The address: Russia, Moscow, Leninsky prospect (metro station Leninsky prospect, Oktyabrskaya)
Main attractions: Alexandrinsky Palace, Manege, Summer House, Hunting Lodge
Coordinates: 55°43"14.0"N 37°35"37.0"E
Object of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation

Content:

On the right bank of the Moscow River, in the heart of capital Cities there is one of the largest Moscow parks, which used to be called the Neskuchny Garden. Smooth linden alleys, beautiful fountains, attractions for kids, a huge Green Theater and sports grounds. Everything, as it should be in a place where people come to relax from the city noise. In different parts of the park, you can see the picturesque buildings of the old Neskuchnoye estate.

Alexandrinsky Palace

History of the estate

In fact, on the territory of the modern Neskuchny Garden, park alleys and buildings that belonged to three noble estates have been preserved. The owner of one of them was Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov, who, like his famous father, owned large mining enterprises. P.A. Demidov was known as a passionate gardener, a lover of birds and bees. On the territory of the estate, he built a rich palace for himself and placed many cages with songbirds in it.

The Demidov Botanical Garden appeared in the estate in 1756 and had the form of an amphitheater. In addition to unusual ornamental shrubs and fruit trees, here one could see exotic palm trees for Russians. And the first plants - shoots and seeds came to the Moscow estate from the botanical garden in Solikamsk. In 1781, academician Peter Simon Pallas lived for a month in the Demidov estate and, at his request, compiled a detailed catalog of trees, shrubs and herbs growing around the miner's house.

The eccentricity of the owner manifested itself in different ways. He ordered that the watchmen of the botanical garden be dressed in white suits and forced them to make up to look like park sculptures. The watchmen stood motionless and “came to life” only when one of the visitors tried to break a tree branch or plucked beautiful flowers from a flower bed. Because of this, Muscovites began to call the garden Neskuchny. But this is only one of the versions of the origin of the unusual name.

Maid of honor corps

After the death of Demidov, Elena Nikitichna Vyazemskaya bought the land, and after her, Count Fyodor Grigoryevich Orlov. Under the new owner in 1806-1808, a large arena was built on the estate.

From the south, the estate of Prince Nikita Yuryevich Trubetskoy, who acquired these lands in 1728, adjoined Demidov's possessions. In the middle of the 18th century, a beautiful two-story house appeared here. It was erected for the princely family by the architect Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky, a famous master of the Elizabethan Baroque. The descendants of the prince remade the estate in their own way. They arranged in it a "Versailles garden", a menagerie and a poultry house, wooden galleries and a stone grotto.

After the Trubetskoys, Neskuchnoye changed several owners. Some owners tried to set up the production of iron and copper products on the estate. Others, chasing profits, opened the first hospital in the city with artificial mineral waters on the Moscow coast. However, all attempts to earn income from the estate failed. Neskuchnoe continued to be a place of mass festivities and amusements, and the public who came here had fun as best they could. At the beginning of the 19th century, balloon flights, which were rare in those days, were very popular.

Summer (Tea) house

At the very beginning of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, vast lands on the right bank of Moscow were bought by the palace department in order to create a new summer royal residence here. The southern section of the lands acquired by the treasury was occupied by the former estate of N.Yu. Trubetskoy Neskuchnoe. It is believed that it gave the name to the entire palace and park ensemble built later. Nearby was the Golitsyn estate. The north of the new royal residence previously belonged to the Orlov counts and consisted of several sections. And in the center of the vast palace property was the old Demidov estate with a botanical garden well known to Muscovites.

From that moment on, the territory of the Neskuchny Garden began to be equipped as a single architectural and park complex. The regular parks of individual noble estates were gradually planted with new trees and shrubs and turned into landscape ones. The well-known architect Evgraf Dmitrievich Tyurin magnificently decorated the two-story building of the Oryol arena and gave it a solemn look.

The Demidov Palace, or as it began to be called, the Alexandria Palace was also remade in the traditions of the late Empire and equipped with chambers for the emperor and spacious halls for receiving guests. Then, according to the project of E.D. Tyurin, two large buildings were completed to the main palace - Freylinsky and Cavalry, as well as a small guardhouse building. From Kaluzhskaya street to the main entrance to the palace there was a main access road. It originated from the beautiful gate, which was decorated with the allegorical sculpture "Abundance".

Hunting lodge. Filming of the program "What? Where? When?"

In 1917, the royal estate was nationalized. Then the Neskuchny Garden was renamed the Park of Culture and Leisure named after Maxim Gorky. Year after year, many new buildings and pavilions were erected here, as well as the landscape was changed - alleys were broken, the river bank was strengthened and new plantations were made. Therefore, the modern park is very different from what it was 100 years ago.

What buildings are preserved in Neskuchny Garden

In the "Demidov" part of the park, the Alexandria Palace has been preserved, built in the middle of the 18th century in the style of classicism and reconstructed in the 1830s as an imperial residence. On the sides of the luxurious house are small colonnades that support neat semicircular balconies. To the left and right of the central entrance, you can see chamber statues of dogs. In 1930, a beautiful cast-iron fountain appeared on the square in front of the palace, which until that time had adorned Lubyanka Square. And this fountain was built at the end of the 19th century according to the project of the talented sculptor Ivan Petrovich Vitali.

Former arena. Mineralogical Museum named after A.E. Fersman in the Neskuchny Garden

Nowadays, the palace is occupied by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and, unfortunately, it is impossible to see the building inside. On the terrace where the famous botanical garden once grew, today there is a large Green Theater that can accommodate up to 15 thousand spectators.

From one of the owners of the estate, Count Fyodor Orlov, a two-story building of the arena, built at the beginning of the 19th century, remained in the park. Since 1936, it has housed one of the most famous mineralogical museums in the country, named after Academician A.E. Fersman. Unique museum collections began their history in 1716 and still attract many visitors.

The Summer (or Tea) house also remained from the Oryol estate. It was erected in 1796 and today is the oldest of the manor buildings. The picturesque two-storey building in the classicism style is decorated with a slender colonnade, and one-storey outbuildings are made on the sides of it. A small playground is equipped nearby and there are benches where visitors to the park like to relax.

Small (Grotesque) bridge

From the estate of Prince N.Yu. Trubetskoy in the Neskuchny Garden, a small neat hunting lodge-rotunda, built in the middle of the 18th century, has been preserved. In it, the hospitable owner liked to spend time with friends. In modern history, this ancient building became famous as a filming location for the TV show “What? Where? When?". In memory of the princely estate of Neskuchnoye, there was also a large ravine with a dam and several alleys of the old regular park.

Relaxing garden

The park area has long been chosen by Muscovites for walking and leisure. Guests of the Neskuchny Garden can walk along the paths past several ponds, admire the picturesque bridges thrown across the ravines and feed almost tame squirrels. Many people like to just sit on the benches in the shade of trees and look at the pleasure boats cruising along the river.

Some places in the Neskuchny Garden look like a dense forest. On the territory of the former noble estates oaks, maples, poplars, lindens and birches grow, and in summer there are many flower beds. Playgrounds and attractions have been built for children in the park. For horse lovers there is a Center for the Development of Equestrian Sports.

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 drawn 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 is in this grotto that the Moscow walruses set up 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.

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 in command 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 “Neskuchnoye,” Elizaveta Fedorovna repeated the 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, he 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.