was sent to Tombovsk, and then to, where they were shot. They spent the last night literally "sitting on their suitcases". It was already known that they would be taken somewhere, but no one said exactly where. Finally, already sitting in the car, the empress either crossed her former servants or the palace. The Romanovs did not return here again.

After the Romanovs

As soon as the royal family was taken out of the Alexander Palace, an inventory of the interiors began. It was decided not to destroy or transport anything, but to make an exhibition here dedicated to the life of the last Russian emperor. Already in 1918 it was opened to visitors. State rooms, private apartments of the imperial couple, art collections collected by the Romanovs over many generations were shown.

The museum did not last long. Soon it was decided to turn the building into a rest home for NKVD officers and an orphanage named after Young Communards. The fact is that the Revolutionary government has long been looking for a place where a large number of children could be accommodated. Create a kind of "Children's kingdom" in one of the suburbs of then Petrograd.

Several thousand children were placed on the territory of Tsarskoye Selo. On November 20, 1918, the city received the name "Children's Village". Children lived including in some rooms of the castle.

During the occupation of Pushkin, the Alexander Palace served as the headquarters building for the German command. Therefore, the building itself was practically not damaged. In front of the palace, the Nazis set up a cemetery for their officers. They erected birch crosses and fences on the graves.

Many of the interiors were damaged or looted during the occupation, but some of the rooms still retain elements of decoration. After the release of Pushkin, the roof of the building was restored, and the palace itself was mothballed. In 1949, the All-Union Pushkin Museum was moved here. By this time, the facade of the building and the halls least damaged during the war had been restored. Since 1951, the palace has been transferred to the Ministry of Defense. For a long time there were research organizations and schools. The territory of the palace became closed to visitors, scientists and artists. Finished walls and even parquet were carefully covered with boards. Neither the heavy equipment nor the constant presence of workers spoiled what was left of the interiors. In 1996, a grant was received from the World Monuments Fund (WMF) for restoration work. And already in 1997, in the right wing of the palace, where the chambers of Emperor Nicholas II and his wife had previously been, the exhibition “Memories in the Alexander Palace” was opened. Here you could see the preserved interior items and things of the emperor himself and his family members.

Unfortunately, at the moment the Alexander Palace is closed for a while for restoration work. On the museum's website they write that it is planned to finish them by mid-2018. This undoubtedly pleases us, as new rooms and expositions will be opened to us, we will be introduced to the still unknown facts of the life of the last emperor and his family.

If this does not stop you, then below is how to get to Tsarskoye Selo, as well as a map for better orientation on the ground.

How to get there

The Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve is located at the address:, city, st. Sadovaya d. 7.

You can get to the place in the following ways:

• An electric train ran from the Vitebsk railway station to the Tsarskoe Selo station in the city. The ticket costs about 40 rubles. Travel time is about 30 minutes. And already from the station you can get to the museum using fixed-route taxis No. 371, 377, 382, ​​buses No. 371, 382. You can also walk to the place on foot. This will take 30 minutes.
• By fixed-route taxis from Moskovskaya metro station. Taxi numbers: 286, 287, 342, 347, 545. Their stop is located near the House of Soviets behind the singing fountains. Travel time will be about 40 minutes, provided that there are no traffic jams. The cost is about 40 rubles.
• Bus number 187 runs from Moskovsky Prospekt opposite McDonaldsk. Here you can also catch fixed-route taxis that follow from the House of Soviets. The bus goes to the station in the city. The fare will be approximately 30 rubles.
• From the metro station Kupchino by fixed-route taxis No. 545, 286, 287, bus No. 186. Travel time will be about 30 minutes if there are no traffic jams. The ring of minibuses is located on Vitebsky Prospekt from the side of the metro.
• You can also take a taxi from anywhere in St. Petersburg. The trip will cost you about 500-600 rubles. A taxi will pick you up in about half an hour if there are no traffic jams.

Palace halls

In 2009, the Alexander Palace was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve. In 2010, three halls of the Front Enfilade were opened for visitors:

1. semicircular hall.
2. Portrait Hall.
3. Marble living room.

The rooms are united by through arched spans, thanks to which there is no feeling of separation of space: one smoothly flows into another.

semicircular hall was in the middle part of the enfilade. This is one of the largest and most elegant rooms. Official events and receptions for guests were held here. The room is decorated with paintings by famous artists. In the center of the room is a vase-candelabra. It was presented to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. Later, bronze flowers were specially made for her, in the holes of which candles were inserted. On the wall of the hall you can see a small fragment of the vault painting. Unfortunately, she herself was destroyed (painted over with white paint) by order of Emperor Nicholas I. The Romanov family spent their last night here with suitcases already prepared, waiting for departure to.

Portrait Hall. Even during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, portraits with images of members of the Romanov family began to be collected in this room.

marble living room, it is also called the Billiard Room, as there used to be a billiards. Now the room contains pieces of furniture, paintings, vases and decorative ornaments that have survived to our time.

Following to the eastern wing of the palace, you find yourself in a small living room of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Musical evenings were held here for family members and friends. In the center of the hall stood the empress' piano, on which she loved to play and pamper visitors with her talent. One interesting tapestry hangs on the wall of the room. Later, when Emperor Nicholas II had already abdicated the throne, and the further fate of the family did not bode well, they began to call him unhappy. Tapestry - a copy of the work of the master Vigee-Lebrun (1887). It depicts Empress Marie Antoinette of France with her children. Her fate is similar to the fate of the family of the last Russian emperor. She was executed during the French Revolution, the children also did not survive.

In the next hall former maple living room, divided into two parts for exhibitions) you can admire the exposition, where toys of the emperor's children, furniture and clothes are displayed. In another part of it, interior items and personal belongings of the Empress are presented. On one of the walls of the room there is a photograph depicting a room with its last mistress.

rosewood living room used by the imperial family as a dining room for family dinners. Those who were especially close were invited here for a meal, since the living room was located on the territory of the personal rooms of the imperial couple.

Former Lilac cabinet Empress Alexandra Feodorovna is designed in her favorite colors. Here she was engaged in needlework and parsed correspondence. The interior is modest, as in all other private rooms of the family.

former bedroom empresses. Most of all, the interior of the room surprises with a large number of images on the wall. Despite the fact that now exhibited a small part of them. Austerity and simplicity do not cease to amaze after the flashy luxury of the Catherine Palace. I can’t even believe that the imperial family lived here: everything is so simple and unpretentious.

In the waiting room of Emperor Nicholas II, chairs, a fireplace, and a table at which the tsar worked were preserved. Here you can see a collection of plates on which bread and salt were offered to the emperor when he came to some city, as well as outfits, portraits and photographs of the Romanov family.

Lavatory (Moorish Basin) Nicholas II. There used to be a swimming pool here. Now in the room there are cabinets made in the likeness of those that were previously in the library of the Alexander Palace.

front office Emperor Nicholas II. Meetings with ministers were held here. In my opinion, this is the most beautiful and comfortable room in the palace. Here you can admire the interior items, the layout of the room for a long time.

There is a really warm, homely atmosphere in the hall.

***

The Alexander Palace is not as wildly popular as the Catherine Palace. You can safely go here by purchasing a ticket in advance. There are no huge queues and crowds of the same thirsty to contemplate the beautiful.

I hope my review was useful and interesting for you. If you love and want to know Russian history, you should definitely visit the Alexander Palace. Do not deprive him of your attention! After all, a tour of the Catherine Palace is more of an aesthetic pleasure for the tourist’s gaze, all this luxury and gilding is full of and dazzles the eyes. When visiting Alexandrovsky, you find yourself in a completely different atmosphere. There are so many personal things here, some seemingly ordinary and everyday things that make the interiors so homely and cozy, and a visit to the palace is unforgettable.

They left the palace forever, rode along the wide driveway for the last time - and somewhere in the depths of their souls, foreseeing this, looked into the windows of the carriage, each from his own side. Sergei Alexandrovich glanced over the snow-covered crowns of the trees, and Elizaveta Fyodorovna suddenly looked around impulsively, trying to make out the two stone dogs guarding the entrance to the building of the Alexandrinsky Palace. A place where she was very happy...

The beginning of January 1905 turned out to be vain and bitter. In the first days of the year, the sovereign signed the petition of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich for his resignation from the post of Governor-General of Moscow, but left him as commander of the troops of the Moscow Military District. The prince and his family left the governor's mansion on Tverskaya and moved to a residence in the Neskuchny Garden in order to relax, gather their thoughts and determine how to live on. But a week later, Bloody Sunday happened - and on the evening of January 9, they, hastily gathered again, went to the Kremlin. Now it was only safe there. And the Alexandrinsky Palace - a witness of happy years - was left behind.

Here the outlines of the snow-white facade with wonderful semicircular balconies on graceful columns, carved arches in front of the windows of the third floor have melted - everyone has long called the palace "little Versailles". Luxurious entrance gates, decorated with sculptures - allegories of abundance, disappeared from sight. From now on, all this was to live only in memory.

Fourteen years ago, in 1891, when Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna stepped over the threshold of her new home, she tried to learn more about its history. In general, she was characterized by a desire to comprehend her new homeland, her faith, culture and language as fully as possible. And now she tried to remember the countless Russian names of all those people who built this beautiful mansion or lived here. Trubetskoy and Demidov, Golitsyn and Orlov, Serikov and Vyazemsky...

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She was told that once three aristocratic estates that belonged to different families were eventually merged into one, under the general name "Non-boring", - Elizaveta Fedorovna repeated a difficult word over and over again, trying to achieve the correct pronunciation. Proper names were given to her most difficultly - take, for example, Prince Trubetskoy, who gave the estate this outlandish name: he arranged various amusements here in the distant 18th century. And the beautiful Alexandrinsky Palace, it turns out, was first called Demidov, and there, they say, everything was completely lined with cages with songbirds - the owner, breeder Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov, was an eccentric man, famous for his collections of minerals and paintings, herbariums and a rare library, dressed servants with jesters , what’s there, rabbits, monkeys and cats ran freely around the rooms ...

And the botanical garden he laid out in the estate was considered the best in Russia and one of the first in Europe ... But the name of Count Fyodor Orlov turned out to be easy to remember. He, having acquired the estate, tried to give it respectability - it was with him that the lovely Tea and Bath houses, grottoes, rotundas and bridges appeared. His brother, the legendary Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky, on the contrary, brought here the spirit of unrestrained entertainment - from masquerades and fireworks to boating and fist fights.

The Neskuchny Garden is located on the right bank of the Moskva River and is the largest park in the historical part of the city.

The Neskuchny Garden was formed in the first half of the reign of Nicholas I from noble estates that previously belonged to the Trubetskoy (in the south), the Golitsyns (in the center) and the Orlovs (in the north).

The garden got its name from the Neskuchnoye estate of Nikita Yuryevich Trubetskoy.

On October 18, 1728, the prince bought in the name of his five-year-old son Peter from the archimandrite of the Zaikonospassky school monastery German (Koptsevich) "a yard mansion building with trees planted on the banks of the Moscow River." The site was located near the Andreevsky Monastery.

In the early 1750s, on the site of the purchased building, Trubetskoy erected a manor designed by the architect Ukhtomsky - the Neskuchny country house (a two-story house with four outbuildings).

A "labyrinth" and greenhouses were arranged behind the house, and a menagerie in the ravine.

By the beginning of the 19th century, little remained of the Trubetskoy estate. Holidays and festivities were held in the park, and in 1805 - the launch of balloons.

The only building left from the Trubetskoy estate is the Hunting Lodge.

Initially, there was a Stone Gallery in it, hunting rifles and gunpowder were stored, and servants lived. In Soviet times, the tea house "Samovarnik" was located in the house.

And since 1990, the Hunting Lodge has been a venue for the games of the television club "What? Where? When?".

The last owner of the Trubetskoy estate, Prince Shakhovskoy, sold it in November 1826 for two hundred thousand rubles for the construction of the summer residence of Emperor Nicholas I in Moscow.
After the purchase, the garden was not closed to visitors, and in 1830 a summer air theater was opened in it, in the creation of which the architect Osip Ivanovich Bove took part.

The theater accommodated up to 1500 spectators and was "like a covered large gallery in a semicircle, and the stage itself was adapted so that trees and bushes replaced the scenery." The theater immediately became very popular among Muscovites. Performances were given twice a week. Famous Russian actors played here: Shchepkin, Mochalov, Lensky and others. Ticket prices ranged from 15 rubles per box to one and a half rubles in the second gallery.

The theater existed until 1835, when the glory of Neskuchny was eclipsed by a new amusement park - Petrovsky, with a theater built in it.

The Trubetskoy estate was bordered by the possessions of the Golitsyn princes, whose name was also given to the nearby Golitsyn hospital.

One of the owners of the estate was Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, who became the prototype of the countess in Pushkin's story "The Queen of Spades".

Natalya Petrovna, who lived in St. Petersburg, did not want to part with the Moscow dacha and ordered in her will not to sell it earlier than 5 years after her death.

The son of the princess, the Moscow mayor Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn, sold the estate in 1843 to the Department of Appanages for thirty thousand silver rubles. The property acquired by the emperor occupied an area of ​​about 12.5 hectares. More than 2,500 trees grew in the park - lindens, birches and maples. The main house of the estate stood without glass and was in a dilapidated state.

On the site of the Golitsyn estate in 1951, a gazebo-rotunda was built in honor of the celebration of the 800th anniversary of Moscow.

The northern part of the Neskuchny Garden, located closest to the city center, was bought in 1754 by Prokofy Demidov from different owners: one plot from General Soimonov, the other from the widow of Prince Repnin.

A stone house was built on the resulting large plot. At the palace, Demidov laid out a garden that had the shape of an amphitheater.

The first plants were obtained by exchanging seeds and obtaining shoots from the Demidov Botanical Garden in Solikamsk.

From the manor house to the river, the garden descended in ledges that had different widths and heights, but the same length of 95 sazhens. The upper platform was separated from the yard and the house by a lattice about 10 sazhens wide.

Initially, fruit trees were planted, then shrubs and herbaceous plants. There were many stone greenhouses in the garden, where there were palm trees and trees from hot countries, and on the fifth platform from the top there was a large pond and a poultry house with rare birds and animals taken from Holland and England. In addition, soil sheds and greenhouses served for growing pineapples, grapes and sprouting other plants.

After the death of the owner, the deserted Demidov estate was acquired by Elena Nikitichna, the wife of Prosecutor General Vyazemsky, who spent her childhood in these places, on the estate of her father Nikita Trubetskoy.

In 1793, the former estate of Demidov was bought by Count Fyodor Grigoryevich Orlov, one of the famous Orlov brothers.

Under Count Orlov, Demidov's house was rebuilt, a complex of outbuildings was created, a park was landscaped on the slope of the high bank of the Moskva River, in which a figured pond, pavilions, bridges and a grotto appeared.
Two thalwegs saturated with groundwater were used to create the Ekaterininsky pond.

Having no legitimate offspring, Fyodor Orlov bequeathed the estate to his 11-year-old niece Anna Chesmenskaya. All management of Neskuchny on behalf of her daughter was carried out by her father Alexei Grigorievich Orlov-Chesmensky.

In the former Demidov Palace, the old count gave feasts for the amusement of his only daughter, after which fireworks were fired. Count Orlov turned the new estate, called "May House" at that time, into a place of entertainment.

"In the summer, not a single holiday, not a single Sunday was complete without any celebrations and holidays in the count's garden," contemporaries recalled. The slopes of the ravines were strengthened and formed; two capital stone bridges were built across the dry ravine: Upper and Middle. The main planning changes in the estate took place at the same time and they were associated with the count's main passion - horses. Along the northeastern border of the service yard, an extended two-height stone building of the Manege and the stables adjoining it was erected. Carousels were arranged in the Orlov Manege - horse races and processions, in which his daughter Anna took part.

Currently, the Fersman Mineralogical Museum is located in the former building of the arena.

The former house temple at the arena has also been preserved.

In 1804-06, a two-story Summer (Tea) house with 4 Corinthian columns was erected on the Orlov estate. A vast platform was arranged in front of the southern facade of the house.

According to one version, the house was a place of secret meetings between Empress Catherine II and Grigory Orlov, according to another - as a place of games for Anna Alekseevna Orlova-Chesmenskaya. The house offers a picturesque view of the Moscow River and Frunzenskaya Embankment.

In the ravine, near the figured Ekaterininsky pond with natural banks, another classical pavilion was erected - the Bath House (or Bath), built on the site between the thalwegs. Until now, a significant amount of groundwater has been filtered through the pile system of the Vanniy Domik.

Bathtubs were installed in the house and a sauna operated.
In Soviet times, the Vanny Domik was a dining room and a cafe "Float".

Since the 1960s, after the first fire, the gradual destruction of the Vanny Domik began. During another fire in 2003, the columns partially collapsed, the dome burned down, and the remains of the building were sheathed with iron sheets and painted green. Now in this shabby, painted building it is difficult to recognize the elegant Bathroom House.

Next to the Ekaterininsky pond, there is a "Grid grotto with a stone vault, cleaned from the outside with a spongy stone", which was crowned earlier with the "Birch arbor". The grotto was built in 1807, after which it was rebuilt twice - in 1836 and 1856. Its last reconstruction in 1856 was carried out by the architect and engineer Pyotr Dmitrievich Delsal.

In the 1970s, the grotto was used by the Moscow “walruses” as a locker room: “It was in this grotto that the Moscow walruses arranged a locker room for themselves. sides and divided the resulting enclosed space into male and female halves" (from Valentin Kuznetsov's story "Walruses of the Neskuchny Garden").

After the death of Count Orlov, his daughter Anna inherited his fortune.

In 1826, Orlova gave a ball on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas I, it was attended by 1,200 guests, and the halls of the palace were lit by 7,000 candles.
In 1832, Anna Orlova sold the luxurious estate for one and a half million rubles to Nicholas I, who presented it to his wife Alexandra Feodorovna - since then the palace has become known as Alexandria.

In 1843, after the purchase of the Golitsyns' dacha, the Neskuchny Garden and the Alexandria Summer Palace were merged into a single ensemble.
Evgraf Dmitrievich Tyurin was the chief architect involved in the conversion of the former Demidov house into the royal palace. The estate was renovated, the service buildings were rebuilt. Lawns were arranged in front of the palace, and a Guardhouse was built next to the Cavalry Corps.
On the pylons of the entrance gates, sculptural two-figure groups holding a cornucopia were installed.

In front of the palace, a cast-iron fountain by the sculptor Ivan Petrovich Vitali has been preserved. Earlier, from 1835 to 1934, the fountain stood on Lubyanka Square, where it served as a water intake basin, which received drinking water from the Mytishchi water pipeline.

After the revolution, the palace housed a furniture museum. And in 1934, the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR was transferred to it from Leningrad.

The Neskuchny Garden was opened to the public in the absence of the imperial family in Moscow.
In 1861, it was planned to transfer the Neskuchny Garden with the former Golitsyn estate to the Society for the Acclimatization of Animals and Plants to set up a Zoological Garden here. However, the Zoo was built on the Presnensky Ponds.
In 1890-1905, the Neskuchny Garden became the summer residence of the Moscow Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov. In those days, access to the Neskuchny Garden was limited.
In 1928, the territory of the Neskuchny Garden became part of the Park of Culture and Leisure, which later received the name Gorky Park.

(Russia, Moscow, Leninsky prospect, 14-20)

The front part of the estate (the main house with outbuildings) is occupied by the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation. Free access closed

Since I did not study closely the history of the Neskuchnoye estate, it would be fair to turn to the materials of art critics I.K. Bakhtina and E.N. Chernyavskaya. In their wonderful book “Country Estates of Moscow”, they wrote: “The estate was formed in the 1820-40s as a palace property on the basis of earlier architectural and park complexes. The name Neskuchnoe was given to her by the southernmost estate, created in the middle. 18th century for Prince N.Yu. Trubetskoy. Near in ser. XVIII-early 19th century was the estate of the princes Golitsyn. The northernmost manor in con. XVIII-early 19th century belonged to c. Orlov and consisted of several sections. The main place here was occupied by the estate, created in the middle. 18th century P. A. Demidov. In 1796-1808. under A.G. Orlov-Chesmensky, Demidov's house was rebuilt, a complex of outbuildings was created, a park was landscaped, in which pavilions, bridges and a grotto appeared. It was this estate that became the basis for the creation of the summer Alexandrinsky Palace, intended for the wife of Emperor Nicholas I, Alexandra Feodorovna.

Designed by architect E.D. Tyurin, the buildings were rebuilt, the main entrance to the estate was decorated and a guardhouse was built. The work in the park was supervised by the gardener Pelzel.
When the royal family was not in the palace, the Neskuchny Garden was opened for festivities. In 1928 he became part of the Central Park of Culture and Culture. In the palace in the 1920s there was a furniture museum. Since 1934, the presidium of the Academy of Sciences has been located. In the 1940s, the strip of Neskuchny Garden along Leninsky Prospekt was built up with residential buildings.
The territory of the palace estate stretched along the Moskva River is compositionally divided into four historically developed sections. From the southern estate that belonged to Trubetskoy, a park area crossed by a ravine with a pond and a stone gazebo (Hunting Lodge) have been preserved.

1.
2.
3. Manor Neskuchnoe. Bath
4.
5.
6. Manor Neskuchnoe. Gate of the Alexandria Palace (I.P. Vitali). 1846
7-8.
9. Manor Neskuchnoye Summer house
10.
11. Manor Neskuchnoye Alexandria Palace (postcard)

The territory of the Golitsyn estate is determined by the clear layout of the regular park. 18th century with a multi-row main alley directed to the Novodevichy Convent. Two sections of the former Orlov estate are connected by bridges across the ravine. The southern section is occupied by an economic yard and a landscape park with pavilions, the front palace part is located on the other; behind it, the terraces of the park descend to the river, on which in the middle. 18th century the famous botanical garden of Prokofy Demidov was located, and now the Green Theater of PKiO.

Alexandrinsky Palace - a work of developed classicism architecture - is based on the Chamber of Ser. XVIII century, and in the decor - some details of the 1830s. The halls have preserved magnificent decoration and partly palace furniture. Outbuildings and outbuildings have two construction periods (the turn of the 18th-19th centuries and the 1830s) and generally correspond to the classic forms of the palace. In the most significant of the outbuildings, the arena, there is the Mineralogical Museum. The monumental guardhouse and the pylons of the entrance gate with the sculptures "Abundance" are made in the Empire style. A cast-iron fountain of the same time in front of the palace (sculptor I.P. Vitali) was moved here in the 1930s from Lubyanka Square. Remarkable for the elegance of classic forms are the Bathroom and Summer Houses in the park.”

On my own behalf, I note that the Bathroom House has more than once become an object of concern for specialists and lovers of antiquity, its fate is sad. The pavilion is disfigured by alterations, painted in an eerie color, but could become a decoration of the park, its beautiful detail. The summer house (10.2012) is under restoration.
Under the current city authorities, the park makes a good impression, large-scale landscaping work is being carried out here. The only inconvenience (for me personally) is crowded. Great place for relaxing and hiking.

Not far from the garden is the Oktyabrskaya metro station of the Koltsevaya and Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya lines and the Leninsky Prospekt metro station of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line. The Pushkinsky (Andreevsky) pedestrian bridge was thrown into the garden across the Moskva River. It takes 10 minutes to walk to the Frunzenskaya metro station of the Sokolnicheskaya line. In the garden there is also a pier for motor ships cruising along the Moskva River. The main entrance and entrances to the main alleys of the Neskuchny Garden leading to the Pushkinskaya Embankment of the Moskva River, the Alexandria Palace, etc., are located in the Leninsky Prospekt area, 16, 18, 20. (From Wikipedia)

Literature:
I.K. Bakhtin and E.N. Chernyavskaya "Country estates of Moscow" M., 2002, p. 52-55

Plan-scheme of the Neskuchnoye estate in Moscow

1. Alexandrinsky Palace
2. Cavalry Corps
3. Maid of honor corps
4. Kitchen outbuilding
5. Guardhouse
6. Arena
7. Stable
8. Overseer's yard
9. Greenhouse
10. Summer house
11. bathroom house
12. hunting lodge
13. Place of the main house of the Trubetskoy estate
14. The site of the main house of the Golitsyn estate
15. Main entrance gate

Yu.I. Shamurin ESTATE NESKUCHNOE ("Podmoskovnye" M., 1912-1914, comrade "Education")

At the beginning of the 19th century, there was no more popular place in Moscow than Neskuchnoye. Count A. G. Orlov-Chesmensky lived here; his receptions, in the summer - illuminations and theatrical performances, his races and carousels, fist fights and pigeons, his innumerable wealth and the glory of past exploits tirelessly occupied Moscow, from noble boyars to the street crowd ...
Even among the giant figures of "Catherine's Eagles" Orlov-Chesmensky stands out for his amazing power and integrity of nature.
There were five giant brothers, faithful companions of Catherine II. Alexei Orlov was born in 1737; in 1749 he entered the Preobrazhensky Regiment as a soldier. The coup on June 28, 1762, which brought Catherine the throne, exalted the Orlovs. Soon Alexei Orlov was promoted to second major, then received the Order of Alexander Nevsky. He was assigned to watch Peter III and was responsible for his death. According to his own explanation, he killed him by playing leapfrog and squabbling ...

While the influence of the favorite, Grigory Orlov, lasts, Alexei continues to receive more and more favors: in 1766 he receives full ownership of the villages near Moscow - Ostrov and Conversations and an annual "secret pension" of 25,000 rubles.
In 1767, Orlov went abroad with a secret assignment to get acquainted on the spot with the situation of the Greeks and Slavs under the Turkish yoke. He was granted 200,000 rubles for travel expenses and treatment after an illness.
Then Orlov commanded the Russian fleet in the Archipelago and for the victory over the Turkish fleet in the Chios Strait received the title of "Chesme". M. M. Kheraskov sang the exploits of Orlov in the long poem "Chesme Battle":

Everywhere there is noise and groan, and show off and the sky is dark,
And death from ships to others, like a whirlwind, strives.
Wherever you turn, you will see hell everywhere;
Lightning shines everywhere, there is no salvation anywhere,
The whole air has thickened, the earth is trembling in the distance,
And in the black whirlwind, death, rotating the scythe, shines...

After the victory, Orlov returned to St. Petersburg. In 1774 he again goes to the Archipelago. In Livorno, he treacherously catches the mysterious Princess Tarakanova. But the star of the Orlovs is already setting; Potemkin comes into force, and, returning to St. Petersburg at the end of 1775, the Chesme hero retires.
Having finished his service, Orlov retires to Moscow and settles at the Kaluga outpost in Neskuchnoye. Offended by disgrace, he lives quietly in Moscow, not yet enjoying the popularity that later surrounded his name. In 1782, Chesmensky marries A. N. Lopukhina. In 1785, his daughter Anna, the future heir to his entire fortune, will be born to him. While in Moscow in 1787, Catherine II visited Orlov in Neskuchny. He was asked to return to the service - he did not want to.

When Paul I came to reign, Orlov was in St. Petersburg. When transferring the body of Peter III from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to the Winter Palace, he carried the imperial crown. So the murderer paid the last honor to the murdered! While Paul reigned, Orlov lived abroad. Having received the news of the accession of Alexander, he immediately returned to Russia and settled in Moscow, where he lived until the end of his days.
Among the Moscow nobles of the early 19th century, Count A. G. Orlov-Chesmensky occupied a completely exceptional place. Immeasurably rich, generous, sweeping, he was famous not only for his wealth and hospitality: “some kind of charm surrounded the hero of the Great Catherine, who rested on his laurels in the simplicity of his private life, and attracted the love of the people to him. There was unlimited respect for him by all the estates of Moscow, and this general respect was a tribute not to the dignity of a rich nobleman, but to his personal qualities. These personal qualities were the loud fame of Orlov's exploits, his heroic appearance, and finally, his love for old Russian amusements. In Moscow, his horses were famous - "Orlov trotters", and the count himself went on the run. He held a "pigeon hunt", watching the reflection of the flight of doves in a silver bowl of water. The only one among the sophisticated Moscow bar, he cultivated the original Russian sport - fistfighting and generously rewarded distinguished fighters.

Miss Wilmot, who visited Moscow in 1805-1806, writes that A. G. Orlov "exceeds all the rulers of the educated world with his wealth and is buried in purely Asian luxury."
Most of all, this luxury was manifested in the organization of balls, masquerades and dinners, fireworks and festivities in Neskuchny.
“Truly loving everything native Russian, he decided to leave the splendor of the court and moved to the neighborhood of the ancient sons of the Fatherland. His other most respected brothers followed him, and a number of their houses made up a whole new street in Moscow, which is a rare combination of taste, wealth and intelligence ... ”The ability to love“ everything Russian ”distinguished Chesmensky from other Moscow nobles. At the pinnacle of power and wealth, he managed to remain what he was born. He was not seduced, like most of the Russian bar of the 18th century, by the fashion for Westernism, for the panache of "English camisoles and the Parisian dialect." Orlov was not penetrated by culture, he remained a bit of a wild man of Russia of the 18th century with daring amusements, with strong skills. “Breathing, so to speak, Russian, Count Alexei Grigorievich loved all domestic rituals, customs and gaiety until old age. Fighters, wrestlers, strongmen, songwriters, dancers, horsemen and horse riders, in a word, everything that only meant courage, strength, firmness, dignity and art of a Russian, flocked to his house in abundance.

The amusements arranged by Orlov on the Kaluga field opposite his house are mentioned by everyone who described Moscow life at the beginning of the 19th century.
“After the race in front of the pavilion, gr. Orlov was sung and danced by gypsies, one of whom was elderly, of unusual thickness, danced in a white caftan with gold braids and was noticeably different from the others. ... This fat man seemed to me extremely skillful, even eloquent in his body movements. It was as if he didn't dance... and yet it turned out beautifully: deftly, lively and noble. After the gypsy dance, a fist fight ensued ... the rivals first hugged and kissed three times. The winner was the tavern servant from the singing tavern, Gerasim, Yaroslavl, a peasant about 50 years old ...
At the end of all these tricks, the count and his daughter got into a one-wheeled carriage pulled up by four bay horses in a row, deftly picked up the reins and, yelling at the horses, set off at full speed around the racetrack and, having jumped it twice, turned sharply onto the road to the house and disappeared like a hurricane.

It was in 1805, three years before Orlov's death, when he was 70 years old!
Chesmensky went to the festivities in a ceremonial uniform, hung with orders. “His stately horse was in an Asian harness; moreover, the saddle, bridle and saddlecloth were strewn with gold and precious stones. A little further away from the count rode his daughter and several ladies on the most excellent horses, accompanied by noble cavaliers. They were followed by the count's groomsmen and grooms, including at least 40 people, many of whom had a factory horse in luxuriously embroidered blankets... Then a number of rich count's carriages stretched ... "
According to the memoirs of Professor of Moscow University P. I. Strakhov, a contemporary of Orlov: “And now the rumor in an undertone runs from lips to lips: “He is going, going, deigning to go!” All heads turn towards Alexei Grigorievich's house; many curious spectators of every rank and age at once take off their hats off their heads ... "
Orlov was the first to send gypsies from Moldova to Moscow and laid the foundation for lovers of gypsy singing.

In the arena at his house, carousels were often arranged, gathering the high society of Moscow. Among the lower classes of Moscow, Orlov's glory was supported by fisticuffs, goose and cockfights organized by him. There was, it seems, not a single fun of the common people, which Count Orlov would not pay tribute to.
Surrounded by universal admiration, Orlov sometimes behaved rudely, but the rudeness of such a person did not offend anyone and was transmitted as a curiosity. Many contemporaries tell how the count saw the guests off. “In Neskuchny once a week a crowded society gathered for the count. They sang and danced, but at 11 o’clock the horn blew, the count got up from his seat and said “Heraus!” (that is, “Out!”) and the departure began.
Under the boundless prowess and breadth of nature, Orlov-Chesmensky hid great caution and prudence. “He did a lot of good both openly and secretly ... His kindness was not so much the result of a naturally kind heart, but the calculation of a strong mind. He was not capable of enthusiasm, was secretive and not frank, sometimes he treated people coldly and did not quickly get along with them ... "
His hospitality, his cheerful amusements were a means to maintain the popularity of his name, created by military exploits, to stand among the first persons of Moscow. Orlov quite succeeded in this: none of the Moscow nobles of the beginning of the century has such enthusiastic and numerous reviews ...

One of his panegyrists, N. Strakhov, writes: “In a word, Count. Alexei Grigoryevich was not only the most respected and most kind Russian boyar, but also the soul that united the Russian nobles, the heart of popular gaiety, morals and customs, the hope of the unfortunate, the purse of the poor, the staff of the lame, the eye of the blind, the rest of the wounded warrior and the doctor of the sick nobleman.
We, who see his whole life, all the crimes committed by this iron man, seem to have something hidden in his whole life. It seems that it was not without reason that the fate of his daughter, who had been trying to atone for someone's sins all her life, was so strange, it was not for nothing that the ashes of Orlov himself did not find peace for so long: he was buried in his estate Ostrov, but in 1831 his daughter transported his ashes to the Novgorod Yuryev Monastery , and only in 1896, on a gun carriage harnessed by a train of 6 horses, was transported back to the family burial vault in Ostrov! ..
The heiress of A. G. Orlov was his daughter Anna, who was born in 1785. Contemporaries say that she was beautiful and inherited from her father a powerful nature and athletic build. Life smiled: for eight years she was made a lady-in-waiting, the best suitors of Moscow were at her service; her father left her a colossal fortune. Pious since childhood, she took a different path. After the death of her father, she went on a pilgrimage to Kyiv, then to Rostov. Here she submitted to the influence of the "sepulchral hieromonk" Amphilochius. After his death, Photius, a monk of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, became her confessor, a stern ascetic who made a career with the help of Countess Orlova...

When he became a monk at the Novgorod Yuryev Monastery, Countess Orlova bought herself an estate from the monastery and settled in it. She luxuriously decorated the monastery, bequeathed huge sums to it, and spent all her days in prayers, in "pure" fasts...
Until now, she remains as mysterious as her father. Contemporaries spoke of her love for the cunning ascetic monk Photius, and many epigrams haunted her; even if you believe them, something deeper will emerge from this love: some kind of thirst for repentance, prayers for someone's sins, some kind of fire of religious fanaticism. It was as if the whole sinful and magnificent life of her father lay on her shoulders as a heavy burden. She did not know peace; her life was not hypocrisy, common in the noble circles of that time: she left the world, gave all her fortune to churches and monasteries.
In one of the churches of the Novgorod Yuriev Monastery there are two simple tombs: on one of them there is an inscription: “Archimandrite Photius”, on the other - “Countess A. A. Orlova-Chesmenskaya”. And this church was built in the name of the martyrs Photius and Anna...

Having settled in Moscow, Orlov arranged for himself a luxurious estate near the Kaluga outpost, which he called Neskuchnoye. This name is still kept by the Neskuchny Garden at the Alexandria Palace, which passed into the treasury from the heirs of Orlov. The location of Neskuchny is very beautiful: it is located on the high bank of the Moskva River. The magnificent park is spread over the mountains, along the slopes of deep ravines, forming thousands of picturesque corners.
Orlov built a house in Neskuchny, now rebuilt as a palace, a number of pavilions, pavilions and bridges in the park. For his festivities, he built an "air", that is, open, theater, where patriotic allegories were given against the backdrop of natural scenery. In accordance with the whole character of Orlov, these were noisy militant performances that glorified Peter I, Catherine the Great, her glorious associates and among them, of course, Orlov-Chesmensky himself ...
Creating his luxurious near Moscow, Orlov always remembered his victories and state merits, and every pavilion, every building was erected to commemorate some event in his life. Time has taken away these memories, and only beautiful gazebos and bridges remain for us!
In addition to garden buildings, Orlov surrounded his estate with extensive services, stables, built an arena and greenhouses. Carousels were arranged in the arena, that is, costumed riding processions, one of the favorite entertainments of the Moscow nobility of the early 19th century.

All those who mention Neskuchny note the luxury of Olov's life, describe the beautiful "English garden" arranged by the count of entertainment, but are silent about the artistic appearance of the estate; and hardly noisy, self-willed Orlov appreciated art, had enough culture to obey the artists.
The Englishman Cox, who visited Moscow in the last decade of the 18th century, describes Neskuchnoye as follows: “The house is located on the edge of the city, on an elevated place; it has a very good view of Moscow and its environs. There are many separate buildings around it. The servants' quarters, the stables, the rancher's school, and other buildings are built of cobblestone; the foundation and the lower floor of the count's mansion are also made of cobblestone, while the top is wooden and painted green."
This extraordinary green dwelling of Orlov, with its inappropriate modesty, caused the lamentations of Empress Catherine, who visited Count Orlov in Neskuchny in 1787.
At the beginning of the 19th century, two manor houses in Neskuchny were already mentioned: the old one, in which Count Orlov usually lived, as if later turned into a city hospital, and the new one, later rebuilt as the Alexandria Palace.

"Air" theater - a covered gallery in a semicircle; the stage was adjusted so that the scenery was replaced by trees and bushes.
This amphitheater existed back in the 1830s, when the directorate of the Imperial Theaters staged performances there twice a week. In 1830, “by the Highest Command, it was ordered” to the architect Mironovsky “to take the Moscow Theater Directorate ... buildings in the Neskuchny Garden for arranging a summer theater.”
Every autumn, with the end of the performances, the theater was returned to the Palace Department. According to the inventory of 1830: “A summer wooden theater, uncovered, 35 fathoms long, 19 fathoms wide at the front end, 21 fathoms wide at the rear, sheathed with narrow boards, painted with white and wild colors.” Finally, in 1835, the summer theater was sold for scrap "so that the place was completely cleared."
Neskuchny's garden under Count Orlov was dotted with gazebos, "grotesques", bridges, artificial cliffs, temples, etc. Some of the buildings were lined with birch bark. With the transition of Neskuchny to the Palace Department, all these garden ideas began to collapse. In 1827, “two wooden pavilions with columns”* were broken due to dilapidation. In 1835, the pavilion on the Chinese bridge and the Egyptian pavilion were broken.
After the death of A. G. Orlov in 1807, Neskuchnoye, abandoned by his heiress, died out and became empty. In 1812 it was not damaged, but in the 1820s it had already lost its former grandeur. Noble Moscow transferred its sympathies to Petrovsky Park, and the former favorite place for walking, Neskuchnoye, at the end of the 20s began to enjoy a bad reputation in noble circles and served for walking "merchant sons in long frock coats and shawl vests and dandies from outside Moscow in Hungarian shirts"; “not very dexterous, but extremely cheeky young ladies in Kunavin shawls draped over one shoulder were walking here ... Around the tavern there was a smell of punch, the cracking of roasted nuts, laughter, loud conversations, of course in Russian, but with an admixture of French words, were heard along the alleys Nizhny Novgorod dialect ... "

Gypsy camps also stopped here. Soon after his accession to the throne, Nicholas I began to arrange summer accommodation in Moscow for his wife Alexandra Feodorovna. Neskuchnoye, bought from A. A. Orlova-Chesmenskaya for 800,000 rubles, was taken as the basis. A number of neighboring properties were attached to it, and thus a huge area was formed, now occupied by the Alexandria Palace and the Neskuchny Garden.
In 1828, the property of Prince Lev Alexandrovich Shakhovsky was bought. In 1842, a piece of land "between Neskuchny and Alexandria Gardens" was purchased from Prince Golitsyn.
With the acquisition of Neskuchny to the treasury, extensive restructuring began, led by architects Mironovsky and Tyurin.
These reconstructions cannot be called distortions: they did not violate the style of the estate, but gave it a too strict, official look. The palace and its surrounding area were especially affected: the fall in artistic taste, which marked the era of Nicholas I, was strongly affected here. the grandeur of court etiquette banished everything dreamy and poetic from Neskuchny.
A guardhouse was built near the palace, chains on poles stretched everywhere, marking the courtyard and paths. And the contrast of the palace and the estate is especially felt if you move from the courtyard in front of the palace to the far part of the park, which has retained the character of the estate! ..

The current Alexandria Palace appeared as a result of the restructuring of the Oryol house. In the forms of the palace, the drop in taste, which marked the Nikolaev era, was noticeably affected. Its paired columns, supporting not a pediment, not an attic, but steeply carved arches, are rather unusual.
Semicircular balconies with cast-iron pillars, dry straight lines of cornices, broken windows beyond any artistic calculations - all this heavy legacy of bad taste of the 1830s makes the Alexandrinsky Palace a building of little artistic value.
Both Mironovsky and Tyurin worked on the reconstruction of the palace. The first is known as the builder of the Synodal Printing House on Nikolskaya Street and the Nikolskaya Tower, which he renewed "in the Gothic style" after 1812. Mironovsky, the first Moscow architect of the early 19th century, left classicism and began to work in the spirit of the Gothic, thinking that by doing so he was returning to the forms of ancient Russian architecture!
Mironovsky was not a major artist, and the unsuccessful construction of the Alexandria Palace does not add or diminish anything from his fame.

E. Tyurin is in a completely different position. A talented follower of D. Gilardi, he is still known for such excellent work as the university church. Tyurin was the last classical architect of Moscow; Nikolaev's decline in taste did not touch him, leaving his work at that high level of aesthetic culture to which Bazhenov, Kazakov, Beauvais, Gilardi accustomed us. In the same Neskuchny there are several excellent works by Tyurin, which fully support his reputation, created hitherto by the university church alone. All the more annoying is the failure with the Alexandria Palace.
In it, however, Tyurin is more responsible than Mironovsky. So, in 1836, according to his drawing, two cast-iron portals * were arranged on the second floor, at the top of the semicircular (side) portals of the Alexandria Palace. Undoubtedly, during the restructuring of the Alexandria Palace, Tyurin's work was greatly constrained by the need to limit himself to small handicrafts, to adapt the relatively modest house of Orlov to the needs of court life.

In general, Neskuchnoe, built mainly by Tyurin, is the largest and best creation of Nikolaev architecture in Moscow. The entrance gate from Kaluzhskaya Street, the guardhouse at the palace, gazebos in the garden, and finally, huge service buildings and stables - all this, built in the 1830s, is the latest incarnation of Moscow classicism.
Massive gates were placed at the entrance to the palace from Kaluga Street. They are decorated with two sculptural groups, works by Vitali. Both decoratively beautiful groups are in the nature of allegories. They symbolize abundance; this is indicated by the horns of Fortune. It is quite difficult to understand their allegorical meaning. The fact is that the sculptors of the early 19th century considered it necessary to clothe each decorative figure with an allegorical meaning.

On the gates of the Alexandria Palace there is a sacred fire on the altar, and Ceres, or a statue of fertility with a sickle, and a Bacchic figure with a bunch of grapes, but all this has nothing to do with a beautiful decorative composition. Allegorism is a pattern that sculptors of the early 19th century did not want to get rid of. To sculpt just a human figure - it will be beautiful; but to personify in it glory or beauty, or love for the fatherland - this is already wise, significant, and after all, people of that time were great admirers of wisdom! ..
I. P. Vitali (1794-1855) worked in Moscow from 1818 to 1841. Much of his work is decorative; these are bas-reliefs on the facades of houses, tombstones, groups on the gates.
Gates with sculptural groups, very close to the gates of the Alexandria Palace, were made by Vitali in the 1820s for the entrance to the Orphanage. There, in allegorical figures, he depicted Mercy and Credit, the latter because a pawnshop was located in the Orphanage. On the gates of the Alexandria Palace, he apparently wanted to personify abundance, royal luxury, perhaps generosity. Be that as it may, the allegorical meaning from the outside is imposed on the beautiful decorative figures.

Vitali worked very unevenly, sometimes descending to the level of craftsmanship, sometimes reaching the best masters of his time. Nevertheless, his work is very easy to recognize: in contrast to other masters of the era of classicism, he loves small and complex details; clarity and majestic simplicity of composition stubbornly fails him. However, his decorative works are notable for their rhythmic, well-distributed composition and beautiful silhouette. All these properties are also found in the entry groups of the Alexandria Palace, a fairly typical work by Vitali...
They date back to the 1840s. In 1846, "figures were made of baked clay, cast-iron peaks and bars in a lattice fence at the main entrance ...".

Behind these heavy gates one can see the palace at the end of the linden alley. In front of its facade - a vast round courtyard, furnished with dull cast-iron pedestals connected by chains - as if endless shackles were hung around the courtyard!
To the right of the palace is a small guardhouse. All forms of it are heavy and severe. Such is the spirit of the best, most expressive, architectural works of the era of Nicholas I. Such is the style of the era, magnificently expressed by architecture.
If Alexander's architecture, fanned with tenderness and harmonious beauty, was created for a cozy idyllic housing, then the architects of Nicholas I seem to have always thought about barracks, guardhouses and in their work reflected the fanaticism of the external order and despotism that created military settlements and other phenomena of that sort of!

Massive, heavy columns, steadfastly supporting a huge attic, almost equal in height to the columns, perfectly express the demands of state power, official cold, which were made to the builders of the Nikolaev reign. It is absolutely impossible to imagine in these forms a cozy house in the park, a dreamy gazebo by the pond! All decorative processing of the guardhouse of the Alexandria Palace is saturated with the same spirit of dispassionate, official grandeur, excluding everything elegant and lyrical. The lines are solid, as if all forms were cast from unyielding metal. The walls are devoid of decoration; the windows are outlined in harsh geometric semicircles. Above them, on the smooth field of the attic, round wreaths are rarely planted - severe ceremonial decorations, necessary as decorations on military attire. Finally, at the top - the state eagle, and in the corners - a rarely used decorative emblem - classic helmets.
This guardhouse is one of the most perfect expressions of the spirit of Nikolaev construction. The self-appointment of the building successfully emphasizes that this last era of Russian classicism served the construction of barracks, government offices, guardhouses and temples, erected for official reasons, due to the need for religion in a Christian state.

The dead despotism, the personification of power, which Nicholas architecture served, of course, cannot captivate and excite, but such masterpieces of their kind as the guardhouse of the Alexandria Palace are charming in their historical indicativeness: for understanding the era, they provide more than many literary sources!..
Despite its harsh purpose, the guardhouse is full of sophisticated architectural beauty. The stinginess and originality of the scenery - round wreaths on the attic, the state emblem and classic helmets in the corners - speak of the school of Gilardi, the most prudent of Moscow masters. But its forms are even simpler, even more severe than those of Gilardi. Apparently, the guardhouse was designed and built by Tyurin, although its elegance somewhat distinguishes it from other works by Tyurin in Neskuchny.

To the left of the palace, service buildings, a whole stone city, stretch along a vast stretch. There is an arena, stables, greenhouses, started by Orlov.
Among them, the stables deserve attention. They are interesting not only colossal size. The buildings of the stables, together with the arena, surround a special yard. Their main building, with a dome in the middle and two side wings, is also architecturally interesting. The builder understood them with the sensitivity that distinguishes the masters of the era of classicism, that the usual forms of manor houses and city palaces do not fit the stables: something less elegant, impressing with its majestic simplicity, is needed here.
It would seem that stubborn adherence to the classical canon narrows the possibilities of the builder, deprives his work of flexibility; but we see, however, that the resources of the classics are endless, that where elegance is inappropriate, they create monumental forms and thus cope with the most prosaic and utilitarian tasks without compromising their art. The stables of Neskuchny are beautiful by the proportions of their rusticated walls, which are alien to any decorations, by the grandeur of the whole vast composition.

When Neskuchny was transferred to the treasury, Orlov's services and stables were located here. Beginning in 1834, the architect Tyurin rebuilt them and brought them to their present form over the course of several years. In 1834, part of the Oryol services was adapted to house a squadron of cavalry and transferred to the Stable Department. These adjustments dragged on for several years; in 1838 Tyurin is still working on the Stables Yard.
The stables and services of the Alexandria Palace are his largest work. They convince more than all his other works that he was an artist who fully preserved the high architectural culture of his predecessors. Building stables, he managed to remain an artist. He thoughtfully approached the difficult task and found restrained and majestic forms, ideally matching the long lifeless hulls. There are many beautiful pieces of architecture here. In addition to the central building with a dome and massive rusticated walls mentioned above, it is necessary to point out the long buildings that border the road to the Neskuchny Garden. The perspective of walls with semi-columns and niches stretching into the distance on both sides is one of the best creations of Moscow classicism. The lot of Moscow artists, accustomed to building cozy mansions and estates, rarely had assignments of such a colossal scale!

Neskuchny Park is the best near Moscow. It occupies a huge space on the steep bank of the Moskva River, and its very location on an uneven, ledge surface provides rich decorative possibilities. The park is closed to the public, deserted; this is his special charm; it is inhabited only by memories, by only shadows of the past. From the end of the 18th century, Neskuchnoye played a prominent role in Moscow life: Orlov's festivities, theatrical performances, then - a favorite place for Muscovites to walk, a shelter for gypsies and cheerful Muscovites, and, finally, a historical place surrounded by attention and care ...
The paths of the park are thrown over ravines, go around the hills, offer picturesque views of the Moscow River, the palace, the pavilions brightening among the greenery. Neskuchny Park is an “English garden” that became fashionable in Moscow in the last years of the 18th century: the charm of untouched wildlife is artificially created; deliberately dug recesses look like natural ravines, mounded hills take the form of natural elevations; ponds resemble natural reservoirs, and among this untouched nature, the beauty of architectural decorations is especially captivating.
Part of the park adjacent to the Alexandria Palace was arranged "in the English manner" by the gardener Pelzel in 1834. "Grotesque bridges" with cast-iron gratings are thrown over artificial abysses in the Neskuchny Garden. They were built in 1834 by the same E. Tyurin.

Very little of the numerous decorations that were once in it under Orlov has survived in the park. Its paths under the overhanging maples, under the old lindens wind like snakes, now descending into ravines, then skirting the hills and getting out into the bright expanse, from where you can see the gray Moskva River, the clay fields behind it and the city disappearing into the gray haze. Through the network of branches, the city shines through like the edge of another, rough world. Deserted paths strewn with sand wind through the corridors of maple branches, and only occasionally will they suddenly turn white in front of the column, a classic yellow and white pavilion will appear ...
On a high hill above the Moskva River stands a small "Summer House", one of those charming architectural toys that decorated the parks of old estates. The "Summer House" is magnificent in architecture. The cozy balconies behind the columns stretching along both facades are very good. There are two cast-iron flower vases in front of the house.
The light walls of this small joyful dwelling irresistibly attract with amazing clarity, lightness, purity of proportions! As if not from stone, but from thickened air, white columns grew, magnificently measured windows ...

The "Summer House" was hardly built by Tyurin. Its forms speak of an earlier artist; it is very likely that the house was built under the previous owners, at the very beginning of the 19th century.
At the descent from this hill, near an artificial reservoir, touching the steps of the stairs to the water itself, there is a small gazebo with a semicircular colonnade and a high dome. This is "Bath"; the pond located in front of it is called "Elizabethinsky". Its walls were surrounded by overhanging maples. The white columns are beautifully reflected in the overgrown pond, and all around the green slopes of the ravine go up, forming a picturesque corner, a poetic motif of noble antiquity...
The “Bath” in the Neskuchny Garden is mentioned by those who described the estate still in the possession of A. G. Orlov. However, the forms of the now existing "Bath" are very close to the creations of Tyurin. There are also documentary indications that in 1834 Tyurin made a terrace with gangways, trellises, benches, etc. "to the stone arbor in the Neskuchny Garden" in 1834. This is the same exemplary work of classical architecture as the "Summer House", but much more original. Masterfully composed central semicircular colonnade with a high dome. For a building placed in a ravine, at the foot of green slopes, it is precisely such an elongation, such a height, that frees a small building from being crushed, is needed ...
"Summer House" and "Bath", immersed in greenery, are beautiful idyllic pearls of Neskuchny. The sounds of the city are not heard here. How the fortress walls separated them from the rest of the world trees.
In a deserted park, as in a sleepy kingdom, images of the past, fragile as a musical melody, images of eternal beauty, for which there is neither past nor future, froze!

A. Alekseev Summer house in the Neskuchnoye estate

Date of construction: 1796
Architect: E. D. Tyurin
Restoration date: 1978 - 1979, 2012 - 2013
Author of the restoration project: N. I. Danilenko (RBOO TsTRK "Preobrazhenskoye")

The first estate on the territory of the future Neskuchny Garden was created in 1756 by P. A. Demidov, heir to six iron smelters, a well-known benefactor.
For a park in the form of an amphitheater, the banks of the Moskva River were leveled for two years. About 2000 rare plants were planted in it.
The next owner of the Demidov estate was Princess E. N. Vyazemskaya, whose father and husband were prosecutor generals. In 1793, the new owner was Count F. G. Orlov, General-in-Chief, brother of the favorite of Catherine II. Under him, the main house, arena and stables were rebuilt, and the garden was decorated with numerous buildings - gazebos, grottoes, baths, sculptures. Some of them have survived to this day, including the Summer House. A memorial plaque on the building says that it appeared in the 18th century. In the reference literature, you can find two dates of construction - 1796 and 1804 - 1806 (currently the second option is considered more likely).

The building in the style of classicism was built on the edge of the coastal slope. Both the front and park facades are decorated with four-column Corinthian porticos topped with triangular pediments with semicircular windows. Through the entire second floor there are balconies with an openwork iron lattice, its pattern repeats the fence of the first floor of the park facade. Initially, the building had no extensions or balconies. It was one-story, with mezzanines. The central part was double-height, without overlap. A valuable element of the design of the facade from the side of the garden is the unique "Demidov" cast-iron vases for flowers.

In the house, the count received guests; in winter, a stove was heated (the remains of which were preserved in the basement of the building). From the house one could watch the races of the Oryol trotters on the ice of the Moskva River. After the death of the count, the estate was inherited by his niece Anna.
In 1812, General A.-J.-B. Lo de Lauriston, who was the French ambassador to the court of Emperor Alexander I, and during the war became Napoleon's adjutant general. During the great Moscow fire, the buildings of the Orlov estate were not damaged.
The ball in the estate of Countess Orlova was called by contemporaries one of the best during the celebration of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas I in 1826.

Perhaps it was then that the emperor liked the estate on the banks of the Moscow River. In 1832, the Orlov estate was bought to the treasury for one and a half million rubles, and the estates of the princes Golitsyn and princes Trubetskoy, located to the south of it, were also acquired. The latter was called "Neskuchnoe", which was also given to the garden created by the palace department on the site of three estates. The emperor presented it as a gift to his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, in whose honor the rebuilt Orlov Palace became known as Alexandrinsky.

According to the project of the architect E. D. Tyurin, who became famous for the restructuring of the Grand Kremlin Palace, the Summer House was rebuilt in the 1830s. Ceilings were made that turned the building into a two-story building, balconies were added (this fact became clear during the last restoration work). Outdoor tea parties were held in the Summer House for the royal family (the tradition continued until 1917, although both Nicholas and Alexander II and Alexander III visited their residence in the Neskuchny Garden infrequently), which is why the house had a second name - Tea. In those days, from the balconies of the second floor there was a beautiful view of the Sparrow Hills, the Novodevichy Convent and the Kremlin.

In 1928, the Military Camp was opened in the Summer House, where visitors were taught how to handle weapons.
In 1930, the 25th anniversary of the uprising on the battleship Potemkin was celebrated here. Later, the house began to be used for various cultural events of the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture, it housed a library with a reading room. In order to adapt to the library, two wooden side extensions were made. By the end of the 1970s, they fell into disrepair, and during the restoration of the Summer House on the eve of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, they were replaced with brick ones.

By 2012, the need for restoration of a number of objects in the Neskuchny Garden, including the Summer House, became obvious. Peeling paint, rotten roofing, crumbling plaster both outside and inside the room, cracks on the walls - all this was already evident.
They did not paint the bicentennial building and cheap linoleum on the floor, modern wallpaper and other elements of inexpensive interior decoration.
The restoration project provided for the restoration of the historical appearance of the building with the preservation of elements of the Soviet period (side extensions) as not distorting the external appearance. The facades of the Summer House were restored, the foundations and walls were strengthened, emergency wooden ceilings were replaced. The decorative elements made of white stone were restored - front porticos, columns and platforms.

Cast-iron decorative grilles and cast-iron vases in front of the entrance have been restored. Window and door fillings were installed taking into account the historical style of the monument. When restoring the structure of the balconies, the preserved historical coloring of the building was discovered - grayish (white with a slight addition of soot).
In the Summer House of Count Orlov, which was restored to its historical appearance, there is now a photo studio where you can take pictures in costumes and interiors of different eras.

Literature:
A. Alekseev Moscow, which is. The best examples of the restoration of the XXI century. M., 2013

One of the most popular places of recreation in Moscow, especially in the summer, is the famous Park of Culture or Gorky Park. Its logical continuation is the no less interesting Neskuchny Garden.

If Gorky Park is always crowded, there is an embankment, a lot of cafes and entertainment for every taste, then Neskuchny Garden is a more secluded place, with lush vegetation and hilly terrain, somewhat reminiscent of a real forest in the center of Moscow, I even noticed squirrels there, briskly running through the trees.

While Gorky Park is a place of recreation for young people, Neskuchny is preferred by mothers with prams, pensioners and lovers of a relaxing holiday. Once on the site of this garden there were as many as three noble estates of the Trubetskoys, Golitsyns and Orlovs, which were later bought by the imperial court and merged into one under the common name Neskuchnoye.

You can get to the Neskuchny Garden from the Frunzenskaya, Leninsky Prospekt, Shabolovskaya metro stations and through Gorky Park. I decided to take a walk from Frunzenskaya along the renovated Andreevsky Bridge.

Rather, this bridge is currently called Pushkinsky, but since some structures of the old Andreevsky railway bridge built in 1905 were used during its construction, the first name is also often used in relation to this engineering structure.

The covered central gallery looks quite modern, and the old turrets have been preserved on the side ones.

This bridge offers stunning views of the Neskuchny Garden, Pushkinskaya Embankment on the one hand, and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and Gorky Park on the other.

We go down to the park, at the entrance to which there is a diagram. The first thing we see is a curved stone small bridge.

Like the next two, it was built in the 19th century. There is a romantic legend that lovers who kiss on this bridge will link their lives forever. From this place, paths diverge in different directions.

One of them goes along the bottom of the ravine, over which we further see a medium and large stone bridge.

The latter connects the former arena with the Alexandria Palace.

The arena now houses the mineralogical museum.

This part of the park was acquired in the middle of the 18th century by the eldest son of the famous mining owner P.A. Demidov, who was passionately fond of botany and gardening. In 1756 he started building a stone house. Behind him, on the slope of the Moskva River, he ordered to build a park, for which he brought more than two hundred species of various plants. It was rumored that there was no such garden not only in Russia, but also abroad. Over two years, 700 serfs worked on leveling the relief. Stone greenhouses were built in the park, where exotic plants were grown: grapes, pineapples, peaches. Prokofy Demidov was famous for his eccentricities. So, he made up the guards of the estate as park sculptures, and when a visitor picked a flower or behaved inappropriately, these sculptures came to life and frightened passers-by. In 1793, one of the famous Orlov brothers, Fyodor, bought the Demidov estate and began to equip everything in it to his liking. After his death, since all the count's children were illegitimate, the estate went to his niece Anna Orlova-Chesmenskaya, but due to her too young age, her father Alexei Orlov managed everything. For his daughter, he arranged grandiose balls in the estate. Pavilions appeared in the park, including the Bath House, which has survived to this day in an extremely deplorable state. Now it has no roof, and the columns are fenced with some kind of panel.

Near this pavilion there is an artificial pond, and a grotto has been preserved on the hill.

The summer house of Count Orlov, built at the beginning of the 19th century, has also survived to this day.

Near it is equipped with a cozy square with benches, there is also a poultry house.

And this is what this building looks like from the side of Frunzenskaya embankment.

On the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Nicholas I in Neskuchny, Countess Orlova gave a grandiose ball, which was attended by more than 1,200 guests. Perhaps it was then that the imperial family decided to purchase this estate. In 1832, the countess sold Neskuchnoye to the tsar, who set up a summer residence here for his wife Alexandra Feodorovna. After the seventh birth, the doctors forbade her to give birth in the future, so their close relationship with her husband ended there. They say that Nicholas I specially bought this estate in order to send his wife to it, and to meet his favorites in St. Petersburg without hindrance. In honor of Alexandra Feodorovna, the palace in Neskuchnoye was named Alexandria Palace. In addition, the neighboring estate of the Moscow Governor-General D.V. became the property of the emperor. Golitsyn, and the estate of Prince L.A. Shakhovsky, previously owned by Trubetskoy. It was during the reign of Prince Trubetskoy at the beginning of the 18th century that this property began to be called Neskuchny. The fact is that the owner of the estate entertained his guests with musical evenings, masquerades and fireworks. This tradition was revived again under Alexander Feodorovna - an open-air theater was organized in the estate. Bushes and trees served as backstage, there was no scene as such. At first, the new entertainment attracted the public, but such a theater also had drawbacks: because of the wind, not all words were well audible, and in the rain the performance became completely impossible. Of the Trubetskoy estate, only the Hunting Lodge has survived, in which today the program “What, where, when?” is being filmed. Unfortunately, during my walk, the next shooting was just taking place, the house was fenced, and the area in front of it was full of cars.

In 1923, the First All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition was organized in the Neskuchny Garden. And in 1951, after the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the founding of Moscow, a park was laid out in the park and a white-stone gazebo-rotunda was erected.

On its bas-reliefs, you can see the main stages in the history of the capital and Russia: the foundation of Moscow, the Battle of Kulikovo, revolutions, civil and Patriotic wars.

According to legend, if you write the name of your loved one on a piece of paper and bury it next to this rotunda, then the object of your dreams will definitely pay attention to you. Nearby is the Alley of Love, also popular with lovers. Thus, there are a lot of romantic places in the Neskuchny Garden, quite possibly, this is facilitated by its sparseness and special atmosphere.

Also, members of all sorts of informal groups such as Tolkinists like to gather in this park. It seemed to me that the Neskuchny Garden is one of the most interesting and cozy places of rest in the very center of the capital.