Blonje Garden in Smolensk

Blonje Garden in Smolensk

In Smolensk, in the very center of the city, opposite the dramatic theater, the Philharmonic building (the former building of the Noble Assembly), the art gallery (the former building of the Alexander real school), the administration building and the hotel "Central" stretches an unusually beautiful old park - the garden of Blognier.

This favorite place of rest of Smolensk attracts tourists-guests of Smolensk - there are very interesting sights: the monument to Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (the second name of the park is the garden named after M. I. Glinka) and the famous "Smolensk deer" and lions.

There are two versions of the origin of the name "Garden Blognier". According to one of them, this is a kind of distorted French word, and according to the currently generally accepted word “blonnier” has Russian origin and means: suburb, open space, the outskirts of the city. This interpretation is given by the Dahl dictionary. In ancient times, the area where the Blognier Garden is now located was simply a space in front of the walls of the Smolensk fortress: during defense it was used to shoot at the enemy from fortified ramparts, and in peacetime peasants grazed here cattle that remained in the city in case of a siege. In the 18th century, on the orders of Catherine, the Second Smolensk Governor Nikolai Vasilyevich Repnin equipped a parade ground on this site for training and training soldiers. And in the nineteenth century, in 1830, it was converted into a garden by order of Emperor Nicholas I - this year is considered the official year of the foundation of the Blognier Garden. The work took place under the leadership of the Governor Nikolai Ivanovich Khmelnitsky, who took a personal part in planting trees, in addition, attracted all his subordinates to the improvement of the garden, and among local ladies it was considered prestigious to have their flower bed there. Many trees – lime trees, poplars, maples, ash – have survived from 1830 to the present day.

In 1885, in the city garden of Blonje, the grand opening of the monument to the composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, a native of the Smolensk province, which was installed on donations - the money was collected publicly, which is noted in the inscription on the pedestal: "Glinka". Russia. 1885. The monument is surrounded by an openwork grille in the form of a musical column, on which excerpts from the works of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka are read. The monument was created for two years and was inaugurated on May 20, 1885, on the composer’s birthday. The opening was attended by many eminent and high-ranking guests, including Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Mili Alekseevich Balakirev. The author of the monument - Professor von Bock, according to some reports - a distant relative of the German field marshal von Bock, which allowed the bronze monument to survive the occupation of 1941-1943 - the monument was not destroyed and practically not damaged.

The second interesting place in the Blognier garden is the platform with sculptures of a bronze deer and two bronze lions installed on it, which are trophies of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The sculptures were taken in 1945 from Kaliningrad (then Koenigsberg) from the hunting castle of Hermann Goering. The origin of the deer sculpture has a very interesting history: according to legend, it was commissioned in 1890, when Emperor William II – a passionate hunter – first visited the Rominten hunting grounds and killed several deer. Near the Smolensk deer, everyone loves to walk and take pictures, and rubbing its horn “for good luck” is considered a good omen!

Of course, the old Blognier Garden is a very modern park, characterized by well-groomed, clean, beautiful and aristocratic! In 2009, forged openwork grilles were installed, beautiful forged arches are found at the four entrances to the Blognier Garden. There is also a very nice cafe "Russian Dvor", where you can eat tasty and inexpensively in a decorated Russian-style hall, where pleasant music plays, and on the site adjacent to the "Russian Dvor" in summer and winter there are amusing sculpture figurines, where adults and children love to be photographed! And before the new year, one of the most stylish trees of the city is decorated here.

There are also modern art objects: the owner of the Blonieva garden and a steampunk bench.

Blooms are broken everywhere, benches are installed, evening lighting looks very beautiful with stylized “old” lanterns and garlands.

In the center of the garden there is a large fountain, near which it is so pleasant to relax and you can toss a coin - here you will definitely want to return!