Rook (homestead)

The emergence of the estate

The area on which the park and the estate are located today, from the beginning of the 15th century belonged to the son of the Sourozh merchant, Georgy Safarin. Despite his wealth, activity and belonging to a noble family, the locals nicknamed him Khovra (that is, untidy, unclean, rotozey). The nickname later becomes the name of this boyar clan , and the village is called Khovrino . At the turn of the XVI - XVII centuries, the descendant of George - Vasily Tretyakov-Khovrin - erects the church of the Great Martyr George, and Khovrino becomes a village ^{[1] [2]} . But confusion soon came, the church was burned by apostates, and the estate turned into a wasteland. Its next owner was the close boyar of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich , the stolnik and the Tobolsk governor Vasily Sheremetev ^[1] . In 1660 he was captured by the Crimean Tatars , from which he returned only after 21 years. After his death, Khovrino goes as a dowry for his daughter to Prince Yakov Golitsyn . Later it is owned by Pronsky and Pozharsky , and then the estate goes to the royal treasury ^[2] .

In 1700, the son of Aleksey Mikhailovich, Peter I granted the village to his associate, Field Marshal Count Fedor Alekseevich Golovin , a descendant of the Khovrins, thus returning the estate to the original owners. Golovin participated in all the endeavors of the young king, was a warrior and diplomat, admiral and head of the Armory . Among other things, he was known for having signed the Nerchinsk treaty with China and became the first holder of the highest Russian order of St. Andrew the First-Called (Peter I himself received this order only sixth in a row). From Fyodor Golovin, Khovrino inherited his son Nikolai and remained in the hands of the family for more than a hundred years ^{[2] [3]} . Golovins laid the foundation for the regular axial planning of the estate, set up a fruit garden and a regular lime park with ponds on the Likhoborka River . The centerpiece of the composition was a wooden manor house; from the southwest, an access alley led to it. To the right of the manor buildings on the old Khovrinsky churchyard, where local peasants were buried from the end of the 15th century, they built a new stone Znamensky church ^{[1] [4] [5]} .

XIX century

Just before the start of World War II , in 1811, the granddaughter of Admiral Golovin - Ekaterina Baryatinskaya - sold the village to Prince Peter Obolensky , and a year later the estate was looted and burned by Napoleonic soldiers. Unable to restore it, the prince sold the estate to Natalya Stolypina , the younger sister of Elizabeth Arsenyeva (grandmother of Mikhail Lermontov ) ^[2] . Stolypin rebuilt a new house, in front of him they broke a long wide pond. The park became more compact, and the semicircle of the orchard was deployed to the south ^[5] .

In 1859, the millionaire and manufacturer Evgraf Molchanov bought the estate. He rebuilt the estate again, inviting the famous architect Mikhail Bykovsky to Khovrino, who became famous for creating the ensemble of the Ivanovo Monastery ^[3] . A lot of effort and money was spent on the restoration and expansion of the park, cleaning and landscaping of water bodies.

At the same time, the manor park was "cut" by the Nikolaev railway . After the construction of the railway platform, the estate began to turn into a summer cottage: Molchanov built several summer cottages next to the estate, which he rented to wealthy Muscovites for the summer, and artists, poor intelligentsia and petty officials were placed in peasant huts ^{[2] [6]} . It was decided to dismantle the old church, on the shore of the pond. For the construction of a new church, Bykovsky chose a dry, elevated place, which was surrounded by a rural road (now this is a turn from Klinskaya street to Festivalnaya ). Evgraf Molchanov died a year before the end of the church, so his widow was engaged in interior decoration ^{[3] [6]} . The erected temple was small, but did not resemble ordinary rural churches. In it, Moscow Baroque harmoniously combined with the Italian Renaissance. “Inside she makes an extremely bright impression with her grace. The mosaic floor and wall cladding with multi-colored marble give a common background for this. The marble iconostasis, made with great taste, includes icons of artwork painted by the artist Malyshev. The sacristy of the temple is the richest; in terms of the number and value of vestments, it could serve as an example for any city church, ”contemporaries described the new church ^[6] . It is this temple that has survived to the present day.

In 1879, Molchanova sold the estate to the merchant Panov, a contractor who made a fortune on the construction of railways. The locals spoke of him as a person unprincipled and nonsense, accustomed to dealing with criminals in construction. The neighboring peasants did not like him to such an extent that they repeatedly threatened to burn the estate together with the owner. In 1884 the estate really burned down, but Panov was not injured ^{[1] [3] [5]} .

In 1895, after the death of Panov, the estate was acquired by the merchant Mitrofan Grachev and gave her his name. For several years, he cleared and ennobled the park, renovated farm buildings and re-planned the estate. Grachev visited Monte Carlo and admired the architecture of the gambling house by Charles Garnier ^[7] . At his request, Georgy Kaiser built a building on the site of the burnt main house according to the project of the fashionable architect of the modern era, Lev Kekushev . This building resembles elegant caryatids , risalits , scaly faceted domes with lucarnes , characteristic towers and the wide use of sculpture and stucco in the outdoor decoration. The style in which the manor's house was executed, contemporaries called the French Renaissance or modernist eclecticism . Mitrofan Grachev died in 1899, a year before the completion of the project. Until the revolution, the widow of the estate was his widow, Varvara Nikolaevna. Together with their son, Semyon Grachev, they completed all the reorganizations - the estate flourished and was a popular resting place for the Moscow intelligentsia. There were Peter Tchaikovsky , Alexei Tolstoy and Vladimir Gilyarovsky . In the Church of the Sign, the poet Valery Bryusov got married to Joanna Runt . Grachevsky park was popular among artists, for example, Cyril Lemoh painted paintings at the estate ^{[1] [3] [8]} .

XX century

After the revolution , in 1918, the Grachevs were expelled from the estate, and the working faculty of the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy (the future Moscow Agricultural Academy named after K. A. Timiryazev ) was placed in the palace ^[3] . Ten years later, a tuberculosis dispensary for women was opened here, which before the start of the Great Patriotic War was transformed into a kumis treatment center - it was believed that the use of sour mare's milk helps in treating patients with pulmonary tuberculosis . At the same time, the ponds were drained, and Grachevsky Park was partially cut down. Services in the Church of the Sign took place until 1936, despite requests from the leadership of the Agricultural Academy, sounded since 1932, to give the building to a student club.

During the war , a gravely wounded hospital was located in Grachevsky estate, and then, after the war, a tuberculosis sanatorium for women was opened in Grachevka. In 1947, the Moscow Regional Physiotherapy Hospital was moved here, which still occupies the palace ^[1] . The village of Khovrino became part of Moscow in 1960. The main manor house was well preserved, while the park was badly damaged. The cemetery was liquidated, rural houses were demolished, the Likhoborka river was "removed" into the collector , and the landscape was leveled - high-rise residential areas were built on this territory. The church building was abandoned until 1991.

The Znamenskaya Church was completely restored by the fall of 2005.

For 2017, Grachevsky Park, with an area of ​​more than 19 hectares, is divided into two conventional zones. The regular park is formed by linden alleys, rows of larch and oak. The landscape part runs along the Likhoborka River, which goes underground, down to a small pond. In winter, a ski track ^{[9] is} laid in the park.

The park has a small makeshift football field and a playground with rides. But in general, the territory remains not well-maintained ^[10] . A monument to Soviet soldiers was erected on the side of Klinskaya Street in memory of soldiers and officers buried here who died during the defense of Moscow . At the flyover there is a cynological sports and training ground. At the outskirts of the park towered unfinished Khovrinsky hospital , which has become a landmark of the area. Construction began in 1980 and was suspended five years later. From that moment, the building remained unfinished. Due to the original layout and the large number of rumors and myths surrounding the abandoned building, the Khovrinsky hospital has attracted the attention of representatives of various subcultures for more than thirty years. In 2019, it was demolished ^[11] .

The park is located in the Northern District of Moscow in the Khovrino microdistrict near the eponymous railway station on the Likhoborka River , now removed into the collector (there is a pond from the river). The main house of the estate is located at Klinskaya St. , House 2.

• Manor Grachevka (Khovrino) on the site Historical estates of Russia
• Aerial photography of the Grachevka manor building
• Park Grachevsky Moscow: photos