Where is Shlykovo located? Estate A

A village in the Kostroma region, 120 km from Kostroma and 15 km from the Volga River and the city of Kineshma.

Before the Ostrovskys, the owner of the estate was Major General F. M. Kutuzov, the Kostroma leader of the nobility (1788-1800). In the Shchelykovsky estate of Kutuzov there were 40 peasant households, 107 male revision souls, in the estate itself there were more than fifty (59) household servants.

There is reason to believe that the Kutuzovs built Shchelykovo, sparing no expense, as the central estate of a large estate, erecting stone buildings in it. Indirect evidence of this is the Church of St. Nicholas on Berezhki. This unusual and architecturally and picturesquely remarkable church could only have been built by a very rich landowner. Legend has it that since Kutuzov’s wife was a Catholic, the church has two floors and two aisles: the lower one is Orthodox, the upper one is Catholic. And in the architecture of the church, the styles of these two faiths intricately merge.

The version that there was a large stone house located elsewhere on the estate, but that it died from a fire has indirect confirmation. In the upper Shchelykov Park, next to the two-story gazebo, a scattering of ancient bricks and traces of the bases of large columns have been preserved. And it is unlikely that the “old” wooden Shchelykov house could satisfy the Kutuzovs as their main home during the heyday of their material well-being. After all, he is typical of the poor middle-class nobility. Perhaps it was built as temporary, but due to the radically changed circumstances of the Kutuzov family, it became permanent.

The Shchelykovo estate was bought by the father of the playwright N.F. Ostrovsky. Nikolai Fedorovich was born in Kostroma on May 6, 1796 in the family of a priest. He graduated from the Kostroma Theological Seminary and then from the Moscow Theological Academy. Having no calling to church activities, Nikolai Fedorovich entered the civilian class, began serving as an official in the judicial department and successfully combined his service in Moscow judicial institutions with private legal practice, which brought him sufficient funds. The popularity of the energetic, educated, talented lawyer gave him the opportunity in 1841 to leave public service and devote himself only to private studies.

In the 40s, N.F. Ostrovsky was the chairman of several large competitions - the lower courts of the Commercial Court, which heard the cases of insolvent debtors and bankrupt merchants. At the very beginning of the 40s, Nikolai Fedorovich owned seven houses in Moscow. Most likely, he would continue to invest his growing capital in apartment buildings. But his second wife, Baroness Emilia Andreevna von Tesin, whom he married in 1863 (his first wife died in 1831), did not like the life of a lawyer. She was disgusted by the constant crowding of her husband's clients - townspeople and merchants - in their house. And the onset of Nikolai Fedorovich’s ailments required a calmer lifestyle.

So N.F. Ostrovsky decided to leave the practice of law and take up agriculture. Since 1846, he began buying estates at auction. He bought four estates in the Kostroma and Nizhny Novgorod provinces, which included 279 serfs. Among these estates, the largest is Shchelykovo. Valued by the police officer at 20,820 rubles 30 kopecks in silver and purchased by Nikolai Fedorovich on July 28, 1847 for 15,010 rubles, it was located in the Kineshma district of the Kostroma province. In all the villages of this estate there were 111 revision male souls.

In Shchelykovo, in addition to the main house, there were three outbuildings in which the courtyard people were housed. All the necessary ancillary premises were also in good condition: a large stone horse yard, a two-story barn, a feed barn, a chaff barn, three cellars, a bathhouse, a stone forge, etc. Not having the cash to pay for all the estates, Nikolai Fedorovich after purchasing each estate borrowed money against it in the safe treasury under an obligation for 37 years. In total, he borrowed 15,540 rubles for all the estates.

Returning in 1847 from the village of Shchelykov, which he had just acquired, Nikolai Fedorovich enthusiastically told his children about it. His stories captivated everyone, and especially his eldest son, Alexander Nikolaevich. Alexander Nikolaevich wanted to visit this very estate of his father as soon as possible. And when in April 1848 the whole family, except for brother Mikhail, was going to the estate, he filed a petition to the Commercial Court, where he then served, for a leave of absence for 28 days to travel “due to domestic circumstances to the Kostroma province.” Having received leave and a passport, the playwright set off on the road on April 23 with his father. They rode horses in three carriages.

Alexander Nikolaevich liked Shchelykovo so much that instead of the 28 days of vacation required there, he lived there until the fall and was forever fascinated by the beauty and freedom of the estate, the splendor of its surroundings. Ostrovsky first arrived in Shchelykovo on the afternoon of May 1, 1848. The evening of the next day he was already entering his immediate impressions into his diary. “From the first time,” wrote Alexander Nikolaevich, “I didn’t like it... This morning we went to inspect the places for game. The places are amazing. Game abyss. Shchelykovo did not appear to me yesterday, probably because I had previously built my own Shchelykovo in my imagination. Today I looked at it, and the real Shchelykovo is as much better than the imaginary one as nature is better than the dream.” The whole Ostrovsky family liked the new estate.

Very pleased with the purchased estate, Nikolai Fedorovich made it his temporary (summer), and then, apparently from 1851, his permanent residence. Having finally settled in Shchelykovo, the newly-minted landowner is registered as a Kostroma nobleman. Nikolai Fedorovich became a landowner, a serf owner, not only legally, but also in essence of his views on life. Having taken possession of Shchelykov, he energetically began to transform the estate into a profitable commercial enterprise.

Feeling the approach of death due to his illness, Nikolai Fedorovich wrote a testamentary disposition in December 1852, according to which Shchelykovo was transferred to his wife Emilia Andreevna Ostrovskaya with the children born from her marriage. The children from the first marriage - Alexander, Mikhail and Sergei - were given a small estate of 30 souls in the Soligalichsky district of the Kostroma province and two small wooden houses in Moscow. The playwright lived in one of these houses.

Emilia Andreevna Ostrovskaya was unable to maintain the estate's economy at the level achieved by her husband. From a profitable, growing estate, as it was under Nikolai Fedorovich, Shchelykovo gradually declined and turned into a neglected one. In 1858, there were only 15 servants left, and in 1859, the owner Shchelykova had only 9 servants. The estate was clearly in deep decline. Alexander Nikolaevich and his brother Mikhail Nikolaevich knew that Emilia Andreevna was burdened by the estate. Negotiations between the brothers and their stepmother ended with her agreement to sell the estate for 7,357 rubles 50 kopecks in installments over three years.

When buying the estate in 1867, Alexander Nikolaevich and Mikhail Nikolaevich Ostrovsky dreamed of a cultural transformation of its economy and, in connection with this, had high hopes of an economic nature. The initial year of management in Shchelykovo did not bring promising results. But these results did not weaken, but strengthened their economic energy. At first, Alexander Nikolaevich delved into all the details of the farm. On his initiative, old office buildings were repaired and new ones were built, the land was fertilized, the best varieties of wheat seeds and grass cereals were bought in Moscow, the breed of livestock was improved, new horses were purchased, a new garden was planted, an oil mill was built, etc. If field and livestock farms brought only grief to Alexander Nikolaevich, the flower and vegetable gardens delighted him, but they were never considered as possible sources of income.

Ostrovsky carried an enthusiastic love of nature throughout his life. Having lived in Shchelykovo in 1848 for only three days, Ostrovsky wrote in his diary on May 4: “I am beginning to feel the village. Our bird cherry tree has bloomed, of which there is a lot near the house, and its delightful smell somehow introduces me to nature in a shorter way - this is Russian fleur d'orange. I revel in the fragrant air of the garden for several hours. And then nature becomes clearer to me, all the smallest details , which would not have been noticed before or would have been considered superfluous, now come to life and ask to be reproduced..." Shchelykovo had a beneficial and healing effect on the playwright. The purest fragrant air, silence, virgin nature calmed the nerves, healed the body, dispelled worries and worries.

The daily routine in Shchelykovo was usually as follows: at eight or nine o'clock - morning tea; at one-half past two - lunch; at four and a half to five - afternoon tea; at eight o'clock - dinner. We went to bed early - no later than ten o'clock. However, sometimes this order was violated depending on the presence of guests, planned long walks, picnics, fishing trips to the Meru River, etc.

“In his estate, Alexander Nikolaevich wore a Russian costume: an untucked shirt, trousers, long boots, a gray short jacket and a wide-brimmed hat” (from the memoirs of K.V. Zagorsky).

Favorite entertainment on the estate was walking around the surrounding area, hunting, picking mushrooms and berries, and fishing, where Alexander Nikolaevich displayed extensive knowledge and skill. Ostrovsky was a passionate fisherman: he often sat with a fishing rod on the Kueksha River near the mill. And when he became old, he preferred to fish in a pond with an island, not far from his house. His favorite leisure activity, besides fishing, was wood carving. He worked on the mezzanine of the “new house”, where a lathe and a special table with a vice for sawing were installed. He generously gave photo frames and other items he cut to friends.

But even in Shchelykovo, Ostrovsky could not afford complete rest, creative inactivity: both due to the needs of his writing talent and for material reasons. Thanks to the care of the playwright and his brother Mikhail Nikolaevich, the Shchelykov library was very respectable. Its basis was the book collection of Nikolai Fedorovich. In 1868, Mikhail Nikolaevich sent the first parcel of books worth 11 pounds, and then these parcels became systematic. The library was also replenished by the playwright himself. On its shelves one could see books on history, Russian life, agriculture, gardening and horticulture, but the first place was occupied by Russian and foreign magazines, literary almanacs and collections. The Shchelykov Library clearly demonstrates the playwright’s versatile interests and the great culture of the owner of the estate.

Years passed, the writer’s health became worse, his strength diminished, but his work increased. The children were growing up and there was no other means of subsistence other than income from plays. Added to the desire to do as much as possible for Russian theatrical art was the constant need for money, which forced him to work without rest both in Moscow and in Shchelykovo.

After the difficult winter of 1875, the playwright wrote to A. A. Potekhin: “I now have only one dream: to somehow get to Kineshma, in order, if not to restore, then at least to support the declining strength with fresh spring air.” In 1880 - to N. Ya. Solovyov: “My health... is in an unenviable position. Our only hope is for Shchelykovo, if only we can somehow survive until spring.” Shchelykovo in most cases lived up to expectations. No matter how hard the work was, life in the village, walks, and fishing distracted from life’s hardships and restored strength. But the work did not decrease.

In material terms, Shchelykovo did not live up to the hopes that the Ostrovsky brothers had placed on it. Alexander Nikolaevich, who worked so diligently on the estate in the first years after purchasing it, lost interest in these activities and gradually transferred management of the farm to his wife Maria Vasilievna. Since the second half of the 70s, the affairs of the estate have been completely in the hands of his wife.

It is known that Alexander Nikolaevich really wanted to legitimize his children from his civil marriage with Maria Vasilievna, but at the same time he did not dare to formalize this marriage for a long time. Loving his children, the playwright did not hesitate to cast his lot with their mother. After the death of Agafya Ivanovna, the playwright's first wife, almost two years passed before he decided to take this act. Ostrovsky’s thoughts ended with him officially formalizing his civil marriage with Maria Vasilievna. But at the same time, even after many years, she did not achieve the complete, unconditional favor of either her relatives or her husband’s closest friends.

There were rarely days in Shchelykovo when only the playwright’s family lived there. Being a sociable person and in love with his estate, Ostrovsky persistently invited friends to visit, and they willingly responded to these invitations. Calling Shchelykovo “Kostroma Switzerland,” the playwright said that “you won’t find a better corner anywhere, and was surprised at people going abroad to look for the beauties of nature, when there are so many of them at home.” For his brother, co-owner of the estate of M. N. Ostrovsky, a house was built, which later received the name “guest”, since Mikhail Nikolaevich came to Shchelykovo infrequently, and guests were accommodated in this house. This house has not survived at present. In addition to the siblings M. N. Ostrovsky and S. N. Ostrovsky, the playwright’s half-brothers Andrei and Peter and half-sisters Nadezhda and Maria were also frequent guests.

On the name days of the owner of the estate and his family members, the park was decorated with colored lanterns. They placed light bowls near the house and lit rockets. The illuminated manor in the forest darkness seemed fabulous. Theatrical performances were adapted to these days, which attracted residents of nearby villages. Performances were staged in a hay barn in a meadow, behind a pond, or in a barn. Guests Shchelykova, Maria Vasilyevna, peasants and servants took part in them. Shchelykov's performances invariably enjoyed great success.

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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 decay, 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.

Address: Russia, Kostroma region, Ostrovsky district, p/o Shchelykovo
First visit of A.N. Ostrovsky: 1848
Main attractions: house-museum of A.N. Ostrovsky, monument to A.N. Ostrovsky, Literary and Theater Museum, Blue House (Snegurochka's residence)
Coordinates: 57°36"17.4"N 42°10"12.6"E

Located in the Kostroma region, the Shchelykovo estate became famous as the place where the family of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky lived for many years. The writer loved the endless expanses of Shchelykovo, the ravine banks of the small river Kueksha, mighty forests, local peasants and, of course, his home and the picturesque park surrounding it. Nowadays, the memory of the playwright and the traditions of the Ostrovsky Theater is preserved in the museum-reserve created in the estate.

History of the estate of A. N. Ostrovsky Shchelykovo

Initially, the lands on which the estate now stands were called the Shalykovo wasteland, and since the 17th century they were owned by the Kutuzovs. In the 70s of the 18th century, the house built by the Kutuzovs burned down in a fire, and they did not restore it. Construction of a new estate by F.M. Kutuzov organized it in another place.

Monument to A.N. Ostrovsky on the territory of the Shchelykovo estate

Half a century passed and the estate buildings were purchased at auction by the father of the writer Ostrovsky, Nikolai Fedorovich. At that time, the territory contained an old house and three small outbuildings where servants lived. In addition, there were many auxiliary buildings: a stone forge and stable, a barn and several cellars, sheds and a bathhouse.

Nikolai Fedorovich with his second wife and children moved to the Kostroma estate in 1848. His eldest son, Alexander, really liked the place. Sharing his impressions of his first visit to the estate in his diary, he wrote that the real Shchelykovo was better than imagined, and the local nature in reality turned out to be better than dreamed. True, while his father was alive, Alexander came to the estate only twice, as their relationship was tense.

After the death of Nikolai Ostrovsky, his second wife sold the estate to Alexander and his brother Mikhail, and the writer’s wife Maria Alexandrovna took over the house. In material terms, the acquisition did not live up to Ostrovsky's hopes. The estate did not generate any income at all, but, on the contrary, required more and more cash injections from the family. However, the Ostrovskys did not lose heart. In his free time from his main work, the playwright enjoyed gardening, ordering high-quality seeds, buying horses, agricultural implements and breeding cattle.

View of the southern facade of the building with a covered terrace

Their large and cozy house was constantly visited by guests - colleagues of Alexander Nikolaevich, famous writers, actors and artists. And the Ostrovsky family received them with pleasure, organizing literary and musical evenings.

In addition, the playwright worked actively. Of the 47 plays he wrote, about half were created directly in Shchelykovo. Ostrovsky died at work, while in his writing office.

After the revolutionary events of 1917, no one initially cared about preserving the Ostrovskys’ legacy. The buildings of the estate housed local Soviet authorities, and later a colony for street children.

Maly Theater actors from Moscow stood up for Ostrovsky's theatrical heritage. Thanks to their petitions, the estate was given over to the writer’s memorial museum, and the first exhibition, located in only three rooms, was opened to visitors in 1936. Today, a large museum-reserve has been created on the estate. In addition, sanatorium buildings were built here.

View from the southern facade of the building to the stairs leading to the lower gazebo

Walk through the museum complex

Nowadays, the Kostroma estate has the status of a museum-reserve, which includes a whole complex of memorial and natural objects. The central part of the estate is the writer’s house. The decor, interiors, furniture and personal belongings of the writer - all the museum staff tried to preserve exactly as it was under Ostrovsky himself. The house of the writer's family is very cozy, lived-in and has a unique spirit of antiquity. The unpainted floors are covered with homespun runners, the window sills are decorated with flowers, and the rooms have white tiled stoves. Some of the most valuable exhibits are considered to be lifetime editions of the writer’s works, as well as paintings by artists Konstantin Makovsky and Boris Kustodiev.

In the spacious living room there is a piano, which the writer’s wife, actress of the Moscow Maly Theater in Moscow, Maria Vasilievna, loved to play. She left her profession early and took up daily care of her family and home improvement. The playwright's manuscripts, as well as books and dictionaries that he used in his work, are laid out on the desk. And on the mezzanine floor there are rooms for the Ostrovsky children.

View of the house-museum of A.N. Ostrovsky

The house tour takes about two hours. Here you can see many old photographs depicting Ostrovsky himself, his wife, children and friends of the playwright’s family. There is a fee for guests to take photographs in this part of the museum. In addition, if you wish, you can take a photograph in the house in noble clothes, in the interiors of the writer’s family’s dining room.

In addition to the memorial, since 1973 an interesting literary and theatrical museum has been opened in Shchelykovo, which introduces theatrical productions based on the plays of the great Russian playwright. In its halls you can see theatrical costumes, preserved scenery and models, sketches of artists and magazines in which the writer’s works were published. a separate part of the exhibition is dedicated to how the famous fairy tale about the Snow Maiden was created.

The third museum of the estate complex is the house-museum of Ivan Viktorovich Sobolev, a close friend of the playwright and an excellent master of wood carving. All the carved furniture in the manor house is the work of his hands. This skilled craftsman even taught Ostrovsky himself the basics of carpentry. Sobolev's log hut is an ethnographic part of the estate's exposition, which tells about the traditions of peasant life and crafts that were common in these places in the 19th century.

Literary and Theater Museum

The elegant two-story building, built at the beginning of the last century by order of the writer’s daughter, Marie Chatelain, is called the Blue House. This building has been perfectly preserved to this day. It houses museum ticket offices, as well as an educational center and library. In winter, the residence of the fairy-tale Snow Maiden opens here.

On the territory of the reserve there is a functioning St. Nicholas Church, which appeared at the end of the 18th century. The project of the slender church was prepared by the famous architect from Kostroma Stepan Andreevich Vorotilov. The talented architect managed to combine several architectural traditions in the rural church - from Baroque to Classicism. Services are held on the upper floor of the church in the summer months, and on the lower floor in the winter. It was in this church that the writer’s funeral was held in 1886. Ostrovsky, his wife and their daughter Maria Alexandrovna are buried next to the church, in a cemetery fenced with a brick fence.

It’s not for nothing that Shchelykovo is called a nature reserve. The landscape memorial park that exists here is beautiful, and walking through it is a pleasure! Three generations of the Ostrovsky family were involved in planning and maintaining green spaces.

Blue House, Snow Maiden's residence in winter

The territory is cut by numerous ravines and is divided into two parts - Upper and Lower parks, in which pine, birch, linden and spruce trees grow. Picturesque bridges are laid across the park's ravines, and beautiful flower beds are laid out in various places. The two-story wooden gazebo was called “Snegurochka” by the writer’s children, because it was in it that he thought about his famous fairy tale.

There are special programs for children in the reserve. These are meetings with the Snow Maiden, traditional folk games, tea parties and fortune telling. Master craftsmen conduct special classes for guests of the estate and teach them how to make amulets dolls. And twice a year the museum-reserve invites everyone to big holidays. In mid-June, Ostrovsky's memorial day is celebrated here, and in September the Shchelykov Readings are held.

The Shchelykovo Museum-Reserve is a famous place in Russia, which is inextricably linked with the estate of the same name, which previously belonged to the outstanding Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. It is located 120 kilometers from Kostroma in the Ostrovsky district of the Kostroma region, not far from the border with the Ivanovo region. The turn to the estate comes from the road between these regions, along the former Galichsky highway. Located on the picturesque left bank terrace of the Volga, in the floodplain part of the Kueksha River, Shchelykovo is remarkable as a corner of amazing Russian nature and as a place associated with the life and work of the great Russian playwright A.N. Ostrovsky. Its appeal lies in the unique combination of the ensemble of an ancient noble estate with an amazing natural landscape, in the harmony of Christian and folk cultures, as well as in a special theatrical environment.

Shchelykovo - estate of A.N. Ostrovsky

Story Shchelykovo estate Kineshma district of Kostroma province goes back centuries. It was not the Ostrovsky family estate. Its history for a century and a half has been connected with the boyar family of the Kutuzovs, which gave Russia famous statesmen and military figures. The Shchelykovo estate was first mentioned in 1719 in the possession of F.M. Kutuzov, captain of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment.

I.F. Kutuzov began to restore it, but managed to build only a temporary two-story wooden house across the ravine from the previous one, on the mountain. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Kutuzov descendants rebuilt the main manor house: smaller, one-story, wooden, with mezzanines along the northern facade. It was this house that became the shelter of A.N. Ostrovsky and still exists.

The Shchelykovo estate, mortgaged by the descendants of the Kutuzov brothers in the Moscow Board of Guardians, was sold for debts at auction in 1847 and bought by the playwright’s father, N.F. Ostrovsky. By purchasing it, Nikolai Fedorovich thereby returned to live in his native land: a Kostroma by birth, he, living for many years in Moscow, did not lose contact with the Kostroma land. In the spring of 1848, with his family from his second marriage, his wife and four children, he moved to Shchelykovo from Moscow for permanent residence.

Together with them, the young playwright Alexander Nikolaevich visited the estate for the first time. It was that visit that left a deep imprint on his soul, marking the beginning of a long-term attachment to this place. Young A.N. Ostrovsky regularly kept a diary. From it we learn: “This morning we went to inspect places for game. The places are amazing. Game abyss. Shchelykovo did not appear to me yesterday, probably because I had previously built my own Shchelykovo in my imagination. Today I looked at it, the real Shchelykovo is as much better than the imaginary one as nature is better than the dream. The house stands on a high mountain, which to the right and left is dug with such delightful ravines, covered with curly pines and fir trees, that you can’t imagine anything like it...”

From the central alley the road turns to the manor house. Its front yard, the so-called red one, with a round fenced “island” in the middle, was lined with services around the perimeter. Currently they have not survived.

After the death of his father and the purchase of the estate, A.N. Ostrovsky wrote to his friend, actor F.A. Burdin: “My brother and I bought our magnificent Shchelykovo from our stepmother; here is a shelter for me, I will have the opportunity to take up modest farming and finally give up my exhausting dramatic labors, on which I fruitlessly spent the best years of my life ... "

Alexander Nikolaevich takes the farm seriously: he is concerned about both small household chores and large-scale plans for the construction and improvement of the estate.

The estate was served by 22 people: a manager, seven workers, a coachman, a groom, a gardener, two foresters, a cattleman, a cowwoman, and a laundress. There were also house servants: a cook, an assistant cook, a table maid, a footman. The labor of hired seasonal workers was also used, usually during the hottest threshing season.

Having become the owner of the Shchelykovo estate in 1868, A.N. Ostrovsky lived in the estate house for almost two decades in the summer.

Over time, the estate began to be managed only to the extent necessary to satisfy the own needs of its residents, and in fact, Shchelykovo from an agricultural estate turned into a wonderful, but expensive summer dacha, where numerous guests of the playwright came. They came for a day or two, stayed and lived for weeks.

The activities of the hosts and guests were traditional: hunting and fishing, trips to tea parties with a samovar, swimming, picking mushrooms and berries; most often they chose Kharin Meadow and the village of Sergeevo for this. Ostrovsky was an avid fisherman: just by looking at a body of water he could tell what kind of fish was in it. On Kueksha they caught fish with fishing rods, on Sendeg with a spear, on Mera with a seine. Fishing on Mera near the village of Vysokovo turned into a real party. It was good to relax at the estate: communication with pleasant and interesting people, a well-established way of life, and the possibility of privacy.

Willingly working on the terrace, in the park, in the gazebos, the playwright spent most of his working time in his office. In Shchelykovo he worked on nineteen plays. “Late Love” (1873) was created entirely here. “Simplicity is Enough for Every Wise Man” (1868), “There Was Not a Penny, But Suddenly Altyn” (1871), “The Last Sacrifice” (1877), “Dowry” (1878), “Heart” were written almost entirely. not a stone" (1879). The following were also started: “Warm Heart” (1868), “Forest” (1870), “Truth is good, but happiness is better” (1876), “Talents and Admirers” (1881), “Handsome Man” (1882), “Guilty Without Guilt” (1883). The estate also underwent many alterations and translations. A.N. Ostrovsky spoke five foreign languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, some of which he mastered in his mature years. Translated by C. Goldoni, T. Ciconi, P. Giacometti, W. Shakespeare, M. Cervantes. In Shchelykovo, the playwright was compiling a dictionary of the Russian folk language: he recorded rare words, sayings, and popular expressions in his notebook.

In the last years of his stay in Shchelykov, A.N. Ostrovsky worked a lot and intensely. He wrote: “I don’t travel from Moscow to the village and back, but from office to office and I see nature only as I pass.” The intense work caused by the need to prepare a new play for each season in order to provide for the family, and the assumption in 1886 of the post of head of the repertory department of the Moscow Imperial Theaters completely undermined the playwright’s health. On the last day of his life, June 2, 1886, A.N. Ostrovsky also worked: he looked through his prose translation of “Antony and Cleopatra” by William Shakespeare, read the magazine “Russian Thought”, received the day before from St. Petersburg. At eleven o'clock in the morning, Alexander Nikolaevich died in his Shchelykov office from an attack of “angina pectoris” (angina pectoris). He was buried near the estate church of St. Nicholas in the village of Nikolo-Berezhki. M.V. Ostrovskaya outlived her husband by twenty years. Preserving his memory all these years, she left his office intact. In 1897, an elementary school was opened on the estate, built by the playwright’s wife and eldest daughter. Later he was given the name of A.N. Ostrovsky. Children still study at this school.

The Snow Maiden's homeland

The Blue House of the Shchelykovo estate is the residence of the Snow Maiden.

To the west of the main manor house is the Upper Park, created on the basis of a natural forest. Under the Ostrovsky brothers, this corner of the forest, called “Ravines,” turned into a park: benches are installed in the most picturesque places, “turf sofas” are installed on steep slopes, and dirt paths are laid in such a way as not to damage the root system of trees.

On the edge of the slope, on the site where the old Kutuzov manor house used to be located, a two-story gazebo is now being built, which the children of Alexander Nikolayevich nicknamed “Snegurochkina”, since, according to them, it was here that the playwright pondered his “spring fairy tale.”

New traditions are born. The basis of one of them was the official recognition of Shchelykov in 2000 as the “Homeland of the Snow Maiden”, when the Snow Maiden left Shchelykov for the only time to light the main Christmas tree of the country - the Kremlin. The museum-reserve was actively involved in this project, trying to introduce a fairy-tale image into the modern cultural process. The Snow Maiden Mail program is working.

Monument to A.N. Ostrovsky. Sculptor A.P. Timchenko (1973).

Schools in the Ostrovsky district and the city of Zavolzhsk, Ivanovo region, also did not stand aside. The Snow Maiden Competition program has been developed for them. Holding competitions has become a tradition, and now they are held annually. Every year a new competition program is developed. By participating in competitions, children have the opportunity to show their creative abilities. Every year a final celebration is held where the results of the competition are summed up and its participants are awarded. The main participant in this competition is Snegurochka. With the “light hand” of the staff, the museum hosts programs for tourists “Visiting the Berendeys” or “Holiday in the Berendey Sloboda”.

At the same time, the Blue House turns into the “Snow Maiden’s Residence”, where guests are offered the “Meeting with the Snow Maiden” program. The fairy-tale heroine talks about letters and gifts that are sent to her from all over our country. Here she plays and dances together with the guests. The program takes place in a festive atmosphere, where every visitor is an accomplice of what is happening thanks to the game, direct communication with a fabulous New Year's character. The Snow Maiden herself is a great craftswoman and needlewoman. She will teach the guests how to do needlework, and her friend Craftswoman helps her with this. Visitors are happy to participate in these programs because they give the feeling of a holiday that people need so much.

Shchelykovo is perhaps the only cultural monument estate in Russia today, which, despite all the historical upheavals, has preserved its natural path of development as much as possible. After the death of A.N. Ostrovsky, the estate did not suffer desolation - the fate of most other “noble nests” of that time. The playwright’s children, during the period of decline of the nobility, when estates were destroyed, not only supported their father’s house and its traditions, but also rebuilt a new estate nearby.

Today, the Shchelykovo Museum-Reserve is an island of cultural traditions of many generations in natural harmony with the surrounding nature and the special atmosphere that hovers here. His visit will not leave indifferent anyone who comes here at least once - to these blessed places of Kostroma land, alluring with their beauty.

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 Shchelykovo 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 short 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 transferred to 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 Maly Theater artist 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 stoves. 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. 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)