Description of the attraction
The Zapolye estate is located in the Volodarskoye village of the Luga district of the Leningrad region. It is a cultural heritage site.
From the middle of the 18th century, the village of Zapolye was owned by the second lieutenant's wife Praskovya Matveevna Sontseva and State Councilor Yakov Ivanovich Sukin. The estate was built by Nikofor Lvovich Palibin, who bought out part of Sontseva, and in 1804 Yakov Stepanovich Mirkovich became the owner of both parts, who a year earlier acquired the part that belonged to the Sukins. From that time until 1883, the estate became a family estate for the Mirkovichi. They owned it for 80 years and turned it into a model by creating a family nest.
In 1883, the Zapolye estate was acquired by Peter Alexandrovich Bilderling. The von Bilderling family tree dates back to the 16th century, or rather to 1526, to the Courland noble family from the city of Mitava. They served in our country in the military field. Pyotr Alexandrovich was born in 1841 into a poor baronial family of Russified Baltic Germans - immigrants from Courland. He was an outstanding specialist in artillery weapons, held the position of director of the Izhevsk Arms Plant, which was significantly, but not without serious difficulties, modernized. Then he led a siege battery in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, where he received a severe concussion.
After retiring with the rank of major general, he took up business, became a member of the Nobel oil partnership - the Branobel society and was one of the first shareholders. His marriage to Sofya Vladimirovna Vestman in 1860 and the birth of children prompted him to think about purchasing the estate. Having moved to Zapolye, he organized agriculture and became a great specialist in this field.
By 1895, Bilderling's economy had become exemplary. Having conducted experiments with many cultures, Petr Aleksandrovich introduced rational field cultivation, meadow cultivation and grass cultivation, started pedigree cattle, created a dairy with a centrifuge, an oil mill, built a stud farm, revived distilling, arranged a water pumping station, a sawmill and a steam mill, created a nursery for fruit trees, renewed an ore plant. In 1889, on the shores of Lake Vrevo, he built an agricultural station to monitor soil moisture, water temperature in the lake, dew, using instruments he created.
Peter Alexandrovich Bilderling acted as an enlightened agricultural worker, combining interest and love for science with serious practical work. Bilderling became the successor of Markovich's work, contributed to the development and expansion of the economy in accordance with the new opportunities that appeared at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Serf economy was transferred by him to capitalist rails.
At present, the state farm village of Volodarskoye is located on the territory of the estate. The manor house is in good condition, even a fountain at the end of the entrance alley has been preserved, but it is not functioning. The park facade looks worse, the stairs to the lake are partially destroyed and completely overgrown, but the springs are functioning. Park pavilions, outbuildings, services are in varying degrees of abandonment, but some are used for their intended purpose, for example, as pigsties.
Description added:
Stepanova Galina 2016-19-09
Now there is a hotel there, but all other buildings are being destroyed.
