Beautiful Sunday in the old manor house

The museum in the old Kiryanovo estate occupies only one of the one-storey wings. The main halls of the manor belong to the registry office, where weddings are held. The largest hall with huge windows is reserved for solemn ceremonies. The museum telling about the history of the manor is located in small rooms. But the spirit of the place reaches its maximum concentration in these small rooms.

Since the last time I visited this museum, it has grown a bit: a few rooms that used to be the office of some official have been given to the museum. These rooms are now home to a new exhibit. I signed up for a tour to visit the new rooms of the museum.

At the beginning we looked into the main halls, they are dedicated to the history of the manor in the XVIII century. The Kiryanovo estate was built in the late 18th century for Princess Vorontsova-Dashkova by the famous architect Giacomo Quarenghi. Princess Dashkova was a friend of Empress Catherine II and an active participant in the palace coup d'état that brought Catherine II to the throne. This is one of those pages of history, the reflection of which awakens the imagination. When you walk through these rooms, it seems that saddled horses are waiting at the porch and we must hurry, hurry, great things are waiting for us!

The main part of the tour was devoted to the new museum expositions. On a small area the museum deployed three thematic exhibitions at once, two permanent and one temporary. A part of one of the rooms became the study of Ivan Krylov, the 19th century fable writer and publicist. It is known that Ivan Krylov visited the estate for literary evenings. Krylov's fables have long become an integral part of the cultural code. The monument to the fable writer is installed in the Summer Garden, he is always surrounded by children looking at the characters of fables in the pedestal of the monument.

The neighbouring room is dedicated to the time when the area around the estate ceased to be a countryside and became a factory outskirts of the city. This is the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The Putilov factory and other industrial enterprises were built nearby. The room of the museum was turned into a flat of one of the owners or leading engineers of such an enterprise, the exposition consists of household items of that time.

At the end of the tour we visited the nearby Church of Nicholas the Wonderworker and Martyr Tsarina Alexandra. This church was built for the workers of the Putilov plant in the early 20th century. It was located opposite the entrance hall of the factory. The weather was windy and rainy, but I still took a couple of shots outside. I photographed the view of the manor house from the opposite side of the avenue, as well as a small office near the church. This one-story brick outbuilding is called the Bride's House and is for wedding preparations. This outbuilding is connected to the church by an underground passage - specially so that the bride in her beautiful white dress would not have to walk to the church in the rain or snow.