Mozhaisk district of the Moscow region was established in 1929 and is the most beautiful part of the Moscow region with a rich history, architectural monuments, diverse natural resources and a large reservoir that supplies drinking water to the capital and its environs. In 2018, the district was transformed into the regional city of Mozhaisk with an administrative territory. A popular holiday destination for Moscow residents and tourists from all over the country is visited by 1.5 million people. per year, which is possible due to its convenient location, well-developed road network, favorable environmental conditions and rich historical heritage of the past, which is the Porechie estate in the Mozhaisk region.
History of Mozhaisk and surroundings
Archaeological excavations and research by scientists testify to the location of the Trinity settlement in the area, now flooded by a reservoir, and the residence of the B alts tribe here until the 5th century. n. e., who called the local river, which flowed into the large Moscow River, "Mozhoya" -"small". Later, at the end of the first millennium, the Slavs who came here used the name for their city. In 1231, Mozhaisk is mentioned in chronicles as a defensive fortification in the east of the Smolensk principality. The ancient wooden fortress (detinets) of the city is located at the intersection of trade routes 110 km west of Moscow, on a high landslide hill, at the mouth of the river. Mozhaika and the Petrovsky stream flowing into it.
In 1303 the city joined the Grand Duchy of Moscow and became its outpost on the western borders. In the 14th c. the fortress twice withstood the attacks of the Lithuanian prince Olgert and unsuccessfully tried to stop Khan Tokhtamysh. In the 15th c. Mozhaisk becomes the capital of a specific principality with its own mint, stone temples and monasteries, shopping streets and further participates in the fight against the Polish-Lithuanian intervention. From a wooden fortress in the 17th century. under the guidance of the architect Ivan Izmailov, the stone Mozhaisk Kremlin (1626) grows. To this day, the ramparts, the lake, fragments of the Nikolsky Gates, the Kremlin wall, the Staro-Nikolsky Cathedral (1849 restored in its original forms to replace the destroyed temple of the 14th century) and a magnificent example of Russian Gothic - the Novo-Nikolsky Cathedral (1814) student of Matvey Kazakov, architect Alexei Bakarev, whose multi-tiered bell tower serves as an architectural landmark of the city.
The history of the Mozhaisk region, where the Porechye estate is located, is closely connected with all further military events in the country. Thanks to the proximity to Borodinothe field, on which the military history museum was later opened, in 1812, Napoleon's troops passed through the city twice with fires, and Denis Davydov's partisans acted around. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the city was the center of the most important 220-kilometer Mozhaisk defense line, underwent a 3-month fascist occupation, numerous partisan detachments fought heroically in the region.
Monasteries of the Mozhaisk region
Speaking of the memorable places of the Mozhaisk land, one cannot fail to mention the ancient monasteries. One of them - the Spaso-Borodinsky Convent - was founded in 1838 by the inconsolable widow of the hero of the war of 1812, General A. A. Tuchkov, Margarita Mikhailovna Tuchkova, who took tonsure and became abbess, near the place of his death on the Semenovsky redoubt. Another - the Kolotsk Assumption Convent - was founded in 1413 by the son of the great Dmitry Donskoy, Prince Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky. The third one was founded by him in 1408 together with a disciple of Sergius of Radonezh Ferapont Belozersky - the Luzhetsky Ferapontov Bogoroditsky Monastery, the only one of the local monasteries that has survived from the Middle Ages.
Country estates
Mozhaisk district has always attracted nobles, manufacturers and merchants with its location, magnificent landscapes and water resources of the Moskva River and small rivers for the construction of country residences, such as the Uvarovs' estate in Porechye. Estates near Mozhaisk were established by statesman P. I. Musin-Pushkin, chancellor A. P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, princes Volkonsky and Korkodinov, manufacturer S. I. Gudkov, nobles Varzhenevsky, Chernyshev,The Savelovs and Ostafievs, relatives of Empress Catherine I Efimovskiys, Counts Razumovskys, A. S. Pushkin’s father-in-law N. A. Goncharov, Denis Davydov’s father V. D. Davydov and many others. Eminent architects were invited, who worked in accordance with fashion trends in the styles of classicism, empire, Moscow baroque, eclecticism, modernity. In Soviet times, most of the estates were lost, abandoned and turned into ruins, neglected landscape parks and ponds, fragments of old tombstones of estate churches, and only some of the values of the estates have been preserved thanks to their transfer to museums.
History of the Porechye estate
For the first time, the village of Besedy-Porechie, 40 km beyond Mozhaisk, on the river. Inoch, with two churches, was mentioned in the annals of 1596 as the patrimony of the nobleman M. I. In the Time of Troubles, in 1613, a riotous detachment of Poles or Cossacks ravaged and burned the estate and churches. The Protopopovs, together with the Tatishchevs, owned a sparsely populated, but significant estate with 8 peasant households until 1698, until they sold it to the son of the Astrakhan governor executed by Stepan Razin, Prince B. I. Prozorovsky. He, in turn, being childless, in 1718 bequeathed his entire fortune and the modest Porechye estate in the Mozhaisk district to Tsarina Catherine I. By her decree, Porechye until his death in 1728 1730 - associate of Peter I, after his death in the reign of Peter II and Anna Ioannovna ruler of St. Petersburg, talentedengineer, administrator, commander in the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739, Field Marshal Christopher Antonovich von Munnich.
Razumovsky Manor
In 1741 Elizaveta Petrovna ascends the royal throne. She removes all the minions of the previous queen from power, sends Minikh to execution on false charges, already on the scaffold replaced by exile to Siberia, and gives the Porechye estate to her favorite and secret husband, a former Cossack chorister, also in the future, Field Marshal Alexei Grigoryevich Razumovsky, humorous about his elevation. He later transferred the estate to his younger brother, the hetman of Little Russia, Kirill Grigoryevich Razumovsky. In 1803, his son Lev Kirillovich Razumovsky entered into the inheritance and management of the estate, known, in addition to his merits in military service, also by the fact that he married Princess Maria Golitsyna, who he won at cards from her unloved husband. Being a lover of architecture and land management, the count lays a magnificent architectural and park ensemble on the elevated bank of the Inoch instead of the old manor of the 17th century, and instead of a wooden one, he erects a brick church (1804) in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin in the classical style with a high rotunda, a cupola in the form of an arbor and Tuscan porticos on the sides.
The complex terrain of uneven heights is occupied by a magnificent landscape park with greenhouses and greenhouses; the Poretsky garden institution is created. In 1818, the estate was inherited by the niece of Lev Kirillovich, the maid of honorQueen Elizabeth Alekseevna Ekaterina Alekseevna Razumovskaya, who in 1816 became the wife of Count Sergei Semenovich Uvarov and brought her dowry estate. So until 1917, the Uvarovs became the owners of the Porechye estate. Destroyed by the French in 1812, the estate began to be rebuilt by the new owner in the 1830s.
Sergei Semenovich Uvarov
Count Uvarov Sergei Semenovich (1786-1855), according to the great reformer M. M. Speransky, "the first Russian educated person", was born in the family of Prince G. A. Potemkin's adjutant Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Fedorovich Uvarov and became Catherine's godson Great. At the age of two, he lost his father and was brought up by a relative of his mother, Prince Kurakin. He received an excellent education, including being a specialist in ancient and modern languages and European culture. In 1801-1810. served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was a diplomat in Vienna and Paris. He was friends with Batyushkov, Zhukovsky, Karamzin, Goethe. He published a number of scientific works in European languages on philology and antiquity. In 1811 he became an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, from 1818 until his death - its president and member of the State Council. In 1815, S. S. Uvarov was one of the founders of the progressive literary circle "Arzamas", where he received the cheerful nickname of the Old Woman. It is noteworthy that another member of the society - A. S. Pushkin, nicknamed Cricket - did not sympathize with him, considered Uvarov a careerist, an acquirer, and even subsequently wrote a scandalous epigram on him, which reached the tsar. In 1839 at the postPresident of the Academy of Sciences founded the Pulkovo Observatory. In 1833-1849. - Minister of Education, educational reformer and at the same time chairman of the censorship department, opponent of French novels. As Minister of Education, he presented to Emperor Nicholas I, shocked for life by the Decembrist uprising, a report on the education of his subjects in the spirit of "Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality" (Uvarov's triad) as opposed to the slogan of the French Revolution "freedom, equality, fraternity". In 1853 he defended his master's thesis on the origin of the Bulgarians. Published in Sovremennik magazine.
Poretsk Museum
A versatile, non-poor man, Sergei Semenovich approached the idea of reorganizing the estate near Moscow very thoroughly. By 1837, in the estate of Porechye, a stone 2-storey mansion in the classical style was built according to the project of the talented architect D. I. Gilardi with a portico supported by 8 columns. Semi-circular galleries led from the palace to two wings in the Empire style. The building was crowned with an original glass belvedere, which served to illuminate the central premises of the Poretsk Museum with magnificent collections of coins, rare books and antiques.
The estate has become an important center of the cultural life of Russia. Here, "academic conversations" were held, bringing together professors, academicians, historians in a relaxed circle, who were attracted by the rich and unique museum collections, hospitality and education of the owner. The German artist Ludwig Pitsch left severalimages of the magnificent interior decoration of the house with the decoration of the architect Siluyanov and the museum, the pearl of the antique collection of which was a 150-pound marble carved sarcophagus of the 2nd-3rd centuries. n. e. (now located in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts), acquired by the count from the family of the Roman cardinal.
A small house was built on the estate for Uvarov's friend V. A.
Türmer Forest
The talented arborist and experimenter Karl Frantsevich Türmer accepted in 1853 an invitation from S. S. Uvarov to work on the neglected forest land of the count for 3 years, moved to the Porechye estate with his family from Germany and stayed here for almost 40 years. His initial work was to carry out sanitary clearings, lay dirt roads and carry out land reclamation work. Then, from 1856, already under Aleksey Sergeevich Uvarov, who enthusiastically met the ideas of his forester, the first plantings of a unique man-made forest began, which was distinguished by high productivity and stability, combining 90 species of local trees and shrubs with exotic plants. Larch, pine, arborvitae and firs of the Tyurmer forest on 1130 hectares have remained to this day a magnificent man-made reserve near Moscow.
Manor under A. S. Uvarov
In 1855, Count Sergei Semenovich died, Alexei Sergeevich Uvarov (1925-1884), the only son and successor, became the heir to Porechyemuseum business, founder of the Moscow Archaeological Society and the State Historical Museum. New collections of Russian antiquities and archaeological finds no longer contained the manor premises, and the palace underwent further restructuring. A front porch in the Old Russian style is attached to the northern facade, the southern park facade acquires Italian antique features with a portico, centaurs and caryatids. The plan of the utility yard of the Porechye estate was developed by the architect M. N. Chichagov, the project of the courtyard in the form of an Italian patio and small decorative structures belonged to the architect A. P. Popov. The magnificent Triton fountain - an exact copy of the Roman one in Piazza Barberini, made in Berlin - had an artfully arranged water supply from the pond through pipes to the belvedere of the palace, and then to the fountain, beating due to the height difference. Another impressive building in the park is the "Holy Spring" - a copy of the grotto in Constantinople with the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands and a marble pool in front of it, from where a wonderful view opened. Count Alexei Sergeevich was supported in the improvement of the estate and his passion for archeology by his wife, Princess Praskovya Sergeevna Uvarova (Shcherbatova).
Manor in the late XIX - early XX centuries
The last owner of the estate in Porechye was Count Fyodor Alekseevich Uvarov (1866-1954), a graduate of Moscow University, a member of the archaeological expeditions of his mother Princess Uvarova and the author of scientific works, a member of the Moscow Archaeological Society. As a student, he enrolled in the Terek Cossack army and, leavinguniversity, served in the 1st Sunzha-Vladikavkaz Cossack regiment.
Having retired in 1891 with the rank of cornet and married Princess E. V. Gudovich, he settled in the Porechye estate allocated by his mother for the division of property. He superbly developed the Poretsk garden establishment, bred many new varieties of fruits, vegetables and flowers, successfully engaged in breeding livestock, receiving 401 awards for his work, including becoming a supplier to the imperial court, the owner of diplomas, medals and prizes at various agricultural exhibitions. The seed fields of Fedor Alekseevich supplied all of central Russia. He also became the successor of his ancestors in the public field - as chairman in the Mozhaisk Zemstvo Council, he built roads, and at his own expense - a hospital that has survived to this day. The Porechye estate still attracted well-known representatives of Russian science and culture with the hospitality of the hosts and constantly replenished museum collections, including the fine art collection of the great masters Tiepolo, Fragonard, Kiprensky and others. With the outbreak of the First World War, F. A. Uvarov went to the front in the rank of cornet, where he commanded a Cossack hundred.
The Poretsk Museum was lucky. After the revolution of 1917, a significant part of the magnificent collections of paintings, sculpture, archaeological materials and 100 thousand books were transferred to the Historical Museum and the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin in Moscow.
Current state of Porechye
During the war years of the Great Patriotic War, the old estate was badly destroyed and partially restored in the 1970s.according to the project of the architect-restorer Neonila Petrovna Yavorovskaya, who rediscovered a unique monument of country estate culture, of republican significance, to accommodate a sanatorium and a pioneer camp here. The negative processes that took place during the era of perestroika, in particular the creation of a self-supporting woodworking enterprise here, led to another destruction of the Porechye recreation complex.
Now the territory and buildings are leased to a departmental sanatorium, which has carried out extensive restoration work on palace buildings. Their result is captured on a few modern photos of the Porechye estate.
Free access to the territory is limited, buildings can be seen from afar from the side of the pond. And only the separately standing manor church of the Nativity of the Virgin allows you to plunge into the atmosphere of the once popular Russian estate.
How to get to the Porechye estate
Address: Moscow region, Mozhaysky district, Porechie village.
Drive:
- To the Mozhaisk bus station, then by buses 31, 37, 56 to the Porechye stop.
- To the railway station Uvarovka of the Belarusian direction, then by bus 56 to the stop "Porechie".
