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Royal Estate - Secrets and Legends

Дата публикации: 07 сентября 2018
Автор(ы): V. Suzdalev
Публикатор: Шамолдин Алексей Аркадьевич
Рубрика: RUSSIA (TOPICS)
Номер публикации: №1536329545


V. Suzdalev, (c)

by Vladimir SUZDALEV, Senior Researcher, Kolomenskoye Museum-Preserve

The previous issue of our magazine carried an article on one of Moscow's historical landmarks - the Museum-Preserve of Kolomenskoye - its history of many centuries and its remarkable architectural monuments. Like most historical sites of this rank and status, Kolomenskoye is associated with a host of tales and legends accumulated over the centuries, and the obvious question before a modern-day student of history is which of these legends are fact and which are mere - although truly fascinating - fiction.

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The site occupied by Kolomenskoye was chosen for human residence since prehistoric times. Unearthed there back in the 19th century was an ancient settlement called "Dyakovskoye Gorodishche" * - one of the better studied settlements of the 6th century B.C. to 6th century A.D. Recent excavations conducted there revealed many ceramics of the pre-Mongol period of 10-1 2th centuries A.D.

The name of Kolomenskoye is associated with quite a number of tragic and dramatic events in the history of Muscovy In 1408 it was the camp of the invading Tatar hordes of Khan Edigey and two centuries later, in 1606, the rebel peasant regiments of Ivan Bolotnikov stopped there on their way to Moscow. In the years of peace the picturesque country estate often attracted royal visitors and processions and was used for the formal receptions of foreign dignitaries conducted in a specially built wooden palace, or mansion.

Old chronicle mentions of Kolomenskoye are bristling with dramatic and truly poetic accounts which are often echoed in the Russian folklore and personal memoirs and which offer a wealth of information to a modem-day student of national history, culture and religious traditions. More often than not, these records mirror the personal impressions, or fantasies, of their authors, and, as we said before, they offer a dazzling mix of historical facts with mystical and often religious fiction. Some of them even bear traits of pagan folklore - like the legend of the "Maiden's Rock" in the Golosovsky Ravine - a boulder in the shape of a female breast as if feeding some infants - a magic omen which can heal one of the "curse of infertility". And there are also sites linked with the Christian tradition, like the springs flowing from the river bank near the Church of the Ascension. They are venerated by the faithful as the hoofprints left by the horse of St. George the Victorious who passed by this place at time immemorial. The original tales and legends were later adorned by new fascinating details as they were reproduced by different authors over the centuries, and this particular kind of what we call historico-poetical folklore requires some truly profound and consistent studies and analysis.

VILLAGE OF KOLOMENSKOYE

Most students trace the origin of the village of Kolomenskoye to 14th century and quote in particular a legend of 1237 which speaks of some refugees from the town of Kolomna who were forced to seek shelter on the banks of the Moskva River from the threat of a Mongol invasion. In actual fact, however, the recent archeological excavations within the Kolomenskoye grounds have revealed the traces of two settlements with "pre-Mongol" ceramics which can both be regarded as the "forerunners" of the ancient village. One of them is a "khutor" - a farmstead - on a hill behind the Church of the Ascension and closer to ponds dug in 18th century The second one is on the river bank on the way from Kolomenskoye to the neighbouring village of Dyakovo. Found on that site were pieces of moulded Slavonic ceramics made before 11th century.

The first mentions of the village of "Kolomninskoye" (Kolomenskoye) are found in the testaments of Prince Ivan Kalita under the years 1336 and 1339 which describe the division of royal possessions between the sons of the then Muscovy ruler - the Village of Ostrovskoye to the elder son, Prince Semyon, and the villages of Kolomninskoye, Nogatinskoye and Yasinovskoye to his younger brother Andrei. But we cannot tell with confidence which of these villages really bore the name of Kolomenskoye, and, as likely as not, this was the name of the biggest new settlement founded by refugees from the town of Kolomna. And this took place not necessarily after 1237, but possibly even earlier.

Another hypothesis, based on linguistic analysis, derives the name of the village from the Old Russian "kolomishche" which meant a hill, or a burial mound. A letter from Archbishop Makariy of Novgorod (1534) speaks of them (Russians) laying their dead to rest in mounds and "kolomishchi" (hills). This conjecture, however, seems to hold no water since a cemetery discovered by excavations on top of a hill (near the Church of the Ascension) is dated by the archeologist Leonid Belyaev to a period from 14th to the late 20s of 16th centuries.

THE PALACE

One of the most intriguing and difficult puzzles of Kolomenskoye is the site of the Grand Prince's palace of the time of Prince Dmitry Donskoy and the last few members of the Rurik dynasty (which stood at the roots of Kievan Rus).

At the end of September 1380 the victorious army of Prince Dmitry Donskoy ("of the Don"-the honorary title commemorating his triumph over the Tatars in the Battle of the Kulikovo Field on the River Don) made camp in Kolomenskoye with the Prince himself occupying the local country residence, or palace, where he waited for the arrival of his brother. Prince Vladimir Andreevich, who was to join him for a triumphal entry into Moscow scheduled for December 1. At the entrance to the village the Prince was welcomed by merchants from a nearby city of Surozh who laid at his feet symbolic gifts of gold, expensive sable furs and loaves of bread. The episode is described in the historic narrative "Tale of the Battle with (Khan) Mamai" (middle-second half of 15th century). Some scholars, however, take this narrative with more than a grain of salt.

During archeological excavations of 1976 conducted to the east of the Church of the Ascension experts discovered a dump with plenty of ceramic kitchen and tableware of 14th-early 16th century (bits and pieces thrown away from the royal residence). A trench excavated in 1929-1940s near the Church of the Ascension revealed a cultural layer located under the foundation of the church. And discovered in the foundation itself in the 1950s were traces of some more ancient white-stone architectural structure.

In his analysis of the finds archeologist Leonid Belyaev assumed that the original royal mansion, or palace, was located right where the Church of the Ascension stands today. This conclusion, however, leaves room for doubt because during that time the present church


* See: N. Krenke, "From Neolithic to Middle Ages", Science in Russia, No. 6, 1999 . - Ed.

Articles in this rubric reflect the opinion of the author.- Ed.

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grounds bordered on an ancient cemetery (with tombstones of the late 13th-early 14th centuries). Therefore it is more likely that the palace was located a bit more to the north (i.e. on the grounds of the former royal residences dating back to 18th century and 1825), with its service buildings being on the flanks of the plot where the church is located now. It may well be that the white-stone fragments mentioned above are traces of the foundations of these service premises of the epoch of Prince Dmitry Donskoy.

We do not really know whether the royal residence was a stone or wooden structure. No documents have been preserved on that score and, as likely as not, the palace must have been rebuilt from scratch time and again over the centuries during which it was not spared by fires. However, archeological excavations of the past few years on the northern side of the Church of the Ascension confirm the existence of a palace there by the end of 15 century which was erected in place of an earlier one.

Later on, in the summer of 1571, the Crimean Khan Devlet Girei who launched a campaign against Moscow, ordered that what was called the "amusement" country residence of the Russian ruler (Ivan the Terrible) be set on fine. During the next Tatar invasion, which followed 20 years later, Tatar Khan Kazy Girei of the Crimea again reduced the royal residence to ashes. Also destroyed during that time could have been the local churches, including the Church of St. George the Victorious (of the Archangel St. Gabriel?). But according to written sources, the church was restored within one year, and, probably, on a new site. Later on it was chosen for the "eighth wonder of the world" - the palace of first Russian tsars of the new Romanovs dynasty A last-century legend - insisted on the existence of a country palace of Ivan the Terrible in the Garden of the Ascension which was part of a royal residence of 17th century But be it as it may, the problem of the exact site of the earliest residence of the Russian grand princes remains unresolved to this day.

CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE THE VICTORIOUS

The probability of the existence of some church - built, according to legend, to commemorate the Victory in the Battle on the Kulikovo Field and dedicated to St. George the Victorious - in place of some earlier churches, was partially confirmed by the excavations of 1978- 1979. Trenches dug at that time revealed a cemetery which had been there, according to the archeologist Leonid Belyaev, from the end of 13th century and up to the beginning of 16th century And there must have also been a church there as well. But the question is where.

One can assume that the Church of St. George, founded by Prince Dmitry Donskoy to commemorate the victory in the Battle of the Kulikovo Field, was located on a site currently occupied by the "Regimental Chambers" (Polkovnichyi Palaty) on the very top of a plateau - a "focal point" towards which the "heads" of all the surrounding burial sites were oriented. And the existence of a pond nearby - an important fact for the builders-seems to give added weight to the assumption. But was the building material really used for this structure? So far this remains an open question.

In the records (on the issue of church insence) for the year 7093 (1584-1585 A.D.) preserved on the Russian State Archives there are mentions of yet another church on the grounds of Kolomenskoye - the Church of the Archangel St. Gabriel. Its exact location is also unknown, and it must have been a wooden cemetery church of 14- 16th centuries which stood somewhere near the Front Gate

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(Perednye Vorotd) and which burned down, or was demolished because of old age, at the end of 16th century. And it is this church which is called in one of the legends the Church of St. George the Victorious.

Today there is a belfry of the Church of St. George, and according to expert Mikhail Ilyin it was erected to commemorate the birth of the second son of Vasiliy III, Prince Yuri, which occurred on October 30, 1533. The consecration of the church is associated with this date. But even this hypothesis can be called into question because the very first mentions of the Church of St. George belong to the year 1678 when a wooden refectory was attached to the belfry and the belfry itself was turned into the altar.

CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION

According to tradition, the most important events in the history of the Russian state were commemorated by the building of monumental churches. One such symbol of the triumph of the idea of Muscovy, dedicated to the Lord, of the special divine intercession for Russian statehood was and still is the Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye. The edifice is perceived by different people in different ways: as a lofty tower by some and as a Gothic structure by others. Others still see it as an arrow pointing to heaven. And one can also see it as a traditional "vow candle" ordered by the Grand Prince in token of his prayerful obedience to the Maker.

The church is located on a high bank of the Moskva and is dedicated to one of the central Orthodox feasts - the Feast of the Ascension. This delicately decorated structure strikes one with its monumental and also airy grandeur. The builders used what we call a stylized Renaissance order with Gothic details which blends with the traditional Old Russian architecture in the "hipped roof style. The builders wanted the church to appear as an architectural unity and they achieved this objective with the help of particular styling and exterior decor such as rows of ogee window tops, Gothic arrows, pilasters and rings of beads on the roof. The edifice is topped with a tent-like pyramidal or canopy roof with a cross.

The architectural features and details of this church are associated with a host of legends and puzzles which seem to be as old as the building itself. The exact date of the start of the construction is not known and all the information we can rely on is a mention in the 16th century chronicle that "Grand Prince Vasiliy set up a stone Church of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ on a high spot in his village of Kolomenskoye". Legend has it that the church was founded by Prince Vasiliy III to mark the birth of his son and heir-the future Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible. But what is really the year of its construction, and why is it, or was it, located in Kolomenskoye and not in Moscow? Was it not a landmark commemorating the victory of the army of Prince Vasiliy III over the 40-thousand strong Tatar horde led by the Crimean ruler Khan Islam Girei in September 1527? One can think so because it was in Kolomenskoye that Russian army was formed in the face of the approaching foe. The church must have been built in 1532 because its consecration took place on September 3 of the year 7041 (1533). A white-stone cornice at the top of the church bears the date of" 1533" in Arabic numerals with a hardly legible seal of the architect. In the opinion of most of the experts the architect was an Italian by the name of Petrok the Junior and this conclusion is born out by a multitude of Italian architectural and also Gothic details. But the monolith of the canopy roof, which looks like a canopy over the

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church altar, contains some typical traits of Old Russian wooden architecture.

The decor of the church is not exhausted, so to say, by its exterior. Attached to the building on the eastern, or altar side, is an architectural structure which is unusual for Russian church architecture. As legend has it, this was called the "Royal Seat" and it must have been originally intended as a high altar for what arc called "the prcsanctified gifts". This was used during festal church services with festal processions around the temple. Over the years the original meaning and purpose of the structure sunk into oblivion. A nobleman by the name of Berkgholtz recalled in his memoirs (1722) that he was shown "a throne on which the late tsar - father of the ruling Emperor (i.e. Peter the Great) used to sit in summertime twice a day and from which he watched the camp and the drills of the bulk of his troops". But one asks how could the God-fearing Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich sit on this throne with his back to the church altar? And there are also other questions linked with the cross-wise top of the church, its base, galleries and many other details whose meaning and purpose continue to puzzle scholars.

EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD

The early 60s of 17th century were the heyday of Kolomenskoye. Peasants brought on wood-sledges timber for the construction of a royal palace which was later hailed by the contemporaries as the "Eighth Wonder of the World".

The splendid building was located on the grounds of the Royal Yard (Gosudarev Dvor) and incorporated into its architectural ensemble some of the earlier buildings from the royal residence of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the grandfather of Peter the Great, and possibly even more ancient structures. The palace stood there for exactly one hundred years. In 1767 Her Royal Highness Catherine II ordered it to be demolished.

It took the workmen about ten years to take to pieces "this building of exceeding beauty". Some of the structures proved to be so strong that the first contractor was taken aback by the scale of the job and resigned. No records have been preserved on how the building materials from the palace were used, and we have at our disposal nothing but legends. We know, though, that in the same year of 1767 a scale model of the palace was built from the original materials. It reproduced both the exterior and the interior of the old palace, and looking into its tiny windows one could see the miniature carvings on the walls, bits of furniture and utensils. The most likely maker of this scale model was the architect, Prince Pyotr Makulov.

In memory of a trip to Moscow in 1865, with a visit to the ancient royal country estate of Kolomenskoye, Emperor Alexander II ordered a wood carver by the name of Dmitry Smimov to make a scale model of the 17th century Royal Palace. By that time the model made for Catherine II must have been no more. And its history remains rather obscure. According to Count P. Valuyev, the model of the palace was still at the royal residence (Catherine's Palace) in as late as 1802, "although it was cracked in places and falling apart". Later still it was kept in the Senate building in the Moscow Kremlin from where it was stolen by Napoleon's soldiers in 1812 or perished in the Moscow fire in the same year. Historian Yakov Grot, Member of the St. Petersburg Academy, who published his memoirs in-the late 1880s, quotes the poet Ivan Hemnitser as saying that during his visit to Leiden, Germany, in 1777 he saw in a pavilion of the Botanical Garden

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there a model of the Kolomenskoye Palace - the birthplace of Tsar Peter the Great. "The model must have been made of small bits of wood and, probably, in several copies one of which was presented by Catherine II to the Duke of Leiden whom she received as her guest. And there were also some mentions of the model being seen in London, but requests for any such information sent by the museum in recent time got a negative answer. In 1827 some model of the palace was on display at the Arts Academy "and attracted attention by its accurate dimensions and the skill of the execution of even the tiny details." It must have been this model which the writer Pavel Svinyin proudly demonstrated during a dinner at his house to Alexander Pushkin and Alexander Griboyedov in 1828. This model must have been a copy made by the painter Salin...

Having received a "royal commission" from the Emperor Alexander II, the wood carver Dmitry Smimov took no less than three years (1865- 1868) for completing the job (and was never paid the promised fee of 4 thousand rubles). In 1869 the finished model (2.5 x 1.5 m) was delivered to Moscow and placed on a royal order in the Kremlin's Armoury It was from there that it was moved to the Kolomenskoye Museum in the 1920s. And though its details are out of proportion, the model is really quite a sight. The painter Appolinary Vasnetsov - "the poet of Old Moscow" - hailed the palace as a fairy-tale miracle.

In 1769, the architect Vasily Bazhenov impressed Empress Catherine II with his project of a new palace in the Moscow Kremlin with an estimated cost of 30 mln rubles. As the irony of fate would have it, he started building a huge model of this palace, together with its drawings, from the materials left from the 17th century Kolomenskoe palace itself.

Close as they were to unveiling the facts behind the legend, the mystery still remains unresolved.

When the old palace was taken apart in 1767, some of the timber was sold by the contractor to wealthy Kolomenskoye peasants. One of them, by the name of Lapshin, built himself a house some hundred meters away from the Savior's Gates of the mansion and converted it into a prayer house for Old Believers. In 1818 he set the house upon a foundation of bricks, roasted back in the 18th century, and in 1840 the house was bought by a member of the local Old Believers' community, Porfiriy Koshkin. Failing to get permission to use the house for prayer meetings, he let it out to tenants.

The "Koshkin House" is still there to this day In 1966 the Scientific- Methodological Council for the protection of cultural landmarks of what was then the USSR Ministry of Culture and the Main Architectural Directorate decided to study in detail the legendary house. The project was headed by Pyotr Maximov, researcher of the Institute of Theory and History of Problems of Soviet Architecture. His findings were really striking: the time of the construction of the house does coincide with that of the demolition of the Royal Palace; the house was assembled from earlier made frameworks; the frameworks of the house and of the palace buildings show the same state of preservation and are made of the same timber; a comer of the house frameworks bears traces of earlier attachment to other structure; a superimposition of a plan of the house upon that of the palace buildings shows matching points with the rooms of the young princes and princesses.

At the next stage of these studies it was necessary to identify the average age of the oak timbers. This proved to be a difficult task because some of the oak timbers were replaced over the centuries. Some such repairs were conducted in 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The work was progressing at a slow pace. Then, in the late 1960s, the "Koshkin House" was destroyed by fire and all that was left were heaps of ash and charred bits of logs. Soon these were also gone without a trace...

Summing it up, one can say that the mysteries of both Kolomenskoye and the village of Dyakovo offer a wealth of data for a diligent student. And not all of these data are covered with "the dust of centuries gone by".

Опубликовано на Порталусе 07 сентября 2018 года

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