Description of the attraction
In the museum-estate overlooking Lake Pleshcheyevo, near the village of Veskovo, a unique historical relic is preserved - the boat of Peter I. In the 19th century, several amusement pavilions in the Empire style were built in the estate - they also now house museum expositions dedicated to the time of Peter the Great.
Amusing flotilla of Peter I
Peter I from early youth was obsessed with "Mars fun". The very first amusing regiment was created for little Peter by his father Alexei Mikhailovich … A small fortress was built in the village of Preobrazhenskoye - Pressburg, where the young man could, playing, learn military affairs. With age, the number of troops increased, the fun became more serious: Peter studied fortification, artillery, tactics and strategy, although it looked like teenage fun. At the age of 14-15, he also began to study maritime affairs under the guidance of a Dutchman. Karsten Brandt.
In the spring of 1688 in the boyar's barn Nikita Romanov the young king found his father's old English boat. It was repaired, re-equipped and at first they sailed on it along the Yauza, and then transferred to Izmailovo, where there was a suitable pond. In the summer of the same year, Peter supposedly went on a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and he himself drove into the nearby Pereslavl. He saw Pleshcheyevo lake, and it seemed to him suitable for the construction of a real shipyard.
In the same year, construction began, and in the summer of 1689 there was already dockyard … Five ships were built here: three light yachts and two frigates. The first frigate Mars, equipped with 30 cannons, left the shipyard in 1692. Previously, all ships from the Yauza and Prosyanny pond to Izmailovo were transferred here. Peter himself studied carpentry and worked as an ax.
In the same 1692, on Lake Pleshcheevoe the first parade of the Russian fleet, in the presence of all the city clergy, with the blessing of water. By this time, on a high hill outside the village of Ves'kovo, a whole "amusing courtyard" had been built - a small wooden palace with five rooms, outbuildings and a house of the Ascension Church. The village was bought into the treasury, and the population of Rybnaya Sloboda was entrusted with supervision of all farms.
But a year later, Peter stopped coming here. Lake Pleshcheyevo became too small for him - the king was looking for an outlet to the sea. The next shipyard, no longer "funny", but a real one, was founded in Arkhangelsk, then they began to build ships in Voronezh and the Don, and in 1702 the Baltic Fleet appeared.
Museum history
Peter returned to Pereslavl in 1722. He saw dilapidated buildings, rotting ships and commanded keep them for memory and edification to posterity … The ships were placed under a canopy, and then there was a fire, and their remains were sent to the barn. The wooden palace was dismantled at the end of the 18th century, and the remains of utensils and furniture were piled into the same barn. It was here that all this was discovered in 1802 by Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov, the then governor of Vladimir.
The Pereslavl Museum is proud that it "The oldest provincial museum in Russia". It's true - it officially appeared in 1803. Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov was one of the most enlightened nobles of his time, a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, a poet, translator and memoirist. In Vladimir, during his governorship, he opened a gymnasium and a theater, and in Pereslavl he set up a museum in order to preserve the memory of Peter the Great.
Of all the ships, only one was preserved intact - small boat "Fortune" … A special "Botny House" was built for him, and "Fortuna" was placed there. The inscription above the entrance read: "Zealous Peter the Great Pereslavl". All other surviving things were inventoried and placed on the shelves next to each other.
In the middle of the 19th century, already Emperor Nicholas I begins to take care of the memory of the past in the provinces. In many memorable places, special premises are being built - gatehouses, in which permanent caretakers were supposed to live. Such a gatehouse was built, for example, at Borodino, and in 1842 it was built here. Elderly sailors, the first museum keepers and guides, lived in it.
And in 1853, on the initiative of the Grand Dukes Mikhail and Nicholas, they opened here monument to Peter I … The author of the monument was the architect P. Campioni, and in the estate itself several more buildings were erected: Arc de Triomphe, Rotunda and White Palace … The White Palace and the Rotunda were specially built by the Pereslavl nobility for solemn dinners, balls and other events - exactly on the spot where the wooden palace of the emperor himself once stood. In memory of Peter, balls were held here, which were called "Pereslavl assemblies".
In Soviet times, the White Palace was associated with the writer Mikhail Prishvin … The director of the local history museum invited the writer here to head the children's biological station, and he lived here in 1925. It is about these places that his "Nature Calendar" is written. During the war, the White Palace served as a haven for two orphanages at once. Prishvin lived nearby, in Usolye, went to visit these children on foot - and wrote about this a cycle of stories "Stories about Leningrad Children".
After the revolution, the museum escaped looting and continued to be a museum. Its exposition has changed several times, the current one dates back to 1984.
Museum exposition
Now the museum is a whole tourist complex of several buildings and expositions … It is located on a hill and there is a rather steep staircase - this should be borne in mind when visiting with children and the elderly. But from above there is a magnificent view of the lake and its surroundings.
The most important object is Botny house, in which the boat "Fortuna" is still carefully preserved and a bust of Peter I by F. Rastrelli is installed. But, besides this, several more interesting museum objects are arranged in the pavilions.
The exposition in the White Palace was opened here in 2012 - she says about the history of the estate and about Peter I himself … Its first hall is the original remains of the Pleshcheev shipbuilding: carved ship decorations, equipment, tools and drawings. The second hall is the restored "room of Peter I" with original furniture and objects from the early 18th century, portraits of Peter's parents and his first wife. The third room tells about the history of the museum and the role of the Vladimir nobility of the 19th century in preserving the Petrine heritage.
In the Rotunda, the original Empire interiors of the XIX century: paintings, furniture, etc. Here are collected paintings, graphics and sculptures dedicated to Peter I and his associates.
In the building of the gatehouse of 1842, there is a funny and interesting exhibition called "Cool Place" … Lake Pleshcheyevo was famous for its fish, Rybnaya Sloboda was located here, everyone was engaged in fishing: suppliers of the sovereign's court, monks, and just amateurs. The exhibition tells about the history of the city's fisheries.
Another permanent exhibition in this museum is exhibition of ship models by S. Lushkin … He creates models of historical Russian ships of the 17th-18th centuries. according to drawings and drawings from those tree species from which the ships were built.
In addition, on the territory itself there is a small exhibition of military equipment of the period of the Great Patriotic War: torpedoes, anti-aircraft guns, missile models, etc., a model of a ship on which you can take pictures, and a huge boulder - the closest relative of the famous Pereslavl blue stone.
On a note
- Location: Yaroslavl region, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Veskovo village, estate of Peter I.
- How to get there: by regular bus from Moscow from VDNKh and Shchukinskaya stations. Further from the bus station by bus number 1.
- Official website:
- Working hours: from May to September from 10:00 to 18:00, from October to April from 10:00 to 17:00, Monday is a day off.
- Ticket price: entrance to the estate - 50 rubles. A single ticket for all expositions: adult - 200 rubles, reduced price - 100 rubles.
