Kharitonovsky Park (Yekaterinburg): photos and reviews

Ekaterinburg today is considered one of the most beautiful and comfortable cities in Russia. There is no shortage of sights, as each epoch has made the capital of the Urals its architectural gifts. Among them, a special place is occupied by the Kharitonovsky Park, which was destroyed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Ekaterinburg is replete with green areas, but the Ascension Hill, where the recreation zone, beloved by many townspeople, is a place very special and enveloped in the aura of many romantic legends.

History of the park's foundation

In 1794, one of the richest merchants of the Urals region Lev Ivanovich Rastorguev purchased a plot of land on which the development of the estate with a large manor house began. A quarter of a century later, his real estate went to his son-in-law, the gold miner, who decided to break the English-style landscaped park next to the palace. Its arrangement was started in three years, and soon a small artificial lake was dug in the estate and the island was poured.

The Palace and its history

Rastorguevsky manor house was designed by the Italian architect Tommaso Adamini in classical style. Initially, the complex consisted of a detached palace, two outbuildings, one with a belvedere, and a greenhouse. After the estate was taken over by Kharitonov, the palace was rebuilt. In particular, the wings were connected to the house by one-story passages and decorated the facades of the buildings with beautiful stucco molding. However, the new owner lived in the palace only until 1836 - then the imperial authorities heard rumors that he had organized a prison in the dungeon of the palace, where he kept imprisoned unruly workers from his factories. Such arbitrariness caused the wrath of Nicholas I, who exiled him with his family to Kexholm. Deserted buildings of the estate began to surrender to apartments, and after the revolution in the main building housed the Ural-Siberian Communist University. In the mid-1930s, the Palace and the park thoroughly restored and painted in the building of the city palace of pioneers and schoolchildren. Today, buildings once again require major repairs, cosmetic restoration of the main facade, which was made to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit six years ago, was clearly not enough.

The cave ruins

Kharitonovsky Park (Yekaterinburg) in its heyday struck numerous guests of the estate with miracles, which the hosts gladly showed them during the festive parties held on a large scale. Among them the most famous was the grotto, from which only a brick foundation has survived to this day. According to the notes of his contemporaries, a wooden gazebo was built over it , outwardly reminiscent of Chinese temples, and in the cellar a wine cellar was built and ice cream was prepared. When the hosts brought guests, on a special elevator from the grotto rose a tray with a cold delicacy, which led them to be amazed.

Rotunda

Although today the symbol of the park and one of the most famous architectural objects of Ekaterinburg is the famous rotunda, it has nothing to do with Kharitonov-Rastorguev. The fact that it was built only in 1935 and arranged a fountain next to it, which has not worked for many decades. In addition to this rotunda of the Soviet period, until 1990 there was one more in the park - an old one, which was burnt during a fire.

Legends

As the old-timers say, Kharitonovsky Park - with secrets. Even before the revolution, rumors were circulating in Yekaterinburg that the first founder of the estate, the merchant Lev Rastorguev, began to suffer as a persecution mania for old age . Being an old believer, he had been afraid of persecution all his life, therefore he ordered to dig under his palace an underground passage leading to an artificial lake. As it turned out, people were judging not in vain. The fact is that in 1924 the palace collapsed and a long tunnel opened before the astonished passers-by. Immediately there was a new legend, according to which Kharitonovsky Park (Ekaterinburg) is located above the galleries, in which the Rastorguevs mined gold. It is unlikely that it is true, as, for example, the story of the drowning daughter of the owners of the estate, which allegedly did this because of an unhappy love for the serf. It is known that the girl got married, followed her husband in exile and lived a long life.

But the story of the deceived prisoner, whom the merchant bought out from the Tobolsk prison and forced to develop a draft of underground tunnels, most likely occurred in reality. Also, popular rumor has preserved to this day the legend of the gypsy Steshe, who, being the mistress of a "devout" merchant who arranged an underground chapel under the building, once suspected him of treason and threw the master out of the window. By the way, famous Russian writers also wrote about the Kharitonov-Rastroguevs palace. For example, Bazhov in his notes mentions that the wedding of one of the merchants' daughters lasted almost a year, during which all Yekaterinburg residents who came to congratulate the young people were treated to Rastorguev's money for free. The story of the Kharitonovs, more precisely about their gold, which became the talk of the town, is also found in AN Tolstoy, and Mamin-Sibiryak described the estate in his novel "Privalovskie Millions."

Birds of Yekaterinburg (Kharitonovsky Park)

In a modern big city wild animals and birds have a hard time. However, the feathery of Ekaterinburg is very fortunate. After all, on an artificial island in Kharitonovsky Park, they can safely nest their nests, without fear that they will be ruined. In particular, there live a lot of ducks, who are fond of feeding visitors.

Restoration of Kharitonovsky Park

By the early 1990s, the fire destroyed the old rotunda, which was on top of the Ascension Hill. And after a few years it became clear that soon there would be nothing left of the park. This situation caused concern and the authorities of Yekaterinburg, who in 2005 ordered a reconstruction project of the Ascension Hill. Unfortunately, it was frozen, since the park was transferred from municipal to federal property. However, in 2011, volunteers took up the job, who not only colored the rotunda, but also set up benches along the shore of the lake, and later built a playground on the territory. This project was called "Love Park", and for its implementation, the money was collected, as they say, by the whole world. In addition, one of the major advertising agencies decided to use the rotunda of the Ascension Hill as a place for photo shoots and restored it to their own funds, making an excellent gift to the townspeople. It remains to be hoped that the Kharitonovsky Garden (Yekaterinburg) will finally be in the focus of attention of the federal authorities and the project of its restoration will be successfully implemented in the very near future.

Reviews of tourists and city dwellers

Those who have already visited Kharitonovskiy Park (Yekaterinburg) say that this is the best place in the city to wander in silence and forget that you are in the center of a 1.5 million city. In addition, they all unanimously recommend taking a camera with them on a tour, as the Kharitonovsky Park (Yekaterinburg) in the winter or autumn is an absolutely incredible sight that should be remembered for memory. That there is only a white rotunda, surrounded by limes, which more than two hundred years, reflected in the waters of an artificial lake.

During the trip to the capital of the Urals, be sure to visit the Kharitonovsky park-garden (Voznesenskaya Hill) - a place that remembers sentimental young ladies suffering from hopeless love, and an old-timer who built a palace for himself, envied by St. Petersburg noblemen. Perhaps, it is you who will be able to unravel his many secrets, hidden behind the entrances to underground tunnels entrenched in the 1930s.