Babolovsky Park is one of the five famous parks of the city of Pushkin (as well as Ekaterininsky, Aleksandrovsky, Otdelny and Buffer parks + the once existing Fermsky park). The Babolovsky Palace is located in Babolovka.

The history of Babolovsky Park goes back to XVIII century, when Russia waged numerous wars and at the same time, in the most difficult conditions and with hardships, continued to build its northern capital and imperial residences in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. The history of the emergence of Babolovsky Park is inextricably linked with the Babolovskaya manor that existed here, donated by Empress Catherine II (the Great) to Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin Tavrichesky (1739-1791), and where in 1780 a wooden manor-type house was built. This house was then located near the village (manor) of Babolovo on the outskirts of a forest three versts from Tsarskoe Selo. And the name of the park came from the neighboring (Finnish) village of Babolovo (from Veps baboi).

Pictured: Babolovsky Palace. Lithograph by V.P. Langer. 1820

In 1783, an English garden was laid out near the palace. Below, on the side of the northern facade of the palace, there was a Big (or Babolovsky) pond, formed by the Kuzminka River after the construction of a dam on it, and behind the palace there was a Mirror (or Silver) pond. The path from the palace to the park passed through the Babolovsky dam bridge, created by the engineer I. Gerard in 1773-1775, and then rebuilt in 1883 by the engineer S. M. Likhardov. After the destruction of the Great Patriotic War, the bridge was rebuilt (1987) according to the project of the Lengiproinzhproekt Institute, under the direction of engineer A. A. Sokolov.

Further behind the bridge-dam along the Kuzminki River, there is a grove of broad-leaved trees with a compositional center in the form of a kitchen building that existed until 1941. Further beyond this site there is a picturesque alley of silvery willows (over 150 years old), which borders a large clearing with groups of trees.

Babolovsky Park originally occupied a small area near the palace; in most of the present park there was a dense spruce forest. In 1820, the first attempt was made to develop this territory: the Novobabolovskaya road and the road from the Krasnoselsky gate to the palace were laid. After the creation in 1845 of a special nursery for growing trees and shrubs near the Gatchina (Orlov) gate, called the "School gardening institution" (the remnants of the work of the successors of the institution were destroyed at the beginning of the XXI century, under the governor Matvienko).

On the image: Engineer S. M. Likhardov's dam-bridge. Card from the beginning of the XX century. The lettering on the card is wrong.

In the years 1850-1860, systematic work began to drain bogs, to cut down and uproot part of the forest, planting oaks, birches, maples, lindens and other types of trees and shrubs. A wide circular road was laid along the boundaries of the park, and glades were cut in the park for hiking and carriage rides. The total area of ​​Babolovsky Park, the largest of all Tsarskoye Selo parks, is 268.6 hectares.

Of the old sights of Babolovsky Park, it should be noted, in addition to the grandiose stone bath of Sukhanov, the Taitsky water conduit and the Starokrasnoselsky gate. Starokrasnoselsky gate was located on the western border of the park. Cast from iron at the Petrovsky state-owned iron foundry according to drawings by A. Menelas (1753-1831). In 1846, by order of Emperor Nicholas I, they were moved to Babolovsky Park from the White (Krasnoselsky) guards. In 2007, the gate took its old place at the guardhouses in Alexander Park.

The Taitsky water conduit is a monument of Russian construction equipment and one of the largest engineering structures of this kind in Europe at the end of the 18th century.

In the image: Scheme of the Taitsky water conduit

The Empress Elizabeth I (Petrovna) also took care of the watering of the ponds and canals of Tsarskoe Selo. So, in 1743, the master of the "mill business" Kezeru was summoned to Tsarskoe Selo, then the master of "fountain affairs" Bolesu to study the surroundings and bring water to parks and gardens. In August of the same year, engineer-captain Zverev and his architect's apprentice Mylnikov examined the Neva, Slavyanka and Kuzminka rivers to bring the Neva water canal. The result of the research was the attention to the keys near the village of Vittelevo. In 1746, the keys were examined by warrant officer of geodesy Safonov, in 1748 by engineer-lieutenant Ostrovsky. According to his report, Empress Elizabeth I (Petrovna) by a personal decree ordered the immediate start of the construction of the Vittolovsky Canal, completed in 1749. After the creation of the project for a new landscape park around the Catherine Palace, it turned out that the Vittol springs were not enough to power the dug new ponds and canals.

Under Empress Catherine II (the Great), surveys, design and construction of the Taitsky water conduit (1772-1787) were carried out by hydraulic engineers E. Carbonier and F. Bauer. In 1774-1775, 35 thousand rubles were allocated for the construction of a water conduit at the disposal of Quartermaster General Bauer. Until 1905, the water pipe was the only means of water supply for Tsarskoye Selo, its palaces and parks.

The Taitsky aqueduct ran for 4.8 versts through open canals, 3.6 versts - with brick pipes, and in the middle part under a hill - an underground, so-called mine gallery 6.3 versts long. The gallery lies at a depth of 8 fathoms (16 meters) from the surface of the earth. Under normal conditions, the Taitsky water conduit delivered an average of 5.16 cubic meters to Tsarskoe Selo. feet of water per second (about 102 m³ / h), of which 4 cu. ft / s (about 80 m³ / h) were provided by the Taitsky springs, and the rest - by the groundwater of the mine gallery of the aqueduct. The Taitsky springs, located in the upper reaches of the Vereva River, a tributary of the Izhora, are also known as the Hannibal, Berezovsky and Demidov springs. The height difference between these springs and the Tsarskoye Selo ponds reaches 25 meters.

The park was not ignored by Alexander Pushkin, who twice mentioned it in his works.

Pictured: Babolovsky Palace in 20063

According to "St. Petersburg Vedomosti", part of Babolovsky Park can be given for golf courses. At the same time, the investor promises to reconstruct the Babolovsky Palace and the Taitsky water conduit. The Babolovsky Palace was built in 1785 for Grigory Potemkin in the Babolovsky Park of Tsarskoye Selo. Destroyed during the Great Patriotic War... Known for "Tsar Bath" - a huge granite bath (height - 192 cm, diameter - 533 cm, weight - 48 tons) made by master Samson Sukhanov according to the project of engineer Betancourt (1828) in the basement.

In the palace, Alexander I met with the daughter of the court banker, Baron Veljo, Sophia Iosifovna (1793-1840).

Babolovsky Park is a landscape park in the city of Pushkin (St. Petersburg), the most large park Tsarskoe Selo (area over 260 hectares).

Schematic plansa Babolovsky Park:

Pre-construction of the park

Previously, on the site of the modern park there was Finnish village Pabola (later the name was transformed into the Russian-speaking Babolovo). At the beginning of the 18th century. the peasants of this village participated in the construction of the Catherine Park. Through the swampy area and the spruce forest, a clearing was laid connecting the village and the territory of the Catherine Park.

In the 1770s. a dam was built on the territory of the Babolovsky park and the Babolovsky pond was dug. In 1780, a wooden estate of the famous statesman and military leader, Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tavrichesky, appeared here. And in 1785 the estate was rebuilt into a brick pavilion-bathhouse in the Gothic style (also known as the Babolovo Palace, it has survived only in ruins to this day).

Tsar bath

In the 1820s. in the pavilion was installed a huge bath (also known as "Tsar Bath") designed by the master Samson Ksenofontovich Sukhanov. The bathtub was completely carved from a single piece of granite. The diameter of the bath was more than half a meter and the height was almost 2 meters.

Since the XIX century.

In the middle of the XIX century. the park began to be improved. Drainage of swamps, laying of clearings for walking and riding in carriages was carried out. Part of the spruce forest was cut down, but other trees were planted: oaks, lindens, maples, ash, birch, aspen, etc.

After the 1917 revolution

The palace building was nationalized. It housed an aviation school. During the Great Patriotic War, the palace was destroyed by shells, after which it was not restored.

Other attractions of the park

Water conduits (Vittolovsky and Taitsky) - the first water conduits that supplied Tsarskoe Selo; dam bridge; dacha famous writer, journalist and playwright Alexei Sergeevich Suvorin a; cast-iron Old Krasnoselsky gates ; a spring near the Babolovsky Palace; burial of a Red Army soldier during the Second World War ; monk's grotto (destroyed).

(total photos: 11)

Have you ever walked in Babolovsky Park? It seems to us that many residents of St. Petersburg have never entered it. What have you heard about him? About the project of a golf club, about either a granite bath or Catherine's bowl in the ruins of a palace, about a forest and long paths where you can run and walk with your dog. And it's all? If this information is enough for you, then we will not bother you, but if you are interested in learning new things, then it is quite possible that we can convince you to take this interesting walk.

A LOT OF BOOKS, THE TRUTH IS FEW
Those who still know about Babolovsky Park firsthand can say: excuse me, but what can you offer us new? This park has already been written about more than once, its history is reflected in the famous works of Ilya Yakovkin and Sergei Vilchkovsky. And how many books and guidebooks were published in the XX century! From the latter, one can recall, for example, the book by Galina Semyonova, well-known to connoisseurs of Pushkin. In addition, a book by Vladimir Ruban was written about the Babolovsky Palace and Sukhanov's bath just ten years ago. Therefore, what new you can tell and show us - we have already seen everything and we know all this.
Well, indeed, a lot of books and articles where Babolovsky Park is mentioned have been written, but that is why we invite "experts" to walk with us along the paths of Babolovsky Park. Do you have to believe everything that is written and is everything written about in these books and articles? We are ready to bet that much of what we are going to tell you you did not know and could not learn from numerous books about Tsarskoe Selo, the city of Pushkin and Babolovsky Park.
For example, the statement that has become almost a standard cliché: “In the 1850s and 1860s, the drainage of bogs, the felling of a part of the spruce forest and the planting of deciduous trees began. A circular road was built around the boundaries of the park, and glades were cut inside. All this is done for the convenience of hiking and horse riding. Huge sums are spent on the improvement of the park " . This, to put it mildly, does not correspond to reality and contradicts the preserved archival documents. Also, the following phrase has nothing to do with the documented events: "The history of the park is inextricably linked with the Babolovskaya manor that existed here, donated by Empress Catherine II to Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin Tavrichesky, and where in 1780 a wooden manor-type house was built" .

In Babolovsky park

Alas, there are a lot of such errors, misconceptions and myths about Babolovsky Park, and even employees of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve were sincerely surprised when, for several hours, with copies of documents in our hands, we told them the story of Babolovsky Park, the palace, Taitsky and Vittolovsky water pipelines ...
In our archival research, we have received answers to many questions. When was each path laid in the park, when and how was the road separating the Aleksandrovsky and Babolovsky parks reconstructed, who made the decisions in this regard and why? What the park was like in different periods of time, what projects to change it were proposed and why were rejected. What was the park itself intended for and how was it used for a long time, when and what hydraulic and other structures were built and for what? How was the surviving Babolovsky Palace built, did it have a prototype, and how many large baths were there in turn?
For a detailed story about this story, the format of the article will not work - it requires a whole book. Therefore, we will dwell very briefly on only a few interesting facts.

BATH AND ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX
So, what can be called the oldest man-made structure on the territory of Babolovsky Park, when and why was it created? The correct answer is Babolovskaya road, it used to be called "Babolovskiy Prosek". Initially, this is a leveling glade, cut in the fall of 1743 during the surveys of Captain Zverev on the water supply to Tsarskoe Selo.

Babolovskaya road

The continuation of this glade outside Babolovsky Park is known as the Podkaprizovaya Alley. Another very old object, which, unfortunately, is very poorly preserved, is the Vittolovsky Canal, dug in 1749. By the way, Pyotr Ostrovsky (second lieutenant in 1748, and two years later already a captain) supervised the construction of the canal by the same officer who was invited to help civil architects build the correct, from the point of view of military fortification, bastions of the Menagerie.

Vittolovsky canal. State of the art

Another, as we said above, a common mistake - in the statement that on the site of the Babolovsky Palace in 1780 was built "Wooden manor house" . But from archival documents it follows that in the spring of 1779 Empress Catherine II made a decision to erect a curious wooden structure for his lordship Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin on the bank of a pond newly formed at the dam of the Kuzminka River. The construction of the house was supervised by the sergeant of the Preobrazhensky regiment, Alexander Starov, and the commander of this regiment from 1774 to 1783 was the Most Serene Prince himself.
This one-storey wooden house consisted of 8 rooms. Among them were: the Great Hall with 12 lower and 11 upper windows, four rooms with nine windows, bath rooms with 4 windows. The bathtub was lined with Orlyan tiles, with a wooden gallery on top, with a staircase downward, and there was also a staircase from the bathtub to the floor. There was also a gallery with five windows and a bathhouse with a boiler for heating water, as well as tiled stoves for heating the house. A small building for the kitchen was built nearby. At the end of June 1781, a large fireworks display was set up to mark the opening of the new house.
Probably, the empress really liked this "entertainment complex" remote from the residence, which included a bathhouse, a large bath, as well as chambers for relaxation and feasting, once after only a year and a half - in November 1782 - she decides to build a new one on the site of the old house. stone, with the same set of rooms and with a new bathroom, finished in gray and white Italian marble, with a copper tap and a drain hole covered with a special cover.

Inventory of the premises of the new stone house in 1783

The marble bath was large - two fathoms in diameter, one arshin and three quarters (i.e. 5.5 meters!), And two arshins and three vershoks (155 cm) high. The new granite bathtub, roughly made by Samson Sukhanov in 1818, was 5.25 meters in diameter and 1.95 cm high. However, it stood idle for a long time - work on the reconstruction of the palace began only in 1824. The old room was dismantled along with the marble bath, after installing a new granite bath in August 1824, Sukhanov's artel began polishing it. Then, judging by the signed contract, he had to make holes for draining water and for installing two taps - for supplying hot and cold water.

Granite bath in the Babolovsky palace

Alas, the death of Alexander I suspended work on the Babolovsky Palace for a couple of years. Apparently, the new emperor did not want to pay for all the devices envisaged by Stasov's project: there is no visible place for supplying lead pipes and holes for taps, there are no turtle-shaped bath stands, and the existing hole at the bottom of the bath looks more like a technological hole made for centering over a pre-prepared drain.

Bath water drain in the basement of the palace

Why the emperor did not want to complete the "bath and entertainment" idea of ​​his older brother, we do not know for sure, but it was thanks to Nicholas I that the modern structure of Babolovsky Park was formed, which he wanted to see as a place of solitude and relaxation for himself and his family. It was on his personal instructions that most of the paths of the park were laid, and also, according to his decision, the section of Parkovaya Streets from Orlovskie to Babolovskiye Gates has a couple of bends near the modern Turner Institute.

PERSONAL IMPERIAL PARK
The park in Nikolayev's time looked completely different: no dense forest, the territory was as open as possible. This approach was laid from the very beginning of park construction in Tsarskoye Selo under Nicholas I. In 1827, the gardener Lyamin offered "Practical instructions for keeping Tsarskoye Selo gardens in order and cleanliness." One of the first points of this Manual was the following:
“The beauty of the gardens and park is:
Meadows and lawns;
Alleys, forest clumps, single trees and various shrubs;
Flowers;
Water;
Roads;
With all this in good condition and excellent cleanliness. "
Attention was also paid to what types of trees should be planted in order to take into account the aesthetic perception of the park at different times of the year. For example, such a concept as "red forest" stood out, it included oak, maple, elm, ash, mountain ash, blackthorn.
Thus, we can imagine the requirements for park art at the beginning of the 19th century by the Russian emperor, who decided to move away from the magnificent and ceremonial forms of the residence to “personal purpose” parks. Babolovsky and, partially, Alexandrovsky parks in the 1840s can be considered the examples where these approaches were fully embodied: large open spaces on which small groups of trees were located, including single, winding paths and a minimum of architectural forms.

Open space in Babolovsky park

E Another confirmation of this transition to a park of a personal nature, a park of an estate, is a utilitarian component that is unusual for our time. Open spaces were actively used not only for beauty, but also for haymaking, and the cut grass was used for its intended purpose - as animal feed. In that part of the park (left bank of Kuzminka), where historically there were peasant hayfields, residents of the villages of Sobolev and Aleksandrovka continued to mow grass for their needs: the former had 17 dessiatines, the latter - 92 dessiatines. In another part of the park (right bank), mows with an area of ​​135 acres were used as a “raw material base” for the imperial farm. A special shed for storing hay was built near the Babolovskiye Gates, and a summer calf shed not far from the Babolovskiye Palace.
Another popular "brand" of Babolovsky Park is the alley of silvery willows, which is sometimes considered an example of old park work. Indeed, the alley is very beautiful, especially in early autumn, when, among the colorful leaves of the surrounding forest, something resembling a slightly blurred silvery cloud suddenly began to appear.

Willow alley

And only when you come close, you suddenly realize that there is an alley of old willows in front of you. But - not old (if only because the silvery willow rarely lives up to 150 years of age). These trees were planted quite late - at the end of the 19th century, and maybe at the very beginning of the 20th, so they can be considered the most recent examples of plantings of the imperial period. The path along which they grow was created only in 1882 as an integral part of a soft horse-riding path, passing in a circle through Babolovsky and Aleksandrovsky parks. The decision to create this riding road was taken personally by Alexander III, indicating in detail where it was supposed to pass.

Horse track

For a long time, including the second half of XIX century, the place along which this alley passes was large field, where the haymaking of the peasants of the village of Sobolevoy was located. In the 1930s - early 1940s, when this part of the park and the Babolovsky Palace were administered flight school- on the left side of the willow alley (if you go from the Novobabolovskaya road) there was a stadium, and on the right side, where the forest is now, there was their field camp.

Aerial view of Babolovsky park 1939

And this is just a small part of what can be said about true history Babolovsky Park, which does not need embellishment and mythologization at all. The only question is: how much this authenticity is needed by others ...

Alexander Potravnov, Tatiana Khmelnik

Information about golf club and cottage community projects in the park, read at the end of this article!

The most recent imperial park in St. Petersburg is considered to be (photo album)

Among the Tsarskoye Selo parks, Babolovsky is the most extensive and deserted one. It is located a fair distance from well-groomed walking routes, in the south-west of Pushkin. So, it is mainly individual fanatics of walking, couples in love, cyclists (skiers in winter) and residents of the nearby Aleksandrovka and Krasnoselsky highway that get here. Against the background of the Ekaterininsky and Aleksandrovsky parks, overflowing with all sorts of architectural ideas, Babolovsky looks rather modest. There are no monuments, no museums, no cafes with attractions, even ice cream is not sold here, so when going to Babolovsky Park, you should stock up on food and drinks in advance. But here is one of the most unique Tsarskoye Selo cultural monuments, often called one of the wonders of the world.

The total area of ​​Babolovsky Park, the largest of all Tsarskoye Selo parks, is 268.6 hectares.

The name of the imperial Babolovsky park comes from the nearby village with the Finnish name of Pabola, which eventually turned into "Babolova". The history of the park is inextricably linked with the Babolovskaya manor that existed here, donated by Empress Catherine II to Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin Tavrichesky, and where in 1780 a wooden manor-type house was built.

The village has long been lost, but its name continues to live, repeated many times in the names of park attractions. Behind the Babolovskaya guardhouse, the perspective continues, at the end of which the village was located. O characteristic features the space lying beyond (Volkhonskoe shosse), almost a hundred years ago wrote: "On both sides of the glade there is a magnificent and vast Babolovsky park with meadows, groves and endless paths for pedestrians, horseback riding and carriages."

The volumetric-spatial composition of the park was formed mainly in the - s.

This monument of landscape architecture con. XVIII - mid. XIX centuries, "composed" in a landscape style. Several generations of the august owners of Tsarskoye Selo decorated this ensemble, spending a lot of time and enormous funds on its creation. Babolovsky Park is a typical example of landscape composition and, in fact, the most "English" park in Tsarskoye Selo. The program of landscape gardening art is most consistently embodied in its appearance.

Babolovsky Park was a favorite walking place for emperors and his wife.

Alexandra Feodorovna on a granite bench near the palace on the banks of Babolovsky Park

The composition of this protected area, bordering with and parks, form groves and clumps of old-growth trees and species. All this alternates with extensive ones.

On the sides of the fancifully curving, its green massifs are located. The park is cut through by walking and driving highways - Novo-Babolovskaya,. All of them, with the exception of Babolovsky highway, whose direct perspective "flies" outside the park, lead to the oldest district - the English Garden and.

Architectural works included in its volumetric-spatial composition during the arrangement of the park are few:

All the more important are

• at the Babolovsky Palace,

Work on the creation of Babolovsky Park began with the dismantling of the western bastion with the walls of the Menagerie overlooking the future park, and the planning of the area. The pillar road, which used to bend around the Menagerie's bastion, was straightened from the stone bridge built in the 18th century. instead of a wooden one across the Kuzminka River,.

The swampy areas located on the right side of the Kuzminka River had to be drained. The preliminary work took several years. By order of Alexander I, reclamation was entrusted in 1817 to a specially invited Englishman Daniel Wheeler... The swampy peat areas leased to Wheeler were drained by him with the help of reclamation ditches. Then a fertile soil layer was formed, grasses were sown and trees were gradually planted. The meadows in this area were later called the Peat Field. Development of the park in the - s. reflect many plans of the Tsarskoye Selo gardens.

First, they drained the area located near the Baur canal and Babolovskaya glade, after having dismantled the buildings of the Zapasny yard.

Landscape roads Extreme and Verkhovaya, Novo-Babolovskaya, Dubovaya and Longnaya crossed the entire territory of the park, connecting and diverging to the sides. From the Great Stolbovaya road to the village of Babolova in the city of the sovereign, the emperor ordered to build a highway on the Babolovskaya glade, as well as to remove unnecessary forest, leaving trees in the places shown. Lyamin planted 30 thousand new trees on the sides of the roads, which turned into landscape alleys with landscape groups. Wooden bridges were built across the Kuzminka River and streams on these roads.

The old Krasnoselskaya road, closed as a main road, turns into one of the alleys of the future Babopovsky Park. Thus, not only the initial stage of the development of a significant area of ​​the Babolovskaya forest dacha is underway, but also through the installation of new roads, the two largest green areas in Tsarskoye Selo are united: the future Babolovsky and the new one.

Currently, the dacha is lost, it is located next to this place. The user of our site has published his views on a more accurate determination of its location

The newspaper "Birzhevye Vedomosti". Morning release, June 4 1913 of the year. No. 13630 wrote: Yesterday in the Babolovsky park in Tsarskoe Selo, the enraged horse of the watchmaster Degterenko knocked down a German citizen V.G. Megdefessel. The bike was damaged. Megdefessel himself received severe bruises.

23 November excursion of young scouts (scouts). At 11:30 in the morning, Petrograd and Tsarskoye Selo scouts, led by an instructor, gathered at the station. The excursion was made in 10

After the nationalization of the imperial property in the city, the ensemble was taken over by the directorate of the palaces-museums and parks of the city of Pushkin (Detskoye Selo).

In the park itself, many old-growth trees were cut down and died. And in the postwar years, his condition only continued to worsen. The reclamation and drainage system of the park was launched, as a result of which large parts of it turned out to be swampy, and as a result of natural renewal, landscape groups were overgrown with self-seeding.

1941-1945

During the Great Patriotic War and the German occupation, this monument of national landscape art suffered great damage. An echo of the past war stands not far from the dam bridge. Unknown - ours or German. Located in a convenient position near the bridge over the Kuzminka River. Near the palace, a dam bridge across the Kuzminka river, a Taitsky water conduit, a grotto near the palace and a ladder near it, a monk's grotto (far from the palace), as well as service buildings behind the bridge - a former kitchen (only the basement remained) and a glacier were destroyed. Water was drained from the Big Pond on Kuzminka, the Silver Pond near the palace itself was overgrown and polluted (this pond remained in the same form until recently).

There is another sad reminder of the war in the immediate vicinity of the palace. grave red army .

Before the war, the school of the 100th Aviation Assault Brigade of the Leningrad Military District in Pushkin was located in the Babolovsky Palace. The photo 1938. At the beginning of the war, she was subjected to brutal bombing. The rank of Y. Chakhursky - junior commander of the Red Army. He served in the 55th PMA (Mobile Aviation Workshop), died in the bombing on 07/27/1941.

Then I found the "Named list of irrecoverable losses of the commanding officers and enlisted personnel of the 55th Mobile Railway. Aviation Workshop from 22/6/41 to 1/9/41. And other documents in which Yulik is mentioned

It can be seen from the document that, in addition to Chakhursky, Skornyakov Yu.M., Veselov P.K., Grigoriev V.T., Kudryashev A.V., Zuev M.A. were seriously wounded and died or killed during the bombing. Of these, only Skornyakov was buried at the Kazan cemetery, the rest (!!!), including Chakhursky: "In the Babolovsky park in the city of Pushkin, Leningrad region"! It means that he is not alone there, or there are more graves in the neighborhood!

This is the story of one of the many residents of Pushkin who died during the war in our city ...

From the memories of the old-timer of the city

Behind the gate along the bushes from the side of the field, shallow, hastily dug trenches of our troops can be seen, which defended Pushkin in September 1941. In the park, as in a dense forest, there is no one, scary, although there are two grenades in your pocket. The places are beautiful, I got to. I went along the right path. A red brick building loomed in the distance. Obviously it is.

At that time, the Neelov Hall was still covered with a box vault that collapsed in the early 1960s, and the walls of the palace, already crippled by the fiery tornado of war, did not bear traces of the mediocre restoration undertaken in the late 1980s - early 1990s.

Sources:

1. Semenova G.V. Tsarskoe Selo: familiar and unfamiliar. .-M. CenterPolygraph, 2009.- 638, (2) p.
2. Yakovkin I. Description of the Tsarskoye village or a satellite observing it. SPb., 1830
3. Ruban V.M. Babolovsky Palace and the creation of the master Sukhanov. Science, 2003.
4. Listov V.N. Ippolit Monighetti. - L .: Stroyizdat, Leningrad. department, 1976. - 144 p., ill.
5. O. N. Fisher. There is a monument - there are problems, no problems - there is no monument? History of St. Petersburg № 2 (54). 2010
6. Andreev I. Childhood of a palace boy. Memories of the Church Head. Literary text processing and preparation for publication by Nikolai and Marina Konyaev
7. "Tsarskoye Selo business" No. 48 Friday 28 November 1914
8. Mass media about the construction of a golf club in Babolovsky Park

Babolovsky is considered the last imperial park in St. Petersburg. Among the Tsarskoye Selo parks, Babolovsky is the most extensive and deserted one. It is located a fair distance from well-groomed walking routes, in the south-west of Pushkin.

The total area of ​​Babolovsky Park, the largest of all Tsarskoye Selo parks, is 268.6 hectares.

The name of the imperial Babolovsky park comes from the nearby village with the Finnish name of Pabola, which eventually turned into "Babolova". The village has long been lost, but its name continues to live, repeating itself many times in the names of park attractions.

To the west of the Yekaterininsky and Alexandrovsky parks is the Babolovsky Park - their younger brother, named after the village of Babolovo located here. Under Catherine II, the Babolovskaya estate belonged to Count Potemkin-Tavrichesky.

In 1780 a wooden house was built there, and soon the architect I.V. Neyelov erected a stone palace in the false Gothic style. The skillful decorator Fyodor Daniilov, a former serf, took part in the decoration of the Babolovsky Palace. The construction of the palace was carried out in the years 1783-1785.

Potemkin's new palace was distinguished by the originality of the composition and appearance. The facade is decorated with Gothic motives - windows with pointed ends, jagged parapets. The walls of the palace were left unplastered. An octagonal tower with a hipped roof, and an asymmetric solution to the plan, which strengthened general impression picturesqueness.

In the group of pseudo-Gothic buildings in the city of Pushkin, the Babolovsky Palace is one of the first places. Near the palace there is an arched willow alley covered with green-bluish leaves - it seems that the moonlight has turned to stone on the steeply descending branches along the overgrown quiet road.

In 1824-1825, the architect V.P. Stasov rebuilt the Babolovsky Palace. He dismantled the tower of the palace and in its place erected a new spacious room, in the center of which was a huge bath-pool made of granite monolith. The famous stonecutter Samson Sukhanov built a giant bathtub, which took him seven whole years. Cast iron staircases with railings, columns and platforms near the granite bathtub were made by the Byrd iron foundry.

The area of ​​the park adjacent to the Babolovsky Palace is crossed by the so-called Baur canal, or Taitsky waterfall. The canal goes some distance underground and then, starting from the Monk's Grotto, goes along the embankment along to the southern edge of Babolovsky Park. The grotto, built in the slope of a piled hill, was decorated with a statue of a hermit or a monk, which had long disappeared. On the wall of the grotto there was a marble memorial plaque with an inscription in Russian and Latin about "the supply of fresh water to Tsarskoe Selo by the efforts of Colonel-General von Bawer" in 1774. Straight alleys on the sides of the canal lead from the grotto to the Gatchina Gate.

In the 18th century, a dense spruce forest grew on the low-lying and swampy area now occupied by the park. Only near Babolovskaya manor was a small landscape garden planned. A straight road - "Babolovsky Prosek" - connected the manor with the Podkaprizovaya road.

In the 1820s, new roads were laid on the territory of the Babolovskaya forest thicket: from the Krasnoselsky gate to the Babolovsky palace, as well as the Novobabolovskaya road. In the middle of the 19th century, a part of the territory of the future park was occupied by the School gardening institution, located not far from the Gatchina gate.

In the 1860s, as a result of the felling and uprooting of part of the forest, the planting of oaks, lindens, maples, birches and other species of trees and shrubs, arose new park with beautiful groves, wide open vistas of meadows and a picturesque palace on its northwestern outskirts.

Pond and boarding house

Dam bridge

Based on the books by I. I. Demyanov "The Word about the City of Pushkin" (Lenizdat, 1972) and A. N. Petrov "The City of Pushkin. Palaces and parks "(Leningrad, 1977)