European Demidoff Foundation / Европейский Демидовский фонд

Европейский Демидовский фонд создан в Швейцарии как преемник Лондонского филиала Международного Демидовского фонда (МДФ)

Дата основания: 28 ноября 2022 года (Лугано, Швейцария)

Союз потомков Демидовых, объединившихся для продвижения важного исторического, культурного и филантропического вклада нашей родословной.

Заявление о миссии: Продвигать историческое наследие поколений членов семьи Демидовых и их важный вклад в искусство, политику, культуру и филантропию.

Структура членства:
- Члены семьи будут состоять из прямых потомков Демидовых как по мужской, так и по женской линии.
- Академические члены будут состоять из ученых, проводящих исследования для представления и/или публикации своих работ по историческому вкладу Демидовых.
- Общие члены – это представители широкой общественности, которые заинтересованы в том, чтобы их информировали по вопросам, связанными с Демидовым.

План действий:
- Поделиться со всеми уровнями членства предстоящим расписанием конференций, симпозиумов и других мероприятий, связанных с историческим наследием Демидовых.
- Принимать непосредственное участие в презентациях, конференциях, симпозиумах и музейных выставках, связанных с историческим наследием Демидовых.
- Обеспечить ознакомление членов клуба с недавно опубликованными качественными презентациями и публикациями по Демидовым.
- Если возможно, принимать непосредственное участие в поддержке и публикации качественных книг и журнальных статей, посвященных Демидовым.
- По возможности принимать непосредственное участие в поддержке сохранения и/или ремонта демидовских памятников и сооружений.
- Заниматься сбором средств в поддержку инициатив, связанных с Демидовым, которые поддерживаются большинством членов семьи.
- Заниматься изучением происхождения демидовских предметов по просьбе членов клуба, аукционных домов, музеев, художественных галерей и т.д.
- Заниматься генеалогическими исследованиями, связанными с Демидовыми, по просьбе членов семьи.
- Сотрудничать с исполнительным директором Международного Демидовского фонда в Москве по тем мероприятиям, которые направлены исключительно на поддержку исторического наследия Демидовых.

Руководитель фонда: Alexandre Tissot Demidoff / Александр Тиссо-Демидов, прямой потомок Павла Павловича Демидова, второго князя Сан-Донато.

Alexandre Tissot Demidoff

President of the EDF

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Kristiina Helmi Natalia Demidoff

Vice President of the EDF

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Alexander Borovikov

Ambassador in the Board of Directors of the EDF

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Материалы, предоставленные Европейским Демидовским Фондом

The First Malachite Hall in Russia: The Pavel Nicholaevich Demidov Mansion on Bolshaya Morskaya

By EDF Academic Member in Spain, Antoinio Perez Caballero

“QUAND on veut décrire la vie où l’on s’amuse, au fond, semble-t-il aux autres, la vie des fous : mais c’est la vie des gens qui ont la liberté du monde entier ; la liberté du grand luxe, ou, étant vraiment heureux, on peut se moquer de tout. Bref, de mon point de vue, c’est ce que représente vraiment le mot “liberté”

From the memoirs of Nadine Wonlar-Larsky, née Nabokova, “The Russia That I Loved”, who spent her happiest days in Russia in the Nabokov mansion located next to the Demidov mansion.

In a city renowned by the otherworldly luxury of her private residences and architectural sophistication, the palace on number 43 of the Bolshaya Morskaya truly stands out for the Italianate early baroque stone and marble facade. One of the most prestigious addresses in the capital, the quiet residential street boasted the Fabergé atelier and residence and, neighbouring it, we would find the mansions of Polovtsov, Nabokov and, directly across the Moika Canal, the Yusupov. To stand out in that street was not easy but the house is certainly impressive and, in style, rather unique, quite like a Roman Palazzo transported from Northen Venice stone-by-stone.

The porte cochère in the center was on both sides presided by couples of beautifully sculpted atlas and caryatids, with small sources of water falling into marble bowls from seashells. Later the northern winter weather made it impossible to maintain the water pieces and they were left as decoration. The powerful figures support a wide balcony, also in marble, with the central french window crowned by the coat of arms of the family. The man behind the design was none other than August de Montferrand, the architect responsible, amongst many other buildings, the nearby St. Isaac Cathedral and the Lobanov-Rostovsky enormous palace that organised esthetically that entire area of the city center.

The choice was only natural, not only because of his talent, but also because the Montferrand family had worked already for the Demidovs, as agents for Nicholas Nikitich (1773-1828), father of Pavel Nicholaevich (1798-1840). So much so that they attended the very wedding ceremony of Pavel Nicholaevich with one of the most beautiful ladies of the Imperial Court, demoiselle d’honneur of the Empress and daughter of the Viborg governor, the celebrated, Aurora Sjernval von Wallen. On the 14th of February 1836, in anticipation of the wedding, Pavel Nicholaevich bought the mansion and barely eleven days later he added the neighbouring number 45 house. Money most positively was not a problem. Other noble families like the Yusupovs or Stroganovs have been known for their enormous wealth, but the Demidovs had nothing to envy those neighbours. Famous for their prospecting in their many Ural mines, owners of immense country states, palaces and buildings all over Russia, their wealth was literally endless. But the Demidovs did not only use their wealth for their own pleasure, as did so many other aristocrats, they also were philanthropists who spent huge sums on the improvement of the life of the many ordinary Russian people. From schools to hospitals to annual prizes to enable students to travel around Europe for months and, of course, to launch their professional careers, and once more under the generous patronage of the Demidovs.

Amongst the designers that created the sumptuous interiors of Paul’s mansion was Garald Andreevich Bosse (1812-1894), expert in the charming rococo revival of the period and A. Viggi, celebrated by his exquisite paintings on faux marbre in several palaces. The plot of land, though by no means small, was nonetheless densely built around two courts, the first larger one and the second narrower one, destined to be the servant quarters. It had to be so, to accommodate the immense Parade Halls that the family would need to entertain in the scale that befitted their status. And truly they made the most of the mansion, a wide stately hall of white marble and an imperial staircase led visitors to the most famous hall in the house: The Malachite Hall. In Louis XV style, the long gallery occupied the central five windows of the facade’s bel stage. The room boasted pairs of columns at each side of the central mantelpiece, all of which were done in malachite. This was unheard of and the first time such precious stones were used in such architectural elements. This would later become the model for Montferrand’s iconostasis in St. Isaac Cathedral and, most universally renowned, the Malachite Hall in the Winter Palace. The Banqueting Hall, opposite the Parade Court, was no less impressive, done in an elegant Empire Style, a thick carpet covered the marquetry parquets, while the ceiling, rich in ornamental painting, had impressive vaults framing classical semicircular windows reflected onto the looking glasses and upper walled windows, certainly another regal hall. The Drawing room, with niches and columns at each end, followed the scale and luxury of the previous rooms, rare woods enriching the floor while, throughout the entire mansion, the Demidovs made use of their own Ural mines as the source of the marble and other precious minerals. It simply was the most opulent mansion of the street, which is quite a lot to say.

The only heir of Pavel Nicholaevich and Aurora Karlovna, Pavel Pavlovich Demidov (1839-1885), leased the mansion in 1864 for nine years and for 10.000 rubles in each of the years to the Italian Embassy. Rumour had it that he gambled considerably, to the point of needing to sell the mansion in 1875. The years and the owner passed and the second encounter with the Italian Embassy came when the mansion was bought by the Italian state in 1911. This would eventually prove to have catastrophic consequences for the building. At the beginning of the First World War, the edifice stood empty, until the time of 1924, when the government, now under Mussolini, resumed diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. As part of this process, Italy recovered possession of the mansion where it remained as the Italian embassy until 1957. It then became an Italian consulate office after Moscow was declared the capital of the new Soviet Union. As soon as 1925, the consulate received orders to transport to Italy everything that had of “some value” in the mansion. The report of the Consular General to the Soviet authorities, who were granting them a free plot of land in Moscow, was as follows: Italian embassy in Leningrad. Sent: 4 columns, 4 corner pilasters, 12 ordinary pilasters. Marble fireplace with malachite and bronze trim and black marble base. The list is dated 13 June 1925 and is signed by the Royal Consulate General.

The truth is even worse as they did not stop with dismembering and transporting the malachite and structural elements of the decoration, but also the precious marquetry floors, sconces and literally everything that could pulled off the walls, so stucco decoration, etc. In the end, the result was a wanton destruction of a monument of the highest significance. Of course the Glavnauka branch of the then Leningrad city asked for the prohibition of this kind of export and asked the People’s Commissariat to prevent the shameful exploitation but to no avail. Whatever the motive and whomever was ultimately responsible the contents were shipped out of Russia through the Crimea. Ironically, during the shipping process everything was irretrievably lost or destroyed. A sad, ghastly end for such a magnificent mansion, the first malachite hall in the world, a symbol of the Demidov Dynasty with its unlimited riches, and a masterpiece of the interior decoration in Russian history. Sadly, though, in those interwar years between 1918 and 1941 there would be thousands of such sales and thousands of “lost” pieces of the country’s artistic heritage never to be seen again.

Anatole Demidov: Voyage to Southern Russia in 1837

Anatole Nikolaievitch Demidov was born in Moscow in 1813. This followed the family’s return to Russia following Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. On their return, Anatole’s father, Nicholas, pledged to Tsar Alexander I, the creation of two militias that Nicholas would personally finance and lead against the French invaders. From his earliest days, Anatole was raised as a patriot of Russia and servant of the Tsar.

Nonetheless, in regards to his personality, Anatole was more French than Russian. He was educated primarily in Paris. He spoke several European languages but little Russian. He based himself primarily in Paris, and later at Villa di San Donato, that is located near Florence. He would visit Russia but on instruction from a member of the court of the Tsar.

In 1830, on reaching eighteen years of age, Anatole, decided to make his mark on the world, but in Paris. He had only recently come into his immense inheritance on the passing of his father in 1828. A close friend and mentor was Count Charles de Mornay, a highly cultured man, who was a confidant to the King of the French, Louis Philippe, the ruler of France from 1830 to 1848. During one of his visits to Charles’s apartment, Anatole found himself in the company of the French painter, Eugene Delacroix. Delacroix captured the two ‘dandies’ in conversation and exhibited the painting at the Salon in Paris in 1833. The painting served as a ‘calling card’ for Anatole that effectively ‘opened the door’ to the highest ranks of Parisian society.

Nonetheless, Anatole’s impressive success in Paris was not universally applauded. In Russia, Tsar Nicholas I was not impressed.

Tsar Nicholas I assumed the throne in 1825 and was not positively disposed towards Anatole. He was not happy with Anatole’s decision to settle permanently in Europe. Although Anatole’s industrial business was in Russia, sizeable dividends were regularly taken for reinvestment in Europe in support of Anatole’s lavish lifestyle.

It is believed that Anatole’s Voyage to Southern Russia in 1837 was based on two principle motives. The first was economic. The outcome of the voyage would benefit overall Russian industry as well as Anatole’s industrial empire. The objective was to locate and develop new sources of energy to promote the growth of heavy industry. The second was to secure the favour of the Tsar. Anatole dedicated the entire voyage to the Tsar and personally financed the entire cost of the voyage approximating 500,000 french francs. In turn, Anatole expected to enter into the ‘good graces’ of the Tsar and to receive recognition in the form of a ‘lofty’ title. Unfortunately, Anatole miscalculated on the last point.

The Voyage of 1837 was a true scientific and exploratory expedition. As Anatole wrote in his diary, “the principle objective was to undertake an extensive minerological and geological survey of the new Russian lands”. It was the economic potential that most interested Anatole who expected to find new and rich sources of coal. It was during this period that coal steadily was replacing the use of wood as the combustible source to power heavy industry. Oil also was receiving attention as a generally untapped source of fuel.

For the expedition, Anatole recruited a group of twenty-two French experts from various scientific fields. Each were given blue uniforms to wear pertaining to the French, ‘L’Ecole Royale des Mines’. The first group left from St. Petersburg and was led by Paul Kolounoff. Their role was to explore rich seams of coal that were recently discovered in the territory of Don Cossacks. A second group would then join this group comprised of French engineers who would travel east by river. This group was led by Frederic Le Play, a professor of the Polytechnic in France, who also was in the service of his French sovereign.

A third goup was involved with the arts, natural history, and observations in general. This group embarked on the steamship, Francoise I, and, among others, included Auguste Raffet, Auguste de Sainson, and Anatole. Their voyage was more leisurely traveling along the Danube river east before finally reaching the Black Sea. It was Anatole who led this group and who was accompanied by his lady-friend, la comtesse Fanny de la Rochefoucauld.

Anatole took a particular interest to study the social systems encountered such as local prison practises. Capturing the natural beauty on the voyage was the talented artist, Auguste Raffet, who made numerous sketches of pictureseque scenes. It would be Auguste Raffet and Anatole who, at the end of voyage, would review the many images captured to agree on which would feature in their published chronicles of the voyage.

Anatole’s diary of the voyage, that included Raffet’s lithographs, published in a ‘large’ format, four-volume edition in France in 1840. One volume was dedicated entirely to one hundred of Raffet’s colourised lithographs. Smaller and single versions of the publication would then issue in forthcoming years in Great Britain, France, italy, and finally, in Russia.

The first of the four volumes was Anatole’s diary that included sections contributed by Jules Janin and Auguste de Sainson. Raffet contributed seventy-four charming lithographs to feature in the first volume. The second volume was dedicated to geography, geology, and climate. For the first time, detailed maps of these new Russian lands were presented. The third and fourth volumes focused on botany and zoology that also featured the noted hand-coloured lithographs.

In conclusion, as Anatole’s diary makes clear, this six-month voyage of exploration, had as its principle objective to secure economic benefits. Its second intention was to elicit a positive response fom the Tsar. Unfortunately, on this last point, the voyage failed. The Tsar considered the voyage to be a French initiative, led by Frenchmen, and with everyone dressed in French blue uniforms. The work published first in french and in France. It only published in Russia in 1853, so over ten years following its initial publication. In the eyes of the Tsar, it confirmed that Anatole did not deserve any special favour. For his efforts, Anatole received from the Tsar the modest title of ‘Councillor to the College’.

Nonetheless, regarding its first objective, the voyage proved a resounding economic and scientific success. In terms of energy production, starting from a slow start, by 1913, the extraction of coal from the Donetz region represented 87% of the entire coal production in Russia. In our modern day, coal, as well as oil, have grown to become our leading sources of energy that power our national economies. Of course, this success has gone too far with the excessive dependency on fossil fuels placing at risk the future of our planet. Alternatives are needed if we are to make our planet safe for future generations.

Nonetheless, in the late 1830’s, Anatole already was contemplating the future and seeing the use of new combustible fuels to power modern heavy industry. Anatole actively pursued its consideration, exploration, and exploitation that would help drive forward the economy of Russia as well as the Demidoff industrial empire. In this regard, he calculated correctly.

By Alexandre Tissot Demidoff

Private Sale of Paintings by Elena Demidoff in 1890

It is generally believed that Paul Pavlovitch Demidoff, 2nd Prince of San Donato, disposed of the remaining ‘great’ paintings at his ‘Sale of the Century’ that took place at Villa di San Donato in 1880. Villa di San Donato, in fact, was a private museum with fourteen rooms each dedicated to the arts. The collections were dispersed in a sequence of public sales by Anatole Nikolaievitch that took place in Paris in 1863, 1868, and his final one in 1870. It was Paul Pavlovitch who organised the largest sale of Demidoff treasures at his public sale at Villa di San Donato in March,1880.

However, what is little known is that Paul Pavlovitch was not pleased with some of the prices commanded for his collection of Old Master Dutch and Flemish paintings. His agent was instructed to ‘buy-in’, so to bid, on around thirty paintings that would remain in the collection of Paul Pavlovitch. Paul would wait for other opportunities to maximise the value of these paintings.

Unfortunately, with Paul’s premature passing in 1885, aged only forty-five, these paintings would remain in the ‘Demidoff Gallery’ at Villa Demidoff in Pratolino, Italy. Elena Petrovna, on Paul’s passing, had moved to Kyiv, and later Odessa, and would never to return to Villa Demidoff. This meant that these paintings, with some counting amongst the masterpieces by artists such as Rembrandt, van Ostade, Ruisdael, and Hobbema, were at risk of damage or theft.

To organise the sale of these paintings, Elena engaged the services of the eminent Paris-based Art Dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel. Both Paul Pavlovitch and his uncle, Anatole Nikolaievitch, had worked closely, and over decades, with Durand-Ruel. Since Elena Petrovna was in Kyiv she needed to grant ‘power-of-attorney’ to Anatole Jaunez-Sponville, to contract the sale as the seller, so on her behalf with Durand-Ruel. It is the name of Jaunez-Sponville that appears on the Durand-Ruel sale records in Paris. Anatole was the son of Octave Jaunez-Sponville, who had been a long-standing confidant and close friend of Anatole Nikolaievitch and spanning decades.

The Villa di San Donato sale of March, 1880 attracted strong interest and especially from across the Atlantic. For example, the Bostonian, Stanton Blake (1837-1889), acquired ten Dutch Old Master pictures at the sale that would eventually be displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Also interested in the Demidoff collection were the civic leaders of Chicago, led by Charles L. Hutchinson and Martin Ryerson. These gentlemen were keen to place Chicago, the country’s ‘second city’, on the ‘cultural map’. To do so, they would need to populate the newly constructed Art Institute of Chicago, located on the shores of Lake Michigan, with a world-class collection of art. For the collectors in the United States, this meant securing masterpieces of the Dutch ‘Golden Age’ and from a European collection. Hutchinson and Ryerson also were keen to build their own, private collection of paintings to hang in their stately mansions.

On a trip to Europe in March, 1889, Hutchinson and Ryerson met with Durand-Ruel who advised them that the Demdioff collection was available for purchase. Isaac R. Diller (1819-1891), the US Ambassador to Florence, was engaged to help secure access for Hutchinson and William French (1843–1914), the Art Institute’s first director, to view the Demidoff Gallery at Villa Demidoff. By April, 1890, Diller and Hutchinson were given approval by Princess Elena to view the Demidoff collection. Hutchinson and French journeyed from Rome to Florence, accompanied by Durand- Ruel, to view the paintings on the agreed date of 18 April 1890. Hutchinson took careful notes citing highlights in his diary of nineteen of the pictures. His diary can be found today at the archives of the Art Institute.

Durand-Ruel made the case to Hutchinson and Ryerson that his plan was to bring the paintings to Paris for public sale. Hutchinson and Ryerson understood that if they were to keep the collection intact and ‘off the market’, they would need to act fast and close a private sale. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune newspaper, that appeared on his return to Chicago on 3 July 1890, Hutchinson states that “I cabled the situation to Mr. Field, Mr. Armour, Mr, Kent, and a few others. I asked them to buy the pictures and to hold them until such time as the Art Institute was able to buy them or until generous men could be found to donate them. We secured 13 paintings for $200,000 US dollars…”. However, in this interview Hutchinson was understating both the number of pictures bought that pertained to the Demidoff collection as well as the purchase price. This is made clear on a review of the two Durand-Ruel sale invoices plus separate correspondence on additional pictures sold.

With the Demidoff Collection now safely taken ‘off the market’, Hutchinson and Ryerson were keen to build their private collections so, most likely, joined Durand-Ruel at the M.G. Rothan Sale of 29 May 1890 and at the M.E. May Sale of 4 June 1890. Durand-Ruel invoiced Charles Hutchinson on behalf of the Art Institute for the entire series of purchases made by Hutchinson and Ryerson including their private purchases. Each invoice was marked, ‘From the Demidoff Collection painted previous to 1700 and not subject to Custom house duties’. This was false on three counts: The invoices were for pictures also purchased at the Rothan and May sales, together with other private acquisitions. Some of the pictures were made after 1700. Lastly, around one-half of the pictures were destined for the private collections of Hutchinson and Ryerson in place of public display. However, what this billing presentation did accomplish was the avoidance of costly additional US tariff charges of 30%. The reason was that exempt from import duties were pictures destined for ‘societies and institutions devoted to the arts’.

On 18 July 1890, Durand-Ruel posted a letter to Charles Hutchinson advising that “the princess (Demidoff) has sent us all her remaing pictures”. These numbered ten but with three already sold to Rodolphe Kann, an important French collector. Hutchinson would take only two of these remaining pictures for the Art Institute. However, what is interesting is that Elena Petrovna did not send all of her remaining pictures. She retained, amongst possibly others, Johann Vermeer’s, ‘Officer and the Laughing Girl’. This painting would be sold in 1891 by Elena Petrovna to Samuel S. Joseph of London. It may be that she was not pleased with the delay in receiving monies owed from Hutchinson or felt that she could secure higher value for this masterpiece working with some other art dealer or selling the picture directly. This private sale of the Vermeer does merit further study.

Charles Hutchinson did struggle in finding financial backers for the Demidoff acquisition of paintings amongst the civic leaders in Chicago. Durand-Ruel needed to write to Hutchinson on 18 July 1890 to say, “We got yesterday 200,000 (french francs) from you… and your telegram announcing balance (payable?) in one day”. However, on 29 July 1890, Durand-Ruel needed to write again to explain that “(we) received letters of 15th and 16th enclosing drafts of 30,000 and 15,000.. which is not in accordance with our accounts, since the second affair with princess Demidoff amounts to 231,000, while your cable order was only of 200,000”.

These challenges are not surprising given that the Art Institute was ‘new’, so with limited financial resources, that dwarfed their ambitions to rank ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ amongst the three other leading US museums located in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. In the end, these financial challenges persisted more than fifteen years after the original acquisition in 1890. By June, 1906, there were only five other civic leaders, besides Hutchinson and Ryerson, who stepped forward with monies to purchase the individual pictures at their original cost and to then ‘gift’ them to the Art Institute. In 1894, the Art Institute was forced to issue important and expensive debt in the amount of $127,000, with a ten year term, in order to clear monies owed to the original buyers, Hutchinson, Ryerson, and Field. This debt would be equivalent today to $4.4 million. This debt would continue to ‘roll-over’, so remain outstanding, late into 1906 and possibly beyond.

With the principle owners paid by 1894, twelve of the fifteen Demidoff pictures destined for the Art Institute, at long last, became the outright property of the Art Institute so could be properly displayed. The three others would need to wait until they became fully financed that, in some cases, would take decades.

In terms of the pictures with Demidoff provenance, Elena Petrovna and Durand-Ruel in 1890 offered to sale for Chicago twenty-eight pictures. The number with Demidoff provenance that actually shipped to Chicago numbered twenty with ten appearing on Invoice #1, eight on Invoice #2, and two on the separate correspondence dating to 18 July 1890. The number pertaining to the Rothan Sale numbered six, while there was only painting from the M. Ernest May sale. Hutchinson and Ryerson further acquired another five paintings for their own private collection but from sources unrelated to Durand-Ruel.

In the 1890 Art Institute of Chicago Catalogue, it shows only thirteen paintings displayed with Demidoff provenance. The other seven featured in the private collections of the two principle buyers, Charles Hutchinson and Martin Ryerson. As the difficult financial arrangements became resolved, more and more of these paintings began to appear on display at the Art Institute. However, this would take decades and with certain pictures never appearing. The pictures acquired at the Rothan and M.E. May sales also would come to be displayed at the Art Institute.

I do encourage the reader, who finds themselves in the city of Chicago, to visit the Art Institute of Chicago where they can view many of these masterpieces from the Demidoff collection that originally formed this art museum’s core Old Master collection.

By Alexandre Tissot Demidoff

The Abamelek-Lazarev Palace in Saint Petersburg

By EDF Academic Member in Spain, Antoinio Perez Caballero

There are four versions of the Abamelek-Lazarev Palace in Saint Petersburg, the last one pertaining to its last private owner, the legendary beauty, Moina, or Maria Pavlovna, née Demidoff, Princess of San Donato (1877-1955). Maria was the second daughter of Princess Elena Petrovna (1853-1917) and Pavel Pavlovitch Demidoff, 2nd Prince of San Donato (1839-1885). Maria, like her elder sister, Aurora, was born in Kyiv from the time that their father was twice-elected mayor of the city of Kyiv.

In 1897, Maria married the wealthy industrialist and archeologist, Prince Semyon Semyonovich Abamelek-Lazarev (1857-1916) who, at 40 years of age, was nearly twice her age. However, despite their difference in ages, this was a close and loving marriage. In 1904 Prince Abamelek-Lazarev bought the Palace on Millionnaya street 22 with the garden entrance overlooking the Moika Embarkment. The house number 22 had been built from 1735 to 1737 for Count F. A. Apraksin.

Its appearance and internal structure have undergone significant changes over the centuries. However, in the arrangement of the main facade, that faces towards Millionnaya Street, one can easily trace the traditional compositional scheme of Russian architecture of the first half of the 18th century. In the 1770s, the house was rebuilt, during which time the outer portico in the center of the main façade was replaced by a portico of four Ionic columns carved from Siberian marble. In 18th century Saint Petersburg, this palace was considered the most elegant mansion in the entire city.

The building of the house overlooking the embankment of the Moika River was built from 1907 to 1909 according to the project of the architect E. S. Vorotilov. Its facade replicates the appearance of the Armenian Church House (Nevsky Prospekt, 40) as well as the interior of several of its rooms, where the Abamelek-Lazarev couple had first lived. In 1911 Abamelek-Lazarev bought the house number 24 on Millionnaya street. Part of the house facing the Moika was broken, and here the architect, I. A. Fomin, built a new one from 1913 to 1915. The façade of the Moyka is spectacularly decorated with bas-reliefs and Corinthian pilasters, rising to the height of the three floors of the house. The parapet is decorated with vases. In interior decoration, Fomin used natural and artificial marble together with decorative sculptures and paintings. It is worth noting that the corridors and their high ceilings are twice the height of the ceilings of the ‘old’ dining room and home theater.

The dining room, almost square in plan, and with a semicircular niche, is finished with light green artificial marble. Excellent typographic parquet and ornamental painting on the ceiling complete the decoration. In the theater hall, the walls are finished with white artificial marble with yellow-pink pilasters and stucco. The central part of the ceiling is decorated with a picturesque panel, “Apollo in a Chariot”, by the artist Yu. A. Bodaninsky. When studying the floor plans of the final palace, one is faced with four different houses cleverly and magnificently interconnected with the grandest interiors sculpted by Fomin in a Russian neoclassical style. One is immediately struck by his talent and unmistakable taste for solemn although sumptuous rooms.

In addition to these architectural marvels, the complex is full of ‘hidden jewels’ in the form of exquisite mouldings and painted ceilings reflected in intricate parquets of precious woods that have survived the last century. Not mentioned anywhere is the fact that, after the family left the palace, Princess Maria Pavlovna, like many other aristocrats realising the danger to their private homes, in 1917 asked the Spanish Ambassador, the Marquis of Villasinda, to occupy the enormous building. It was from the celebrated facade, with its reddish walls and grey columns, that Villasinda was able to witness the assault on the Winter Palace only a few months later. From the street, or the Moika side, it is impossible to imagine these four completely different facades to be the one and only Palace that it had become. Part of the reason is because of the beautiful and imposing facades that rival each other in terms of style but, surprisingly, still creating a perfectly charming, harmonious, and natural adornment to the streets of the capital.

House in Povarskaya Street

Статья Екатерины Тихой-Тищенко, члена Европейского Демидовского Фонда в России

The Demidoff family has many ties and connections with important locations in and around Moscow, among them, the magnificent House in Povarskaya Street, a graded building, and one of the most beautiful aristocratic houses of Moscow. The house belonged to the family of their close relatives, Count Alexey Vasilievich Olsoufieff (1831—1915) and his wife, Countess Alexandra Andreevna (1846—1929, née Miklashevsky).

Our interior design firm, E.S.S.E. Design & Decoration (Ekaterina Tihaya-Tischenko and Svetlana Shervarli), was honoured by the invitation to decorate the interiors of the House in Povarskaya Street and to bring it back to its glory in its new role as a restaurant and private members club.

The Demidoffs are related to the Counts Olsoufieff, the last owners of the House in Povarskaya, but prior the Russian Revolution, by two lineages. The two daughters of Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, 2nd Prince of San Donato, Maria and Elena, were sisters-in-law of the two sons of the Counts Olsoufieff through their respective marriages. Maria was married to Prince Semyon Semyonovich Abamelek-Lazareff (1857—1916), whose sister, Elizaveta (1866—1934), was wife of the elder son, Andrey Alexeevich Olsoufieff (1870—1933). And Elena was married to Count Alexandre Pavlovich Shouvaloff (1881—1935), whose sister Olga (1882—1939), was wife of the younger son, Vasiliy Alexeevich Olsoufieff (1872—1924).

The House in Povarskaya was bought by Countess Alexandra Andreevna Olsoufieff in 1898, which marked the relocation of her family from St Petersburg to Moscow following her new role as the ‘Mistress of the Court’ to the Court of Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, wife of Governor-General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (uncle of Tsar Nicholas II). This was a role that she dutifully served, up to the dissolution of the Court in 1909, when Elizaveta Feodorovna founded the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary and became its abbess.

The House in Povarskaya was built in 1887 for Prince Boris Vladimirovich Światopełk-Czetwertyński, of the ancient Polish-Russian family that traces its roots back to Rurik, and for his wife Princess Vera Aleksandrovna (née Kazakoff) and her two teenage daughters Anastasiya and Sofiya Arapoff from her first marriage (Anastasiya later married Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim).

The architect of the House, Pyotr Samoylovich Boytsov (1849 – after 1918), was very fashionable among the Russian aristocracy and millionaires of the time and especially in Moscow. The Embassy of Italy in Moscow is now located in the magnificent house built by Boytsov for a manufacturer and millionaire, Sergey Berg. The residence of the French Ambassador to Russia is located in the house formerly belonging to a textile manufacturer, Nikolay Igumnov, and includes Russian and Louis XV-XVI Revival interiors designed by Boytsov. And one of the estates, a châteauesque Meyendorff Castle, built by Boytsov near Moscow for Nadezhda Alexandrovna Kazakoff, sister of Princess Vera Aleksandrovna Światopełk-Czetwertyński, is now a country residence of the President of Russia that is used today for formal receptions.

Boytsov designed a French Renaissance Revival façade for the House of the Światopełk-Czetwertyńskis to compliment the fashionable aristocratic Povarskaya Street, while inside he recreated a strikingly different, mysterious atmosphere of Tudor England with wood panelings, grand fireplaces, heraldic lions and ‘coats of arms’. The revival style, that was popular among aristocrats to underline their ancient roots, was in sharp contrast to the Art Nouveau architecture that was fashionable among the rising “New Money.” The interiors designed and styled by Boytsov with revival furniture, beautiful lanterns, luxurious fabrics and family portraits can be seen in the two photos surviving from the time.

After their mother, Princess Vera Aleksandrovna Światopełk-Czetwertyński, died suddenly in 1890 and their stepfather, Prince Boris, left Russia never to return, in 1898, the two Arapoff sisters sold the House in Povarskaya to Countess Alexandra Andreevna Olsoufieff.

The House was meant to correspond to the high position of its new owners who were close to the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess. It was also to be a ‘cozy’ home for the large Olsoufieff family that included children, grandchildren, in-laws, relatives, and numerous friends. The younger son of Countess Alexandra Andreevna, colonel Vassily Alexeevich Olsoufieff, lived with his parents before and after his marriage to Countess Olga Pavlovna Shouvaloff. This means that his sister-in-law, Elena Pavlovna Demidoff-Shouvaloff, was a frequent visitor and guest at Povarskaya.

The Olsoufieffs made some alterations to the interiors of the House bringing in new mahogany, walnut and Karelian birch furniture, antiques, family portraits, and Italian Renaissance drawings and paintings which they adored and collected. Two photos, presumably dating to the 1900s, show precious 16-17^th century tapestries that had been installed. One of them, in the large Oak Hall over the stairs, featured the scene of ‘The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary’ and covered the original wall mural. The other tapestry, in the adjacent Sitting-Room, featured ‘Sophonisba Kneels before Masinissa, King of Numidia.’ Antique Chinese porcelain vases and decorative silver plates, Oriental rugs, marble sculptures and a large family library, fresh flowers, palm trees in pots, and even an antique trunk, all created an atmosphere of a home where lived those who could not live without art, heritage, and beauty.

Having spent their childhood surrounded by the precious objects in this house, it is no wonder that all four daughters of Count Vassily Alexeevich Olsoufieff and Olga Pavlovna Shouvaloff-Olsoufieff chose the arts or literature as their professional career and with outstanding achievements in due course. On the other hand, their only son, Alexey, followed the path of all the men in the Olsoufieff family, and enlisted in military service although as an exile in Italy. Unfortunately, he tragically died in 1941 when the Italian ship, where he served, was attacked by the British armed forces at the Cape Bon near Tunisia. He handed his own safety vest to a fellow sailor and then tried to swim alone but never reached the shore.

The fate of the tapestries, furniture and paintings of the House in Povarskaya after the Russian Revolution is unknown. The house was nationalised and inhabited by the poor. It was later transformed into separate apartments for government employees (luckily leaving the central halls intact). Finally in 1932 it was handed over to the ‘Union of Writers of the USSR’ at the request of Maxim Gorky. From this point on the House in Povarskaya has been known until today by the abbreviation ‘CDL’, The Central House of Writers (Центральный дом литераторов).

In Soviet times, there was a restaurant at the CDL where only members of the Union of Writers were allowed, infusing it with an atmosphere of exclusivity and thus making it utterly desirable. It was frequented by Boris Pasternak, Sergey Mikhalkov, Andrey Voznesensky, Evgeny Evtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina among many other famous Russian writers and poets.

In post-Soviet times, the CDL Restaurant, now occupying the entire House, became one of the most fashionable restaurants in Moscow. Yet, its interiors underwent a number of redecorations that did not correspond fully to its historic and architectural heritage (the walls were even covered by plastic panelings at one point). Our design firm, E.S.S.E. Design & Decoration, was honoured by the invitation to recreate here the atmosphere of an aristocratic Belle Epoque salon in Moscow. We stripped the walls of the modern plastic decorations and invited a restoration firm to take care of the original wood panelings. The layers of Soviet-time ‘gloss lacquer’ were removed and the wood then covered with natural shellack so following exactly the same technology employed by the architect Boytsov in 1887.

In regards to décor, we tried to follow the photos of the interiors taken before the revolution. We covered the walls with Revival Style wallpaper, some of them with a textile effect, and brought in beautiful velvets and weave fabrics to dress the windows and to cover the soft furnishings. The carefully selected antique ‘Revival accents’, coming from France, Belgium and the Netherlands, complimented the restaurant chairs, sofas and tables that were all produced in oak by a local Russian manufacturer in accordance with our design. Antique Persian rugs, Oriental vases and bespoke floral arrangements are set beside ‘wall sconces’ and table lamps produced by St Petersburg bronze craftsmen according to historic designs pertaining to Russian palaces. We decided to keep the existing Soviet Neoclassical chandeliers in the halls to represent this historic layer of the building. We also took pains to provide the interiors with adequate lighting, as the House was notorious for its ‘duskiness’, even before the revolution. To address this challenge, we invited a specialised lighting company to install technical lights, that are barely visible on the ceiling, but do cast beautiful glow onto the tables, prominent architectural features, and the antique décor accents.

We intended to fill the House with personal memories of its last owners, the Olsoufieffs. So in the former Bedroom of Count Alexey Vasilievich Olsoufieff (now a private dining room), we covered one wall with a series of prints depicting mid-19^th century Russian military uniforms. This would correspond to the time when the Count served in the army. The other wall is covered by prints of the Crimean War in which he took part. And finally, the other wall is dressed with prints of engravings that date back to the 16-18^th century all depicting various libraries and bookshelves so in the memory of the Count’s true passion for philology. He was an avid reader and translated the poems of Ancient Roman poets from Latin into Russian.

All this is complimented by 19^th century European paintings all around the House borrowed from the art gallery, Nashe Naslediye, in the former Dining Room and Buffet Room. This art gallery even managed to procure several antique portraits of Russian Emperors and Empresses that now adorn the walls of the House, a tribute that was customary in aristocratic Russia.

Probably the most important mission that we completed was setting up a museum in one of the halls dedicated to the history of the House in Povarskaya and the families of the Światopełk-Czetwertyńskis and the Olsoufieffs. We were extremely lucky to become acquainted with the descendants of the Olsoufieff family, living all around the world, who generously shared with us precious family photos and documents that we then exhibited. We were also greatly assisted by a team of art historians and an archivist who procured the historic plans of the building, which are also on display, among other very useful data.

We express our gratitude to Olga Rozet, interior designer, art historian, and artist, who trained us at the International Design School in Moscow, whom we invited to take part in the project. She helped a great deal by openly sharing with us her vast knowledge and experience in working with colour and developing layouts.

We certainly express our gratitude to the owners of the CDL Restaurant and The Moscow Capital Club, who value the heritage of the House and who have secured the realisation of this important project that, as we hope, will become part of Moscow history. The CDL Restaurant is recommended in the Michelin Guide 2022 and is kept open to the general public and for excursions. The Moscow Capital Club, occupying the most luxurious upstairs rooms, is member of the International Associate Clubs (IAC) and became the only private club in Russia elected as member of Platinum Clubs® of the World.

Author of the article: Ekaterina Tihaya-Tischenko, E.S.S.E. Design & Decoration

Sources of images:

Aurora Demidova's Legacy in Finland

Статья профессора Jukka Aminoff FRSA (Финляндия)

Aurora Stjernvall Demidova Karamzin, for the Finnish people is known as Aurora Karamzin because of her second marriage. She was a remarkable historical person in Finland. Schools, hospitals, children’s culture centres, chapels, parks, and streets all carry her name because of her pioneering philanthropic work.

She was born, Aurora Stjernvall in 1808 in Ulvila, Finland. Aurora was born in the middle of a war between Sweden and Russia. Finland did not exist back then because Finland was Eastern Sweden. Russia was able to conquer Finland. The Grand Duchy of Finland in Imperial Russia was created a year later by the Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, Alexander I.

Imperial Court and Marriage

The Sterjnvall’s rose to significant positions in the new grand duchy. Through high-ranking positions and upper-class marriages, the Sterjnvall’s became members of the imperial elite in St Petersburg, the capital of Imperial Russia.

Aurora became the maid-of-honour for Her Majesty, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the spouse of the Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, Nicholas I. The Empress’s Stone, a granite monument at Market Square, Helsinki, was erected in 1835.

Aurora married Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov in 1836. He was the son of Nikolai Nikitich Demidov and Baroness Elizaveta Alexandrovna Demidova (née Stroganova).

Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov was a descendant of two powerful Russian aristocratic dynasties: The Demidovs and Stroganovs who had shaped Russian industry and commerce for centuries.

Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov was one of the wealthiest men in Russia. Through Demidov’s immense wealth, Aurora could afford a lavish lifestyle. The couple had a son, Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, the 2nd Prince of Donato.

Grand Duchy of Finland

Aurora had a private palace in St Petersburg that her husband had purchased shortly before their marriage. However, she retained a strong connection with the Grand Duchy of Finland. She would spend winters in St Petersburg and summer holidays in the Finnish countryside.

What sort of visible cultural heritage did Aurora leave in Finland?

Two buildings in the city of Helsinki and Espoo remind us of her prosperity and legacy. Villa Hakasalmi in Helsinki and Träskända Manor in Espoo.

Träskända Manor and the Imperial Visit

In 1840, Aurora bought the Träskända Manor in Espoo from her stepfather, Privy Councillor Carl Johan Walleen.

Träskända Manor had a special place in Aurora’s heart. Träskända Manor was a summer place, and Aurora had great memories from her childhood.

Träskända became the centre of her social life in Finland.

In 1863, the Grand Duchy of Finland arranged the first Diet since 1809. The Diet of Finland was the highest legislative assembly in Finland. All four estates, the nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie, and peasants joined the Diet.

The primary guest of the Diet was the Grand Duke of Finland, Emperor of Russia, Alexander II.

Aurora invited Alexander II to visit Träskända Manor. The distance between the Imperial Palace in Helsinki and Träskända Manor in Espoo was roughly 19 kilometres to the northwest.

Alexander II joined a hunting trip. The Emperor shot a German deer. The hunting trip alone was worth the visit.

Four lakes surround the Träskändä Manor. The air is dry and fresh. Pinewood smells in the air, but the area has mixed forests. The rich soil is perfect for planting trees, bushes, flowers, and grass. Trees were brought and planted from the Demidov Ural estates. French and German gardeners designed the garden.

The manor has an English landscape garden, an example of Anglophilia in Imperial Russia. Architect Carl Ludvig Engel’s ‘Diana Temple’, a gazebo, was erected in the 1830s.

Statues, fountains, and urns gave a final touch to the garden in the 19th century. Outside stairs invited people in from the garden.

Träskändä Manor was a wooden mansion. The two-floor building had plenty of rich details and carvings.

The Russian manor life landed in Finland. Träskändä Manor and other manors created the example.

The grandiose totality created a beautiful sight.

Before the visit of Emperor Alexander II in 1863 – special arrangements had to be put in place.

Aurora ordered Architect Georg Theodor Policron Chiewitz to create a deluxe lavatory for the Emperor. Architect Chiewitz designed a six-corner building out of logs. The building has survived until this day.

Architect Chiewitz designed the House of Nobility in Helsinki. The building became open in 1862 for the Diet. My fourth great-grandfather, a veteran of the Crimean War, Colonel Berndt Adolf Carl Gregori Aminoff, was a Board Member at the House of Nobility when the construction work began.

Dancing and dining required temporary structures.

Aurora arranged a ball at the manor for the Emperor and his entourage. Guests enjoyed an eleven-course meal served on Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot’s, Service de Nicolas Demidoff.

Alexander II’s visit was a momentous event. It became a special milestone in the history of the mansion.

The Emperor planted an oak tree. The tree is called the Emperor’s Tree.

The Grand Duchy became coated with splendour and spectacle.

The mansion was destroyed in a fire in 1888. Years later in 1895, Aurora sold the estate to her relative.

A new building saw daylight. However, the new building had to be demolished because it was too small.

The municipality of Espoo bought the estate in the 1920s. The current building was completed in 1921. It represents Swedish Baroque Revival architecture.

Träskända was a rest home until 2006. Nowadays, the building is empty. For years, the City of Espoo and its residents have searched for intended uses for the manor, but without results. The estate can be bought or rented.

The English landscape garden and the grove are preserved and protected under Finnish law.

In 2022, the manor was under renovation.

Villa Hakasalmi

Villa Hakasalmi in Helsinki was built by her stepfather Carl Johan Walleen in 1843-1846. It became a summer residence. The two-floor building became a landmark next to Mannerheim Street.

The house represents the Empire style, and it has beautiful drawing rooms.

The estate had an English landscape garden. The house is next to Töölönlahti, a peaceful bay full of tranquillity and nature.

Töölönlahti became surrounded by beautiful villas during the 19th century. A place for wealthy noble and merchant families. It was a private paradise.

The villa is northwest of the centre of Helsinki. Villa Hakasalmi is situated 1,5 kilometres distance from Senate Square.

The idyllic environment became distorted by the new railway route between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna. The construction work happened from 1857-1862. Suddenly the villa was in the middle of the industrial revolution. Railway tracks were 350 metres away from the house.

Walleen passed away in 1867. Aurora became the owner of the estate.

Aurora sold the Demidov Palace in St Petersburg and moved to Villa Hakasalmi in 1875. She was 68 years old.

Villa Hakasalmi did not become a centre of lavish parties. Instead, it became the centre for social change influencers. Aurora became increasingly spiritual and religious, which guided her social work – compassion for the underprivileged.

Aurora died in 1902 at the age of 93. Years earlier, she had sold the estate to the City of Helsinki.

Villa Hakasalmi was transformed into a museum. Helsinki City Museum has operated the building ever since.

Legacy

As a young female, Aurora was a superstar of refinement. Her taste and style uplifted the Finnish manor life.

Count, State Councillor, Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov, the first husband of Aurora, died pematurely in 1840. Her second husband, Colonel Andrei Nikolaevich Karamzin, fell in the Crimean War in 1854. Aurora became a grieving widow for the second time.

Later pictures of Aurora have similarities with the Queen of Britain, Victoria. Both of them wore black dresses and shawls.

Because of extensive philanthropic work to support educational and social initiatives, she became a warm and caring grandmother to people living in Finland. Her legacy continues.

Article by Professor Jukka Aminoff FRSA. The Author of Finland’s Sweden and Russia – Finland in the Midst of Changing World Orders (Readme.fi, 2021). Aminoff is an Academic Member of the European Demidoff Foundation.

Aurora Pavlovna Demidoff, Princess of San Donato (1873-1904)

Статья Alexandre Tissot Demidoff, прямого потомка рода Демидовых

On 19 November 2022, the Orthodox Church of Saints Sergio, Seraphim and Vincent Martire, who are based in Milan, Italy, organised a religous service of remembrance for the author’s great-grandmother, Aurora Pavlovna, who is buried at Cemetery Monumentale in Milan. Aurora Pavlovna, died too young, aged only 31, at her Villa Bria, a palace located in Bussolino, Gassino Torinese, in Italy, from an infection in her leg caused by a sting from a rose bush. Her long-standing and painful ailment was discussed at length in correspondence found at the Demidov Archives in Florence.

It was Aurora’s mother, Princess Elena Petrovna Demidova, living in Odessa, who in April, 1905, purchased a plot at Cemetery Monumentale and ordered the construction of the Demidoff mausoleum for her deceased daughter. In the following decades, the Demidoff mausoleum in Milan would include Aurora’s son, Alberto Noghera (1896-1971), together with Alberto’s daughter, Italia Noghera (1916-1991).

Unfortunately, by the 1970’s, the daily exposure to the natural elements caused serious structural decay and damage to the Demidoff Mausoleum. The management of the cemetery decided to demolish the original mausoleum and to move the bodily remains of the three interred family members to a wall located within the cemetery’s main structure.

It is here where the religious ceremony took place on 19 November and performed by Father Siluan of the Orthodox Church.

However, it was noticed that the engraving on the wall of the new tombstone for Aurora Pavlovna contains spelling errors and is incomplete. The name is mis-spelt and incomplete and the year of birth is omitted. There is also no image of Aurora.

It was agreed that it would be a worthwhile project for the European Demidoff Foundation to assume responsibility to address these faults. We were fortunate to know Liliya Sitdikova, a long-standing member of the Orthodox Church in Milan, who also is a talented, professional, restoration expert. Liliya is originally from the Republic of Bashkiria (Ural Mountains of Russia) and in 1988 graduated from the ‘Academy of Fine Arts’ in Ufa, the capital of Bashkiria.

Liliya promptly agreed to contact the management of the cemetery to secure permission to undertake the restoration work. The work will involve adding a photograph of Aurora under protected plexiglass that is resistant to light and the other natural elements. Liliya will also make the corrections to the name and the date but without engraving on the marble. Instead she will use a special paint that is suitable for stone. We are enternally grateful to Liliya for agreeing to undertake this work and do look forward to seeing its completion.

Following the religious ceremony, the group returned to the Orthodox Church where I was delighted to present on ‘Anatole Demidoff and his Journey in 1837 through southern Russia’. The presentation generated much interest among the members of the public in attendance, as the ‘question and answer’ section lasted twice as long as the original presentation. This was a most moving and special day that was made possible by the historian, Michail Talalay, and Father Siluan.

VILLA BRIA

19 November 2022

The Demidovs in Saint Petersburg

Статья Antonio Perez Caballero, члена Европейского Демидовского Фонда в Испании

Number 74 is the last house of the aristocratic English Embarkment in Saint Petersburg. In the early years of life of the young capital of the Russian Empire, the first Embarkment, and the center of the sophisticated court, was the English one. Even in these early years, various artists were attracted to depict in paintings the austere and dignified beauty of the palaces rising, one after the other, upon the powerful, Neva River.

It would appear at first that the third son of the Demidov family founder, the well-known manufacturer, Nikita Nikitich Demidov (1688-1758), brother to Akinfy, was not at all ready to settle in Peter the Great’s dreamed capital. According to a decree of the Emperor, the plot of land corresponding to House Number 10 was allotted to Nikita Nikitich. He attempted several ways to delay the construction until in 1736 Anna Ivanovna issued an especial edict summoning him from the Ural Mountains to finally erect his palace.

Demidov did come, only to request that he be allowed to return to his factories. The Empress consented to let him go provided that he would leave his executor to finalise the task. During his absence Anna Ivanovna changed her mind, offering him a different plot, this time located in the confluence of the Neva and the New Admiralty Canal. The executor, not daring to proceed without his master’s order, did nothing and so was subsequently arrested by the police office. The action seemed useless and the plot remained empty.

By that stage, the cabinet ministers in charge of the building progress of the English Embarkment had had enough, and so decided to put under arrest not the executor but the very owner himself. That did rapidly resolve the matter and Nikita Nikitich immediately gave order that a building be erected at his new plot. The architect of choice was the famous, M. G. Zemtsov, and It all seems to have progressed well as by 1738 the main house overlooking the Neva and three out-buildings to mark the territory along Galernaya street and the New Admiralty Canal were already finished.

Now the celebrated industrialist, owner and founder of many iron mining manufactures and factories in the Ural Mountains had his own stone residence in Saint Petersburg. After his death, the heirs divided the plot: the eldest son, Evdokim Nikitich (1713-1782), received the house on the Neva with 17 bed chambers, and his brother, Nikita (1728-1804), who, in 1769, sold it to Evdokim, received the house on Galernaya with ten bed chambers.

From the heirs of Nikita Nikitich (1728-1804), the corner mansion in 1809 passed by purchase deed to the life physician Yakov Vasilyevich Willie (1765 – 1854), director of the Military Medical Department. In the late 1820s, Willie took care of the external and internal reconstruction of the building in the Empire style. From that time, a hall with pilasters and a vaulted room have been preserved in the interior. Willie rented apartments in the outbuildings. In one of them, in February 1835, the head physician Alexander Dmitrievich Blank had a daughter, Maria, the future mother of Lenin, on the second floor of the western wing. She was baptized at St. Isaac’s Cathedral, as her father converted from Judaism to Orthodoxy in order to enter the Medico-Surgical Academy. Fate wanted that in 1876 after several additional owners, another celebrated, Imperial Physician to Alexander II and Alexander III, lived in the Galernaya street building: Sergey Petrovich Botkin, whose son Evgeniy Sergeevich, also a physician to the last Tsar Nicholas II, died along the rest of the Imperial Family and servants in Ekaterinburg in July 1918.

Located just across a bridge towards the New Admiralty, only a few metres from the Demidov home, it was consecrated the 31st of July 1911 a charming old style cathedral, Spas-na-Vodakh, in remembrance of those victims of the Ruso-Japanese war of 1905. Since that day the priest, Vladimir Alexandrovich Rybakov (1870 – 1934), rector of the Church of the Savior on the Waters, lived in the western wing. He greatly mourned the demolition in 1932 of the temple, which was visible from the windows of his apartment.

Nowadays the elegant, classical mansion is restored. Owned by a security company, its big plate glass windows shine pristine on the freshly painted walls. However, I do not believe that it could equal in beauty and melancholy grandeur, the old dusty ‘Belle au Bois Dormant’ that I fell in love with during a sunset stroll in this enchanting part or St Petersburg in the 1990s.

Ссылки:

https://www-livelib-ru.translate.goog/character/15049-nikita-nikitich-demidov?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

ДАР ГОСПОДИНА ПЕРЕСА КАБАЛЬЕРО

Испанец Антонио Перес Кабальеро – многолетний друг нашего музея – передал в дар фрагменты подлинных предметов и исторической отделки интерьеров, а также 205 открыток, фотографий и негативов, посвященных императорской семье и пригородным дворцам Санкт-Петербурга. Эти раритеты меценат приобретал на аукционах и собирал на протяжении долгого времени, а также хранил в личном архиве. Предметы доставлены в Царское Село при поддержке российских дипломатов. На специальном приеме в Посольстве России в Испании (Мадрид) дарителю вручили почетный диплом за содействие культурному сотрудничеству между нашими странами.

– Антонио Перес Кабальеро увлечен изучением истории, особенно его интересует жизнь и судьба Николая II и его семьи. Даритель внимательно следит за музейными событиями и реставрацией Александровского дворца, – говорит заместитель директора по научной работе ГМЗ «Царское Село» Ираида Ботт.

Открытки, выполненные в начале XX века, дополнят уже существующую в музее коллекцию почтовых карточек.

Напомним, что в 2013 году Антонио Перес Кабальеро предоставил музею право на электронные копии трех десятков фотографий периода Великой Отечественной войны. Сейчас он передал эти снимки и негативы других сюжетов в музей.

Автором всех снимков был дед господина Переса Кабальеро, Антонио Перес Хуарес, служивший в сороковые годы прошлого века в испанской Голубой дивизии. Внук хранил не только альбом с фотографиями деда, но и негативы этих снимков. На них – пригороды Ленинграда: Пушкин, Петергоф, Гатчина, Ропша. Снимки сделаны в 1943 году.

– Любительские снимки оккупированного города Пушкин представляют для нас особую ценность. На них – фасады Екатерининского дворца, солдаты и офицеры в дворцовых залах и парковых павильонах, часть интерьера дворцовой церкви, Большой зал, уже утративший треть перекрытия с плафоном. Эти фотографии, с одной стороны, – документальные свидетельства разрушений царскосельских дворцов и парков, но в то же время – подвига музейщиков и ленинградских реставраторов, возродивших красоту дворцово-паркового ансамбля, – объясняет хранитель фотонегатеки ГМЗ «Царское Село» Виктория Плауде.

Подаренные господином Пересом Кабальеро предметы будут храниться в фондах музея и участвовать во временных выставках.

09.12.2022

Информация с официального сайта Царского села https://www.tzar.ru/news/1670538124.

FROM SPAIN WITH LOVE

Mr Antonio Pérez Caballero, a long-time friend of our Museum from Spain and now a member of our Friends Society, made a generous donation of original interior objects and decorative fragments from our palaces, as well as 205 iconographic artefacts including postcards of Russia’s last imperial family and wartime photographs and film negatives of the suburban palaces of St Petersburg.

The Spanish philanthropist has been collecting artefacts related to Tsarskoe Selo for a long time. The donated items either came from his private archive or had been obtained from antiquity dealers and auctions. The items were delivered to Tsarskoe Selo thanks to the diplomatic support of the Russian Embassy in Madrid, where Mr Pérez Caballero had a lunch in his honour and was rewarded an honorary diploma for contributing to cultural cooperation between our countries.

According to Dr Iraida K. Bott, Tsarskoe Selo deputy director for research and education, “as an avid history researcher especially interested in the life and fate of Emperor Nicholas II and his family, Mr Pérez Caballero closely follows the Museum’s events and the restoration of the Alexander Palace.”

The donated postcards of the early 20th century are a great addition to our postcard collection.

Back in 2013, Mr Pérez Caballero already granted us the right to use the digital copies of 30 wartime photographs of Leningrad suburbs taken in 1943 by his grandfather, Antonio Pérez Juarez, who served in the Spanish Volunteer Division (a.k.a. the Blue Division). Those and other photographs of Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Peterhof, Gatchina and Ropsha, as well as their film negatives, came in the donation together with several photographs from a German war archive.

As Ms Victoria Plaude, Tsarskoe Selo photographs and negatives collection curator explains, “The photos of Pushkin town during the Nazi occupation are of great value to the Museum. They show the façades of the Catherine Palace, the occupiers in the palace halls and park pavilions, a part of the Palace Chapel’s interior, and the palace’s Great Hall already devoid of one third of its ceiling together with painting. These photographs are documentary evidence of both the destruction of Tsarskoe Selo and the feats of its museum workers and restorers who revived the beauty of the palace-and-park ensemble.”

The artefacts donated by Mr Pérez Caballero have enriched the Museum’s reserve collection and will be displayed at our future exhibitions.

09.12.2022

Tsarskoe Selo State Museum official website – https://www.tzar.ru/en/news/1671649920.