Golitsyn-Panina Palace

The Palace "Gaspra" (Golitsyn Palace, Countess Panina's Palace) is a palace ensemble on the territory of the village of Gaspra, in the Crimea. It is used as a sanatorium "Yasnaya Polyana". The first of the Russian nobility settled in the Crimea, in the estate of Koreiz, Princess Anna Sergeevna Golitsina, known for her mystical searches. Her namesake, Prince Alexander Nikolayevich Golitsyn (1773-1844), who had a great influence on Emperor Alexander I, supported her in every possible way.

At the request of her associate, Anna Sergeevna in 1831-36 looked after the construction of a palace for him, where he expected to retire after retiring. In honor of the owner, the estate was named Alexandria, or Castel (from the English castle - "castle"). The model for the lord’s house was the Alupkin Palace, built almost simultaneously by the same architect, William Gunt. Golitsyn Palace can serve as an example of architectural tastes of the Romantic era, fascinated by the European Middle Ages and especially Gothic. Like Alupkinsky, the palace in Gaspra is made of local gray limestone. It is distinguished by pointed windows and massive three-tiered octagonal side towers, with a total area of 144 square meters. meters and a height of 20 yards, topped with teeth and entwined with ivy. The park was designed by gardener Ludwig Kremer. In 1843, Prince Golitsyn finally retired from public service and came to live out his life in Gaspra, where a year later he was struck by an apoplexy. At the end of his life, the prince was cared for by an elderly unmarried sister, Elizaveta Kologrivova. His heirs were his sister and nephew, who survived him for only a few years. The first owner of Gaspra was buried in the St. George monastery. After the Crimean War, the decayed estate was acquired by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich the Elder. However, already in 1865, Gaspra for unknown reasons was sold to Count Vladimir Vasilyevich Levashov and his wife Olga Viktorovna, née Countess Panina.

At the very end of the XIX century, Olga Viktorovna insisted that the estate be transferred to her energetic niece Sophia Vladimirovna Panina [1]. Through the labors of the young countess, the towers were re-closed, the roof and facades were updated, the greenhouse and guest houses were built. Gasprin estate again came to bloom. Countess Panina, who had an entrepreneurial vein, rented the palace as a dacha to wealthy persons. From September 1901 to July 1902, Leo Tolstoy lived here, who worked in Gaspra on the story “Haji Murat”. A. P. Chekhov, M. Gorky, A. Kuprin, F. Chaliapin came to visit him. Before leaving Russia, V. Nabokov visited Gaspra. After the October Revolution, the palace was nationalized. In 1922, it was given under a sanatorium, now - the sanatorium of mother and child "Yasnaya Polyana". In 1923, the national poet of Belarus Yanka Kupala wrote a series of poems “Crimea”. In the building of the palace there is a museum room of L. N. Tolstoy, who came to the Crimea for treatment. In Tolstoy’s time, the palace had 8 exterior doors, 19 “Gothic” windows and 8 balconies, 8 Dutch stoves and 4 fireplaces, 4 hallways, 12 living rooms. At the bottom there were four spacious rooms connected to a large hall. L. N. Tolstoy spent time on the lower glazed terrace, on which there was a wicker set in a green mesh of furniture, many sofas, chairs, chairs, tables, couch.