The estate is Shlykovo. Estate A
MUSEUM-RESERVE A. N. OSTROVSKY “SHCHELYKOVO”
Among the memorable places in Russia there are corners where the shadows of our writers come to life. In their names, purely Russian in sound, we find something inseparable from the appearance of the people who lived here.
Getting acquainted with nature, with the objects that surrounded them, we feel more deeply their human uniqueness, we are more fully imbued with the structure of their thoughts. Such are Mikhailovskoye by A.S. Pushkin*, Yasnaya Polyana by L.N. Tolstoy, Spasskoye-Lutovinovo by I.S. Turgenev, such is Shchelykovo by A.N. Ostrovsky, whose 150th anniversary we will celebrate in 1973.
Ostrovsky’s father, N.F. Ostrovsky, lived and was buried in Shchelykovo, so the playwright always loved and treasured these places. Even in his youth, it captivated Ostrovsky with its nature - a virgin forest with shady ravines, the free space of the surrounding fields, the small river Kueksha flowing in a deep valley. Shchelykovo was a kind of outlet in the playwright’s busy and extremely intense life, filled with all sorts of theatrical and everyday worries. Every year, starting from 1868, A. N. Ostrovsky spent the summer months here. Here, in the rural wilderness, he wrote his best works: “The Forest”, “The Dowry”, “The Last Sacrifice”, “The Thunderstorm”. Shchelykov, the life of his peasants, and the folklore material collected here are inspired by the most poetic of Russian plays, “The Snow Maiden.”
The history of the Shchelykovsky estate begins at the end of the 18th century. It was then that F. M. Kutuzov built the existing two-story wooden manor house, laid out a park, and built a stone church in the village of Berezhki in 1792, with a stone fence around it. In the overgrown, wild park, the remains of brick columns and park gazebos are still preserved.
* See on pp. 320–322 the memoirs of L. S. Vasiliev about his visit to Mikhailovsky in 1958, written in the 2nd half of the 1970s. (Editor's note)
In 1847, the estate was purchased by the father of the playwright N.F. Ostrovsky. After his death, Shchelykovo, left by will to the writer’s stepmother, was bought by two brothers - A. N. Ostrovsky and M. N. Ostrovsky. Mikhail Nikolaevich lived permanently in St. Petersburg. He was a major government official and supported his brother financially and morally. In the summer months, he stayed in Shchelykovo; for him, next to the old one, a new one-story wooden house with a mezzanine was built in 1871, which was called the house of Mikhail Nikolaevich, or “Guest”: numerous guests of the playwright usually stayed in it; F.A. Burdin, N.I. Muzil, M.P. Sadovsky, I.F. Gorbunov and others were here.
In one of the rooms of the “Guest” house there was a carpentry workshop and a library of Alexander Nikolaevich. After the death of the writer, the house was demolished in 1900, its material was used for a new, so-called “Blue House”, built in another part of the park for the daughter of Alexander Nikolaevich, Maria Alexandrovna Ostrovskaya (married Chatelain). The house was built according to her drawings and still exists today.
We know about the existence in the past of stone utility buildings that have not reached us, surrounding the front yard in front of the main house on both sides, a wooden gazebo “Quiet Corner”, which often served as the writer’s study, a water mill on the Kueksha River, and a storage chapel in the “Yarilina Valley” , where from time immemorial the surrounding residents held round dances. But, deprived of real supervision, they became dilapidated and fell apart. In the estate house of A. N. Ostrovsky, tiled benches were broken, faience vases in front of the southern facade disappeared, and outbuildings were dismantled into bricks.
Fortunately, in 1948 the house was transferred to the All-Russian Theater Society and turned into a museum. In 1953, by decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the Shchelykovsky memorial reserve was created*. In addition to the estate itself, it included the village of Lodygino, adjacent to Shchelykov, the village of Berezhki and part of the surrounding forests along the Kuekshi River. From that time on, the revival of Shchelykov as a huge historical and literary complex began.
Since 1963, the Kostroma Special Research and Restoration Production Workshop began work on the restoration of the house of A. N. Ostrovsky. Even during the life of the writer's widow, in 1892, its facades were redone and their coloring was changed. Restorers managed to recreate, using old photographs, the lost forms of the architraves and porches, and restore the original light gray color of the facades, which is mentioned in the memoirs of A. N. Ostrovsky’s contemporaries. During the restoration process, the damaged lower crowns of the frame were replaced, and the missing tiled benches were restored. Employees of the Shchelykovsky Museum found samples of former paper wallpaper and collected original furniture from Ostrovsky’s house.
A project for recreating the “Guest” house has been prepared. A precise restoration of its appearance is provided.
Next in line is the restoration of the “Quiet Corner” gazebo and the mill on the Kueksha River, and the economic services in front of the manor house**.
One of the attractions of the Nikola-Berezhka churchyard is the house of I.V. Sobolev, a carpenter and woodcarver who performed some work for the writer. Ostrovsky was on friendly terms with him and often visited him, teaching his son Vanya to read and write. The Kostroma SNPRM, considering the Sobolev house a place associated with the memory of A. N. Ostrovsky, decided to restore it. It is assumed that the restoration of the house will be completed in 1972. It will house a branch of the Shchelykov Museum.
* In 1948, Shchelykovo was declared a State Nature Reserve, and it was transferred to the All-Russian Theater Society in 1953 (Editor's note) ** The mill and economic services have not yet been (fully) restored. (Editor's note)
Restoration work is underway in the St. Nicholas Church. It is interesting that the composition of its quadrangle is typical for the Kostroma region, but its forms are made in the spirit of the late Roman Baroque.
According to legends among local residents, this fact is explained by the fact that F. M. Kutuzov, who built the church, invited Italian craftsmen to decorate it. Indeed, the icons of the iconostasis and the remains of oil painting on the walls and vaults of the upper church indicate that they were made by foreign artists. Unfortunately, the wall paintings are poorly preserved and are now whitewashed. In the near future, a complete restoration of the entire church - facades and interiors - will be carried out. The modern brick fence of the church contains features of the same transitional period from Baroque to Classicism. Its gates are interesting, especially the eastern ones, facing the village of Berezhki. In recent years, the fence has become very dilapidated, some of its parts have disappeared completely. In 1971, according to a project drawn up by the Kostroma Special Scientific Restoration Production Workshop, the fence was restored by the student construction team of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University.
It is also extremely important to restore those high-altitude landmarks, without which it is impossible to imagine the surroundings of Shchelykov from the time of A. N. Ostrovsky. These are churches in the village of Ugolskoye and in the village of Pokrovskoye.* They stand at the very entrance to the estate and in their modern, disfigured form serve as a reproach to us all.
They should be immediately taken into custody and means should be found to tidy up at least their appearance. Indeed, in addition to historical, they have enduring artistic value. Indeed, we should be proud of these monuments of folk art and preserve them for future generations.**
*By 2014, repair and restoration work was carried out on the Church of the Praise of the Virgin Mary in the village of Ugolskoye; The church bell tower has not been restored. In the village of Pokrovskoye, the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary and its bell tower are in a dilapidated state. (Editor's note)
** For some of the illustrations for the article, see the color insert, pp. VIII–IX. (Editor's note)
Shchelykovo. Eastern gate in the fence of St. Nicholas Church before restoration
Photographs from the turn of the 1960s–1970s. from a publication in “Monuments of the Fatherland”
L. S. Vasiliev. About the architectural heritage of the Kostroma region
Museum-reserve of A. N. Ostrovsky “Schelykovo”
Pogost in the village Nikolo-Berezhki after restoration (view from the west). Photo circa 1970s.
Shchelykovo. Estate of A. N. Ostrovsky. Northern façade of the main house. Photo by V. A. Maslikh, late 1930s – early 1940s.
HOUSE OF A. N. OSTROVSKY IN THE SHCHELIKOVO ESTATE
The repair and restoration work carried out on the main building of the Shchelykovo estate is caused by two reasons - the need to restore the lower crowns of the log house affected by fungus, as well as the plank floors of the lower floor and make it heated. Due to fire safety requirements, it is impractical to repair and use the old stoves that have been preserved. According to preliminary plans, they will be used to accommodate the channels of the heating system; the boiler room should be installed in a newly constructed brick building at a sufficient distance from the memorial house.
The main house of the Shchelykovo estate, apparently built in the first decades of the 19th century, was remodeled several times; fortunately, this did not affect its overall compositional structure - this is a typical house of a middle-class landowner, built in a remote province by local craftsmen. The builders' distant familiarity with classical examples, combined with purely peasant decorative motifs and strict constructiveness in the interpretation of the order, determine its originality.
In the course of measurement and research work carried out by the Kostroma Restoration Workshop, some data was obtained that made it possible to reconstruct (albeit with a certain degree of probability) the original appearance of the building. These data are as follows:
1). When removing the plank paneling above the door leading from the living room to the southern terrace, a semicircular opening was discovered that was subsequently sealed (see the corresponding sounding); the fact that the opening cuts the lower part of the internal plaster cornice (quite classical in profile) seems to indicate that the opening above the door was sealed no later than the 30s–40s. XIX century, i.e. much earlier than A. N. Ostrovsky acquired Shchelykovo; however, due to the remoteness of the estate from the cultural centers of that time, this could have happened later.
Explanatory note to the restoration project of A. N. Ostrovsky’s house in the Shchelykovo estate. The text is dated February 1965 // Archive of OJSC “Kostroma Restoration”. Published for the first time. (Editor's note)
2). The reconstruction of the southern door in its original form allows for the only option - a door with a semi-circular finish with two semi-windows on the sides, surrounded by a simple platband in the form of a wooden lining (with or without a profile), devoid of sandals, brackets and other decorative elements. Most likely, the platband did not have a profile at all: this would contradict the rather strong plasticity of the “saw-toothed” facades and the general simplicity of the composition. The window frames on the southern, western and eastern facades, and possibly on the northern one, should have been the same. The later origin of the existing architraves is beyond doubt. They appeared, apparently, at the same time as the reconstruction of the southern terrace, at least simultaneously with the construction of a plank canopy over it, visible in the photograph of the 1890s. (the same wooden valance with scallops).
3). The northern terrace in its plan form did not seem to change; its external contours are defined by massive corner pillars made of red brick on lime, laid out in the same technique as the basement under the building; the location itself, between two porches-vestibules, in front of the office, allowed the existence of a terrace enclosed by railings; the northern terrace has a relatively shallow depth; judging by the old photograph by V. A. Maslikh*, it was not covered with boards from below (so that the brick corner pillars of the terrace faced the façade); all this, despite the northern orientation, made it quite durable and, therefore, expedient in the eyes of the home owners. One more circumstance should be taken into account: the house stands on a gentle slope in front of a steep slope into the valley of the Kueksha River. The descent goes in a north-south direction. Due to this, the northern and southern terra races have different heights relative to ground level. The northern terrace has a height of 1.15 m; the height of the vents under it is such that when approaching the northern façade, a person’s horizon of vision is always higher than the level of the terrace floor; the functional requirement to open the floor structures as much as possible for ventilation here did not contradict the requirements of architectural aesthetics.
* See on p. 158. Vladimir Aleksandrovich Maslikh - head of the Maly Theater Museum, one of the organizers in Shchelykov in the 2nd half of the 40s. XX century Memorial Museum of A. N. Ostrovsky. (Editor's note)
The southern terrace is strongly raised above the platform below it, moved towards the very descent into the valley and, of necessity, had to have a base covered with boards. In contrast to the northern one, the southern terrace at its base does not have brick pillars at all, which would define the external contours of the plan. The two brick walls extending south from the plinth appear to be original. They serve as the foundation for massive log beams on which the columns of the southern portico rest. These walls protrude forward by a fathom (about 2.15 m) and are located under the outermost columns. No traces of other stone pillars were found underneath it. Even a quick glance at the southern terrace in its modern form (repeated in 1955 in accordance with the photograph of the 1890s) convinces of its late origin. For the observer below, it covers at least half of the main façade. To protect this terrace from rotting (aesthetic requirements do not allow ventilation in the basement cladding), a canopy is needed (which once existed), but the canopy completely ruins the facade, darkens the south door and turns the front (blue) living room into a completely dark room.
The illogicality of the southern terrace in its current form is beyond doubt. The inadmissibility of an open through base and at the same time the urgent need to make the space under the terrace ventilated require a change in its shape. Undoubtedly, the railings of both terraces are late and alien in style.
Preliminary clearing of paint layers on the walls of the living rooms of the building established that they were all painted with adhesive paints on lime-sand plaster. The survey was carried out on both floors. No traces of wallpapering the walls were found.
Shchelykovo. Estate of A. N. Ostrovsky. South facade of the main house. Photo from the beginning of the 20th century.
GUEST HOUSE in SCHELIKOVO ESTATE
The house of A. N. Ostrovsky’s brother, Mikhail Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, or “Guest”, as it is also called, was built in 1875. The house stood in the park, east of the main estate house, on the edge of the descent into the valley of the Kueksha River, and was facing it with the main, southern façade. The house was wooden, one-story, with a mezzanine and covered with planks. A wooden balcony on pillars adjoined its southern facade; on the northern side, facing the park, the mezzanine turned into a glazed veranda (like the lower part of the first floor), added later. The building had stove heating, iron roofs with drainpipes, and stood on a brick plinth.
In addition to Mikhail Nikolaevich’s rooms, the Guest House housed a library, the playwright’s carpentry workshop and guest rooms.
Architecturally, it is a typical product of the 70s. XIX century, eclectically combining the last echoes of the provincial Empire style with the first trends of the pseudo-Russian, Ropetov style.
The guest house existed until 1900. This year it was dismantled, its frame was transported to the opposite part of the park and, when built on, served as the basis for the house of the daughter of the playwright M. A. Ostrovskaya-Chatelain (the so-called “Blue House”, which still exists today ).
The source material for drawing up the project were two photographs of a house from the 90s. 19th century, made from the southwest, a pencil schematic plan of the lower floor, attributed to Sergei Aleksandrovich Ostrovsky (stored in the museum’s collections), and data from field excavations of the remains of the foundation. In addition, measurements of the first floor of the Blue House, made from the Guest log house, were used. When making interior details, we had to turn to the corresponding analogues.
On the other hand, the requirements for the future use of the restored house as an exhibition space below and a library on the mezzanine, as well as fire safety conditions
Explanatory note to the project for the restoration of the guest house of the Shchelykovo estate. The text is dated 1974 // Archive of OJSC “Kostromarestavratsiya”. Published for the first time. (Editor's note)
led to significant deviations from the original internal layout: in particular, the staircase to the mezzanine had to be moved from the central hall to the western part of the house and enclosed in blank walls; in the northern half of the lower floor, instead of four small rooms, two and two adjacent compartments were designed, intended for a wardrobe and connected to the hallway by wide openings. The veranda on the mezzanine received double glazing to allow it to be used in winter. Due to the requirements of replacing stove heating with central heating and maximizing the use of exhibition space, it was necessary to abandon the reconstruction of stoves, even in their imitation version; the outer chimneys visible in old photographs must, of course, be restored. At the eastern end of the first floor corridor, the project provides a bathroom with a washbasin.
Finally, in deviation from the historical truth, at the urgent request of the customer, a fireproof basement with a separate entrance from the outside is installed under the building. The basement is intended for storage. Due to fire safety requirements, the basement enclosing the basement has two large windows in brick pits, which are usually covered with wooden covers. The basement walls from the base of the foundation to ground level are designed from concrete blocks, above ground level - from red brick M-100 with M-50 mortar. The ceiling above the basement is fireproof, made of monolithic reinforced concrete and in the form of brick vaults on steel beams. The floors in the basements are made of metlakh tiles.
The interfloor and attic floors in the Guest House are designed to be wooden, with a cleanly planed ceiling surface. The surfaces of the knurling and beams in contact with the insulation must be antiseptic. Floors should be made of air-dry pine with a humidity of no more than 25%. There are two doors in the attic of the main part of the building. In the attic of the mezzanine, a dormer window is installed in the pediment of the southern facade. The project provides for fire protection of the building's rafter system.
Guest house in the Shchelykovo estate
Judging by the recollections of old-timers, the Guest House had smoothly hewn chopped walls and planked floors inside. Accordingly, a project for the interiors was drawn up. It was not possible to determine whether the floors were painted; For ease of use of the building, it is proposed to paint the floors. The floors in the bathrooms are metlakh. All carpentry - window and door frames, window sills, platbands and filling of openings - must be painted with oil white. The outside of the building is painted with light gray oil paint (except for filling the openings), the base is painted with casein-based brick flour. Particular importance should be given to hardware products. According to old samples, must be ordered in advance
window and door latches, window and door hooks and handles. The use of modern hardware is absolutely unacceptable.
The guest house had partially colored glazing. The color of the glass could not be determined; it is suggested to use red glass. Roofs and drainpipes are painted with verdigris, chimneys are whitewashed. A cobblestone area on crumpled clay is arranged around the building.
The engineering equipment of the Guest House (electricity, heating, ventilation, water supply and sewerage) must be solved by special projects that will be developed after the approval of the project for the reconstruction of the Guest House.
Photo from project documentation
Guest House. Drawing by L. S. Vasiliev. Circa 1973
Guest House. Drawing by L. S. Vasiliev (based on reproduction in the journal “Science and Religion”, 1973. – No. 4. – P. 80)*
* In total, as mentioned in the publication in Science and Religion, this project by L. S. Vasiliev consisted of 25 sheets of drawings. (Editor's note)
“BLUE HOUSE” OF THE SHCHELIKOVO ESTATE
The two-story wooden building of the “Blue House”, built according to the design of the daughter of playwright A. N. Ostrovsky, M. A. Chatelain, at the beginning of the 20th century, is based on the log frame of the former “Guest House”, which stood since 1874 not far from the house Alexander Nikolaevich, east of him, and transferred to her during the division of property.
The house was placed on the edge of a clearing surrounded by forest and was the center of a new independent estate. Of its various one-story service buildings, only the “Hunting Lodge” has survived to this day, which should undoubtedly be considered as part of the memorial complex.
The stamp of Maria Alexandrovna’s bright artistic talent, who acted here as an architect, is clearly felt in the freshness of the unusual interpretation of the verandas on the northern and southern facades, in the elegant lace of the cornice valances and window frames, in the design of the railings. Painted white, the decorative details stand out brightly against the background of the blue plank cladding of the facades.
The house is placed on a fairly high brick plinth, has wooden ceilings and painted plank floors.*
Explanatory note to the preliminary design for the restoration of the “Blue House” of the Shchelykovo estate. The text is dated 1989 // Archive of OJSC “Kostromarestavratsiya”. The author's archive contains an undated (early?) typewritten version of a larger volume. Insertions from this version are given here in angle brackets in a slightly smaller font, and the essentially duplicate passage from the brief version of the note is omitted as a footnote. Published for the first time. (Editor's note)
* In the short version, this paragraph is followed by the text: “Its layout has been significantly changed. By installing a partition to the west of the corridor at the northern entrance (which was the main one), part of the vestibule, where the dressing room should be located, was turned into an additional room. The main changes took place on the upper floor, where, apparently, there was a living room similar to the lower one and located directly above it. Thanks to the installation of new partitions, a southern room and a dark room with a narrow curved corridor encircling it were separated from it. The storage room is now located here. Evidence of its later origin is a wide, now sealed doorway in its western wall, adjacent to one of the rooms.
Changes in the interior since the building was handed over for the summer residence of artists of the Maly Theater (i.e. from the end of the 1920s) were reduced to the following: the chopped surfaces of the walls and the clean planed ceilings of the rooms were covered with cardboard on a frame and painted with oil paint; Of the tiled Dutch stove and fireplace that decorated the living room on the lower floor, only the fireplace has survived. But he too was moved to the opposite wall. The original furniture and lighting fixtures were gone. In the post-war years, water heating was installed in the Blue House.
At some stage in the existence of the Blue House, a side wall was added to its western façade, which was also covered with planks and received a decorative design similar to that of the building.
There are bathrooms and washrooms on two floors. From the corridor of the upper floor there is a steep two-flight staircase to the attic. In the 1970s, in place of the south window, an emergency exit with a wooden external staircase was built along the western facade of the house. The second staircase, below, is located on the western facade of the extension, in front of the door to the lower floor corridor.
The appearance of the Blue House has also changed significantly. Until the 1940s, the veranda at the center of its northern façade was single-story and the upper balcony had no roof. Her device caused the appearance of a new pediment at the top with a window in the center. The eastern half of the southern terrace also had no roof. The staircase to it was formerly on the east side. The staircase on the northern façade* did not have a middle dividing railing.
However, it should be noted the tact and stylistic continuity in all the changes to the facades that took place.”
In the penultimate paragraph, an asterisk indicates the author’s footnote: “This is confirmed by the testimony of the artist of the Maly Theater P. P. Sadovsky.” (Editor's note)
[In the 1920s, the Blue House, along with other construction projects on Maria Alexandrovna’s estate, was transferred to the Maly Theater and adapted as a summer holiday home for artists.
According to the memoirs of Prov Provych Sadovsky, who lived here every year since 1929, the house at that time had a slightly different appearance. This is confirmed by outdoor photographs from his family album. One of them, depicting the building from the northwest, shows the northern two-tier terrace. The upper tier is open, that is, the current ceiling with the pediment is missing. In its place, on the northern slope of the iron roof, you can see a dormer window with a gable roof, with lace scallops along the overhang of the eaves, similar to the dormer windows preserved on the other three roof slopes. The staircase on the northern façade had no dividing railings. Brick chimneys are visible on the roof of the building
chimneys made in the traditional manner - with otter, cornices and iron caps with cut-iron decor. Traditional for the beginning of the century, drainpipes at the corners of the building, with a curved box-section head and crowns made of expanded iron.
The western entrance, recently occupied by bathrooms, had a different appearance. It was significantly narrower along the western façade and had a pediment ending. Moreover, the lacy wooden festoons running along the edge of the horizontal cornice also ran along the inclined line of the pediment. Probing made on the western façade of the prirub allowed us to clarify its original dimensions. According to P.P. Sadovsky, there was no restroom as such in the Blue House, and the western extension performed other functions. The alteration of the northern veranda and western extension dates back to the second half of the 1940s.
Back in the 1920s, a roof was added over the eastern half of the southern veranda, which was used as a dining room. The access to it from ground level was from the east.
The house was heated by Dutch ovens. According to the stories of P.P. Sadovsky, there were tiled stoves on the lower floor, and round stoves covered with iron on the top. When opening the plank floors of the first floor, brick bases of four stoves were found, built on lime, three of which had a quadrangular plan, and one, standing in the corner of the room, had a beveled edge. It should be noted that the dimensions of the upper furnaces do not fully correspond to the lower ones and are partially shifted in plan relative to them. Moreover, on the upper floor, near the eastern wall, corresponding to the eastern wall of the lower living room, traces of a rectangular stove standing directly on the interfloor ceiling were found. Apparently, a similar oven, without support from below, existed in the room on the upper floor adjacent to the west. No traces of round stoves or their imprints on the floor were found.
According to P.P. Sadovsky, in the 1920s, the internal surfaces of the walls of the Blue House were a smoothly planed frame with neatly caulked seams. This was confirmed after removing the 1940s cardboard paneling along the slats. There are no traces of wallpaper on the internal surfaces of the walls and partitions.
The unusual layout of the upper floor of the Blue House, especially the presence of an internal room devoid of daylight in its southern half, caused bewilderment. After removing the inner lining, the locations of the original furnaces are exposed. They consist of openings in the internal main walls and corresponding seals in the floor, which give a horizontal cross-section of the former furnaces. As the natural traces show, it fully corresponds to the original layout of the second floor and, for the most part, the layout of the first. Only the partitions that are late here are dividing two rooms in half on either side of the living room (the western one housed a library in the 1920s).
All rooms had smooth ceilings made of planed bottom. An exception is the ceiling above the lower living room, which has the appearance of a coffered ceiling with a system of protruding beams of rectangular cross-section, laid along and across it, and diagonally in the corners.
The lack of photographs or drawings of the Blue House's interiors makes it extremely difficult to accurately recreate them. This refers to the shape of the stoves (the fact that the upper stoves were originally traditionally rectangular is evidenced by their traces in the floor; but whether they were tiled or ordinary whitewashed is unknown). It is not known what the inner surfaces of the walls were like - chopped or covered with fabric? The evidence of P.P. Sadovsky dates back to the early 1930s, when a lot could have changed. During previous repairs, the internal surfaces of the log house were damaged in many places by an ax and have numerous traces of nails, i.e. they will require careful prosthetics (if the log house remains open). In one of the rooms on the log house there are traces of fire.
Since the 1940s, after the furnaces were broken down, the Blue House received water heating with a boiler room located in the basement, in the southwest corner. The boiler room is covered with brick vaults over metal beams and has a large brick chimney adjacent to the west wall of the lower living room. Attached to it is a tiled fireplace, which previously stood on the opposite wall of the living room. Above the western part of the building, in the attic level, there is a water heating expansion tank. Due to periodic leaks, the attic floor and part of the frame underneath have rotted and require replacement or prosthetics.]
By 1987, the technical condition of the Blue House had deteriorated sharply. A control inspection of the building, carried out in June of this year, revealed the threatening condition of the lower crowns of the log house in different parts and the ceiling above the basement. They are rotten, have lost strength and require replacement. The condition of the frame and floors of the extension where the toilets are located is completely unsatisfactory. Here, deformations and deviations from the vertical of the load-bearing walls are clearly visible.
An additional detailed study of the condition of the building structures is necessary; this will require his complete release. There is an obvious need for its overhaul and the implementation of measures for its further preservation.
In accordance with the design specifications, reconstruction work on the Blue House should be accompanied by restoration of its interiors. They should be reduced to recreating the historical appearance of the lower living room and four adjacent rooms. This will require restoring the tiled Dutch oven, removing late paneling in these rooms and returning the walls and ceilings to their original appearance.
In accordance with the intention to create an artistic living room here, it is proposed to break through the thin transverse partitions with new doors (modeled on the old ones), connecting the side rooms according to the enfilade principle. Based on the old photographs that have been preserved, stylish furniture, lighting fixtures, curtains, paintings, etc. should be selected. It is necessary to restore colored inserts in the glazing of windows and external doors where they have been lost.
The upper floor of the building, considered as part of the memorial, must receive the original layout and appropriate interior design. The issue of the location and shape of the furnaces will be decided additionally, after full-scale and archival research. In this regard, the heating issue will be resolved. As an option, it may be proposed to place spiral electric heaters inside the recreated furnaces.
It is quite obvious that all redevelopment work must be preceded by a detailed study of the building’s structures, replacement of rotten elements, antiseptics of the basements and provision of conditions for its ventilation. The western extension must be completely rebuilt as it is dilapidated. [It should get the same dimensions.
Making the right restoration decision involves taking into account several factors: 1) the structural condition of the monument; 2) the presence of natural traces; 3) sufficient completeness of iconography or written sources; 4) taking into account the conditions of use of the monument in our time.
Applying these provisions to the Blue House, we can state:
1. The external appearance of the building can be restored with sufficient reliability and without prejudice to modern use. This is facilitated by the preservation of the main structures, the presence of photographs from the early 1930s, and oral testimony from eyewitnesses. 2. The situation with recreating the interior is much more complicated, not to mention furniture, household items, lighting fixtures - which are completely lost. With a certain degree of tolerance on the foundations, it is possible to recreate the tiled stoves of the lower floor, you can repair the damaged walls of the interior - but, taking into account the weakened strength of the log house (its lower floor, which still belonged to the Guest House, dates back to 1847), and even the interfloor ceiling, can we without serious risk, can we load them with second-floor stoves, even if they are made in a lightweight version with iron casing?
But if this cannot be done, the question arises of what to do with the walls of the upper floor: a) leave them in the log house and sew up the openings from the stoves with boards, or b) re-upholster them with cardboard along the slats, i.e. abandon the attempt to restore the upper interiors ?
About heating the Blue House. While recognizing the desirability of restoring the fireplace in the lower living room as functional, I consider it necessary to restore the water heating system that existed until recently. She is the most rational. However, it is necessary to take special measures against leaks of the expansion tank and to prevent the building structures from getting wet again.
Recently, when disassembling the photo archive of the Shchelykovo Museum-Reserve, previously unknown photographs were found dating back to the initial period of the building’s existence, namely to the pre-revolutionary era. They radically change the usual ideas about its external appearance and pose new problems for restoration. As can be seen from the photographs, the building was a two-story, devoid of any cladding, superbly executed log house with carefully made caulking between the logs, with platbands and other carved decor of the same tone as the log house (but not white) and window frames and fillings of doorways painted with white. This is proven by the relatively late (obviously in the 1920s) appearance of façade cladding. It is quite obvious that the name of the building, “Blue House,” appeared in the post-revolutionary period.
The idea of the appearance of external terraces is changing. While on the northern façade of the building it retained its previous dimensions, on the southern façade it looked completely different. Here it turned at a right angle along the eastern façade, maintaining the same width. Two wide staircases led from the terrace - one, on the south-eastern corner, to the south, the other, from its eastern part, from the northern end to the east. All terraces, including the terrace of the northern façade, rested on massive square-section whitewashed brick pillars and were not covered with plank cladding, as is done now.
It is natural to want to restore the appearance of the building to its original form. But the problems that arise in this case are so serious that they will require special discussion both on the part of the monument protection authorities and the Department of Culture, and on the part of the customers.]
It is proposed to replace the fire escape on its southern facade with a fireproof and more compact metal one.
Shchelykovo. "Blue House". South facade. Photo from the 1920s. Another illus. see color plate, page IX.
HOUSE OF THE PEASANT I. V. SOBOLEV IN THE VILLAGE OF NIKOLO-BEREZHKI
The house of peasant I.V. Sobolev in the village of Berezhki is located not far from the St. Nicholas Church and from the cemetery with the grave of A.N. Ostrovsky. Situated on the edge of the village as it descends into a deep ravine, with a pedestrian bridge across it, it is the first to greet the visitor to these places, effectively opening the perspective of a short street with centuries-old birch trees and a white church in the depths. The house, darkened by time, with a steep gable roof, with white carved frames of small windows, naturally blends into the landscape - the surroundings of the playwright's grave.
In addition to its historical interest (I.V. Sobolev, a carpenter, was a close acquaintance of A.N. Ostrovsky, Ostrovsky visited here), the house is of certain interest as an example of a wooden hut from the mid-19th century. Compositionally, it consists of three parts: a winter hut with a Russian stove and a stove bench, a hallway and a summer back hut. The farm buildings, which undoubtedly once existed, have not survived, and their locations are not known. Adjacent to the east side of the house is a narrow plank outbuilding, at the far end of which there was a privy and access to the backyard. In the roof above the summer hut there is a rectangular hole from a chimney; therefore, there was a stove here. But this oven is late. According to the testimony of the priest of the St. Nicholas Church, it was built at the beginning of the 20th century. - after the carpenter’s son sold the village for housing.
Explanatory note to the project for the restoration of the house of peasant I.V. Sobolev in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki. The text is dated May 1968 // Archive of OJSC Kostromarestavratsiya. Published for the first time. (Editor's note)
Structurally, the house is typical of a peasant hut: two logs, winter and summer halves, separated by a vestibule, the end walls of which are formed by the release of logs from the rear hut. The back hut has a basement divided into two parts, one of which, due to the presence of one entrance (on the western side), is a passage. The floor of this part of the house is higher than the floor level in the winter hut and the entryway; a staircase leads into it from the entryway. The floors are two-layer along purlins embedded in the frame - the bottom layer of quarter-sized plates is coated with clay, and floorboards are laid on it in a direction transverse to the plates. The ceiling is made of plates connected in quarters, supported on purlins and walls. The backfill is earthen over clay coating. The general roof is gable, with a high gable rise. The covering is shingle. At the front end, the gable is sewn up with planks and separated from the underlying log house by a plank cornice arranged along consoles extended from the upper crowns of the log house. In the pediment
– quite a large dormer window. The rear end wall has a male finish, i.e. the gable (pediment) is also made of a log house. The windows of both halves of the house have carved frames. In shape, the architraves of the rear hut, inspired by examples of urban wooden Empire style, retaining two-color glue painting (a combination of red ocher and white), look older than the architraves of the front half of the house (with the end and base in the form of a triple bracket). This comes into strange contradiction with the age of the log houses of both parts - with the relatively good state of preservation of the rear hut and the complete deterioration of the front half of the house. One thing is certain - the house was made up of two log cabins made at different times.
In 1966–1968 The house has been measured. Due to the catastrophically poor condition of the front hut (collapse of the attic floor, bulging of rotten walls), some points are not reflected in the measurement - the structure of the floor of the winter hut, the level of the attached benches, which undoubtedly once existed (a fragment of a bench was found in the entryway).
The restoration project provides for the complete restoration of the building to its original form, preserving all the features of the structural structure and internal layout: benches, stove with stove bench, lost door panels with corresponding forgings, shingle roofing. The decorative treatment of the façade is being restored: platbands painted according to the originals, wind boards of the gables, hemmed cornices. The porch and annex are being restored on the rear longitudinal façade.
An indispensable condition for the work should be the fullest possible use of the remaining parts of the old building - logs and rafters, rolled ceilings, door and window blocks with internal and external trims, door leaves, window frames, etc.
To replace rotten logs of a log house, it is proposed to use logs from dismantling of quite a hundred
swarm, but of a strong log structure, observing, of course, the equality of their diameters.
The design of the foundations will be additionally developed taking into account typical techniques for folk residential buildings of the 19th century.*
House of peasant I.V. Sobolev in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki. Photo 2012
* How L. S. Vasiliev conducted author’s supervision of this project is stated in an excerpt from his letter to A. V. Solovyova dated April 17, 1972: “In March, I was in Shchelykov twice.<...>I came about Sobolev's house. It was pretty much ruined this winter, they made it without my knowledge, without drawings, and I had to force them to redo it, swearing. It’s a very unpleasant task to poke adults’ noses at the work they’ve done poorly, you feel a humiliating feeling because of them, but it’s necessary. I cannot allow blatant hackwork in my business, especially since the anniversary is just around the corner” (archive of A.V. Solovyova). (Editor's note)
CHURCH FENCE AND GATE IN THE VILLAGE OF NIKOLO-BEREZHKI
St. Nicholas Church in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki of the former Kineshma district of the Kostroma province (now Ostrovsky district of the Kostroma region), built in 1792, together with the surrounding stone fence, apparently dating back to the same time, represent an example of Russian provincial classicism of the Kostroma sense. As in other Kostroma churches of that time, the general majesty of the composition and the large scale of the order divisions somehow naturally fit into the landscape. This is achieved by a unique, simplified interpretation of order forms, following the whimsical topography of the area, and choosing elevated, perceptually advantageous places for the largest structures. All this makes each building unique.
The fence of St. Nicholas Church has the shape of an irregular quadrangle in plan, with two gates
– in the eastern and western sides – and two towers in the north-eastern and north-western corners. The northwestern tower and the pieces of fencing adjacent to it on both sides were dismantled during the construction of a wooden gatehouse. Other parts of the fence and the wallpaper of the gate have become very dilapidated, and the filling of the gate has been lost. The project provides for the restoration of the destroyed sections of the fence, including the relocation of two spindles in the southern wall of the gate, and the repair of the masonry of the existing parts. Recovered:
1) a destroyed brick tower in the north-eastern corner of the fence;
2) completion of the northwestern tower;
3) destroyed sills and pillars in the upper parts of the walls;
4) buttresses at the southern wall;
5) the destroyed north-eastern corner of the fence (on the site of a later guardhouse);
6) western and eastern gates, including a gate;
7) iron coverings for gates, fences and posts,
iron crosses over gates and gates;
8) wooden fillings for gates and wickets;
9) lamps on the eastern gate.
Explanatory note to the project for the restoration of the church fence and gates in the village. Nikolo-Berezhki. The text is dated July 1970 // Archive of OJSC “Kostroma Restoration”. Published for the first time. (Editor's note)
It is necessary to remove the earthen embankment at the western gate, to the south of it. Coat the brick surfaces of the fence and gate with lime, paint the iron coverings and crosses with verdigris. Coat the wooden fillings of gates and gates with drying oil with the addition of natural umber and soot.
Shchelykovo. Churchyard Nikolo-Berezhki. The northern fence after restoration. Photo circa 1970s.
Shchelykovo. Churchyard Nikolo-Berezhki. Eastern gate after restoration. Photo circa 1970s.
RESTORATION OF FLOWER VASES OF THE HOUSE-MUSEUM OF A. N. OSTROVSKY IN SHCHELIKOV
At the southern facade of the memorial house of A. N. Ostrovsky in Shchelykovo, on the upper platform of the stone staircase leading to the valley of the Kueksha River, on its sides, there are two flower vases with brick pedestals at the base. The vases and their bases were placed in the 50s of our century in place of those that existed during the playwright’s life. If the existing bases are close to the original ones, then the vases - a typical product of the 40-50s, which has a lot of duplicates in many cities of the Volga region - cannot claim any kind of memorial status.
Meanwhile, there is graphic material on authentic vases, quite sufficient for their reconstruction. The proposed project is based on the study of a 19th-century watercolor located in the bedroom of Maria Vasilyevna Ostrovskaya, and, mainly, full-scale photographs of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, stored in the archives of the memorial house. As can be seen from the photographs and drawing, the vases were located at the southern facade of the building on the upper landing of the stone staircase, on its sides. Having in general the shape of ancient craters, they had a peculiarity - tree-like handles, in their upper part connected to the body of the vases and boldly continuing along them in the form of branches with large flowers.
An indirect indication of the material of the vases is given by a photograph from the beginning of the 20th century. (view of the house from the southwest). One of the vases had by this time lost its handle, and a dark fracture clearly stands out on its whitened surface. This immediately removes the assumption about gypsum as a material (of little use as a container for soil with flowers and short-lived). Of the remaining options - baked clay and concrete - the latter for the 19th century, even for its end, seems unlikely. So, we are inclined to believe that the vases were made of red baked clay; on the outside they were glazed or whitewashed; because they
Explanatory note to the project for restoring flower vases of the house-museum of A. N. Ostrovsky in Shchelykovo. No date (presumably the end of the 1970s) // Archive of OJSC Kostromarestavratsiya. Published for the first time. (Editor's note)
There were flowers, and therefore wet earth, the walls of the internal cavity had to be covered with glaze. We suggest repeating this material.
The pedestals for vases, in the form of square brick pillars with simple plinths and cornices, are in general similar to those currently existing, but are somewhat taller and differ in details. It is proposed to rearrange them too, according to the photographs. The pedestals appear to have been coated with lime.
Note: It is necessary to install a version of the vases that is practically accessible for manufacturing and, based on this, set the wall thickness and resolve the issue with drainage.*
One of the vases at the beginning of the stairs to the park. Photo 2008
* For another illustration of the note, see the color insert, page IX. (Editor's note)
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The estate of the famous Russian playwright A. N. Ostrovsky Shchelykovo is located in a village 112 km from Kostroma, 15 km from the Volga. The house and other buildings were preserved in memory of the writer, and now Shchelykovo has the status of a state memorial and natural museum-reserve.
The estate has a rather long history: the first buildings were erected here at the end of the 17th century. For one and a half hundred years, Shchelykov was owned by the Kutuzov and Sipyagin family. During the latter, there were fires that devastated the estate, the farm fell into disrepair, the last representative of the Sipyagin family completely squandered his entire fortune, including Shchelykovo. In 1847, Alexander Nikolaevich N.F. Ostrovsky bought it at an auction, settled in it and began to put financial and economic affairs in order. A year later, the future writer came there for the first time: by that time he was only 25 years old, and he had only one play to his credit. Twenty years later, Shchelykovo passed to him and his brother, and the new owners began to rebuild old buildings, erect new houses, and arrange a park in a new way. Since then, A. N. Ostrovsky came here every year for 4-5 months with his family: he conducted business, thought about and wrote the plays that made him famous.
The entire important preparatory process for the planned play usually took place with Alexander Nikolaevich during his summer vacation in his beloved Shchelykov. There, while Alexander Nikolaevich sat for hours on the river bank, with a fishing rod in his hand, the play was hatched, carefully thought out and its smallest details were rethought...
Brother of the writer P. N. Ostrovsky
However, the playwright was not a very successful farmer; he became disillusioned with this occupation and transferred the management of the farm to his wife, and then to the manager. The death of Alexander Nikolaevich is also associated with Shchelykov: he believed that the peasants treated him well, until one day one of them tried to start a fire in the estate. Ostrovsky was so shocked that he could not recover; his hands and head were shaking to death. He died in his office in Shchelykovo on June 2 (new style - 14), two years after the incident.
In 1914, all the Ostrovsky heirs went to the front, and until 1917 no one lived in Shchelykovo, the houses were boarded up. The Soviet government established a volost council, then an orphanage, and a rest home for actors of the Maly Theater. Now on the territory of the museum-reserve there is also a children's camp, a sanatorium and a local theater community. In 2016, the Shchelykovo estate museum was included in the state register of cultural heritage sites.
What to see
The estate consists of several objects that can be viewed separately, or all at once with a guide. Firstly, this is the “heart” of the reserve - writer's house. The playwright spent every summer at the estate, creating his best works here. Today Ostrovsky’s house is a museum open to tourists; the furnishings and even the writer’s personal belongings have been preserved in it as they were during his lifetime. The house contains many photographs of Ostrovsky's friends and family, including his wife, actress Maria Bakhmetyeva, and their six children. A sightseeing tour of the playwright's house lasts on average 1.5 hours.
Secondly, the structure of the reserve includes Literary and Theater Museum Shchelykovo. Here tourists are introduced to two existing exhibitions: “Ostrovsky Theater” and “The Fairy-Tale World of the Snow Maiden”. The first presents the writer’s personal belongings, household items, magazines where the playwright’s works were published, as well as costumes and scenery for his plays. The second exhibition is dedicated to the history of the creation of the fairy tale “The Snow Maiden”.
The third object that tourists are offered to visit is the operating St. Nicholas Church 2 kilometers from the estate. The stone church was built in the 18th century, and there is a legend associated with this building. One of the first owners of Shchelykov, F. M. Kutuzov, fought in the Russian-Turkish war and, having found himself in a terrible storm on the Aegean Sea, vowed to build a stone church on his estate if he survived. The church has two floors - a summer floor, with more luxurious decoration and painting, and a winter floor, laconic and austere. The funeral service for the writer was held in this church. Nearby is the Ostrovsky family burial place: the writer himself, his father, wife and their daughter Maria Ostrovskaya-Chatelain rest here.
The tour of Shchelykovo also includes a visit house-museum of Ivan Sobolev. A skilled woodworker, Sobolev was a close friend of Ostrovsky, and the carved furniture in the writer’s estate was his work. A tour of his house, as a rule, ends for tourists with tea drinking, folk games and rituals.
Another interesting attraction of Shchelykov is Blue House. The two-story blue estate was built by Ostrovsky’s daughter Maria Chatelain; the house was perfectly preserved and restored. Now it is a cultural and educational center with video and reading rooms, a music and literary lounge and a library. The museum's ticket office is also located here.
Shchelykovo
Events
At the request of visitors, museum staff can organize a tea party in nature and unique displays: “Signs of a Sweet Old Time” and “Fashionist’s Outfit.” In winter, Shchelykovo hosts performances with the participation of the Snow Maiden, folk games and fortune-telling, festive treats and master classes on making folk amulets.
Estate of A.N. Ostrovsky "Schelykovo"
For almost two decades, these picturesque places inspired the work of the great playwright. His most famous works were born here: “Late Love”, “There Was Not a Penny, But Suddenly Altyn”, “Simplicity is Enough for Every Wise Man”, “The Last Sacrifice”, “Thunderstorm”, “Forest”, “Wolf and Sheep”, “ Dowry", "Truth is good, but happiness is better." Here the idea of “The Snow Maiden” was hatched, the smallest details of this wonderful fairy tale-play were thought out.
Currently, the museum-reserve is a whole complex, which includes: the house-museum of A.N. Ostrovsky is the main object of the museum-reserve, a memorial park, the ethnographic museum “Sobolev House”, the residence of the Snow Maiden “Blue House”, the Church of St. Nicholas in Berezhki and the Ostrovsky family necropolis, a literary and theatrical museum presenting the exhibition “Ostrovsky Theater”.
The playwright's estate and the picturesque nature around it delight our contemporaries just as they admired A.N. Ostrovsky: “What rivers, what mountains, what forests! If this district were near Moscow or St. Petersburg, it would have long ago turned into an endless park, it would have been compared with the best places in Switzerland and Italy,” the playwright wrote about Shchelykovo in his diary.
Visitors to the estate are amazed by the many flowers near the manor house and in every room, and are captivated by the lack of luxury typical of noble mansions. Everything here is surprisingly simple and homely. The aesthetics of Russian folk style reigns everywhere. In the house of A.N. Ostrovsky contains the main part of the museum’s memorial exhibition - personal belongings of the playwright and members of his family, original furnishings of the house. In the former children's rooms on the mezzanine floor there is an exhibition dedicated to the famous Maly Theater actress A.A. Yablochkina.
The Literary and Theater Museum introduces visitors to the exhibition “Ostrovsky Theatre”. The playwright's personal belongings, picturesque portraits and photographs of his contemporaries, sketches of costumes and scenery, models for performances and posters are also presented here. Particular attention in the exhibition is paid to the works that Ostrovsky worked on in Shchelykovo, especially the plays “The Thunderstorm”, “The Dowry” and “The Snow Maiden”.
“Blue House” is a former guest house in the upper Ovrazhki park, which Ostrovsky’s eldest daughter inherited after the division of the estate between the children. Maria Alexandrovna built a new estate on the site of the guest house according to her own design. This building is considered a rare monument of estate culture of the early 20th century. Currently, two libraries are open in the Blue House - a scientific and a public one, there is a reading room, a literary and musical lounge, and a video room. The residence of the Snow Maiden is also located here.
Everywhere in the museum-reserve one can feel elation, the joy of expecting miracles from natural gifts, from walks along protected paths, meadows and forests, through a flax field.
While in Kostroma we decided to visit the estate of A.N. Ostrovsky in Shchelykovo...
We put this geographical name into the navigator, in a matter of seconds it calculated the route and off we went...
From Kostroma to Ostrovsky’s estate we had to drive only about 120 km, but the Kostroma roads turned out to be the same... We, of course, mentally understood that we were in Russia, and that, to put it mildly, not everything was in order with our roads, but we still need to look for such roads... In short, virtually all 120 km along the federal highway P98 Kostroma - Kirov we were engaged exclusively in figure driving around numerous various road irregularities of impressive size...
Apparently the navigator began to falter from such driving... When we approached the regional center of Ostrovskoye, he forced us to leave the federal highway, drive through the village, and when we hit a deep ravine, he began to speak heart-rendingly: “keep moving, there’s only one left to reach our destination.. . km". Apparently, on the way, we picked up the Susana virus... We did not continue moving along the course he had laid out, but used the old method - we asked the local residents. It turned out that there was no need to turn anywhere from the P98 highway to the fork with the sign “Ostrovsky Museum-Reserve”. We got out onto the main road again and literally a couple of kilometers later (towards Kirov) an intersection appeared with the necessary sign. We must pay tribute to the road workers of the Kostroma region - the section of the road from the highway to Shchelykovo turned out to be simply magnificent + the road runs through a beautiful landscape... This somewhat smoothed out the overall picture of the Kostroma road chaos...
After a while we slowed down at the sign (see photo). We wanted to turn right, but there was no road there. There was no road on the left either...
True, about ten meters before this sign there was a branch from the road on the left side, but the path was blocked by a closed gate. We drove straight ahead a little - we thought that the intersection would be further... But after 50 meters the asphalt ended... We returned to this sign, parked the car at the closed gate and decided to walk a little... Despite the fact that we arrived on a weekend day - there were no people who could be asked where the museum is located...
At first we decided that it was on the right side (behind the fence) where the information board indicated...., but it turned out that we were wrong. It is located on the opposite side (if you believe the sign - this is the “Rest House”) and it is behind closed gates...
The gate was open and we entered a closed area...
A long alley appeared before us, quite well-groomed and... not a soul...
Let's move on... And then a monument appears on the right side... A.N. Ostrovsky... We breathed a sigh of relief - after all, 120 km of off-road was crowned with success - we are in the right place. Why did they remember the local hero Susanin again...
Opposite the monument, behind the fence, a small house was visible...
We pass through the open gate...
and in front of us was indeed the estate of A.N. Ostrovsky... Judging by the complete lack of information along our route, and sometimes the provision of deliberately false information, we seem to be at some kind of secret facility...
But a short excursion into history refuted our assumptions...
Once upon a time, more precisely in the 17th century, this estate began to belong to the Kutuzov family. A representative of this family, the leader of the Kostroma nobility, retired general F. M. Kutuzov, built a large stone house in this place in the 18th century, laid out a landscape park, developed the surrounding area, and even sponsored the construction of the Church of St. in the neighboring village of Berezhki. Nicholas... After his death, the estate is inherited by one of his daughters, then to another, from that one to her son, and he, having squandered everything “acquired by back-breaking labor,” brought the situation to its logical conclusion - the estate was put up for sale bargaining....
It was then that a buyer appeared in the person of Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, the writer’s father, who at that time, after completing his law practice, began to seriously engage in agriculture and for these purposes bought up estates...
In April 1848 (a year after his father acquired the estate), Alexander Nikolaevich spent his vacation here for the first time, who was fascinated by the beauty of the estate and its surroundings...
After the death of N.F. Ostrovsky, the estate was owned by his wife, Emilia Andreevna (stepmother of A.N. Ostrovsky), who brought the estate to decay...
In 1867, Alexander Nikolaevich, together with his brother, bought his father’s estate from his stepmother for 7357 rubles 50 kopecks (in installments for three years) and thanks to his active actions, the estate came to life again...
It is from this moment that the writer begins to spend 4-5 months a year on the estate, fruitfully engaging in his creative activity....
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
(This is what the estate looked like during the time of A.N. Ostrovsky, judging by the picture painted by one of the frequent visitors to the estate...)
But let's go back to our times. So we are at Ostrovsky’s house-estate. We no longer hope for anything good (considering our previous adventures), but to our surprise, the museum was open to the public. In addition, for a fairly nominal fee - 100 rubles, a guide was invited from the administrative building for us, who gave us an excellent tour of the museum for an hour...
We begin our inspection of the museum's exhibition from the largest room in the house - the dining room. Once upon a time, the playwright’s family and his guests often gathered at this table...
There was no kitchen in the house. They cooked in the next room, then the servants brought the dishes through the back entrance and served them to the table through a special window in the wall...
Here is also one of the attractions - the samovar, whose owner was Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
The next room is something like a relaxation room... In it you could relax after a hearty lunch, talk about something important and vital at a cozy table, and play music on a good instrument. In winter, warm up by the stove, near which there is an original protective screen that allows you to avoid accidentally touching a hot object and to some extent limit the excess of directed thermal energy...
Here he worked on the plays “Thunderstorm”, “Forest”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Dowry”, “Snow Maiden”...
On the desktop there are Ostrovsky's manuscripts, writing instruments, a calculator of those times, dictionaries, etc...
On the walls of the office you can see photographs from the writer’s personal archive. By the way, he made the patterned wooden frames for his photographs himself...
Well, after hard everyday life you could relax on this couch....
Next to the office is the room of the playwright's wife, Maria Vasilievna. Despite the small size, everything here is quite thought out and functional...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
Above Maria Vasilievna’s bed you can see a painting on a rural theme... She made the frame for it with her own hands... In addition, she had to take control of the estate into her own hands (from the second half of the 70s XIX century Ostrovsky lost interest in agriculture)...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
We continue the tour of the house... If you noticed, there are no fences in the house that prohibit the passage of tourists... This, in our opinion, has a rather positive effect on the tour, since you get the feeling that you are not in a museum, but just for a moment I was transported to a real house of those times...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
When leaving the bedroom we find ourselves in a small corridor... Here an original chair appears to our eyes... It turns out that a similar specimen, the back of which was forged by a local blacksmith to the profile of Ostrovsky's back, was used by him while fishing... I must say that it weighs quite a lot decently (not like modern sun loungers), but nevertheless - the owner’s servants took him out to the lake (river) and Ostrovsky sat on it for hours with a fishing rod in his hands...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
The next room is A. N. Ostrovsky’s library, which was based on his father’s books. A great contribution to its further equipment was made by the writer’s brother, Mikhail, who repeatedly sent parcels with books, and even brought them himself during his visit to the estate...
If you look at the shelves, you can find books on history, philosophy, gardening, and, of course, literary almanacs...
In the library there is a secretary behind which Ostrovsky worked with books, looked through periodicals...
You can still see newspapers from that time on the table today...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
The walls of the library are also no exception - on them, as everywhere else in the house, there are photographs from the personal archive...
A.N. Ostrovsky was very sensitive to the estate... In September 1884, an arson took place in the estate, as a result of which 30,000 sheaves of bread were burned and the house was miraculously preserved... This fact seriously affected the health of the playwright, after which he could not recover until death...
A.N. died Ostrovsky June 2, 1886 ode in his office and was buried at St. Nicholas Church in the village of Berezhki..
In principle, this could be the end of the tour of the house.... But the house also has a second floor. During the time of A.N. Ostrovsky, his children lived there, and two staircases lead up: one for girls, the other for boys... Everything in the house was planned so that children of different sexes would not intersect in their personal time...
Now on the second floor there is an exhibition dedicated to the famous dramatic actress of the Maly Theater Alexandra Aleksandrovna Yablochkina...
We did not miss the opportunity to get acquainted with the exhibition, and, for a fee, went upstairs...
Here we saw the actress’s personal belongings - her favorite sofa,
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
decor items,
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
the costume in which she performed on the theater stage,
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
working music box in the shape of an Easter egg...,
and numerous photographs from my personal archive....
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
Well, the tour of the house is over. Many thanks to the local museum workers for this - they thoroughly know the subject of their work...
We leave the house....
Once again we find documentary evidence of the fact that it was here that the great Russian playwright lived, worked and died,
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
and we begin to explore the surroundings....
After all, if you remember, Ostrovsky repeatedly admired the nature of these places and with his brother Mikhail put a lot of effort into maintaining the manor park in proper form: dirt paths were laid, gazebos were built, benches were installed, etc... Let's see what this park looks like today...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
On the other side of the writer’s house, along a steep wooden staircase (by the way, underneath it you can see the remains of the previous one - a brick staircase)
we go down to the gazebo...
Perhaps it was in this place that inspiration came to Ostrovsky and he continued his creative work with renewed vigor....
If you turn around and look at the estate, you can see an open terrace....
According to the guide, Ostrovsky loved to relax on it and at the same time enjoy the surrounding views. By the way, at that time trees that interfered with the view were specially pruned and nothing prevented the playwright from viewing the surroundings over long distances...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
Well, let's start our walk in the park...
Despite the beginning of May (the snow has only recently melted), the paths of the park are quite passable....
Bridges have been built across difficult places...
And this is one of the attractions of the park - a pond with an island, which has been preserved from the first owner - F.M. Kutuzova..
Near it there is a local wishing tree....
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
We continue our walk through the park...
As local comrades told us, if you move to the right of the stairs leading to Ostrovsky’s house (if you stand with your back to the house), you can get to another attraction of Shchelykovo - the Blue House...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
After 10-15 minutes of calm walking through picturesque places
we come to another long staircase...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
We rise and indeed a blue house appears in front of us.....
The Blue House was built in 1903 according to the design eldest daughter A.N. Ostrovsky - Maria Alexandrovna Chatelain ...At one time it was a favorite vacation spot for many famous actors of the Maly Theater, and recently, in winter, a thematic exhibition dedicated to Ostrovsky’s famous character, the Snow Maiden, began to be held in this building. Then they began to call it the Snow Maiden’s Tower, and it all ended with Shchelykovo becoming the Snow Maiden’s homeland.....
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
In winter, special tours are even organized here to meet the Snow Maiden....
But we didn’t find the Snow Maiden, apparently she had already melted by the time we arrived, and no wonder, because the temperature outside was already over 20 degrees. (heat)...
But we learned that the museum’s administration and ticket office are located in the house, at least in the summer (although tickets can also be purchased directly at Ostrovsky’s house)....
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
It seems that everyone has looked, it’s time to know the honor....
It’s somehow not interesting to return to the car along the asphalt path, and we find an alternative road....
It seems we didn’t go down this road in vain - we discovered a two-tier gazebo. They say that it was in it that Ostrovsky conceived the image of the Snow Maiden....
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
Having rested a little in it and also thought about the eternal, we go out along a path parallel to the main road to the car to continue our journey...
Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo
We had no desire to return through Kostroma, and we decided to drive through Kineshma (it’s much closer, and the road, we thought, would be better). But the navigator, which we had already nicknamed “Susanin,” went berserk again... When we put Kineshma into it (which is 15 km from Shchelykovo), he determined the shortest route as much as 250 km long - first to Kostroma, there we cross the Volga, and then along on the other side there is another 120 km to Kineshma. We rejected his proposal, to put it mildly, and went our own route (fortunately, sometimes there are signs on the road, and cellular communications in this area are stable - we called a friend (a native of these places) and he confirmed that a bridge across the Volga in the Kineshma area exists) . About twenty minutes later we successfully overcame a water barrier in the form of the mighty Russian Volga River... As it turned out later, for some reason the navigator maps completely lack a bridge across the Volga in this place (perhaps this is a secret object). But in our paper topographic maps it is well marked... So it’s not for nothing that Susanin is the hero of the local epic...
Cm.
Internet:
www.site/M2331 - official page
State Memorial and Natural Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky "Schelykovo" - W1684, official site museumschelykovo.ru/
Local Attractions:
Blue House - New estate of the Ostrovsky-Chatelains
Yarilina Valley with the Blue Key
Sanatorium Shchelykovo STD RF is located on the territory of the museum-reserve
Partner organizations:
Museum named after B.M. Kustodieva - M1510
Storage units:
31669, of which 28770 are fixed assets items
Major exhibition projects:
Participation in the exhibition VKHNRTS im. Academician I.E. Grabar. "95 years of scientific restoration: discoveries and everyday life." Moscow, September 2013
“Two writers - two anniversaries” (to the 190th anniversary of the birth of A.N. Ostrovsky and the 195th anniversary of the birth of I.S. Turgenev). A joint project with the Spasskoye-Lutovinovo Museum-Reserve. Shchelykovo - Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, April 2013 - February 2014
“Dear Sir, Alexander Nikolaevich...” (to the 190th anniversary of the birth of A.N. Ostrovsky). Kostroma State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve. Kostroma, November-December 2013
Traveling and exchange exhibitions:
"Artists of the Theater of A.N. Ostrovsky." The works of outstanding stage designers of the 20th century are presented: B.M. Kustodieva, V.E. Egorova, A.A. Osmerkina, V.F. Ryndina, G.V. Aleksi-Meskhishvili and other authors, revealing the individual style of the masters, and reflecting the characteristic signs of the time in which they created
"Volga in the life and work of A.N. Ostrovsky." Paintings, graphics and documents are presented that reveal the creative and personal connections of the playwright with the Volga cities and the inhabitants of the province.
"Kostroma province during the times of A.N. Ostrovsky." History of the Kostroma region - the homeland of A.N.’s ancestors. Ostrovsky, is presented on historical documents, maps and city plans of the 19th century, rare photographs and books
