Description of the attraction
The House of Peter I, or as it is also called "Petrovsky House", is an architectural monument of the 17th century, as well as a branch of the Vologda Museum-Reserve. Among the huge number of historical monuments revered by the Vologda residents, the house of Peter I occupies an honorable place, which is why few of the residents of Vologda have not been within the walls of this hospitable building. The house is located on the embankment of the city and attracts its visitors with an amazingly calm and peaceful view of the house and the square.
The House-Museum of Peter the Great is a truly unique phenomenon, which is considered the very first museum in the Vologda region. In the spring of May 30, 1872, the Vologda zemstvo decided to buy the house from the famous merchant Vitushechnikov in honor of the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of Peter I. In 1885, thirteen years later, after serious restoration work, the long-awaited opening of the museum for visitors took place.
Peter the Great lived in the present house-museum five times during his visit to the city of Vologda. He first visited here in 1692; the second visit to Vologda took place in July 1693; the great king visited the city for the third time in May 1694; the fourth visit took place on 15 May 1702; Peter the Great's last visit to Vologda took place in March 1724.
The museum building is stone, one-story, and its interior features vaulted ceilings and Dutch stoves with tiles from the 17th century. The museum house fits perfectly into one of the three types of buildings by Domenico Trezzini, which were designed for the first city of St. Petersburg, as a house for the lower classes.
As for the history of how exactly this house fell into the hands of the great tsar, it can be mentioned that in 1724 the emperor, together with his wife Ekaterina Alekseevna, returned from the Olonets marcial waters to Moscow. The long journey tired the imperial family, so the tsar decided to make a short stop in the city of Vologda. For two days the emperor and his wife lived in the house of the widow of the Dutch merchant Goutman, which now bears the name of Peter's house.
Dear art critic G. K. Lukomsky included the building of the Petrovsky House among the oldest secular buildings in the city of Vologda. It is known that the house previously belonged to the widow of Goutman, and also served as a temporary visit to Peter the Great. The house was located not far from the church of Fyodor Stratilat, which at one time was under the jurisdiction of the Zemskaya Provincial Council.
It is also known that for a long time the historic house was in complete desolation, but on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great in the 70s, the house was acquired by the nobility, the zemstvo and the city. As soon as all the preparatory work was completed in 1875, in the presence of Prince Vladimir Alexandrovich, it was opened and consecrated.
At that time, in the existing census book of the city of Vologda, a detailed description of the house-museum of Peter I was recorded. At the same time, it was mentioned that there were three veins, under which the cellar was located, and in the middle of the courtyard there were four low-lying rooms, two canopies, under which the cellar was located. On the right side of the gate there are three light rooms, and on the left side of the gate there is a hut with a passage. By chance, a stone board has been preserved on the main facade of the building to this day, which was tightly embedded in the wall, and depicted the coat of arms. On the coat of arms was represented a hand holding an ax; at the bottom of the coat of arms there is an inscription 1704 on the ribbon.
For the time when the construction of the building took place, namely at the beginning of the 18th century, the future house-museum of Peter the Great was not at all typical. Judging by the platbands, which have been well preserved from that time, as well as wooden pediments and a slightly modified cornice, we can conclude that this structure was made in a typical Russian style. This kind of sample does not at all fit the era of Peter the Great's Baroque, although the building is very old, especially for the interior decoration of the house, because the spacious domed vault of the largest room and overlapping strips of iron ties are not very typical for this period of time.
