The Leningrad region is rich in architectural monuments of the past: ancient castles shrouded in a veil of mysteries and intrigues, luxurious estates imbued with the spirit of the “glorious times”, once lulled by prosperity, but now forgotten, orphaned, dilapidated palaces. It is worth driving some 50-100 km from St. Petersburg, and the majestic monuments - witnesses of the main events of bygone eras will tell a “different story”, in which the personal successes and tragedies of prominent characters are closely intertwined with the ups and downs of the huge Empire.
But few cultural heritage sites in Russia can tell as much as they saw the ruins lost in the wild park of the dacha-provincial Ropsha.
The most famous "chamber of misery"
Many estates of the Leningrad region are overgrown with legends. Take, for example, the family estate of the Blumetrosts or Demidovs - the first was destroyed almost to the foundation, and the second was preserved almost in its original form. Here every stone “can speak”. Local residents claim that dashingweather near the halls, sonorous voices are heard literally from everywhere, and music is pouring …
But the Ropsha Palace - the abode of kings, nobles and nobility is surrounded by myths and legends of a completely different kind.
Laughter and fun are alien to the local spirits. Rumor has it that the remains of thousands of convicts are hidden in the immured dungeons. Probably, it was this amazing combination of the blissful carelessness of some and the doom of others that caused the formation of bad energy, which more than once played a fatal role in the life of rulers.
Ropshinsky Palace: legends about Fyodor Romodanovsky
Ropshinsky heights were once chosen by Peter I himself: fascinated by the picturesque beauties, he ordered to build a small wooden house, a church and a park with ponds there. However, after 4 years, the tsar granted these lands to his associate Fyodor Romodanovsky, the head of the Preobrazhensky order (analogue of the Secret Chancellery).
The new owner of the Ropsha lands was known as a cruel person (in those days, the investigating authorities pulled out a "convenient truth" from the suspects, only along with the veins). Very soon, the “defender of the interests of the tsar and the state” turned the modest-sized estate into a “torture estate” - a sort of branch of the emergency intelligence service. The retellings of those years say that the prisons with barred windows were located in the immediate vicinity of the main building, that the groans of the shackles resounded through the surrounding forests, and Romodanovsky himself, “like Satan”, reveled in the suffering of the victims.
Today,almost 300 years after the death of the generalissimo-executioner, the superstitious inhabitants of Ropsha still hear screams from half-filled cellars; it seems to them that as if a tame, but formidable she-bear - the legend says that it was she who guarded the entrances to the torture halls - periodically goes outside, inspects the ruins, and then goes underground again …
The role of the estate in the fate of Mikhail Golovkin
The Ropsha Palace underwent significant modernization in 1734. The owner then was Romodanovsky's son-in-law, Mikhail Golovkin. The career of an official developed so rapidly that it seemed as if there were no doors that the manager of the mint, and part-time adviser and favorite of Empress Anna Ioannovna, was not allowed to enter.
As subsequent events showed, the rumor about the "cursed palace" was not in vain. In 1741, as a result of the successful implementation of the conspiracy, Elizaveta Petrovna ascended the throne, and a black streak began in Golovkin's life. The renewed Senate found the coiner guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to death. True, at the very last moment, the owner of the ill-fated palace managed to escape the fate of being hanged - he was exiled to Siberia, and all his property was confiscated in favor of the state.
Architectural "flourishing": Rastrelli's hand
The next stage of the transformation of the architectural ensemble of the estate coincided with the years of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. It was by her decree that the Ropsha Palace was ennobled in accordance with the fashion trends of that era. Andno one managed the work processes, but Francesco Rastrelli himself, a leading European architect and a recognized master of his craft. Corinthian columns can be called a kind of "Italian trace" in the external decor of the palace, which even now, in the days of complete oblivion of the once majestic building, continue to proudly carry a cocked-cornered roof (classic portico).
However, even the genius of Rastrelli was unable to dispel the evil spell that hovered in the golden halls of the palace - a few years later the Empress fell ill from an unknown illness, and before her death, she presented Ropsha to Peter Fedorovich, the heir to the throne.
"Palace-destroyer" and Peter III
Russian cultural heritage sites in the distant past often became places of last refuge for important people.
So the Ropshinsky estate, with the death of Elizabeth Petrovna, did not stop its account of ruined souls - Peter III became another victim of the "bad palace", whose restless ghost, according to popular rumor, sometimes appears at the ruins and asks random passers-by to loosen the scarf, tied tightly around the neck…
According to the unofficial version, the murder of the young tsar was the work of Alexei Orlov, a devoted associate of Catherine II; it was he who allegedly strangled Pyotr Fedorovich, for which he was generously rewarded by his patroness. Among other gifts, the highest person granted the count and the Ropsha Palace. However, Orlov was not known as a big hunter for a country holiday, and therefore he soon got rid of real estate.
Favorite palace of the Romanovs: Ropshinsky fate
Throughout the 19th century, the estate lived a troubled life: owners changed, cardinal amendments were made to the architecture of buildings, the park complex evolved, and … nobles died, one way or another related to this accursed estate. (In 1801, just a week after the purchase of the palace, Tsar Paul I was killed.) The 20th century did not change the terrible tradition either…
Emperor Nicholas II is the last in the list of "God's henchmen" who owned the damned palace. And although death overtook him many hundreds of miles from Ropsha, the scale of the tragic events again indicated the presence of a frightening connection between the palace and its inhabitants: the entire Romanov family, who loved to relax in the estate so much, was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918. (Specialists believe that the basement of the house of the merchant Ipatiev, a prominent merchant from Yekaterinburg, became the place of execution.)
Rebirth and Oblivion: Moloch of the Revolution
In the post-revolutionary years, the estates of the Leningrad region were used in different ways: hospitals and hospitals were set up on the territory of some, the Soviet authorities gave others to the needs of collective farms; there were also those that served as warehouses, houses of culture, administrative buildings.
With the Ropshinsky Palace and the adjacent park, history played a cruel joke - the lands were transferred to the disposal of a fish nursery of all-Union significance. And then - the Second World War, devastation, restoration with a profile reorientation to the needs of the military, the collapse of the USSR, oblivion …
Today: memorial ruins and UNESCO
Restoration of the Ropsha Palace- a topic that has been returned to more than once since 1991. At the initiative of UNESCO, the estate was even given the status of "an object of cultural heritage of a planetary scale." However, the deplorable state of the monument constantly frightened off both officials and private investors.
So we waited: one winter, a columned portico collapsed - the one that remembered the cheerful architect-wizard Rastrelli.
Residents of Ropsha do not want to put up with the indifference of the authorities - they have already made a collective request to the Presidential Administration, so that there, "above", they influence local governments. And it seems that the reaction still followed.
The quickly established commission estimated the budget for urgent reconstruction of the facility at 15 million rubles. But the amount needed for the total restoration of the palace is in the billions - you have to pay a high price for a disregard for the history of your state …
