The Leningrad Region is rich in architectural monuments of the past: ancient castles shrouded in a veil of mysteries and intrigues, luxurious estates saturated with the spirit of “glorious times”, once lulled by prosperity, and now forgotten, orphaned, dilapidated palaces. It is worth moving away from Petersburg for some 50-100 km, and the majestic monuments - witnesses of the main events of bygone eras will tell a "different story" in which the personal successes and tragedies of prominent characters are closely intertwined with the ups and downs of the vast Empire.
But few objects of Russia's cultural heritage can tell as much as the ruins lost in the feral park of the country-provincial Ropsha saw.
The most famous "chamber of misfortunes"
Many estates of the Leningrad Region are overgrown with legends. Take, for example, the family estate of the Blumetrostov or the Demidovs - the first has been destroyed almost to the foundation, and the second has been preserved almost in its original form. Here every stone “knows how to speak”. Locals claim that in dashing weather near the halls voiced voices are heard that are heard literally from everywhere, and music is pouring …
But the Ropsha Palace, the abode of kings, nobles and nobles, is surrounded by myths and traditions of a completely different kind.
Laughter and fun are alien to the local spirits. Rumor has it that the remains of thousands of convicts are hidden in the walled-up dungeons. Probably, it was this amazing combination of the blissful carelessness of some and the doom of others that led to the formation of bad energy, which more than once played a fatal role in the life of the rulers.
Ropshinsky palace: legends about Fedor Romodanovsky
Peter I himself once chose the Ropsha Heights: charmed by the picturesque beauty, he ordered the construction of a small wooden house, a church and a park with ponds there. However, after 4 years, the king granted these lands to his associate Fedor Romodanovsky, the head of the Preobrazhensky order (an analogue of the Secret Chancellery).
The new owner of the Ropsha lands was known as a cruel man (in those days, the investigating authorities pulled the “convenient truth” from the suspects, only together with the veins). Very soon, the “defender of the interests of the tsar and the state” turned a modest-sized estate into a “manor for torture” - a sort of branch of the emergency special service. The retelling of those years says that the prison with barred windows was located in the immediate vicinity of the main building, that the groans of shackles spread in the surrounding forests, and Romodanovsky himself, "like Satan", was reveled in the suffering of the victims.
Today, almost 300 years after the death of the Generalissimo executioner, the superstitious inhabitants of Ropsha still hear screams from the half-buried cellars; they imagine that it’s as if a tame but formidable bear - the legend says that it was she who guarded the entrances to the torture halls - periodically goes outside, inspects the ruins, and then goes underground again …
The role of the estate in the fate of Mikhail Golovkin
The Ropsha Palace underwent significant modernization in 1734. The owner was then Romodanovsky's son-in-law - Mikhail Golovkin. The official’s career was developing so rapidly that it seemed that there were no doors where the head of the mint, and part-time adviser and favorite of Empress Anna Ioannovna, was not included.
As subsequent events showed, the rumor about the “cursed palace” was not in vain. In 1741, as a result of the successful implementation of the conspiracy, Elizaveta Petrovna ascended the throne, and in the life of Golovkin came a black streak. The renewed Senate found the coin guilty of embezzlement and sentenced him to death. True, at the very last moment, the owner of the ill-fated palace managed to escape the fate of being hanged - he was exiled to Siberia, and all real estate was confiscated in favor of the state.
Architectural Blossom: Rastrelli's Hand
The next stage in the transformation of the architectural ensemble of the estate coincided in time with the years of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna. It was by her decree that the Ropsha Palace was ennobled in accordance with the fashion trends of that era. Moreover, no one was in charge of the work processes, and Francesco Rastrelli himself is a leading European architect and a recognized master of his craft. Columns of the Corinthian order can be called a peculiar “Italian trace” in the exterior decor of the palace, which even now, in the days of the completely oblivion of the once magnificent structure, continue to proudly carry a three-cornered roof (classic portico).
However, even the genius of Rastrelli was unable to dispel the evil spell that hung in the golden halls of the chamber - a few years later the empress fell from an unknown ailment, and before her death she presented Ropsh to Peter Fedorovich, the heir to the throne.
"The murderer palace" and Peter III
Objects of the cultural heritage of Russia in the distant past often became the last refuge for important people.
So the Ropshinsky estate, with the death of Elizaveta Petrovna, did not stop her account for ruined souls - Peter III became the next victim of the “bad palace”, whose restless ghost, according to popular rumor, sometimes appears at the ruins and asks random passers-by to loosen a scarf tightly tied around his neck …
According to an unofficial version, the murder of a young tsar is the work of Alexei Orlov, a devoted associate of Catherine II; it was he who allegedly strangled Peter Fedorovich, for which he was generously rewarded by his patroness. Among other gifts, the highest person granted the Count and the Ropshinsky Palace. However, Orlov was not known as a big hunter to a country holiday, and therefore soon got rid of real estate.
Favorite Palace of the Romanovs: Ropshinsky Fatum
Throughout the 19th century, the estate lived a hectic life: the owners changed, dramatic amendments were made to the architecture of the buildings, the park complex evolved, and … the nobles, somehow or other related to this cursed estate. (In 1801, only a week after the purchase of the palace, Tsar Paul I was killed.) The 20th century has not changed the terrible tradition …
Emperor Nicholas II - the last in the list of "God's henchmen" who owned the damned chamber. And although death overtook him many hundreds of miles from Ropsha, the scale of the tragic events again indicated the existence of a frightening connection between the palace and its inhabitants: the whole Romanov family, who so loved to relax in the estate, was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918. (Experts believe that the place of execution was the basement of the house of the merchant Ipatiev, an eminent merchant from Yekaterinburg.)
Rebirth and Oblivion: Moloch Revolution
In the post-revolutionary years, the estates of the Leningrad Region were used in different ways: hospitals and hospitals were deployed on the territory of some, others were given to the collective farms by the Soviet authorities; there were also those that served as warehouses, houses of culture, office buildings.
With the Ropsha Palace and the adjacent park, history played a cruel joke - the land passed into the possession of a fish nursery of all-Union significance. And then - World War II, devastation, restoration with specialized reorientation to the needs of the military, the collapse of the USSR, oblivion …
