Hotels, motels and where to sleep
Restaurant, taverns and where to eat
Location: 60 km (35 mi) Northeast of Moscow Map
Tel. 8254 32470
Open: 10am- 5pm Wed- Sun
Official site
Abramtsevo is a small holiday village in the north-east of the
Moscow region not far from Sergiev Posad. The most interesting part
of it is the museum-reserve of the same name, in the past the estate
of the famous industrialist and philanthropist Savva Mamontov, who
at the end of the 19th century set up a creative workshop here,
which became a haven for the best artists of that time and the
forerunner of the Russian avant-garde.
The main advantage of
the estate, known at least since the 16th century, has always been
its picturesque location on the high bank of the Vori, surrounded by
forests that once served as excellent places for hunting and
fishing. In the 18th century, Fyodor Golovin, who lived here for
more than half a century, was engaged in the arrangement of the
estate. He planted a garden, laid out a regular park and built a
basically preserved wooden one-story house, to which a mezzanine and
an outbuilding were later attached. At the end of the 18th century,
the estate was acquired by the Molchanov family, and in 1843 it
became the property of the Sergei Aksakov family. After leaving the
service, he settled in Abramtsevo, where he wrote his first books,
enthusiastically received by both critics and the general public -
Notes on Fishing and Notes of a Rifle Hunter of the Orenburg
Province. Later, the autobiographical trilogy "Family Chronicles"
was also dictated here. Aksakov was closely acquainted with many
famous people of his time, I. S. Turgenev, F. I. Tyutchev, M. S.
Shchepkin, T. N. Granovsky and the favorite of the whole family N.
V. Gogol often stayed in his house for a long time .
In 1870,
Aksakov's daughter sold Abramtsevo to Savva Mamontov, an
industrialist, a major builder of railways and at the same time a
great connoisseur of the arts, especially painting and theater.
Mamontov arranged a theater in Moscow, but he gathered artists in
Abramtsevo. Repin, Polenov, Vasnetsov were regular guests of the
estate, the restless Vrubel found peace here, and the younger
Mikhail Nesterov and Valentin Serov in Abramtsevo, in fact, grew up,
and the latter also wrote here his famous “Girl with Peaches”, for
which her daughter posed Mammoth Vera. In addition to portraits,
landscapes near Moscow and sketches, Abramtsevo artists worked on
the design of the estate itself: Mamontov ordered them either a
bench, or a bathhouse, or a church, and each time they got an
independent, unlike anything work of art. Another important aspect
of Abramtsevo life was creative workshops - carpentry and ceramics,
which were headed by Elizaveta Mamontova (Sava's wife) and Elena
Polenova (sister of the famous painter). The activities of the
workshops were both charitable and educational: the revival of folk
crafts and the training of peasants in a useful craft, which gave
them a stable income that did not depend on the landowners.
Abramtsevo products quickly gained popularity: for example,
original, folk-style furniture was a success in the capitals and
even abroad.
The decline of the Abramtsevo Circle coincided
with the end of the 19th century: in 1899, Savva Mamontov was put on
trial and found himself bankrupt. The wide life came to an end, and
now the work of the Abramtsevo workshops (moved to Moscow and
becoming something like a small factory) was no longer charity, but
one of the few sources of income. After the revolution, the estate
was immediately nationalized, but Mamontov's youngest daughter
managed to get a safe-conduct from the People's Commissariat of
Education and became the first keeper of the local museum. In the
1930s, a recreation center for art workers was organized, and only
after the war the estate again received museum status, and
Mamontov's son Vsevolod even managed to work as a guide there.
Now Abramtsevo is one of the most popular estates near Moscow.
It does not have the monumentality and pathos inherent in
Arkhangelsk or Kuskovo, and the natural environment is well
preserved: the wild coast of Vori, half-grown forest paths, wooden
buildings and majolica decorations - a sign of the Silver Age,
introduced into mass use precisely by the Abramtsevo masters. A
couple of hours are enough to inspect the estate, there are also
various objects - related and not related to Abramtsev - in the
vicinity. The estate is picturesque all year round, so try to come
at a less than peak time: in summer and especially on weekends it
can be crowded.
The Abramtsevo estate has gained fame
since the middle of the 19th century. Its owners were the writer S.
T. Aksakov (since 1843), the industrialist S. I. Mamontov (since
1870).
The Aksakovs were visited by writers I.S.Turgenev,
M.N. Zagoskin, N.V. Gogol, S.P.Shvyrev, poet F.I.Tyutchev, actor
M.S.Schepkin, historians T.N. Granovsky and M P. Pogodin, folklorist
A. Hilferding, Slavophiles A. S. Khomyakov, I. V. Kireevsky, P. V.
Kireevsky and other famous contemporaries. Abramtsevo more than once
visited and lived for a long time in a room specially designated for
him by N.V. Gogol (1849, 1851). Here in August 1849 he read chapters
of the second part of Dead Souls.
Under Mamontov, the famous
Russian artists I.E. Repin, V.M. Vasnetsov, A.M. Vasnetsov, V.D.
Polenov, P.P. Trubetskoy, I.S.Ostroukhov, M.A. Vrubel, M. V.
Nesterov, K. A. Korovin, I. I. Levitan, A. T. Matveev (Mamontovsky
art circle), I. S. Efimov, musicians, actors, singer F. I.
Shalyapin. Carpentry and ceramic workshops were organized.
After 1917, the estate was nationalized and turned into a museum.
The first keeper was the daughter of S. I. Mamontov, Alexandra
Savvichna. On the area of 50 hectares, occupied by the
museum-reserve at present, there are architectural monuments of the
18th-19th centuries and a park. The collection of the museum
includes more than 25 thousand exhibits. The expositions are
dedicated to the life and work of the owners and famous guests of
Abramtsev.
On August 12, 1977, by a resolution of the Council
of Ministers of the RSFSR, the Abramtsevo estate-museum was
transformed into the Abramtsevo State Historical, Artistic and
Literary Museum-Reserve of the RSFSR Ministry of Culture. In 1995,
it was classified as an object of historical and cultural heritage
of federal (all-Russian) significance.
The main attraction of Abramtsevo is the
museum-reserve in the former estate. If you have time left, you can
explore the immediate surroundings, Khotkovo and Radonezh, which are
more connected with the creative activity of Sergius of Radonezh and
practically have nothing to do with the estate.
Museum-Reserve
"Abramtsevo"
Museum-reserve. ☎ +7 (496) 543-24-70, +7 (916)
278-45-42. Wed–Sun 10:00–18:00, park: daily until 20:00 (opening hours
may vary depending on the season). Single ticket: 800 rubles, only
museum exhibitions (without the main house): 500 rubles, entrance to the
park: 60 rubles. The territory of the estate is surrounded by a fence.
You can enter the park only with a ticket, which, however, is
inexpensive and gives you the opportunity to see all the manor buildings
from the outside, which you can limit yourself to if you wish.
Photography is allowed freely, only for shooting interiors you will need
a special ticket.
1 Manor house. 300 rub. The wooden manor house
has been preserved since Aksakov's times, and at its core it is
generally from the end of the 18th century. They are allowed inside only
with a guided tour, which lasts about half an hour. You will be told in
detail about the “Aksakov family and its entourage”, about the Mamontov
family and the “Mammoth Art Circle”. On the ground floor of the house,
Aksakov's blue living room and green office have been preserved, and on
the mezzanine, the room where N.V. Gogol and chapters from the second
volume of Dead Souls were read in the evenings. Among the premises of
the Mamontov family, you will be shown the rooms of Savva Mamontov and
his wife, the red living room and dining room, where the famous “Girl
with Peaches” was painted.
2 Church of the Savior Not Made by
Hands. 90 rub. The idea of building their own church was born in 1880,
when the residents of Abramtsevo were unable to attend the Easter
service due to the heavy flooding of Vori. The project was made by
Polenov, who took the Novgorod Church of the Savior on Nereditsa as a
basis, and the decor of the facades was developed by Vasnetsov.
Construction began in the spring of 1881, almost the entire family with
guests took part in it. What happened is considered the first temple in
the Russian Art Nouveau style with a subtle antique stylization. In 1891
Mamontov's son Andrei, who died at the age of 22, was buried in the
vestry of the church. Almost immediately after that, the sacristy was
rebuilt into an elegant chapel topped with a teardrop-shaped cupola.
Later, other members of the family were buried near the walls of the
church - daughter Vera (the same “Girl with Peaches”), wife Elizaveta
Grigorievna and Savva himself. The church is one of those Abramtsevo
expositions where you should buy a ticket and go inside: they show the
original interior, including the iconostasis with the works of the
already mentioned great artists, as well as the Vrubel tiled stove. All
the necessary details were, by the way, made in the Abramtsevo workshops
with their own hands.
3 Workshop. 200 rub. It was built in 1873,
8 years earlier than the church, and in some ways inspired it. Interest
in the Russian style was then instilled in the inhabitants of Abramtsevo
by Viktor Hartman, a professional architect, one of the authors of the
Novgorod monument “The Millennium of Russia”. He designed the workshop,
but he never came to its construction and did not see the finished
building, because he died suddenly in the same year. Vasnetsov and
Mamontov did not like the building, although it looks very unusual. The
carved decor seems to be trying to embody embroidered patterns, and
there are elements on the facade that are very reminiscent of towels.
Inside is a permanent exhibition of Vrubel's ceramic works.
4 Bath-house. 80 rub. Chronologically, this is the second (after
Hartmann's workshop) manor building that appeared in Abramtsevo through
the efforts of eminent guests. Made in 1877-78. designed by Ivan Ropet,
another lover of the pseudo-Russian architectural style (whose sketch of
a country house later formed the basis of the notorious Forest Tower in
Astashovo), and was conceived as a bathhouse, but has an expressive
silhouette with an unusually high four-pitched roof, for which it
received the second name "teremok" . If the workshop is an expressively
folk building, then it is more correct to call the bathhouse fabulous.
For some time it was used for its intended purpose, but was soon
converted into a guest wing. Now it exhibits the products of the
Abramtsevo carpentry workshop - furniture and household items made
according to the sketches of E.D. Polenova and other artists.
5 Kitchen. 70 rub. It was built in 1870 instead of the old kitchen of
the Aksakovs and served as a dwelling during the renovation of the manor
house. Later it began to be used for its intended purpose and until the
1930s it was connected to the manor house by a covered passage. Now they
show a collection of decorative items of peasant life, collected by the
members of the Abramtsevo circle on trips around the country and served
as a source of inspiration for them.
6 "Hut on chicken legs". In
fact, this is just a gazebo, built in 1883 according to the project of
Vasnetsov. Despite the name, she does not have chicken legs, but instead
she stands surrounded by gloomy fir trees, creating an eerie atmosphere
laid down by a witch's dwelling. The pavilion is decorated with images
of an owl and a bat, which later became favorite decorative elements of
Russian Art Nouveau.
7 Polenovskaya dacha. 200 rub. A completely
traditional wooden one-story house was erected in 1882 by a local artel
of carpenters for the married couple of artists Vasily Polenov and
Natalya Yakunchikova, who met in Abramtsevo and got married in the newly
built manor church (according to legend, they got together while
decorating it). The interior of the house is just as simple and
uncomplicated, with plank floors and walls; the oven is lined with tiles
imitating brickwork - in general, there is still no expressive style
that distinguishes Polenov's own estate, built in the Tula region a few
years later, although Abramtsevo played a significant role in its idea,
organization and design. Now Polenovskaya dacha is used for small
thematic exhibitions.6 "Hut on chicken legs". In fact, this is just a
gazebo, built in 1883 according to the project of Vasnetsov. Despite the
name, she does not have chicken legs, but instead she stands surrounded
by gloomy fir trees, creating an eerie atmosphere laid down by a witch's
dwelling. The pavilion is decorated with images of an owl and a bat,
which later became favorite decorative elements of Russian Art Nouveau.
7 Polenovskaya dacha. 200 rub. A completely traditional wooden
one-story house was erected in 1882 by a local artel of carpenters for
the married couple of artists Vasily Polenov and Natalya Yakunchikova,
who met in Abramtsevo and got married in the newly built manor church
(according to legend, they got together while decorating it). The
interior of the house is just as simple and uncomplicated, with plank
floors and walls; the oven is lined with tiles imitating brickwork - in
general, there is still no expressive style that distinguishes Polenov's
own estate, built in the Tula region a few years later, although
Abramtsevo played a significant role in its idea, organization and
design. Now Polenovskaya dacha is used for small thematic exhibitions.
8 Vrubel's bench. Behind the main house, just to the south of the
kitchen, there is another attraction of the estate - a bench created by
Vrubel at the beginning of the 20th century. It has a very simple shape,
but is decorated with handmade tiles, which gives it an unusual look.
Unfortunately, the bench is hidden behind glass, so it is impossible to
sit on it.
9 Exposition "Russian Artists of the 20th century in
Abramtsevo". 200 rub. The only stone building of the estate stands out
from the general row, since it appeared already during the years of
Soviet power and is decorated in the usual pseudo-classical style for
its time. Inside, there are works by artists of the 20th century who
lived in the Artists' Village, created not far from the estate in the
1930s.
10 Park with ponds. The estate is surrounded by a large park
- in places man-made, in places wild. In the forest areas, trees of a
very respectable age come across, and right in front of the manor house,
one of the owners planted an oak tree, which has long celebrated its
bicentennial anniversary. To the north of the house, along the path, a
linden "Gogol alley" was planted, apparently having something to do with
the writer. The unusual Lower Pond is fenced off almost in the channel
of the Vori River and is surrounded by a system of wooden bridges. The
upper pond is quite small and quite traditional. The park is divided
into two parts: a more regular southern one in the area of the manor
house (here you can also go down to Vora and walk along the coast) and a
completely wild northern one, where nettles grow in human height, and it
is difficult to approach the shore. Few people come to this part of the
park, a walk is more like a hike in the forest - in summer you can even
pick mushrooms and berries.
Khotkovo is a large and unpleasant city 3 km north of
Abramtsevo. It grew up around the monastery of the same name and the
railway station, an urban status since 1949. Half a century before that,
numerous handicraft industries existed in Khotkovo, but only one of them
survived - the artistic craft of woodcarving (Abramtsevo-Kudrinskaya
carving), the foundations of which were laid by artists who came to
Abramtsevo. The only attraction of the city is the monastery, everything
else was built after the war and is decidedly uninteresting. The people
associate the name Khotkovo with a story about a tsar traveling to the
Trinity-Sergius Lavra, who was ambushed by local robbers on the road,
who were not at all embarrassed by the noble status of their victim and
said in response: “Give us At least someone.”
Pokrovsky Khotkov
Monastery (500 m south of the railway station Khotkovo). The monastery
was first mentioned in 1308, and apparently founded even earlier. At
that time, it had a rather strange, mixed structure: both men and women
could be its monks. In the 1330s. the parents of Sergius of Radonezh
were tonsured here, and Sergius himself, at that time still a youth
Bartholomew, seemed to have lived in the monastery for some time before
starting to create his own. Subsequently, the Khotkov Monastery became a
"branch" of the Trinity-Sergius, meeting pilgrims arriving from Moscow.
The monastic buildings that have survived to this day are much younger
than the complex of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and their architectural
merits are doubtful. The complex is dominated by the dark red Cathedral
of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (1900-04) in neo-Byzantine style. It is
adjacent to the Intercession Cathedral (1812-16) - an ordinary monument
of classicism. The oldest building of the monastery is the gate church
of the Nativity of John the Baptist (1791) without obvious signs of any
style. It decorates the north gate. The southern gate church (St.
Mitrofan of Voronezh) with its architecture and date of construction
(1833) resembles the Cathedral of the Intercession.
Department of
art crafts of the museum-reserve "Abramtsevo", Khotkovo, st.
Cooperative, 23 (opposite the monastery). 10:00–18:00 except Mon and
Tue. For free. The museum displays objects of decorative and applied
art, including Abramtsevo-Kudrinsk carving. They don’t charge money for
entry, but visitors note a funny collision with photography, for which
you need to buy a separate permit, which can only be done in Abramtsevo
itself.
House of the raccoon, Spring st. 15. ☎ +7 (916)
108-47-50, +7 (963) 993-28-10. A private cottage turned into a raccoon
kennel. The owners give excursions and let them play with the animals,
although they warn about their unpredictable hooligan nature. By
appointment only.
Church of the Akhtyrskaya Icon of the Mother of
God , vil. Akhtyrka (5 km from the station, west of the city). A
luxurious stone church in the style of classicism (1821-25) is all that
remains of the Akhtyrka estate, which belonged to the princes Trubetskoy
in the 19th century. Before the revolution, there was a whole complex of
empire-style buildings: luxurious in their architecture, and besides,
they were wooden - not the most common case in Russia. In those years,
Akhtyrka was often visited by Abramtsevo artists: Vasnetsov painted
"Alyonushka" here, and the estate itself and the church are found on the
canvases of Kandinsky. Unfortunately, in the 1920s the estate burned to
the ground, and now only a lone stone obelisk, standing not far from the
church, reminds of it.
The tiny village of Radonezh in ancient times was
almost a city. It is named after the Novgorodian Radoneg and has
existed, presumably, since the 12th century. In the 1330s. the parents
of Sergius of Radonezh moved here (at that time he was neither Sergius
nor Radonezh), and the future hegumen himself - at that time only the
youth Bartholomew - received his spiritual "surname" from the name of
the village, and not vice versa. Until the 16th century, inclusive,
Radonezh remained a large village or even a city on the Yaroslavl
highway, but lost its significance after the destruction of the Time of
Troubles. What remained on the site of the village became known as the
Radonezh town. Then the name was reduced to a simple Gorodok, and only
in 1989 the historical name of Radonezh was returned to the village.
There is nothing to see here, in general. Now Radonezh attracts mainly
pilgrims, although nothing connected with Sergius of Radonezh has been
preserved in the village either.
Monument to Sergius of Radonezh.
Monument by sculptor V.M. Klykov and architect R.I. Semerzhiev inspired
by the legend of the appearance of the old man to the lad Bartholomew.
This plot, used by Vasnetsov, is found in the life of Sergius of
Radonezh: after the miraculous appearance of the elder, the lad
Bartholomew mastered the letter and converted to faith. However, looking
at the three-meter concrete monument, you can hardly guess what exactly
it symbolizes.
Church of the Transfiguration. An ordinary church in
the style of classicism was built in 1834-40. It stands on an elevation
left from the ramparts of the ancient city.
Abramtsevo is an artistic community that developed in
the mid-1870s around S. I. Mamontov, an industrialist, a well-known
philanthropist, and an artistically gifted person. Therefore, the circle
is often called Mammoth. For a quarter of a century, Mamontov's
Abramtsevo estate near Moscow turned out to be a major center of Russian
culture, a place where artists sometimes came for a whole summer,
sometimes for a shorter period - from already famous to very young ones.
I. E. Repin, V. M. Vasnetsov, Ap. M. Vasnetsov, V. A. Serov, M. A.
Vrubel, V. D. Polenov, E. D. Polenova.
Here they drew a lot,
diligently engaged in painting, discovering the beauty of Central
Russian nature and the charm of spiritually close people, staged home
performances, carried out interesting architectural designs, worked in
specially arranged handicraft workshops.
Abramtsev's artistic
life is, from a certain point of view, the history of the formation of
the "neo-Russian style", which turned out to be an essential facet of
modernity in Russia. The Ambramtsevo circle never had its own charter,
nor any pre-formulated program. The beauty of utility and the utility of
beauty - these two interrelated concepts could conditionally define the
"home" aesthetics that took shape in the spiritual atmosphere of the
estate.
With their desire to defend the vital connection between
beauty and usefulness, the mammoth circle shared the widespread beliefs
of the era. At that time, they spoke and wrote about it most often just
in that artistic environment where the principles of modernity were
formed. The peculiarity of the creative orientation of the Mammoth
circle was that the combination of usefulness and beauty seemed to the
members of the community not only a serious social duty of the artistic
intelligentsia, but also a living poetic tradition, an organic property
of peasant art, embodying important features of the folk ideal.
Following their social ideas and creative interests, the members of the
Abramtsevo circle organized two workshops: a carpentry workshop (1885)
and a ceramic workshop (1890). In both cases, the matter concerned
attempts to revive artistic handicrafts, having before our eyes the
products of folk art collected in the villages. Members of the mammoth
colony did not look at these products of peasant labor as "samples" to
be copied. The intentions were to return to arts and crafts its poetic
essence and, along with it, its main vital function - to decorate the
everyday life of a person. Artists whose stylistic searches went in this
direction comprehended the poetics and style of folk art in different
ways, and, say, the ceramics created by Vrubel in the Abramtsevo
workshop responded to completely different aspects of the folklore
artistic tradition than carved doors, buffet shelves, performed by E.
Polenova and her colleagues in the carpentry workshop. Moreover, here we
can talk about various modifications of the "neo-Russian style" - from
the creative recreation of the traditional pictorial vocabulary and
ornamental forms of peasant household items to their serious
transformation into a new plastic system. Nevertheless, one can only
speak about the Abramtsevo "style" as an independent phenomenon of
Russian art - it was constantly developing, acquiring new properties and
qualities.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such large
centers of folk art were created not only in Abramtsevo near Moscow, but
also, for example, in the Smolensk estate of the princes Tenishev
Talashkino.
How to get there
By train
Platform Abramtsevo. From
Yaroslavsky railway station in the direction of Sergiev Posad or
Alexandrov to the platform "Abramtsevo", then 15-20 minutes on foot
along the forest path, starting from the railway platform directly
under the red triangular roof. The path is shown on the museum
website. There is a slightly longer walking route - on a dirt road,
and then on a highway.
By car
On the Yaroslavl highway
before the turn to Leshkovo and Radonezh, then turn left in Khotkovo
and another 5 km follow the signs for Abramtsevo.
Museum shop. Located in the former human - one-story wooden building to the right of the main house. Here you can buy books about Abramtsev and Russian artists, the most famous works of S.T. Aksakov, reproductions of paintings by artists of the Abramtsevo circle and all kinds of souvenirs: from magnetic bookmarks to decorative plates. It also sells products of famous porcelain factories and the Abramtsevo Art and Industry College. See the museum's website for more details.
Abramtsevo is easily accessible by train from Moscow or Sergiev
Posad. You may need a hotel if you decide to spend a few days away
from the city.
Park-hotel "Abramtsevo", der. Bugs. ☎ +7 (925)
082-61-61, +7 (925) 082-62-62. A good country hotel, which, however,
has nothing to do with either the Abramtsevo estate or the village
of the same name - they are 3 km on foot through summer cottages or
almost 7 km along the road. There is a swimming pool, billiards and
healing massage.
Inside the estate (a building with an exhibition of 20th century
paintings) there is a cafeteria where they sell tea, coffee and
pies. The tables are right on the street, where you can stay with
your supplies, having a picnic "visiting Savva Mamontov."
1
Cafe "Abramtsevo" (opposite the entrance to the estate). Mon–Fri
12:00–20:00, Sat 10:00–22:00, Sun 10:00–20:00. Hot: from 400 rubles.
Cozy cottage interior, but the menu seems to have been copied from
an ordinary dining room, and there are complaints about the service
- especially visitors complain about the slow cooking.
2 Prichal
Restaurant, Khotkovo, Sovetskaya st. 37 (1.7 km from the entrance to
the estate). 11:00–22:00, Fri and Sat: until 24:00. Hot: from 400
rubles. Located in a strange place - somewhere on the outskirts of
Khotkovo, next to the railway and at the same time far from any
station - the restaurant looks like a roadside one, although in fact
it offers an extensive menu, including a business lunch.
From Abramtsevo, a stone's throw to Sergiev Posad, where the Trinity-Sergius Lavra is located. In the direction of Moscow, it is worth visiting Pushkino with a curious neo-Russian temple, and even in front of Pushkino, that is, closer to Abramtsevo, there is the village of Sofrino with a historic railway station and a baroque church of the late 17th century.