Famous Russians about Florence. Residence permits
Russian Florence, oddly enough, exists not only in the historical past. This is happening thanks to people who are trying to help their compatriots preserve the memory of Russia in Italy. The President of the Association of Russian Compatriots in Florence, Valeria Sergeeva, talks about Russians and modern Russian culture in Tuscany.
‒ Valeria, how did you end up in Italy?
‒ The story is banal - I met an Italian and got married. In the early 1990s, my husband participated as a volunteer in a charity project for humanitarian aid at the hospital named after. K. A. Rauchfus (St. Petersburg), and I was the organizer from the Russian side. We visited each other for several years, I continued to lead various Russian-Italian projects as a manager. And then the Russian crisis of the 90s hit, my husband, a designer, received a very good job offer in Florence, and I moved to Italy.
Students of the Russian parochial school in Florence and their parents
Like St. Petersburg, Florence is a cultural city, but it is much smaller than my hometown and lives at a slower pace. I, like everyone else, had to go through a difficult period of adaptation and find my place.
The Florentines are a special “nation”; their favor must be won over years. There were very few Russians here at the time of my move. As in many other countries, the Russian diaspora centered around the Orthodox Church. Her intellectual center is Father George and Mother Nina, as well as Anna Vorontsova, a descendant of the Pushkins, who at that time was the head of the Russian church.
‒ One of the serious problems of emigration is that a person finds himself outside the usual cultural and social circle.
- Of course, if only because at first it is difficult to express your thoughts in another language at the desired level. I personally can't complain. Gradually, thanks to joint Russian-Italian projects, I developed my own social circle.
In 2005, we opened the Fontanka company to organize large cultural events. For example, for five years we conducted the project “Russians in Florence”, dedicated to the Demidov dynasty.
Historians, art historians and philologists from different regions of Italy gathered at the famous “Villa Demidoff” in the suburbs of Florence. This villa, along with other architectural monuments of Florence, is indisputably Russian cultural heritage in Italy. The Demidovs financed schools, hospitals, orphanages in Italy and, of course, patronized art.
Then in 2009 we opened the Center for Russian Language and Culture in Florence. A year ago, our association changed its status from “cultural” to “social”. Omitting numerous bureaucratic details, I will only say that this status gives us the full right to teach, in particular, the Russian language.
- Yes, there has never been anything like this in Tuscany before. There is only the Italy - Russia Cultural Society, which offers paid Russian courses for foreigners. Nowadays Russian as a foreign language is in fashion. To get our own premises, we had to go through almost all the circles of hell, just like Dante. It is very difficult to find a place that meets the standards of working with young children. Subsequently, it became possible to rent premises from one of the Florentine schools directly, with the consent of the city hall. Imagine when we started, we had 20 kids in one single room! The children were conditionally divided by age, and teachers worked for free.
− How did you understand that there was a request, a need, to organize a Russian school?
− A teacher at the University of Florence, Irina Vladimirovna Dvizova, contacted me. Several of her Russian students really wanted to support the Russian language in their children. University graduates had a philological background, but did not know how to organize the learning process. One of I. V. Dvizova’s students, Anna Alexandrova, became the coordinator and co-founder of the center. We can say that it is largely thanks to her that our school not only exists, but is also becoming more and more popular.
In recent years, the Russian diaspora has been changing. There are wealthy people here who come to live for a while, and those who come to work under contracts. Many of our students’ mothers are tour guides. Italian fathers are incredibly proud that their children speak Russian. By the way, our school also has Russian language courses for Italian dads.
There is another “section” - these are girls who married Italians very early and came to the country without having time to develop culturally. They learn basic family values, but cultural foundations sometimes remain in the background - there is no time to go to museums when your kids are growing up. And yet, many parents come to us even from other cities - this is their great merit!
‒ Why is it so important to teach Russian to children who still hear Russian at home?
- That’s the point, they don’t hear it that often! Most Russian women not only have husbands, but the entire environment around them is Italian. Therefore, it is difficult to convince a child of the value of the Russian language, that it is necessary to really teach it, read books... Our main task was precisely to teach Russian as a home language - something that many of our students were deprived of at home. In addition, many children born in Italy do not always travel to Russia. We provide them with the cultural background that they miss growing up in Italy. This is not only basic Russian grammar, but also Russian cultural traditions, customs, and most importantly - direct communication. Therefore, the creative center is the optimal opportunity for socialization.
Classes at the Center for Russian Language and Culture
- Rumors began to spread about us. Then, through friends and acquaintances, we found a room with 5 rooms, and the number of children increased, but the problem remained - there were few teachers. An interesting contradiction: there are many more Russians in the city, but there are only a few professional philologists or teachers among them. In addition, we are actually a semi-volunteer organization and the funds are very small.
Next, the problem of literature arose - if at first it was impossible to download anything from the Internet, now there is a large selection, but many things are not suitable for the topic. We go to seminars and conferences, buy Russian textbooks, but we often find that they are not entirely suitable for our children. Example: how to “translate” to Italian children about slush in autumn and snowfall in winter, when they have seen snow maybe a couple of times, and only in the mountains?
Now we have about 90 children studying, 10 groups are constantly working. Mostly children come on Saturday. Moreover, Russian is ranked next in importance among many. last place among additional classes, after football, dance, gymnastics, music, since we are a creative center for additional education.
Our current goal is not to organize a school with strict requirements - there is no demand for this. There is a need for a socially comfortable environment with educational elements. For example, now we have folk art lessons - we not only draw and sculpt, but also introduce children to Russian folk art. We recently started a course where they tell how Khokhloma and Gzhel arose. We are pleased to know that sometimes children like us more than in an Italian school, and they are happy to come to our classes.
‒ We often talk about the “Russian trace” in Florence...
- Yes, it exists, and it is very significant. By the way, in Florence, many Russian nobles are buried in the ancient Lutheran cemetery Allori. Because the cemetery is private, sites must be paid for regularly. But many descendants are long gone, so the time will come when all these remains from unpaid graves will be reburied in one mass grave. Currently, a Russian specialist on the Demidovs, Lucia Tonini, is finishing a book about the history of Russian cemeteries. The situation with Russian burials throughout Italy is approximately the same, and we are trying to draw the attention of the Russian government to the fate of these graves.
We have already mentioned the Demidovs, after whom a villa with a park remained and who donated an iconostasis to the Orthodox Church. There was once a ballet school here, where ballerinas of the Mariinsky Theater taught. Dostoevsky, who wrote the novel “The Idiot” here, left a “trace” in Florence: a memorial plaque on the house in which the writer lived is located not far from Piazza Pitti. Tarkovsky's son lives in Florence. The mayor's office gave him the apartment in which he lived great father. And, of course, Tchaikovsky, who adored our city. He wrote a lot here, but perhaps the most striking work is the opera “The Queen of Spades”.
In 2011, we worked on the project “Russians in Florence. One day with Tchaikovsky”, which included concerts, readings of excerpts from Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” and literary lectures in the famous Oblate library. Based on the composer’s correspondence, we created and conducted a tour of the places where Pyotr Ilyich himself walked.
‒ Tchaikovsky wrote the famous “Memories of Florence” after visiting Italy?
- Certainly. But in Florence itself he composed “The Maid of Orleans” and “The Queen of Spades”. Nadezhda von Meck rented a villa for Tchaikovsky three hundred meters from her villa Cora, on the Florentine hills. It was in this villa that Tchaikovsky wrote “The Maid of Orleans”. When relations with von Meck broke down, Pyotr Ilyich continued to travel to Florence, where he rented an apartment on the banks of the Arno River. There he completed “The Queen of Spades” in 40 days.
In letters to friends, he describes in detail his time in Italy. In contrast to our ideas about the bohemian life of musicians, the composer’s day was strictly scheduled. He worked to order, he was pressed for deadlines. The house where there once was a small hotel where Tchaikovsky lived is not marked with any sign. This memory is needed by everyone - both Russians and Italians, who highly value our culture, and, of course, our children, who, I hope, will be proud to be related to the great Russian culture. And this tablet may turn out to be another small step towards this, another real “trace” in Russian history.
Realnoe Vremya is making a map of the emigration of Tatarstan residents and finding out what it’s like to live and work in another country.
Ekaterina Ch. (surname not indicated at the request of the interlocutor, - approx. ed.) has been living in Florence for 3.5 years. She moved from Kazan to Italy to study graphic design and photography. She spoke specifically for the Realnoe Vremya project about the similarities between Florence and Kazan, the “bonuses” of divorce from Italians, difficulties in finding work and entertainment, which are practically non-existent in the city.
Background
I studied at KSU as a historian. I graduated at the age of 21. Afterwards she worked in Kazan, in an environmental company. Here, it seems, my fiancé has already pecked at me. But I was young, I thought - what kind of marriage? I want to see the world!
By that time, I realized that I wanted to do design. My parents told me - provide the second higher education for yourself. But you need to earn money first. And I went to the States to work on ships. I figured out how much my studies would cost me, and I worked purposefully for five years.
During this time, I definitely understood: I want to study design in Florence. It was then, thanks to my work on ships, that I became acquainted with Italy for the first time and immediately fell in love with it.
But when I had already paid for everything and arrived, I thought: “God, where am I?”
First impression
In the first six months after moving there is euphoria: everything is fine with you, you feel good. Then reality sets in. When faced with bureaucracy and medical issues, many people start to freak out about it. They say, here in Russia we have this and that. But then you remember that you chose this country yourself. Yes, it is different, but you won’t be able to change it to fit your own rules. You can only buy a plane ticket and fly away.
After some time, you finally get the hang of it and start enjoying it. A glass of red wine with lunch becomes a normal thing. Life in Italy teaches you to close your eyes to many things, to be measured, and to some extent to go with the flow. There is no need to rush anywhere: being late there is in the order of things, they will understand you. You can come and just apologize.
Italians track the change of seasons by solar calendar. So autumn begins on September 21, winter on December 21, spring on March 21, and summer on June 21. Moreover, all these changes of seasons are really felt: in the summer until September 21 you can safely swim, and after that it is much colder.
As for cities, the most expensive place to live is Milan. To me, it looks like Moscow. Rome reminds me of St. Petersburg, and Florence reminds me of Kazan. I won’t even recommend Venice for living: there is a lot of humidity and crowds of tourists.
“The most expensive place to live is in Milan. To me, it looks like Moscow.” Photo tochka-na-karte.ru
Options for obtaining a residence permit
Studying is a good way to stay in the country. The second option is to get married. But there is no need to rush into this: if something goes wrong and you have to get a divorce, the process will drag on for two years. But the Italian pays his wife benefits for the rest of his or her life after a divorce. But you shouldn’t count on this, because you still need to be able to marry an Italian.
And another opportunity to stay in the country is to open your own business. There are no taxes collected for a year, but then you will have to pay them. Therefore, many people open one business, and a year later - a new one. Taxes are high, almost 50% of profits. Individuals are also charged a decent amount. About 30% is deducted from my salary.
You can also get a work visa, but this is difficult.
Residence permits
When you come to Italy, not as a tourist, you apply for a Permesso di soggiorno (residence permit). It can be different: Permesso di lavoro - for work, Permesso di studio - for students. Each permesso gives certain rights to work.
Permesso di studio allows you to work temporarily, no more than 40 hours a week. Di lavoro gives you the opportunity to work more hours and has the advantage of free medical care (this is not the case with students).
Of course, you don’t have to apply for a permesso, but with this card you can easily travel throughout the country, throughout Europe, and get a job. You can't get a job anywhere with a regular student visa.
To complete the documents, you need to go to the post office. You pay for insurance (about 80 euros) and postal services. Permesso registration costs approximately 300 euros. Then you go to Questura - hand over a photograph, copies of documents, if required. And there they give you a piece of paper, according to which on a certain day you go to give fingerprints.
Three years ago, fingerprints were not taken, and you could get a permesso in a couple of months. Now with these terrorist attacks everything has become tougher. Now you need to wait at least six months. While you are waiting for documents, a temporary “paper” is issued. But it’s almost impossible to get a job with her.
You can try to sneak into some bar and work illegally. Illegals are usually not hired because if caught, the company will have to pay huge fines.
“Of course, you don’t have to apply for a permesso, but with this card you can easily travel throughout the country, throughout Europe, and get a job.” Photo vipcalabria.ru
Housing
I was lucky - I quickly found girls with whom to rent an apartment. While I was looking for work, we lived in an apartment with two rooms (a living room combined with a kitchen and a separate bedroom). My friend lived in a separate room and paid a little more, and I paid a little less and lived in the living room. When I already found a part-time job, we moved to a new apartment. Each of us had our own room with a toilet right in the room. Moreover, we paid for this all 900 euros for two. Plus it was a condominium. A condominium is when you pay for cleaning the entrance. This option may or may not be included on invoices.
Sometimes you can remove the monolocale or palazzo. A friend of mine rents a monolocale (a small apartment of 20 square meters with a small room). She pays about 450 euros plus utilities. But usually they don’t like to accommodate students, especially Americans, because they are reckless. Landlords are afraid of all kinds of parties, parties - God forbid, there won't be any problems later.
I also had a period when I lived alone in palazzo frescobaldi for six months. I had monolocale. I paid 500 euros for this (all inclusive) plus 20 euros per month for light.
Renting a room in a large apartment is always cheaper. Universities also help students find housing. But it is better not to respond to offers “especially for students” - the prices for such apartments are usually greatly inflated.
They take out mortgages in Italy, but slowly. When there were lyres, everything was wonderful. Now the market is standing. I have a friend who cannot sell his villa. They are bought, but mostly by foreigners. Italians themselves prefer to rent housing because property taxes are high.
Housing and communal services
For gas and electricity meters, receipts arrive once every two months, for water - once every four months. Electricity costs around 80 euros. Water for 1 cubic meter is about 2 euros. Heating in Italy is mainly gas, sometimes central. On average, in Tuscany in the summer you pay about 60-80 euros for gas.
In winter, all costs increase: electricity will be around 100 euros, and you have to pay about 200-300 euros for gas. This is provided that the boiler only works in the morning and evening. In this case, the air in the apartment will not warm up above 20 degrees. If you want to live like in Africa, you will have to pay at least 500 euros for heating.
The big problem for Italy is that it is cold in winter. You need to prepare for the fact that the temperature in the apartment will be about +18. Now my fiance and I live in a four-room apartment. It needs to be warmed up, so the boiler works almost constantly. But the temperature still does not rise above 21 degrees.
“Italians prefer to rent houses because property taxes are high”
The language barrier
When I first arrived, I could only speak a few words in Italian, I mostly used « Google » -translator. During the 3.5 years that I have been living in Florence, I have mainly used English and barely spoken Italian. Of course, I learn the language, communicate with colleagues for practice, but mostly I communicate in English.
Italy is geared towards tourists. There are businesses all around that are aimed specifically at visitors. So if you speak Russian and Italian, your chance of finding a job is less than if you speak English and Russian. To apply for a position in a large company that exports, it is better to speak (except Russian, if you are from Russia) Italian and English.
There are free Italian language courses. But here you need to be prepared to work together with migrants, of whom there are much more than before.
Job
They will hire you even with a student permit. In my experience, I didn’t work 40 hours a week with a student permit, but it worked out to be more.
You can find a part-time job if you only know Russian and English. There are many tourists from Russia. The euro seems to be falling, Russian tourists are returning to the country again - so employees with Russian are required.
In Italy there are three main types of employment contracts:
- A chiamata - they call, say that there is an opportunity to work for a couple of hours - and you come.
- Tempo determinato is the end date of the work contract. Such an agreement allows you to open a bank account, go to doctor’s appointments for free, and complete documents (di lavoro). It's not that easy to get. Italy has its own quotas for hiring foreigners. They need to be monitored and submitted on time. A lawyer decided this issue for me.
- Contratto indeterminato - a contract without an expiration date. It can lead to dismissal, but the employer must at least compensate for the payments required in such cases under the Italian labor code. And this costs a pretty penny for the company. So it’s easier for companies to either keep an employee on staff or force him to resign. The employer also gives sick leave and pays maternity leave. But the maternity leave lasts only 6 months.
Payment in Italy is hourly. In Florence, you can get at least about 6.5 net euros per hour of work. For going out on holidays, of course, the pay is higher. There are bonuses: 13th and 14th salary. The 14th is half of your earnings. So in general, income depends on the amount of time worked. If you work less, you will get less.
“Nothing is open on weekends, supermarkets close at 21:00. Did not have time? All. There are no 24-hour stores. On holiday, many shops and pharmacies are closed. None of the Italians want to recycle and will not.” Photo italia-ru.com
If you work part time [part-time], you can receive 400-600 euros per month. If it’s a full day, on average it comes out to 1000-1200 euros net. If you work in a large company, then salaries can start from 2000 euros.
The working day starts at different times. It all depends on the company: it can start at 8, 9, or 10 o’clock. I work in a jewelry store. We have coffee breaks of 15 minutes in the morning and evening, plus 30 minutes for lunch. It may be different in other companies. For example, kiosks selling vegetables and meat are open from 8 to 11-12 am, then close and open at 5 pm. That is, while others are at work, they are closed. It's the same with pharmacies.
Nothing is open on weekends, supermarkets close at 21:00. Did not have time? All. There are no 24-hour stores. On holiday, many shops and pharmacies are closed. None of the Italians want or will recycle. On the one hand, this is good. On the other hand, why complain about the crisis then?
Medicine
If the annual income is less than 60 thousand euros, medicine is free for such a resident of the country. If a doctor prescribes medications, they will be free or at a big discount.
If my attending physician refers me to another specialist and he prescribes me medications, then I will have a discount on the purchase of drugs. Let's say if the tablets cost about 15-20 euros, thanks to the discount I will only pay 4 euros for them. But if I went to my doctor and he prescribed the medicine, the pills would be free.
But you still need to make an appointment. And wait. In Russia, usually a doctor always sees you in one clinic. In Italy, in one place a doctor may see three times a week before lunch, and in another three times a week after lunch.
For example, now I have an appointment for an ultrasound. I was given the referral in November or December. I go to the pharmacy to make an appointment. And they tell me that there is only a free appointment for the summer, come back later, maybe something will become available. I came two weeks later and a place became available for February. But I will be conducting the research not in the same place where my doctor sits, but in a different place. Of course, you can go to a paid clinic. But either you will go for an ultrasound of the kidneys for 0 euros, or for 90.
You can make an appointment both in pharmacies and in special terminals. To register you need a special card - Tessera sanitaria. This is health insurance. To apply for it, you need to go to ASL (Azienda Sanitaria Locale - local sanitary service): fill out the paperwork, choose a doctor. After registration, it is sent to your home.
“If the annual income is less than 60 thousand euros, medicine for such a resident of the country is free. If a doctor prescribes medications, they will be free or at a big discount.” Photo: doctorleskov.blogspot.ru
This card allows you to buy cigarettes at an electronic tobacco kiosk at night. The country has an anti-tobacco law, according to which tobacco and cigarettes are sold in special kiosks. By the way, they are expensive. One pack costs 5-6 euros. But I don't smoke, so this is irrelevant for me.
Tessera sanitaria is not given to students for free. I applied for it when I already received a work visa. Of course, it can be done with a student visa, but you will have to pay about 200 euros. It seems to me that you simply “will not get sick” with this money: in three years I only went to the doctor twice. The insurance that we take out within the university covers the ambulance.
If you need to see a doctor, you need to go to Misericordia, and if you need emergency care, then to Guardia medica (the local ambulance also brings patients here). Since I have Tessera sanitaria, the service in both places is free for me.
There are also paid medical centers. Students and tourists usually go there. There, a doctor's appointment will cost 50 euros, and if you go to the emergency room, you will pay only 20 euros. The difference is significant, but few people know about it.
Transport
In Florence, you practically do not spend money on transport: everything is nearby. So it's enough to have a bike.
Public transport is well developed, but it only works until 23:00. After 24:00 you can’t go anywhere. Tickets for public transport must be purchased at tabaccheria. Tabaccheria is a place where you buy cigarettes, magazines, souvenirs. They resemble Russian Rospechat stalls.
You can buy a ticket for one trip (1.2 euros), a pass for 10 trips (10 euros), 20 trips or for the whole month (30 euros). You can also buy a ticket on the bus. But, firstly, it will cost 2 euros, and secondly, tickets may simply not be available.
If you buy a pass for 20 trips, in fact you can use it 21 times. There is a 30-trip pass that allows you to take an additional 5 trips for free. The savings are big, the card is valid for a year from the moment of activation. If you travel often, you can buy a monthly pass.
Of course, you can take a risk and try to ride as a hare. But sometimes inspectors come on the route. If the violator is caught, you will have to pay a fine of about 50 euros.
Buses travel every 5-10 minutes in the morning, and in the late afternoon - every 15-20 minutes. Unlike Rome and Milan, we do not have a metro, but the city authorities are developing a tram network.
“Unlike Rome and Milan, we do not have a metro, but the city authorities are developing a tram network.” Photo transphoto.ru
Cars are usually bought by those who live outside the city or who have a long way to go to work. Owning a car is expensive. Parking is paid. You'll probably pay 20 euros in a day. Hourly payment will cost 2.5 euros/hour. Plus they still need to be found.
Recently a man parked next to me. There was a place, but he didn’t have enough space, so he “backed” the car away from other cars and sat down. And this is basically normal there. So then you will also have to pay for repairs. In addition, Italy has a high transport tax.
And taxis in Florence are expensive. There is one taxi service for the whole city. If it’s raining or thundering, you won’t be able to reach them by phone.
Leisure
There is nothing else to do in Florence other than go somewhere to eat. Movie? There is only one English-language cinema. It shows one movie three days in a row three times a day. Italian films premiere so often that they can be quickly found on the Internet. All sorts of bowling alleys - only outside the city. There are many exhibitions, but the exhibitions are updated every 3-4 months. In fact, the only entertainment is traveling to other cities.
You can go to Gym. I have now found one similar to our “Planet Fitness” (including a swimming pool). I paid 840 euros per year for membership. And if I went to a small center without a pool, I would pay about 400 for six months.
Native Italians prefer to run their own businesses, for example, opening restaurants. But there are not enough offers from the service sector. For example, finding a good manicurist or pedicurist is a big problem (the girls will understand me). There is no hardware manicure here. Everything is done by hand, and mostly of poor quality. It is very difficult to find a specialist whose hands are “in the right place.”
If you are going to get a haircut, it is better not to say that you need to wash your hair. They will charge 20 euros for this alone. A haircut with coloring will cost about another 100 euros. Just a haircut - about 50-60 euros. When I come to Tatarstan, I first run to all the doctors, get tested (in Russia it’s faster) and go to beauty salons.
“In Florence, there is nothing else to do except go somewhere to eat.” Photo travel.tochka.net
Italians
Men here love flirting, it's in their blood. He cares, says compliments - and it begins to seem that the man has fallen in love, but in fact he is just playing with the girl. Here men love Russian girls. We are much more feminine than Italian women.
In Italy you always need to keep a level head and take your time to fall in love. If a man pursues a woman, perhaps his interest is real. In general, they flirt a lot. All they say is noodles that remain on the ears. Of course, there are exceptions. I found love, and I’m not alone.
Italians are not used to saving. They will not save their last money. They will go buy a cocktail or a glass of red wine. Or better yet, they will borrow and re-borrow and will not repay the debt.
But because of the ease with which Italians approach problems and work, you get the feeling that you are not just existing, but living!
Online newspaper "Real Time"
The book by Alexei Kara-Murza, doctor of philosophy and author of monographs on the history of Russian social thought, contains materials about the stay in Florence and impressions of the “city of flowers” of famous Russian writers, artists, and public figures of the 15th-20th centuries. Perhaps it is in the memoirs and diaries of those in love with Florence, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Berdyaev, Mikhail Kuzmin, Alexander Blok, that the answer to the attraction of Russian souls to this land of great creators, bluish-violet mountains and fragrant violets lies. A series of brilliant essays turns into a literary and philosophical investigation into the phenomenon of “divine” Florence.
* * *
The given introductory fragment of the book Famous Russians about Florence (A. A. Kara-Murza, 2016) provided by our book partner - the company liters.
Part one. Famous Russians in Florence
Abraham of Suzdal
Orthodox cleric, Church historian and memoirist Abraham, a Russian participant in the Ferraro-Florence Council of 1438-1439, author of the treatise “The Walking of Abraham of Suzdal to the Eighth Council with Metropolitan Isidore,” occupied the episcopal see in Suzdal from 1431 to 1437, and then, after returning from Italy, from 1441 to 1452.
In the first half of the 15th century. The Christian East of Europe became a victim of the new expansion of the Ottoman Turks. In 1422, Sultan Murad II besieged Constantinople (unsuccessfully at that time); then he conquered Wallachia and part of Serbia, and captured some of the possessions of the Venetian Republic in northern Greece. In the face of new threats, the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos and the Patriarch of Constantinople Joseph II tried to enlist the support of the Christian sovereigns of the West, as well as the Papal Throne in the person of the Roman Pontiff Eugene IV (1383-1447), a Venetian by birth, who saw in the political weakening of Greek Orthodoxy an opportunity to establish supremacy Latin faith.
The Council, designed to unite the Western and Eastern Churches, was convened in 1438 by Pope Eugenius IV in Northern Italy, initially in Ferrara, a rich and famous center of science and culture in Europe, which was under the rule of the pope’s ally, Niccolò III of the Este family. The Council was supported by the Emperor of Byzantium; it was attended by the Patriarch of Constantinople, plenipotentiary representatives of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, metropolitans and bishops from many lands and cities of Europe and Asia Minor, influential theologians - about 700 people in total.
In those years, the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily II, politically dependent on the still strong Golden Horde, was religiously oriented towards Byzantium: the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus' was established in Constantinople. So in 1437, instead of the Ryazan Bishop Jonah, appointed by the Moscow prince, Patriarch Joseph II appointed the Greek Isidore, an authoritative theologian and philosopher, an active fighter against Islam and a supporter of union with the papacy, to the increasingly important Moscow metropolis.
According to the historian of the Russian Church A.V. Kartashev, the representative composition of the Russian delegation to the council in Ferrara (more than 10 people) testified that Isidore managed to convince the Grand Duke that the union of churches, thanks to which the Greek empire would be saved, was possible without sacrifice to the Orthodox creed. Trusting the learned Greek, Vasily II sent him to Italy with a large retinue and a rich train of two hundred horses. Rumor spread throughout Rus' that the Metropolitan was going on a good mission to convert the Latins to the right faith, and many Russian cities donated large amounts of money for the trip. The northwestern lands were especially generous, accustomed to close trade ties with Europe and expecting new benefits from church reconciliation.
Metropolitan Isidore and his retinue left Moscow on September 8, 1437, traveled through Novgorod, Pskov, Yuriev and Riga, from where they sailed by sea to Lubeck. From there, the Russian delegation, in which the Suzdal Bishop Abraham played one of the main roles, moved south and through Nuremberg, Augsburg, and the Alpine lands arrived in Ferrara on August 18, 1438.
Meanwhile, the Christian sovereigns of the West largely ignored the Council of Ferrara, supporting opposition to Eugene IV within the Catholic hierarchy. In the Holy Roman Empire, in France, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, Scotland, Poland, and in the Scandinavian kingdoms, the parallel council in Basel, which soon declared Eugene IV deposed, was considered legitimate.
However, after a long wait for new representatives, the conciliar sessions in Ferrara were opened: they were attended mainly by Italian bishops, as well as representative delegations from the Orthodox East, seeking protection from Catholics from the advancing Islam. At the same time, Eastern hierarchs and theologians tried for a long time to defend their dogmatic positions, not wanting to make concessions to the Latins. Disappointed, Eugene IV ordered a reduction in the promised content of delegates from the Eastern Churches, and then stopped it altogether.
In January 1439 the cathedral was moved to Florence. Officially - due to the danger of a plague epidemic; in fact, because of suspicions that many participants might leave the cathedral and return to the East through the close border. Inclined to compromise with the Latins, the Byzantine Emperor John VIII, at an internal meeting of the Greek delegation, argued for the move to Florence by the pope's lack of funds and the willingness of the Florentines to provide them.
Florence in the 15th century.
Florence, in those years formally a republic, was under the rule of the Medici clan, whose leader, the richest merchant and banker in Europe, Cosimo Medici “The Elder” (1389-1464), held the high post of “Gonfaloniere of Justice” and virtually ruled the city alone. With the help of money from the Medici and some other wealthy Florentine families, Pope Eugene IV reopened the contents to the Orthodox delegates, regulating it depending on their behavior. According to A.B. Kartashev, “the unfortunate Greeks hesitated. The most pliable of them were specially invited to the pope and from there returned as champions of union. The retreat began with the Russian Metropolitan Isidore and the Nicene Vissarion. They persuaded the king to make concessions (i.e. Emperor John VIII - A.K.) and the dying Patriarch Joseph. Then, through various oppressions and pressures, all the other Greek hierarchs, except Mark of Ephesus, were forced into union.”
Fra Beato Angelico. Annunciation. XV century
The course of the Ferraro-Florence Council and the behavior of the Moscow delegation at it are described in the texts of Bishop Abraham of Suzdal (the only Russian bishop at the Council) and two people from his entourage - Hieromonk Simeon and the anonymous “Suzdal resident” (apparently a lay clerk), who wrote belongs to “Walking to Florence” and the note “About Rome”. In addition to stories about canonical debates and negotiations, which ended, as is known, with the conclusion of the “Union of Florence” on July 5, 1439, of particular interest are the descriptions by Russian participants of grandiose mystery performances dedicated to two Christian holidays - the Annunciation (March 25) and the Ascension (which came in 1439 on May 15).
Judging by the text of the memoirs, Abraham of Suzdal was not just a “spectator” of these performances, but was previously initiated by the organizers (in agreement, of course, with the head of the “Russian delegation” Isidore) into the most complex technology of these unique spectacles for that time.
The mystery “Annunciation” based on the play “Rappresentationi della Anmmziazione di Nostra Donna” by Feo Belcari was demonstrated on March 25 in the church of the Florentine monastery of St. Brand. Back in 1427, Cosimo de' Medici commissioned the architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo to expand and rebuild the old dilapidated monastery, and in 1436, after returning from exile, he handed it over to the Dominican Order. All painting work in San Marco was supervised by the Dominican monk “Fra” Beato Angelico, who created the famous altar image, and also painted more than 40 cells, corridors and other rooms of the monastery with frescoes. It was in these fantastically beautiful interiors (in the spring of 1439 the work was not yet completed) that the delegates of the Florence Cathedral found themselves, who became spectators of the mystery play “The Annunciation”.
In his “Exodus to the Eighth Council” Abraham of Suzdal described the most complex “machinery” of the performance: “In the city of Florence, a certain man, an Italian by birth, arranged for many people a surprisingly cunning and wonderful likeness of the Archangel Gabriel descending from heaven to Nazareth to the virgin Mary with the good news of the conception of the only begotten son of God.” There is a reasonable version that “a certain Italian” who invented and implemented the most complex mechanics of the Florentine performances on March 25 and May 15 was none other than the beloved architect and engineer of the Medici clan, Filippo Brunelleschi.
“Here is a semblance of the heavenly circles from which the Archangel Gabriel was sent from the Father to the virgin. In this place there is a throne at the top, and on the throne a high-ranking man sits, dressed in a robe and a crown. In everything you can see the likeness of the Father. He holds the Gospel in his left hand. Around it and at its foot many small children are held together by a cunning device, following the example of the heavenly powers. On the laid place on the left side there is a bed with a master's bed and a blanket. In this important and wonderful place, the prudent youth sits, dressed in expensive and wonderful maiden clothes and a crown. She holds books in her hands and quietly reads, and in every way resembles the Most Pure Virgin Mary... From the previously named high place, five thin and strong ropes pass through the stone platform to the altar. Two ropes pass close to the honest maiden. Along them, an angel descends to her with the third thinnest rope from above from her father with the annunciation. At the appointed time, many people want to see this great and wonderful performance. And the great church will be filled with many people, and, after hesitating a little, people will fall silent, looking up at the built church platform. And soon all the curtains and cloth on that platform will open, and all people will see that same one, dressed in the likeness, in other words, the most pure Virgin Mary, sitting on a wonderfully arranged bed. This is a beautiful and wonderful sight! And soon the curtains at the top of the arranged place will open and the cannon roar will sound like heavenly thunder. In that place above, the honest father will become visible, and around him there will be more than five hundred burning candles. And these candles with fire constantly move back and forth, descend quickly, meet, some move upward, while others go downwards to meet them. Also, small children around their father in white robes, so to speak, heavenly powers, are singing, and some are beating the cymbal, and others are playing with horns and squeaks. This is all a great spectacle, wonderful and joyful, and indescribable in words. After some time, an angel appears from the very top of the father, he descends from the father with two already mentioned ropes down to the virgin with the good news of the conception of the son of God. Its convergence from top to bottom occurs like this: on the ports in the middle of the back there are two wheels, small and in no way visible at a height. And these wheels are held on by two ropes, and along these wheels with a third thinnest rope people lower from above and lift up to the top, all this is arranged invisible.
While the angel was ascending from above, fire came from the father with great noise and continuous thunder onto the previously mentioned ropes and into the middle of the platform. And this fire returned upward and quickly came down from the top. And from this reversal of fire and from the blows, the whole church was filled with sparks. The angel rose to the very top, rejoicing and waving his arms back and forth and moving his wings. You can simply and clearly see how it flies. The fire begins to emanate abundantly from the upper place and rains down throughout the church with great and terrible thunder. And the unlit candles in the church are lit from this great fire. And there is no harm to the spectators and their ports. This wonderful spectacle and cunning device were seen in the city of Florence, and as much as I could understand with my foolishness, I described this spectacle. There is no other way to describe it, as it is so wonderful and unspeakable. Amen".
On May 15, 1439, on the fortieth day after Catholic Easter, a new grandiose performance took place - the mystery “Ascension” based on the play by the same Feo Belcari “Rappresentatione dell" Ascenzione.” This time Eugene IV and Cosimo the Elder chose the church of Santa Claus as the venue for the performance. Maria del Carmine on the left bank of the Arno.The temple belonged to the wealthy Carmelite order, which originated from Jerusalem and was founded, according to legend, by the Apostle Peter himself, the Roman high priest, whose successors, according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, are the popes.
The Temple of Santa Maria del Carmine became famous for the family chapel of the aristocratic Florentine Brancacci family (traditional enemies of the Medici clan), which the outstanding artists Masolino and Masaccio painted in the 1420s. frescoes on the theme of the life of the Apostle Peter. In 1436, after the return of Cosimo the Elder from exile, members of the Brancacci family were arrested. Thus, the use of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine by the initiators of the Florence Council - Eugene IV and Cosimo de' Medici - is more than understandable: the history and decoration of the church, glorifying the feat of the Apostle Peter, were intended to emphasize the power of the Pope and the new master of Florence.
Here is what Abraham of Suzdal writes about the Ascension mystery, which took place in the interiors of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine on May 15, 1429:
Church of Santa Maria del Carmine.
Frescoes by Masolino and Masaccio (15th century) on the life of St. Apostle Peter in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine.
“In the same famous city of Florence, in the Church of the Ascension, on Thursday of the sixth week after Easter, on this very holiday, the Latins create a remembrance in the likeness of antiquity, when Jesus Christ, on the fortieth day, ascended in glory to his father in heaven. In the middle of this church there is a platform, on the left side of the platform there is a small stone city, very wonderful, with towers and walls in the name of the holy city of Jerusalem. Opposite this city, near the first wall, there is a hill one and a half fathoms high, near it shops are built two spans high, and a mountain covered with beautiful curtains. And above this very high Mount of Olives, a plank platform was built, decorated in every possible way, covered with boards on all sides and painted very marvelously on the inside. In the middle of this platform there is a large, round hole, covered with a blue cloth. The sun and the month are written on the canvas, and many stars are written around them. All this is done like the first celestial circle, at the top it opens on two sides, in other words, the heavenly gates open, and then all people will see above the gates of heaven a man dressed in a robe and a crown, in all the likeness of God the Father, and with a cunning device above the very by the gates of heaven he holds. In the direction of the Mount of Olives, he looks down at his son, and at the Most Pure One, and at the apostles, and with his hand he sends a blessing to them. And you can’t see how or what it holds up, it’s just like it’s sitting in the air. And from above, through the sky and the mentioned Mount of Olives, seven strong ropes pass, with cunning and bewildered iron swivels. Below him is a youth representing Christ, who wants to ascend to heaven to his father... At the ninth hour of the day, many people come to the church for this glorious and cunning spectacle. And how the church is filled with people, and, having fallen silent a little, everyone looks at the middle of the church platform, upward to the arranged place. And then a man will appear in this place, dressed like the son of God, and will go to the previously named city, that is, to Jerusalem. The Most Pure Mother of God follows him from there and Mary Magdalene follows her. These images are represented by two young men dressed like women. Then the son of God will lead the Apostle Peter and all his disciples after him from Jerusalem, and will go with his mother and the apostles to the Mount of Olives. Peter, approaching, will fall at the feet of Jesus, and, having bowed, receive the blessing and stand in his place, and then all the disciples will also do the same and stand on the right and left hands, one after the other, in their places. Immediately great thunder will appear from above this mountain, and they will see the sky open and the father holding himself above it with a cunning device. And with many candles, to say, a great shining light, it is illuminated, and small children, to say, the heavenly forces around it, constantly move back and forth quickly with a great solemn roar, and beautiful singing, and terrible voices. And he will come from above from the father, to say, from the gates of heaven, along the mentioned seven ropes, like a cloud, very cunning and incomprehensible, and filled with many beauties and cunnings. As the cloud goes from the top to half the bottom, then, so to speak, the son of God will take two great gilded keys and say to Peter: “You, Peter, build my church on this rock, and the gates of hell will not be separated from it. And now I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; you will bind it on earth, and it will be bound in heaven, and if you loose it on earth, it will be loosed in heaven.” And having blessed these keys and given them into his hands, he will begin to rise upward with the previously mentioned seven ropes, to the standing cloud, sending a blessing to his mother and the apostles. And this visible spectacle is marvelous and inaccessible to the story. Soon the curtains will open to the audience from the arranged place, so to speak, from the highest heaven, and there will be great light from many glass lamps with burning oil. And it can be seen that the father sits on the throne, the son sits in his lap, so to speak, in the bosom of his father, with vestments and a crown in everything, as befits God the Father. I wrote as much as I could, but I can’t leave such a cunning spectacle in oblivion. Amen".
On July 5, 1439 (second indictment of 6947), the majority of representatives of the Byzantine delegation, under pressure from the Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople, signed the oros of the Council (“Union of Florence”). Among those who did not sign were: Metropolitan Mark of Ephesus (with the support of the emperor's brother, who was against the union), Metropolitan Gregory of Iveron from Georgia (pretended to be crazy), Metropolitan Isaac of Nitria, Metropolitan Sophronius of Gaza and Bishop Isaiah of Stavropol (secretly fled from Florence and later received protection brother of the emperor). Apparently, a special role in the signing of the union belonged to Moscow Metropolitan Isidore, who was initially predicted to be the successor to Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople, who died during the council. In any case, the Russian “Tale on the Compilation of the Eighth Council” placed all the blame for the signing of the union on Isidore, addressing him with reproaches: “The king was seduced by ecu, the patriarch was confused by ecu, and the reigning city of destruction fulfilled ecu.”
Before setting off on his return journey, Isidore received from Eugene IV the rank of cardinal presbyter and the title of papal legate in Lithuania, Livonia, all of Rus' and Poland. At the end of 1439 he went to Rus' through Venice; then by sea to the Croatian coast; from here via Zagreb, Budapest and Krakow to Lithuania. From Vilna Isidore traveled to Kyiv, where Prince of Kyiv Alexander Vladimirovich gave “his father Sidor” a special letter, which confirmed all the rights of the metropolitan in the “Kyiv region.”
Isidore, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'.
Only in the spring of 1441 did Isidore come to Moscow, where Grand Duke Vasily II, the Moscow government and the clergy had already developed their position in relation to what happened in Florence. The fact is that a close boyar of the Grand Duke of Moscow named Thomas (who also visited Ferrara and Florence) and Hieromonk Simeon (who was part of the Suzdal delegation) openly quarreled with Metropolitan Isidore back in Venice and, earlier than others, hastened to Moscow to notify the Grand Duke about the circumstances of the imprisonment union Following them, on September 19, 1440, other Russian companions of the Metropolitan, led by Bishop Abraham, returned to Moscow. According to historians, “Moscow, by the arrival of Isidore, could already be filled with determination to stand up for Orthodoxy and reject the traitor metropolitan. Of course, the Grand Duke and the Russian bishops were put in an extraordinary difficulty by the fact that, rebelling against Isidore, they had to reject the authority of the Patriarchal Authority of Constantinople that authorized him, thereby recognizing it as heretical.”
Metropolitan Isidore arrived in Moscow on March 19, 1441 and went straight to the Assumption Cathedral for worship. At the liturgy, he ordered to remember in the first place not the name of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but the name of Pope Eugene IV. After the liturgy, the Metropolitan ordered his protodeacon to read publicly from the pulpit the Council Act of July 5, 1439 on the union. Then he conveyed to the Grand Duke a message from the Pope, in which Vasily II was invited to be a diligent assistant to the Metropolitan in introducing the union. The speed and pressure with which Isidore acted so confused the prince, boyars and bishops that they were at a loss at the first moment: "All the princes,- says the chronicler, - the boyars and many others were silent, and even more so the Russian bishops were silent, and dozed off, and asleep..."
Grand Duke Vasily II rejects the Union of Florence.
Only three days later, having gathered his courage, Vasily II declared Isidore a heretic and ordered his arrest and imprisonment in the Chudov Monastery. The Council of the Russian Clergy, which took place soon, denounced Isidore’s heresy and exhorted him to repent, however, due to Isidore’s inflexibility, he was kept in custody for several months, and then “allowed to escape”: Isidore fled through Tver to the Lithuanian Grand Duke Casimir, and from there to Rome. The fate of Bishop Abraham of Suzdal, who first signed the Florentine Union and then renounced it, turned out well. His faithful man in the Russian delegation at the Council in Italy, Hieromonk Simeon of Suzdalets, officially testified that Abrahamide did not want to sign the union, but the apostate Isidore imprisoned him “A full week in prison and cede; And I signed it not because I wanted it, but because I needed it.” In 1448, Bishop Abraham participated in the Council in Moscow that finally overthrew Isidore and installed Bishop Jonah of Ryazan as Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus'.
Vasily Bogdanovich Likhachev
The biography of Vasily Bogdanovich Likhachev, the ambassador of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II, is replete with lacunae, not uncommon in Russian history of the 17th century. It is known that he began his career surrounded by Patriarch Filaret (Romanov), the father of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich: in the late 1620s. is listed as “patriarchal steward.” Under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, as a “Moscow nobleman,” Likhachev was in the sovereign’s service; in the 1640s was a governor in Tsivilsk, an important military stronghold of the Muscovite kingdom in the Chuvash lands. Later he was noted again in Moscow - surrounded by Patriarch Joseph; repeatedly accompanied Alexei Mikhailovich and Tsarina Marya Ilyinichna (née Miloslavskaya) on country trips and “praying trips” to the Trinity-Sergevsky and Savvino-Storozhevsky monasteries.
The new rise of Vasily Likhachev occurred during the years of the patriarchate of Nikon, who had great influence on the tsar, including in matters foreign policy. During the military conflict with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for control of the Western Russian lands, and then in the outbreak of the war with the Swedes, Likhachev was in the tsar’s inner circle: in July 1656 he participated in diplomatic negotiations in Polotsk with ambassadors of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, and in August of the same year, near Kokenhausen (Kukeinos) - with envoys of the Danish king Frederick III.
In 1659, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich conceived a new embassy to the “Italian lands”; this time (after the unsuccessful embassy of Ivan Chemodanov and Alexei Posnikov to the Doge of Venice in 1656-1657) - to Florence, to the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II from the House of Medici. Vasily Likhachev was appointed head of the embassy - on this occasion he was given the title of “Borovsky’s governor.”
The “Article List” of the embassy of 1659-1660 has been preserved, later published in “Monuments of Diplomatic Relations of Ancient Russia with Foreign Powers.” The purpose of the embassy was to raise the international authority of Muscovy during the confrontation with Poland and Sweden, as well as to establish privileged trade relations with Tuscany: the Moscow Tsar ordered to ask the Grand Duke to sell to Moscow merchants duty-free “patterned goods” for royal use and, in general, to allow them “free” (i.e. duty-free) trade. In exchange, Alexey Mikhailovich allowed the subjects of the Grand Duke to trade duty-free in Russian lands and farm out the fishing and caviar industries in Arkhangelsk.
Reception of the Moscow embassy of Vasily Likhachev by the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II.
Experienced clerk Ivan Fedorovich Fomin (who would later rise to the rank of royal steward) was sent as envoy to Florence under the head of the mission, Likhachev, along with clerks Stepan Polkov and Pankrat Kulakov, who were in charge of office work. From the Ambassadorial Prikaz, two interpreters-translators were assigned to the delegation: for the Italian language - Timofey Toporovsky (it is known that he had already been to Italy and received an annual salary of three rubles) and for the German language - Pletnikov.
According to custom, Orthodox priest Ivan Alekseev was included in the delegation. A later commentator noted in this regard that in those years elderly boyars were appointed as ambassadors, who, going abroad for a long time, “they were afraid to die among the ungodly, without a confessor and the rituals prescribed by the Eastern Church.” The Tsar also ordered that a reliable “kisser” (treasurer who swore an oath of honesty on the cross) be hired in Arkhangelsk to store the “sovereign sable treasury,” which the ambassadors were bringing as a gift to the Tuscan Duke and his entourage.
On July 8, 1659, the delegation left Moscow for Arkhangelsk and arrived only And August. The envoys lived in Arkhangelsk for another month, awaiting the arrival and loading of two English ships sailing around Europe. On September 21, after listening to a prayer service in the Transfiguration Cathedral, Likhachev, Fomin and their comrades (24 people in total) set off, accompanied by a detachment of archers, to the sea harbor on Moseyevomostrov, from where the voyage began. English merchant ships were chosen, among other things, because England in those years was on good terms with the Ottoman Porte, and under the protection of the English flag, Moscow ambassadors could not fear an attack by the “Turkish thieves” who dominated the Mediterranean. The voyage began with misfortune: on the third day, the translator from Italian Timofey Toporovsky died (his absence would later have a strong impact in Italy), and priest Alekseev had to perform a funeral service and burial at sea.
Having rounded Europe and passed the Strait of Gibraltar, ships with the Russian embassy entered the Mediterranean Sea on November 9, 1659. Likhachev noted with surprise in the “Article List”:
“On that sea, the days became bright and red, like ours about Trinity Day, but here about Filippov the order is as follows: and the days and nights are the same.”
However, almost immediately strong storms began - just like three years ago, when the embassy of Chemodanov and Posnikov was heading the same way from Arkhangelsk to Livorno, which then lost most taking commercial goods with him and severely damaging expensive Siberian furs intended for the Venetians. This time, to lighten the ships, some of the food supplies and barrels with fresh water– towards the end of the trip, due to a lack of drinking water, rainwater had to be collected on deck. The embassy's "Item List" contains the following entries: “After a storm at sea, the envoys offered prayers to Christ God...”
On January 5, 1660, already in sight of the harbor of Livorno, the main seaport of Tuscany (which by that time had completely replaced Pisa due to the shallowing of the Arno mouth), a severe storm damaged the ships so much that they were barely able to drop anchors. The crew and passengers underwent strict border control due to the threat of the introduction of a “pestilence”: the Tuscan guards “removed” each section and carefully examined it.
On January 7, the governor of Livorno, Prince Tommaso Serristori, invited ambassadors to the city. “Dressed up in ambassadorial dress” and seated in covered, velvet-lined rowing galleys, the guests sailed to the city pier, greeted by gunfire. From the shore to the governor's palace, Likhachev and Fomin with their closest people rode in two rich carriages of six; guards walked on both sides with lighted torches, and the rest of the delegation followed behind on foot.
The ambassadors lived for three days in the house of a wealthy Livorno merchant who had long been trading with the Russians, and then Prince Serristori conveyed to them the invitation of the Grand Duke to come to Pisa, where Ferdinando II with his wife Vittoria (from the noble Urbino della Rovere family) and son-heir Cosimo were staying, it turns out , for a month now, having received news of the imminent arrival of the “Muscovites” through messengers from Amsterdam.
Palazzo Pitti - residence of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany
In Pisa, Russian ambassadors presented Ferdinand II with a letter from Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, as well as “amateur commemorations” (gifts). The description of the reception of envoys in the “Article List” raises some doubts: the absence of a translator, who died during the voyage, probably had an effect. Thus, according to Likhachev’s “List”, Duke Ferdinando in his speech allegedly constantly called himself “servant of the Moscow sovereign”:
“Why did the Grand Duke, his servant and your worker, look for me from the glorious city of Moscow with great mercy and send me a funeral? And he is the Great Sovereign, as far as heaven is from the earth, then he is the Great Sovereign: glorious and glorious from end to end throughout the entire universe, and his name is glorious and terrible in all states, from ancient Rome to the new and to Jerusalem, and what is poor me , to repay for his greatness and great mercy? And my brothers and my son are slaves and servants of his Great Sovereign and for the sake of serving and working for him, the Great Sovereign forever, as he pleases and where I could be..."
In Florence (“the glorious city of Florensk”), the Russian embassy was located in the chambers of the Ducal Pitti Palace on the left bank of the Arno. Three things especially struck the guests - an unusual-looking globe, an inkwell and a richly decorated latrine:
“Yes, a wheel was built, and on the wheel there was an apple, and on the apple were written all the states of the earth, and on the same apple were written the night runs and the lunar current... The inkwell from which they wrote was gold, about thirty pounds, and instead of sand there was silver ore, and waste covered with Florensky velvet, they exercise them all day long.”
During the ceremonial reception given by the Grand Duke in honor of the Moscow envoys, Ferdinando II seated Likhachev next to him; clerk Fomin sat next to his son-heir, the future Grand Duke Cosimo III. The ducal treat amazed the guests:
“There are three double-headed eagles on the table, the first eagle is made on sugar, in the middle of it our Great Sovereign is depicted on an argamak<коне>, holding a scepter in his hand... and the dishes on the table were all made with masterful imagination; animals, birds and fish, and all with sugar..." Many toasts were made to the sovereigns: “And the messengers left the table, with great servility, and drank politely, and before drinking they spoke full titles about the State’s long-term health and about Tsaritsyno and about the Tsarevichs and about the Princesses; and the prince and the brothers and the son and everyone stood at that time: at the same time they played music and cymbals and organs and two trumpeters and eight buzzers.
Having received expensive Siberian furs as a gift from Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the Grand Duke began to ask Likhachev about the “Siberian State” and examined it according to the “drawing”, i.e. e. on a geographical map. The Duke was amazed by the size of Siberia and was very surprised that it was impossible to “catch” the sables, martens, foxes, squirrels and other animals living there; he even took a painting from Likhachev, “For as long as any beast reproduces every year.” Likhachev explained the interest of the Grand Duke in the “List” by the fact that “They don’t have any animals, because the places are very mountainous, not forested, and the forest is all planted.”
At that time, in Florence, preparations were being made for the wedding of the heir to the Tuscan throne, Cosimo Medici, with the Frenchwoman Margarita Louise, daughter of the Duke of Orleans. Duchess Vittoria wished that two fur coats be made “according to Russian custom”, which she could give to her daughter-in-law. Likhachev ordered two fur coats to be made: one was ermine, covered with damask, the other squirrel, covered with taffeta: the duchess “put it on herself and marveled at how neatly it was made.”
Likhachev and his companions were amazed by the planetarium in one of the ducal chambers (the same one that was organized by the Medici-protected Galileo Galilei): “heavenly movement and circle, and in it a description of the whole world and the running of the sun.” Then the guests visited the armory courtyard, surrounded by a moat, admired the pacers and argamaks in the stable yard, of which there were up to four hundred, and concluded with the ducal “menagerie”:
“They (i.e., the servants) said 2 lions and 2 living bears, 2 strophocamila birds[African ostrich]; one bird laid an egg, it’s not an hour yet, but it weighs half a pound, the size of a hat: 27 people ate eggs from one egg.”
One day, Russian envoys were taken to watch a traditional team ball game - giuoco del calcio - in Piazza Santa Croce:
“In the market there is a high place for the envoys, covered with velvet; and on the other side against the envoys were chambers with a hundred, three and four dwellings; here sat the prince and princess and the prince’s son and brothers, and expensive carpets were hung from every window in the chambers. And there was a game: two tents were set up, and people in armor and armor and helmets: six karlovs, six trumpeters, six drums and colonels, and with 10 people, well-dressed and light; and they played: they threw a ball that would sweep the country: and at that time there were 4 shots throughout the city. And gifts from the princess to the envoys and players: taffeta flies[pennants], and the military formation was printed on them, and then they went home.”
Ball game in Piazza Santa Croce. XVII century
Before the departure of the Russian ambassadors from Florence, the Grand Duke presented Likhachev and clerk Fomin each with a weighty gold chain: one worth 10, the other 8 pounds. Other members of the delegation were not forgotten: each of them was given a gold chain, weighing 1 pound and 20 spools.
On February 16, 1660, the envoys left Florence for Bologna, Piacenza, and Milan. Then the path went to Switzerland: when crossing the Alpine pass of Saint Gotthard, the letter from the Grand Duke to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, certified with a gold seal, was carried especially carefully. When all the belongings, including the sovereign's treasury and gifts, were transported on carts drawn by oxen (“for the fact that horses with packs, like the wind, are thrown into deep abysses”) The “Prince of Florence leaf” was carried by the clerks.
Having sailed further along the Rhine, the travelers were in Amsterdam at the end of March 1660, from where they returned by ship to Arkhangelsk in June. A month later, in the Kremlin chambers, Ambassador Vasily Likhachev solemnly presented Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with a letter from the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Boris Petrovich Sheremetev
Boris Petrovich Sheremetev (1652-1719) – military leader, diplomat, close associate of Peter I. Field Marshal General (1701); count (1706). Coming from an ancient boyar family. He began his service under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich: in 1765 he was promoted to room steward. Under Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich he was even closer: "in his reasoning predominantly beautiful view and external qualities of the body, stood at audiences granted to ambassadors, wearing a bell[squire] before the throne." At the age of 19, as a governor and Tambov governor, he commanded troops against the Crimeans. In 1682, upon the accession of Tsars John and Peter to the throne, he was granted the boyar status. From the end of 1686, he led the army guarding the southern borders and participated in the Crimean campaigns. After the fall of the ruler Sophia, he joined Tsar Peter Alekseevich; participant of the Azov campaigns (1695-1696).
In 1697-1698, on the instructions of Peter, 1.45-year-old Sheremetev made an important diplomatic trip to European states: the Kingdom of Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, the Venetian Republic, the Papal State, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Order of Malta, and on the way back - more and to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Sheremetev's retinue included: Alexei Kurbatov, a "butler" who sometimes represented in Sheremetev's name and guise (later emerging as a major Russian administrator and financier); Joseph Peshkovsky, a clergyman who was involved in translations and drafting of official papers; Gerasim Golovtsyn, close to Sheremetev on military campaigns; several more nobles and servants. Later, based on the notes of Golovtsyn and Kurbatov, clerk Pyotr Artemyev compiled the official materials of the trip, which became known as the “Note of the Travel of Count Sheremetev.”
The embassy left Moscow on July 22, 1697 with papers from Peter I to to the Polish king, the Austrian Emperor, the Pope, the Doge of Venice and the Grand Master of the Order of Malta to create a coalition against the Turks. To achieve political goals, the envoy of the Russian Tsar repeatedly resorted to tricks and hoaxes. In Poland, where the pro-French party did not recognize the power of the Russian protege of King Augustus II, Sheremetev, as follows from the papers, was forced to hide his name, called himself the Russian “Captain Roman”, changed his dress, had a common table with his retinue, while Kurbatov represented first person. In early February, Sheremetev secretly, dressed in someone else’s dress, traveled ahead of the embassy to Venice to conduct confidential negotiations, and at the same time to participate in the carnival without formalities. Here the Russian delegation was joined by Boris Petrovich’s younger brothers, Vasily and Vladimir Sheremetev, who were in Venice on the instructions of Peter I.
On March 21, 1898, the Russian delegation - via Ferrara, Bologna, Faenza, Pesaro and Spoleto - arrived in Rome, where Pope Innocent XII gave the ambassador of the Moscow Tsar a rare honor: “he did not order his swords and hats to be taken away at the entrance to the audience hall, he himself accepted the letters he had brought from his hands, praised his courageous exploits against the enemies of the Holy Cross and allowed him to touch his hand, and he kissed him on the head.” The next day Sheremetev, in turn, “conducted to the High Priest a sable blanket worth nine hundred rubles, two precious brocades and five forty ermines.” Before the Russians left Rome, Innocent sent Sheremetev a golden cross that contained a particle of the tree of the life-giving Cross of the Lord.
Sheremetev was solemnly greeted by the Knights of Malta in Valletta and had negotiations with Grand Master Raymond Perellos-Rocafull, who awarded the Russian Tsar's ambassador the Maltese Cross.
On May 22, the Russian delegation returned by sea to Naples, from where Sheremetev traveled to the Adriatic coast in Bari to venerate the holy relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and on June Sheremetev was again in Rome, saw the Pope (from whom he received letters of reply to the Russian Tsar and the Austrian Emperor Leopold) and On June 15, I set off on my return journey north in the direction of Venice and Vienna.
On June 22, 1698, “on the eighth day” of the journey from Rome, Sheremetev arrived in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, where the delegation stopped at one of the inns. That same night, a messenger arrived at Sheremetev from the Grand Duke, who had heard about the arrival of the eminent “Muscovite” in Florence: “And that same evening, having learned about the boyar’s arrival, the grandduke sent the abbot, Father Francis, to the boyar at about three o’clock in the morning.”
Boris Petrovich Sheremetev
Sheremetev’s “Notes” contains an ornate address from Abbot Francis to the ambassador of the Moscow sovereign:
“The most illustrious and most powerful great sovereign, his royal most illustrious majesty of Moscow and other many and most glorious states of the autocrat and emperor, the closest boyar and governor of Vyatka Boris Petrovich Sheremetev, and his troops, the great generalissimo, sent me to your most noble person, the most illustrious grandduke of Florensky Cosmus the Third de Medicis , ordered you to ask about your health and through me, his lowest servant, sends you his worship. He rejoices a lot in the fact that he waited for your grace to come to his state, such a pleasant guest, but he grieves over this, that without making news of himself, he was pleased to arrive to us without performing any honor due to your glorious and high-born name; however, he also reasons that your noblest person was pleased to do something of his own free will, and attributes it to your wise actions. And he ordered me to serve your grace with my carriages with servants and walkers, and, wherever you please, you can ride in them. Moreover, he asked his lordship to see his lordship as a grand duke, wherever your lordship deigns.”
In those years, the Grand Duke of Tuscany was the already middle-aged Cosimo III Medici (1642-1723), a zealous Catholic, but an incapable politician, whose state was in decline. More than twenty years ago, he divorced Margaret Louise of Orleans (who, as we remember, he was preparing to marry during Likhachev’s embassy to his father), who would rather go to a monastery than live with her disgusted husband. When, a few years later, Cosimo asked the French woman to renew the marriage, she proudly replied: “Not an hour or a day goes by that I don’t wish someone would hang you... We will both soon go to hell, and I still have the torment of meeting you there...”
Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de' Medici
The next day after arriving, Sheremetev with his brothers Vasily and Vladimir, in two carriages sent by the Grand Duke and accompanied by Abbot Francis and the “fast walkers” carriages running ahead, set off to inspect the city.
“Florence is a great city, greater than Venice,– we read in Sheremetev’s “Notes”. – The chambers in it are made in a special structure, and not in the same way as in the Roman and Venetian regions. Flows through the city of Florence great river, called Arno, across its four great bridges with different figures. The Florensky Grand Duke is the Grand Duke[hereditary] a prince and autocratic, not like the Prince of Venice. The chambers of Grand Duke Florensky are grand and richly decorated.”
The travelers toured the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Church of San Lorenzo under construction with the Medici family tomb:
“There is a great church here, all made, from the ground to the cross, from various marbles, but there is no simple stone anywhere... Another church is being built, where the coffins of the Grand Dukes of Florensky stand, all from various precious marbles, which church has never been built anywhere. And when they began to build this church, they built it so many years ago, but it’s only half built, and it’s always constantly being built, and it’s a great church, they say, the treasury is being spent on it.” An obligatory item on the tour of Florence for high-ranking guests was the ducal “menagerie” - the source of pride for several generations of Medici:
“Then we were in the menagerie and saw big lions, and lionesses, and for six months each young lions, also leopards, bears, wolves, foxes, white arctic foxes, sea cats and great eagles.”
On the third day of the Russian guests’ stay in the capital of Tuscany, a gala reception was organized at the Grand Ducal Palace:
“And when we arrived at the entrance to the chambers, many of his ministers met the boyar here. And the grandduke himself met him in another chamber and greeted him kindly, took the boyar by the hand and led him to his chamber at his right hand and said: “I am very happy to see in my house such a pleasant guest, whom, hearing, contains my path in the Italian regions and beyond.” , little by little, with all my heart, I wanted to see, which I have not lost my desire to see.” Against which the boyar also thanked him in a decent manner..."
Piazza della Signoria. XVIII century
Cosimo III showed Sheremetev an engraving kept in his office depicting the Moscow Tsar Peter in German dress, saying: “Looking at this, His Royal Majesty, person as if he were himself, I truly always pay him respect.” The Grand Duke showed Moscow geographical maps of the Black Sea, saying that “His Royal Majesty was pleased to compose this land map with his own hands.” Then Cosimo led Sheremetev to a special room where the Medici family jewels were kept: “And he took the boyar to another chamber, in which he showed a stone, a cut diamond, the size of a forest apple, equal on all sides, also many different precious cufflinks and a lot of Persian pearls, another pearl the size of a Russian nut, and in one cufflink he showed hanging red dal [a ruby-like stone], the size of a large forest apple, and showed many other things..."
After their visit to the palace, the guests were taken to see a particularly revered Florentine shrine - the incorruptible relics of Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, kept in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli:
“On the same day we went to the monastery of Carmalitan lawyers. Here in the church lie the relics of the holy martyr Mary, placed under the altar and visible behind the crystal, incorruptible...”
The guests also looked at the treasures of the Uffizi Gallery, which combined a state chancellery and a repository of rarities:
“Then they were in the government chambers in eleven chambers, showing a great treasure of gold, silver, expensive stones, various boxes with stones, various paintings, guns and saddles from different states, in which great wealth consists and purity is observed...”
The documents of the Council of Florence in 1439, at which a union was concluded between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, were kept with special care in the Uffizi: “They showed a description of the cathedral that was in Florence on a great sheet, on which the Greek Caesar and everyone who was at that cathedral signed their names with their own hands.” Sheremetev, apparently, was particularly interested in this document, and he asked for a copy to be made, which was made and handed to him before leaving.
On the eve of Sheremetev’s departure from Florence, the same Abbot Francis, on behalf of Cosimo III, presented him with a precious “box” as a gift: “This box is carved, framed in silver, and in it are two boxes with many medicines.” Sheremetev, in turn, also blessed the hospitable hosts: “And the boyar gave him as a gift: two pairs of sables and a jamb of damask - worth fifty rubles; and the drivers of the princes, and the footmen, and the walkers were given twenty ducats.”
On June 15, 1698, the Russian delegation left Florence for Venice, where by that time many Russians had gathered in anticipation of Tsar Peter Alekseevich, who was traveling around Europe as part of the “Great Embassy”.
Apparently, on the instructions of Peter, Sheremetev stayed in Venice until August 10, then for almost a month he negotiated in Vienna, where Emperor Leopold I “I listened with curiosity to Boris Petrovich’s story, especially about Italy and Malta; I wanted the badge of the order that he received to encourage him to new exploits that would be useful for all of Christianity.”
Having then visited the Polish lands and Kyiv, Sheremetev returned to Moscow only on February 10, 1899, appearing before Tsar Peter “in German dress, with the Maltese command cross and a precious sword.” After this, the Tsar ordered it to be written down in all official papers relating to Sheremetev that “his title, in addition to his boyar dignity, has also received an increase, and as in the Boyar Book, in Paintings and other papers, so he himself would be written: Boyar and Military Certified Maltese Cavalier.”
Petr Andreevich Tolstoy
Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy (1645 – 02/07/1729, Solovetsky Monastery) – statesman, diplomat, memoirist. A relative of the Miloslavsky princes, during the Moscow struggle for power in 1682 he recklessly joined the party of Princess Sophia, inciting the archers against the Naryshkins, but soon went over to the side of the young Tsar Peter Alekseevich. In the second half of his life - one of the closest associates of Peter the Great.
In 1697-1699, in order to atone for the mistakes of the past and earn the trust of Peter I, the middle-aged Tolstoy, already a grandfather, traveled at his own expense to Europe to master ship craftsmanship, especially valued by the Tsar. He visited Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, Milan, the Papal States, Naples, the islands of Sicily and Malta, about which he left a detailed “Diary”, known as “The Travel of the Steward P. A. Tolstoy in Europe 1697-1699.”
Petr Andreevich Tolstoy
In the summer of 1698, Tolstoy, on his way back from Malta, stopped in Naples, then was in Rome, and then moved north to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Unlike the Sheremetev embassy, which visited these places two months earlier, Tolstoy traveled alone, as a private person, and on the way to Florence on August 21, 1698 he stopped in Siena:
“That city of Grand Duke Florensky is very large, standing on a high mountain. In that city there are tall stone buildings, made with considerable skill. That city is crowded; and the people in it live in decent politics, are honest persons, ride in decent carriages and have fair appearances; also the wives and girls of that city travel in carriages. There are many merchants in that city, there are plenty of shops and goods in that city. The monasteries and churches in that city are of considerable construction...”
On the morning of August 23, Tolstoy reached Florence, not suspecting that the city was still full of rumors about noble “Muscovites” who had recently visited here and received an honorary reception from the Grand Duke himself:
“I arrived at the Florensky Gate, and at the gate where the soldiers stand guard, they wanted, as usual, to look at all sorts of merchant things in my chest. And when they heard about me that I was a person from the Moscow State, they, without examining anything from me, immediately let me through to Florence.”
Upon entering Florence, Tolstoy stopped at the inn (ostaria) of San Lunzi, where he was pleasantly surprised by the reception:
“In that ostaria, the owner gave me a sizable room, in which there was a gilded bed with a sizable curtain, also a good bed with clean white sheets and a sizable blanket, and a table, and chairs, and sizable armchairs, and all sorts of decorations, mirrors, paintings, etc. Italians usually clean the wards. In that ostaria, for food, and for a chamber, and for any rest, I paid the owner for myself seven Roman Pauls per day, and Moscow money would be half a ruble ... "
The city made a very good impression on Tolstoy:
“Florence is a great place between great mountains on level ground. And the grandduke lives outside, that is, the Grand Duke, with whom he has a crown, that is, crowned, has considerable other places under him, and his dominion is considerable and populous. Florence is a stone city, of an ancient structure, with stone towers and gateways of ancient fashion, but of considerable craftsmanship. The entire city of Florence is paved with stone, and the chambers are high, three and four houses high, but they are built simply, not according to architecture. A large river flows through Florence, called the Arno. Four large stone bridges were built across that river, on stone pillars, between which there was one very large one, on which a silver row was built. There are more than 200 monasteries and churches in Florence, which have a fair amount of decoration and are rich in silver and all sorts of church decorations ... " Tolstoy also liked the residents of the city:
“The vile people in Florence are pious, political, and highly admired and truthful... In Florence, the people are pure and highly receptive to the forestiers[foreigners]. Dresses are worn in French by honest people, and by other persons like in Roman dress; and the merchants wear the same clothes as the Venetian merchants, – black; and the female sex in Florence is cleaned in the Roman way. Honest people in Florence and rich merchants travel in large carriages and carriages; and there are many carriage horses in Florence; also wives and girls ride in carriages, having pretty much cleaned up, on good horses…»
View of Florence from the Arno River. XVIII century
The Florentines seemed to the Russian traveler to be a hard-working and prosperous people:
“There are many rows in which merchants and artisans sit in Florence and plenty of all kinds of goods; There are also a lot of craftsmen of all sorts of people, and most of all, Florence boasts of the skill that they make all sorts of things, great and small, from pink marbles, very wonderfully... In Florence there are many great craftsmen, painters of great Italian skill, who paint a lot and take golden red pieces for one small image 50 or more..."
Tolstoy was also pleasantly struck by the comparative cheapness of local life:
“In Florence, bread, meat, and all kinds of living creatures are inexpensive, and there is plenty of it; there is also a lot of fish and inexpensive; and there are plenty of all kinds of fruits and very cheap, and even more so there are a lot of good grapes, from which they make good wines, which are famous all over the world, Florensky wines; and there are a lot of them, white and red, which are immensely tasty and non-drunk; and they will buy them there cheaply, and when they buy them, they will take them to distant places for the glory that there are glorious Florensky wines...”
Meanwhile, the shortcomings of city government cannot escape the eye of an experienced traveler:
“In Florence there are not many fountains that are damaged, but good workmanship, just not like in Rome, and water doesn’t flow from all the fountains in Florence...”
Like Sheremetev and his companions earlier, Tolstoy describes one of the main Florentine wonders - the “menagerie” of the Grand Duke, located behind the Old Palace on Via dei Leoni:
“Then he came to a house in which animals and birds were sitting for the Grand Duke of Florence. In that house there were spacious places for the animals and chambers in which a large number of animals lived. Large windows were made in those places and thick iron bars were inserted, into which through the windows people could see animals...”
Tolstoy’s enumeration of the inhabitants of the “menagerie” is much more detailed than that presented in Sheremetev’s notes:
“In that house I saw a great lion, who, they say, is g years old. Then I saw a great lioness, and they say an amazing thing about her, as if she was sick with a fever, which I saw lying there, and roared loudly, as if moaning loudly. Then I saw a young lion, which still had no mane and no brushes on its tail; but they say that that lion is still three years old. Then I saw: two small lions were sitting in one place and playing with each other, and the majesty of the small lions was from a mediocre wolf; but they say that those lions are still seven months old and were brought from Gishpania. In the same house I saw one great and very handsome leopard. In the same house I saw three great bears, among which one was sexual, great; but they say that that sexual bear has been sitting in that house for ages. In the same house I saw many great wolves. In the same house I saw one black fox; and they say that that fox was brought to long ago to Florence from Moscow. I also saw many great gray eagles there.”
Important details can be found in Tolstoy’s memoirs:
“In this house a spacious place was made between the chambers; In the middle of that place stands a pillar of a great wooden tree. And that place was made for this: when the Grand Duke of Florenskaya wants to have fun with those animals, then the animals are released into that place; and those animals are fighting in that place, and the Grand Duke is looking at him from above, where hefty stone passages have been made around that commemorated place.”
Equally unique is Tolstoy’s description of a special “machine” with the help of which the menagerie’s servants could stop the deadly fights of enraged exotic animals:
“And if the beast learns to overcome the beast and it is impossible for people to separate them due to their cruelty, and for this purpose the following instrument is made: one great imagination is made of clay, immeasurably terrible, in the likeness of a very frightening toad; and people will enter that image and light a fire in it, so that smoke and flames of fire will come out of that image from the mouth, and from the eyes, and from the ears, and from the sides. And so those people in that monster will ride up to the place where those animals are fighting, and when the animals see that image, they will be frightened, they will think that something living has entered them, and they will scatter in different ways, leaving the fight. Then the fur-hunters will take them and put them in their places where they live. And that terrible image was made on wheels, and in it former people can go wherever they want...”
Walking around the city and constantly suffering from the August heat, Tolstoy examined the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Baptistery of San Giovanni, the unfinished Church of San Lorenzo with the Medici Chapel and some other attractions on the right bank of the Arno. Having also looked at the Uffizi, he crossed the Ponte Vecchio to the left bank:
“Then I came to one great bridge, which was built across the river on stone pillars, high, green and wide. On that bridge, on both sides, there were shops in which marquants, that is, merchants, sat and traded silver. There is only a small amount of silver in those shops, and I have not seen the finest works in silver in those shops.”
Tolstoy looked at the Pitti Palace, mistakenly assuming that there was this moment The Grand Duke is located - in fact, during the summer heat, the Court went closer to the sea, to Pisa. Even the absence of serious guards in front of the palace did not bother Tolstoy:
“Then I came to Florensky’s court. His courtyard stands on a hill, the chambers are great, the buildings and fashion are ancient. At his gate there is one guard with a protazan, and I didn’t see anyone at his yard ... "
Tolstoy, who was distinguished by his high self-esteem, explains why he decided not to bother the Grand Duke and not pay him a visit:
“But I didn’t go to his courtyard, because I went there for a walk in secret, but in secret, because my intention was not to live in Florence for more than one day. And if I were to show up with my face in Florence, and the Grand Duke of Florensky would lovingly detain me: for the sake of my sovereign, he would want to inflict arrogance on me[honor] and thus I would have created an obstacle to my path. And, looking at that great prince’s house, I came to my place in Ostaria...”
Tolstoy ordered a carriage for early the next morning and, having paid the owner in advance, (“so that I won’t be detained by anyone”), left the capital of Tuscany that he liked; his path lay to Ferrara, Padua and further to Venice.
...Almost twenty years later, in neither g., Pyotr Andreevich Tolstoy again visited Italy, where, through ingenious combinations, he managed to persuade the heir Alexei Petrovich, who was hiding from the Tsar-Father, to return to Russia. Subsequently, Tolstoy personally headed the investigation into the case of the Tsarevich.
For services to Emperor Peter I, P. A. Tolstoy received the title of count in 1724, thus becoming the founder count's family Tolstykh. After the death of Peter the Great's successor, Empress Catherine, Tolstoy lost his court intrigues to Menshikov and was exiled to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he died.
Demidovs
On the left bank of the Arno, next to the embankment at Ponte alle Grazie, there is Piazza Nicola Demidoff, named after Nikolai Nikitich Demidov (1773-1828), Russian envoy to the Tuscan court, philanthropist, honorary citizen of Florence. In the center of the square, under a glass openwork canopy, there is a monument to Demidov by Lorenzo Bartolini. In the center is Demidov in the image of a Roman senator who hugs his little son; a female figure, symbolizing Gratitude, presents him with a laurel wreath. In the corners there are four allegory statues: Nature, Art, Mercy and Siberia (the latter holds Plutos with a bag of gold in her arms). The monument was created by order of the son of the envoy Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov and presented to him as a gift to Florence.
The foundation of the Demidov family, which played a significant role in the new history of Florence, was laid by the son of a Tula peasant blacksmith, Nikita Demidovich Antufiev. In 1696, Peter the Great, on his way to Voronezh, stopped in Tula and ordered to ask local craftsmen if they would undertake to forge three hundred halberds in a month according to the brought model. The only person who came to the king’s call was the blacksmith Nikita Antufiev. Soon after the first test, Peter ordered him to make guns based on a foreign model, and Antufiev again completed the royal task with honor. In gratitude, Peter granted the master a plot of land on the banks of the Tulitsa, the right to mine iron ore and the surname Demidov. After some time, the Demidovs received vast lands in the Urals and Siberia as a gift from the tsar, and opened magnetic, silver and copper mines there. According to Golikov, Peter’s biographer, in 1715, when the Tsar’s son Pyotr Petrovich was born, Nikita Demidov sent the Tsarevich “a lot of precious gold things from ancient Siberian mounds and one hundred thousand rubles in money” to “grab” the Tsarevich. In 1720, Peter elevated Nikita Demidovich Demidov to hereditary nobility.
Nikita Demidov died on November 17, 1725 and was buried in Tula at the Nativity of Christ Church (called Demidovskaya), in a cast-iron tomb under the porch. His son Akinfiy Nikitich expanded his father's business, and when he died in 1745, his three sons - Prokofy, Grigory and Nikita Demidov inherited a huge fortune: dozens of mines and factories, other real estate, as well as more than thirty thousand peasants (registered serfs). .
Monument to the honorary citizen of Florence Nikolai Nikitich Demidov on the square named after him.
The first of the Demidovs to visit Europe was Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov during a long trip abroad. Historian S. N. Shubinsky wrote:
“The purpose of this trip was, of course, the desire to look at overseas luxury and experience those entertainments and pleasures that could not be obtained in Russia for any money. Staying in all the main cities of Europe, Prokofy Akinfievich indulged in such an idle and noisy life and made such monstrous purchases of various luxury items that he horrified foreigners. While feasting on Demidov’s Lucullus holidays, they shook their heads in bewilderment and said in each other’s ears: “How he shakes! Will he leave here with something?”, and Prokofy Akinfievich, meanwhile, laughed out loud at the poverty of Europe, saying that he had nowhere to spend money and that he could not get himself even the most necessary things. Such crazy throwing of money, of course, soon made Demidov’s name known abroad. Everywhere he went, he was received like a prince,- With honors and servility."
In Russia, Prokofy Demidov lived in Moscow, because in St. Petersburg, as the same biographer notes, “the presence of the court restrained his arbitrariness, and the court splendor partly overshadowed the pomp with which he surrounded himself.” Having inherited several houses in Moscow, Prokofy built another house of the most intricate architecture on Basmannaya Street near Razgulyal and sheathed it entirely with iron on the outside - as protection from fires, which were frequent in those days.
Shubinsky: “The interior decoration of the house was magnificent and fully corresponded to the colossal wealth of the owner. Masses of gold, silver and native stones dazzled the eyes; luxurious paintings adorned the walls, upholstered in damask and velvet; mirrored windows and staircases were lined with rare plants; furniture made of palm, black and rosewood amazed with its finest carvings, like lace; carpets of tiger, sable and bear skins lay on the mosaic floors; Birds from all over the world were hung on the ceilings in golden cages; tame monkeys, orangutans and other animals walked around the rooms; Various fish swam in marble pools; the melodic sounds of organs skillfully built into the walls amused the ears of visitors; in the dining room, figured silver fountains continuously flowed with wine; a luxurious and plentiful dinner was ready at any time for everyone - in a word, Demidov concentrated in his house all the luxury and splendor that were only accessible to the art and imagination of that time.”
Biographers of the Demidov family testify that over the years, Prokofy Akinfievich’s oddities have increased. He traveled around Moscow in no other way than in a train, in a car painted with bright orange paint. The crew consisted of two small horses at the root, two huge ones in the middle with a barely noticeable postilion, and two also small horses in front, with a postilion so tall that his long legs dragged along the pavement. The livery of the footmen was in complete harmony with the harness: one half was sewn from gold brocade, the other from the coarsest homespun; one foot of the footman was shod in a silk stocking and shoe, the other in an onuchi and bast shoe. When it became fashionable to wear glasses, Demidov put them on not only his servants, but even horses and dogs...
The coat of arms of the Demidovs on the facade of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
However, Prokofy Demidov went down in history not only for his extravagance. He donated huge sums to Moscow University; with his own money he founded a commercial school in Moscow for one hundred boys from merchant families. For his charitable activities, Empress Catherine the Great granted him the rank of full state councilor. In November 1786, P. A. Demidov died and was buried in the Donskoy Monastery behind the altar of the Sretenskaya Church; the grateful University sent a whole deputation to the coffin of the deceased.
Traveled to Europe in 1771-1773. and another son of Akinfiy Demidov - Nikita Akinfievich, heir to the Nizhny Tagil part of his father’s fortune. This journey is described in detail in the “Diary of a Travel to Foreign Countries” published by Demidov in Moscow in 1786. In a “pre-notification” to him, Demidov’s secretary wrote:
“The main motivation for his highness Nikita Akinfievich to undertake this journey was the incessant illness of Alexandra Evtikhievna, his wife, for the gentlemen doctors who used her, having used many methods of their knowledge, but without success, finally responded that they could not find any other means for her healing, except how to get to the waters located in Spa. This advice and hope to see his wife in perfect health prompted him to take such a long journey.”
Treatment with mineral waters at the Belgian Spa resort was successful, and the next year, in Paris, A. E. Demidova (née Safonova) safely gave birth to a daughter, Ekaterina. To celebrate, Nikita Demidov ordered marble busts of himself and his wife (they are now in the Tretyakov Gallery) to the young Russian sculptor Fedot Ivanovich Shubin, who came to Paris from Rome, where he had an internship. Fedot Shubin, who settled in the Demidovs’ Parisian apartment, began to work and at the same time spoke so captivatingly “about Roman antiquities and all memorable things”, What "excited a desire to see Italy."
At the beginning of December 1773, the Demidovs, leaving their little daughter in Paris "with good supervision" set off on the road to Italy, “with the intention of exploring such a land that was abundant in all works and, moreover, great people, heroes, officials, citizens, scientists and artists.” Two Parisian acquaintances went with them - Prince Sergei Sergeevich Gagarin (later an actual Privy Councilor and Russian envoy in London) and the future famous historian and collector Count Alexei Ivanovich Musin-Pushkin. They also took Shubin on a trip - “by his satisfied knowledge of the Italian language.”
Through Lyon and Chambery, Russian travelers arrived by stagecoaches to the capital of the Piedmontese kingdom of Turin, where they stopped at the City of London inn. Then we rode for a long time by postal coach through Milan, Parma and Bologna (seeing local sights everywhere), “because of the muddy road, for then it was autumn and winter together.” We overcame the path from Bologna to Florence with particular difficulties - “because of the great snow that lay in the mountains.” 7 On January 1773, they finally reached Florence, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, where they then lived for two weeks.
A familiar English envoy introduced the Russian guests to Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo I (brother of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II of Habsburg) and Grand Duchess Maria Luisa (daughter of the Spanish King Charles III), who gave them a special reception. The travelers made a number of important visits (for example, to the palace of the princes of Corsini on the right bank of the Arno), visited opera house"Pergola" in Via Ghibellina, dressed, according to local custom, in fancy dress, for “in all of Italy, except for the papal domain, from Christmas to the first week of Lent they even walk through the streets and all the disgraces in masquerade dress.” Several times we visited the “Casino” (or, in English, the “Club”) - an establishment popular since the time of the Medici, where the Florentine elite was used to learning the latest social and political news, viewing the latest newspapers, drinking coffee that was becoming fashionable and playing cards. This “club” (Casino Mediceo di San Marco) was located in the block between Larga (now Cavour) and San Gallo streets.
The Russian guests began their inspection of the artistic treasures of Florence from the Grand Ducal Uffizi Gallery, where Nikita Akinfievich was especially struck by the sculpture of the Venus of Medicea in the Tribune Hall - an octagonal room with walls upholstered in crimson velvet, organized at the end of the 16th century. under Duke Francesco I. N.A. Demidov testifies to this sculptural masterpiece (a Roman copy of the 1st century BC from a lost Greek original), in late XVII V. transported by the Medici from Rome to Florence:
“The most perfect example of this art is six feet in height, with two cupids in front and a Dolphin on its side. She is presented all naked; the head is turned to the left shoulder; he holds his right hand, without touching it above the breasts, and with his left hand, at some distance, covers what decency forbids to be shown. It’s impossible to come up with a better and more perfect idea.”
In Demidov’s “Diary” there is also the first description in Russian literature of the famous Florentine collection of self-portraits of great artists, which at that time was in a specially designated room of the Uffizi Gallery (later moved to the “Vasari Corridor” on the Ponte Vecchio):
“Here there are many original paintings by the best painters and placed in a special room, copied from themselves, and especially the portraits of the first of them, the most famous Raphael.”
Tribune Hall in the Uffizi Gallery. In the depths - Venus Medicae
After visiting the Uffizi, the guests moved to Palazzo Pitti (“it is connected to the gallery and the Old Palace by passages”). Among the many works of painting located here, N. A. Demidov especially highlighted the “Seated Madonna” by Raphael Santi:
“The painting is oval, depicting the Virgin Mary with the eternal child, whose eyes are so focused that no matter which way you look from, he seems to be looking insightfully everywhere; known under the name Madona della Sedia by Rafaelov's monogram. It is painted waist-deep in life-size. It is impossible to draw or create a more perfect image than in this picture.” Demidov’s opinion about the Grand Duchy of Tuscany is interesting:
“The Duchy of Tuscany, formerly called Etruscan, can be considered the most prosperous, for its land is fruitful and all the necessary works abundant. The trade is sent in good condition with olive oil, silk and wool. The troops here are only counted up to boooo people; but in case of need, the duke can support thirty thousand; and since he is the brother of the Roman emperor and the son-in-law of the Spanish king, the former can supply him with people if necessary, and the latter with money, through which he will be protected from any attack and oppression of his neighbors. In this duchy, as we were told, there are up to a million inhabitants. The income from everything is collected from our money about three million rubles. The local residents are generally the kindest and most honest people and are not at all prone to theft; for the robbed, and especially the murdered, are very rarely found.”
The Demidovs especially liked the capital of Tuscany:
“The whole city of Florence and all the streets are paved with large smooth stones, tightly connected. The Arno River flows through this entire city and divides it in half. She was said to have up to 70 during the spill fathoms width; It originates in the Apennine mountains, and flows near Pisa into the Tuscan Sea... The building in this city, generally speaking, is the best, the houses are not huge, but livable, the streets are quite wide and clean; The residents are affectionate and treat strangers in a friendly manner. Food supplies and other things are all cheap...”
After Florence, the travelers went to Rome, where they stayed for a month, then spent three weeks in Naples and its environs. On the way back, they again visited Rome (having watched the Easter celebrations), and having reached Tuscany, they stopped this time in Pisa, where at the beginning of April 1773 the court of the Grand Duke was located “for the celebration of the cavalier feast of St. Stephen, for the Duke is Grand Master of this order.”
N.A. Demidov describes Pisa as follows:
“Pisa has a special archbishopric, the second ducal city, and the first after Florence. It is quite large, its streets are spacious, paved with large stones, and the houses, generally speaking, are built in a very nice way. All sorts of ships can sail on the Arno River. It is twice as wide as the Tiber in Rome. Three stone bridges were built across this river, the middle one of which is all marble. The Pisa Cathedral Church is similar in structure to the Siena one, only the one here is larger and its position is more advantageous: the bell tower has a special architecture, very leaning to the right side, made entirely of marble with columns of considerable size in six tiers. Its likeness is a real cylinder. The surface is flat and surrounded by a balustrade, from which we lowered a lead or plumb line on a rope, then it became fifteen steps from the foundation.”
In the main port of the Grand Duchy - Livorno, the Demidovs met with officers of the Russian fleet living in the hired large palazzo of the commander-in-chief, Count A.G. Orlov. On the way from Pisa to the port of Lerici, near the town of Sarzana, a story happened to the Demidovs’ road carriage that had every chance of ending tragically for the Demidovs and their unborn heir. Here is an entry from the Travel Diary:
“Crossing a small but steep cape, near the carriage in which Alexandra Evtikhievna, being pregnant, Nikita Akinfievich and Mikhaila Savich Borozdin were sitting(Colonel, future lieutenant general, who joined the Demidovs in Rome. - A.K.) two horses in front broke away. The two main ones could not hold the carriage, they were dragged by its burden into a gulley, on the edge of which a standing tree stopped the rapidity of the fall... The carriage, although it overturned upside down with its wheels, did not fall so hard, which is why no one was seriously injured, but everyone was extremely scared. With great difficulty, a carriage was taken out of the gulley on oxen, which were used for plowing near the place there...”
Having happily avoided danger, the Demidovs sailed from Lerici on two small sailing feluccas to Genoa, and from there, through Turin, the Alpine passes and Switzerland, they returned to France.
On the way back to Russia, shortly before returning to St. Petersburg, on November 9, 1773, in the town of Chirkovitsy outside Narva, a happy event took place for the family: Alexandra Evtikhievna Demidova “from the eighth hour she began to feel the approach of her homeland, for which they immediately sent for her grandmother, and meanwhile they begged the postmaster’s wife not to provide assistance in this case. And at about g hours and a quarter she was safely delivered from the burden, and to the indescribable joy of her husband, God gave him a son, as if as a reward for his such a long and difficult journey, undertaken by him solely for her healing. After reading the prayer, the newborn was named Nicholas.”
Nikolai Nikitich Demidov moved to Florence from Paris after the death of his first wife Elizaveta Alexandrovna (née Stroganova) and soon replaced N. F. Khitrovo as Russian envoy to the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Count D. P. Buturlin, who also spent many years in Florence, described the life and customs of the Russian colony in Florence during N. N. Demidov’s stay there, who, according to Buturlin, “he lived there as a sovereign prince”:
Demidov Palace in Florence. 1820s
However, like his uncle, more than eccentricities, Nikolai Demidov became famous for his charity: he generously helped the city, donated to the church, and founded several schools in Florence. After his death, the inheritance passed to his son, Anatoly Nikitich Demidov. He was married to Napoleon I’s own niece, Matilda (daughter of Jerome, the emperor’s brother), acquired the Principality of San Donato near Florence and built a villa there. The Demidovs' home church in San Donato has long been the main temple of all Orthodox Christians in Florence. Anatoly Demidov also increased the richest collections of his father, adding to them a large number of precious marble and bronze vases, statues, busts, including those dug during the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. When, much later, the Demidov collections were transported by sea to St. Petersburg, several large ships were required.
A. N. Demidov died in 1870 childless, and his huge fortune, the basis of which were Nizhny Tagil factories and lands in Siberia and the Urals, was inherited by his nephew, Pavel Pavlovich Demidov. He was born on October 1839 in Weimar, lost his father early and was raised by his mother, Aurora Karlovna (née Schernval), who married A. N. Karamzin, the son of the famous historian, for his second marriage. Pavel Demidov graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, and then continued to serve in Russian diplomatic missions in Europe. His biographer wrote about him:
“Impetuous, passionate, often carried away, young Demidov, in a wide range of diverse impressions, was able to find and recognize those aspects of human life on which the attention of people who revel in life never stops... The rich man, first of all, wanted to know poverty and disaster. Spoiled or, more directly, depressed by the blessings of life, Demidov was not satisfied with vanity and sought the truth. Even in Paris, he became close to people of a spiritual direction and sought support in the friends of the church and evangelical wisdom ... "
After the death of his first wife Maria Elimovna (nee Princess Meshcherskaya), Pavel Demidov abandoned diplomatic service, returned to Russia and settled in provincial town Kamenets, and then in Kyiv, where he was first an honorary justice of the peace, and then the mayor of the city. He was involved in charity work, actively donating to the needs of the city, university and church.
Villa Demidov Pratolino near Florence
Pavel Demidov also visited Tuscany, where he inherited property in San Donato from his uncle. In Florence, he continued the family traditions: he opened several schools, cheap canteens, and overnight shelters. In 1872, having already been married for the second time to Princess Elena Petrovna Trubetskoy (daughter of the St. Petersburg leader of the nobility), he acquired the Pratolino estate, twenty kilometers from Florence along the old Bolognese road. The villa in Pratolino was built in the 70s of the 16th century. Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, for his lover and then wife, Bianca Capello. Montaigne and Torquato Tasso left enthusiastic descriptions of the villa. By the beginning of the 19th century. the villa fell into complete disrepair, the old palace was destroyed, and the new owner, P. P. Demidov, rebuilt the old page building as the main building. The landmark of the park of Villa Pratolino continues to be Giambologna’s grandiose sculpture “Allegory of the Apennines”.
Giambologna's sculpture "Allegory of the Apennines" ("Colossus") in the park of Villa Pratolino
With the permission of the Russian Emperor Alexander II, Pavel Demidov accepted the title of Prince of San Donato and two awards granted to him by the Italian King Victor Emmanuel and two awards - the Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus and the Order of the Italian Crown. In 1879, citizens of Florence presented P. Demidov with a gold medal with the image of him and the princess and the address, delivered to San Donato by a special deputation, which included representatives of all corporations of the city. On this occasion, the municipality elected the Prince and Princess of San Donato as honorary citizens of Florence.
Pavel Pavlovich Demidov died at his villa near Florence in 1885, at forty-six years of age; his body was first buried in Pratolino and then transported to Russia.
Villa San Donato in north-west Florence was sold back in 1880 - now the Florence city hospital is located there. Even earlier, in 1879, the house church, which had existed since 1840, was abolished; its decoration (iconostasis, icon cases, choirs, carved doors by Barbetti) were transferred to the Orthodox Church in Florence on Via Leone X, built according to the design of the architect M. T. Preobrazhensky. The “lower temple” of the church was consecrated in 1902 in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the patron saint of Nikolai Nikitich Demidov, the founder of the Florentine line of the family.
After the death of P.P. Demidov, the Pratolino estate passed to his daughter Maria Pavlovna, who lived all her life in Italy and died there in 1956. She bequeathed the Villa and the estate to her nephew Pavel, a scion of the Yugoslav royal Karageorgievich family.
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (04/14/1745, Moscow - 12/12/1792, St. Petersburg) - playwright, publicist, diplomat. He comes from an old noble family: his ancestor, Baron Peter von Wisin, a knight of the sword, was captured during the Livonian War under Ivan the Terrible, and then transferred to Russian service. In the 17th century The Fonvizins exchanged Lutheranism for Orthodoxy and over the years became completely Russified: Pushkin called Fonvizin “a Russian from the pre-Russians.”
Having already established himself as a translator and playwright, D.I. Fonvizin in 1769 became a close collaborator of the head of the Russian diplomatic department, Catherine's vice-chancellor, Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin and, on his instructions, participated in several diplomatic missions to Europe. Over time, he became an expert European culture and, in partnership with the German merchant G. Klostermann, supplied items Western art Empress Catherine II, heir Pavel Petrovich, the family of counts Panin and other Russian aristocrats.
Herman Klosterman gave the following description of his older friend and business partner:
“In the comic genre, he is perhaps the first writer in Russia, and it is not without reason that he is called the Russian Moliere... Fonvizin was distinguished by his lively imagination, subtle mockery, and the ability to quickly notice the funny side and present it in people’s faces with amazing fidelity; this made his conversation unusually pleasant and cheerful, and society was enlivened by his presence. With high qualities of mind he combined the most sincere simplicity and cheerfulness, which he retained even in the most fatal cases of his troubled life ... "
After the death of Nikita Panin, Fonvizin, who by that time had become a wealthy man, retired with a large pension and, with the intention of improving his health and replenishing his art collections, in 1784 he once again went to Europe, entrusting the care of his real estate in Russia to Klosterman . According to the latter's recollections, “After affairs were put in order, Fonvizin, accompanied by his wife, went abroad, stocking up with a passport, many letters of recommendation, a thousand chervonets in pure money, ten thousand Dutch guilders, and bills from the local trading house of the Livio brothers. He went to Riga Konigsberg, etc. and achieved, without denying himself anything and enjoying the journey, the goal of his desires - beautiful Italy. He wanted to live in this garden of Europe and wanted to choose Nice or Pisa as his place of residence, so that he could be treated with a bath in the wonderful climate...”
Fonvizin’s faithful companion on his trip to Europe was his wife Ekaterina Ivanovna (nee Rogovikova, Khlopova after her first husband), who, being the daughter of a wealthy merchant, herself had a great taste for the arts and good business acumen.
Having visited Germany and Austria, the Fonvizins crossed the Alpine Brennen Pass to Italy. The first Italian city on their way (albeit then under the rule of the Austrian emperor) was Bolzano, when describing which Fonvizin does not hide his bias, apparently caused both by character traits (Herzen later spoke about Fonvizin’s “demonic sarcasm”) and painful condition:
“This city is surrounded by mountains, and its situation is not at all pleasant, because it lies in a hole. Half of its inhabitants are Germans, and the other are Italians. People speak more Italian. The lifestyle is Italian, that is, there is a lot of disgusting. The floors are stone and dirty; the underwear is disgusting; bread, such as our poor do not eat; Their clean water is like our slop. In a word, when we saw this threshold of Italy, we became frightened..."
Alas, not a single Italian city on the way to Florence received a good description from Fonvizin: “The theater is hellish: it was built without a floor and in a damp place. In two minutes the mosquitoes tore me to pieces, and after the first scene I ran out of it like mad.”(about the theater in Bolzano); “In the best tavern, the stench, uncleanliness, and abomination tormented all our senses. We spent the whole evening grieving that we stopped by the cattle.”(about the hotel in Trento); “indescribable abomination, stench, dampness; I think more than one hundred scorpions were in the bed we got to sleep on. ABOUT! Bestia Italiana!(about the hotel in Volarni); “The city is crowded and, like everyone else, Italian cities, not stinking, but sour. Everywhere smells of sour cabbage. Out of habit, I suffered a lot, holding back from vomiting. The stench comes from rotten grapes kept in cellars; and the cellars of every house face the street, and the windows are open..."(about Verona), etc.
However, delving deeper into Italian life, Fonvizin also decided to make more serious generalizations:
"All day in Verona(part of the Venetian Republic. - A.K.) we enjoyed seeing the beautiful paintings and were offended at almost every step by the beggars we encountered. Suffering and exhaustion of extreme poverty are written on their faces; and especially the old people are almost naked, dried up from hunger and usually tormented by some disgusting disease. I don’t know what will happen next, but Verona is very capable of arousing compassion. I don’t understand why the Venetian rule is praised, when in the most fertile land the people suffer from hunger. In our life, not only have we not eaten, we have not even seen such vile bread as we ate in Verona and as all the noblest people eat. The reason for the theme is the greed of the rulers. It is forbidden to bake bread in houses, and bakers pay the police for permission to mix passable flour with disgusting flour, not to mention the fact that they don’t understand baking bread. The most annoying thing is that no one can complain about this abuse, because the slightest indignation against the Venetian government is punished very severely.”
On the previous spread: Piazza Santissima Annunziata. Ser. XVIII century
“The climate here can be called wonderful; but it also has the most disturbing inconveniences for us: the mosquitoes tormented us so much that we got Kalmyk faces. They are small and do not squeak, but on the sly they bite so cruelly that we cannot sleep at night. And Italian mosquitoes are similar to the Italians themselves: they are just as treacherous and bite just as treacherously. If we weigh everything, then for us Russians our climate is much better.”
In one of the following letters, Fonvizin described his and his wife’s life in Florence:
“One day is so similar to another that it is almost impossible to distinguish them. We spent the morning in galleries and other remarkable places; usually dined at home; in the evening - either at a concert or at the opera; we had dinner at home... My head sometimes hurts, but it’s bearable; I am in constant motion: from morning to night on my feet. I examine all the local rarities, and both of us, due to our desire for art, are quite exercised. The people taken with us serve us diligently, and we are pleased with them. My wife is still without a girl; we want to take it in Rome, but here everyone is a scoundrel.”
It was not possible to make interesting acquaintances in Florence:
“We could have a lot of acquaintances, but all of them are not worth the effort to become attached to them. Before Italy, I could not imagine that it was possible to spend one’s time in such unbearable boredom as the Italians live. People come to the conversion to talk; who to talk to and about what? Out of a hundred people, there are not two with whom it would be possible, as with smart people, to say a word. In rare houses they play cards, and then for a hryvnia in ombre. Their treats, of course, don’t cost a quarter of a ruble in the evening. Four wax candles and five kopecks worth of wood oil will burn. They usually burn oil here... My banker, a very rich man, gave me lunch and invited me to a big campaign. Sitting at the table, I blushed for him: his dinner party was incomparably worse than my everyday dinner at the tavern. In a word, they live here like stingy people, and if it weren’t for the house of the nuncio and the English minister, that is, foreign houses, there would be nowhere to go..."
However, the Fonvizins’ acquaintance with the rich culture of Florence helped them out. Selecting material for making copies for subsequent sale (the Fonvizins soon spent almost all their funds on this), they went every day to the Pitti Gallery, where they were particularly impressed by Raphael Santi’s “Seated Madonna”:
“The beautiful Raphaelian Virgin, known as Madonna della Sedia, adorns one room. This image has something divine in it. My wife is crazy about him. She stood in front of him for half an hour, never taking her eyes off him, and not only bought a copy of him in oil paints, but also ordered a miniature and a drawing...”
On November 19, 1784, the Fonvizins left Florence for Pisa (where the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany spent the winter), and after that they visited Lucca, Rome, Naples, Milan and Venice. In general, Italy made a very unimpressive impression on Fonvizin: his travel notes are full of maxims of the following kind:
“It would be necessary to fill a whole book if I were to tell all the frauds and meanness that I have seen since my arrival in Italy”; " Honest people in all of Italy, truly, there is so little that you can live for several years and not meet a single one”; “We are glad that we saw Italy, but we can sincerely admit that if we could have imagined it at home the way we found it, then, of course, we would not have gone…”
"Seated Madonna" by Raphael in the Pitti Gallery.
Santa Trinita Bridge. Ser. XVIII century
Application
D. Fonvizin. On the corruption of morals in Florence
The corruption of morals in Italy is incomparably greater than France itself. Here the wedding day is the day of divorce. As soon as a girl gets married, she must immediately choose a cavaliere servente [faithful knight, lover. - French], who from morning to night does not leave her for a minute. He goes with her everywhere, takes her everywhere, always sits next to her, deals cards for her and shuffles the cards - in a word, he is her servant and, having brought her alone in a carriage to her husband’s house, leaves the house only when she goes to bed with her husband. When there is a disagreement with a lover or chichisbey, the first husband tries to reconcile them, and the wife also tries to observe agreement between her husband and his mistress. Any lady who did not have a chichisbey would be despised by the entire public, because she would be considered unworthy of adoration or an old woman. From this it follows that there are neither fathers nor children here. No father considers his wife's children to be his own, no son considers himself the son of his mother's husband. The nobility here is definitely in extreme poverty and in extreme ignorance. Everyone ruins his property, knowing that there is no one to give it to him; and the young man, having become a chichisbey, as soon as he left the boys, no longer has a minute of time to study, because, except for sleep, he relentlessly lives in the face of his lady and staggers like a shadow behind her. Many ladies confessed to me in good conscience that the inevitable custom of having a chichisbey is their misfortune and that often, loving their husband incomparably more than their gentleman, it is sad for them to live under such compulsion. You need to know that the wife, having woken up, no longer sees her husband until she has to go to bed... In general, we can say that there is no land in the world more boring than Italy: no society and stinginess. Here the first lady is Princess Santa Croce, who has the whole city at the conversion and who doesn’t have a bowl on her porch during the convention. It is necessary that the living room footman have a lantern and give light to his master to climb the stairs. It is necessary to pass through many chambers, or, better said, stables, where one lamp of oil burns. The guests are not treated to anything, and not only coffee or tea, they are not even served water. The closeness and stuffiness are terrible, so that your throat will dry out from the heat; but nothing is as bad as the beggarly stinginess of servants. Wherever you come on a visit, the very next day, the slaves will come asking for money. There is no such abomination in all of Europe! The masters support their servants on the smallest salary and not only allow them to beg like that, but after some time they divide the mug between them. To tell the truth, the poverty here is unparalleled: beggars stop you at every step; no bread, no clothes, no shoes. Everyone is almost naked and as skinny as skeletons. Here every working person, if he falls ill for three weeks, goes completely broke. While ill, he accrues debt, and when he recovers, he can barely satisfy his hunger with work. How to pay off the debt? He sold his bed, his dress - and wandered off to beg. There are a great many thieves, swindlers, and deceivers here; murders are almost daily here. The villain, having killed a person, rushes into the church, from where, according to local laws, no government can take him. Lives in church for several months; and meanwhile, his relatives find protection and, for the slightest money, woo him for forgiveness. In all the papal dominions there is not a man among the mob who does not carry with him a larger knife, some for attack, others for defense. The Italians are all immensely angry and vile cowards. They are never challenged to a duel, and revenge is usually taken in an idle manner. There are, truly, so few honest people in all of Italy that you can live for several years and not meet one. Persons of the noblest breed are not ashamed to deceive in the most vile way... Truly speaking, the Germans and French behave much more honestly. There are many slackers among them, but not so many and not so shameless..."
Petr Yakovlevich Chaadaev
Pyotr Yakovlevich Chaadaev (05/27/1794, Moscow - 04/14/1856, Moscow) - philosopher, writer. He came from a wealthy noble family, which on his father's side went back to "Chagatai", one of the sons of Genghis Khan. Having lost his parents early, Chaadaev was brought up in the Moscow house of his maternal relatives, the princes Shcherbatov. In 1808-1810 Studied at the Faculty of Literature at Moscow University. In 1812-1814, as an officer of the Semenovsky Guards Regiment, he participated in the Patriotic War and foreign campaigns of the Russian army: he was in the battles of Borodino, Tarutino, Maloyaroslavets, Bautzen, Kulm, Leipzig. As part of the Akhtyrsky Hussar Regiment, he took Paris in 1814. In December 1817, he was appointed adjutant to the commander of the hussar corps, Prince I.V. Vasilchikov; in 1819 he was promoted to captain. In October 1820, he was sent with a report on the uprising of the Semenovsky regiment to Emperor Alexander I, who was at the congress in Troppau; suddenly, at the end of December 1820, he submitted his resignation and left the service.
In 1823-1826. Retired Life Guards Hussar Regiment Captain Chaadaev traveled around Europe: he lived in England, France, Switzerland. While in Paris, he hatched plans for a trip to Italy (initially, only to Milan and Venice), about which he wrote to his brother Mikhail:
“If Italy does not present anything tempting to your imagination, then this is because you are Huron, but me, who is innocent of this, why do you want to deprive me of the pleasure of seeing her? And then, do you really want that, being in Switzerland, at the very gates of Italy, and seeing its beautiful sky from the heights of the Alps, I would refrain from descending into this land, which from childhood we are accustomed to consider a land of enchantment? Think about it, in addition to the immediate pleasures that such a trip gives, it is also a whole stock of memories that remain with you for the rest of your life, and even your bilious philosophy will agree, I think it’s good to stock up on memories, and especially for those who are so rarely happy with the present... »
An acquaintance of Chaadaev, diplomat D. N. Sverbeev, painted a portrait of a traveler in Europe "beautiful Chaadaev" who amazed everyone “with his inaccessible importance, the impeccable elegance of his manners, clothes and mysterious silence”:
“He never for a single minute forgot to hold himself in a given position, often angered all his interlocutors by refusing the wine offered to him, at dessert he demanded a bottle of the best champagne, drank one or two glasses from it and solemnly left... At evenings at me Chaadaev, who left the service almost involuntarily and was very dissatisfied with himself and everyone, in a few words expressed all his indignation at Russia and all Russians without exception. In his harsh outbursts he did not hide his deepest contempt for our entire past and present and resolutely despaired of the future. He called Arakcheev a villain, the highest military and civil authorities - bribe-takers, the nobles - vile slaves, the spiritual - ignoramuses, everything else - inert and groveling in slavery ... "
Having crossed the Alps from Switzerland to Milan, Chaadaev suddenly changed his plans, deciding to stay longer in Italy:
“I came here with the intention of getting through Venice to Vienna and from there home. Here I see that I can travel around Italy in two months. That is, having gone through Genoa and Livorno to Rome, and from there to Naples, return through Florence and be in Venice at the beginning of March... I don’t have much desire to set off across Italy, but I need to get rid of it so that I no longer have any lust in the future.”
From a letter from P. Ya. Chaadaev to his brother Mikhail in December 1824, Chaadaev wrote from Milan and his close friend at Moscow University, the future Decembrist I. D. Yakushkin, about his new decision:
“Having arrived here, I saw that I could travel all over Italy in two months, and decided to do it - the last bad thing; definitely a bad, unacceptable thing! There is not a single cheerful soul at home, but I walk around and have fun; but tell me, how can you not visit it, having been two weeks away from Rome?”
Heading to Rome, Chaadaev arrived in Florence at the beginning of February 1825, where he stayed for almost a month. The city seemed to him like a fortress: loopholes on the buildings, bars with iron hooks gave Florentine houses the appearance of defensive structures rather than dwellings.
In Florence, Chaadaev was warmly received by his acquaintance from Moscow and St. Petersburg, Alexei Vasilyevich Sverchkov, a career diplomat and intelligence officer, Russian charge d'affaires in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, who had previously served in Russian missions in the United States and Brazil. Sverchkov was married to Elena Guryeva, the daughter of the recently deceased Minister of Finance D. A. Guryev and the sister of Maria Guryeva, the wife of the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Chancellor) Karl Nesselrode. Chaadaev conveyed greetings to the hosts from Nikolai Dmitrievich Guryev, who he had recently seen in Paris, his former fellow soldier in the Semenovsky regiment, and now also a prominent diplomat (later Count Guryev Jr. will represent Russia in Rome and Naples). So, P. Ya. Chaadaev spent almost every evening in Florence in the hospitable house of the Sverchkov-Guryevs.
View of Florence. Ser. XIX century
However, the main “Florentine meeting” awaited Chaadaev ahead; on January 31, 1825, while visiting one of the palace-museums of Florence, Chaadaev accidentally met with the English Methodist priest Charles Cook, who was returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to his parish in southern France. A few years later, Chaadaev recalled that extremely significant meeting for him:
“Five years ago in Florence I met a man whom I really liked. I spent several hours with him; hours, no more, but pleasant, sweet hours, and then I still did not know how to extract from it all the benefit that I could have derived. He was an English Methodist; lived, it seems, at a mission in southern France. When I met him, he had recently returned from Jerusalem. What was striking about him was a wonderful mixture of liveliness, ardent zeal for the lofty subject of all his thoughts - religion - and indifference, cold neglect of everything else. In the galleries of Italy, great examples of art did not excite his soul, while the small sarcophagi of the first centuries of Christianity inexplicably attracted him. He looked at them, sorted them out with frenzy; I saw in them something sacred, touching, deeply instructive and willingly plunged into the thoughts they excited. – So, I repeat: I spent several hours with this man, which quickly passed, almost a moment, – and since then I have not had any news about him; - so what? – –
On August 26, 1826, upon Chaadaev’s return to Russia, he was detained at the border checkpoint in Brest-Litovsk and interrogated on the case of possible involvement in the uprising on Senate Square in St. Petersburg on December 14, 1825: Chaadaev’s close relations with some Decembrists were well known. During the search, among other papers, Chaadaev was found to have a letter of recommendation from Pastor Cook to England, to the priest Thomas Marriott, with the following content: “Florence, Jane. 31, 1825. Dear Sir. Let me recommend to your acquaintance and friendly attention, during his stay in London, Mr. P. Chaadaev, who intends to visit England for the purpose of studying the causes of our moral well-being and the possibility of applying them to his homeland, Russia. Charles Cook."
The persons who carried out the interrogation and search asked Chaadaev the question: “Who is the Englishman Cook, and what specific reasons for moral well-being did you intend to explore in England?” He replied:
“The Englishman Cook is a famous missionary. I met him in Florence when he was passing from Jerusalem to France. Since all his thoughts and his entire range of actions were turned to religion, I, for my part, told him with sorrow about the lack of faith in the Russian people, especially in the upper classes. On this occasion, he gave me a letter to his friend in London, so that he could acquaint me more with the moral disposition of the people in England. Since I wasn’t in England after that, this letter remained with me, but I didn’t have any communication with Cook and Marriott after that and didn’t even hear anything about them.”
“I spent several hours with this man, which quickly passed, almost a moment, – and since then I have had no news of him; - and what? – Now I enjoy his company more often than the company of other people. Every day the memory of him visits me; it brings with it such excitement, such heartfelt thought that it strengthens me against the sorrows that surround me, protects me from the frequent attacks of despondency. – Here is a society decent for intelligent beings! This is how souls act mutually on each other: time and space cannot be an obstacle to them...”
Osip Emilievich Mandelstam, a deep connoisseur of both Italy and Chaadaev’s work, wrote in one of his essays about the spiritual impulse that a trip to Europe gave to Chaadaev’s subsequent philosophical work:
“In an infant country, a country of half-living matter and half-dead spirit, the hoary antinomy of an inert block and an organizing idea was almost unknown. Russia, in the eyes of Chaadaev, still belonged entirely to the unorganized world. He himself was the flesh of this Russia and looked at himself as raw material. The results were amazing. The idea organized his personality, not only his mind, gave this personality a structure, an architecture, subjugated it completely and, as a reward for absolute submission, gave it absolute freedom. Deep harmony, almost a fusion of moral and mental elements give Chaadaev’s personality special stability. It is difficult to say where Chaadaev’s mental personality ends and where Chaadaev’s moral personality begins, to such an extent they are close to complete merging. The strongest need of the mind was for him at the same time the greatest moral necessity... When Boris Godunov, anticipating Peter's thought, sent Russian young people abroad, not one of them returned. They did not return for the simple reason that there is no way back from existence to non-existence, that in stuffy Moscow those who tasted the immortal spring of undying Rome would have suffocated. But even the first doves did not return to the ark. Chaadaev was the first Russian who actually visited the West ideologically and found his way back. Contemporaries instinctively felt this and greatly appreciated the presence of Chaadaev among them. They could point to him with superstitious respect, as they once did to Dante: “This one was there, he saw - and returned” ... "
Nikolai Vladimirovich Stankevich
Nikolai Vladimirovich Stankevich (09/27/1813, Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province - 06/25/1840, Novi Ligure, Sardinian Kingdom) - poet, philosopher, public figure. Born into a noble family. In 1830-1834. studied at the literature department of Moscow University, created and headed the famous literary and philosophical circle in Moscow. In the mid-1830s. was sent by Moscow University to Germany, where he continued his studies in philosophy and history at the University of Berlin.
In the summer of 1839, he went to resorts in the Czech Republic, Southern Germany, and Switzerland to treat tuberculosis, then went to Italy. His travel companion was Alexander Pavlovich Efremov, a friend from the Moscow circle, then from the University of Berlin, later a doctor of philosophy and professor of geography.
With great difficulty, the friends crossed the Simplon Pass separating Switzerland and Italy, since the early autumn rains had already flooded the valleys. Part of the mountain road had to be walked. On October 12, 1839, Stankevich wrote to his relatives:
“There is nothing to do, we armed ourselves with umbrellas, loaded our suitcases onto the Swiss who came to meet us and went... This transition turned out to be worthy of Suvorovsky! Finally I’m in Italy - and I still can hardly believe it!” Then we took a postal carriage along the shore of Lago Maggiore to Milan, and then to Genoa. Stankevich’s biographer, writer P. V. Annenkov, described the beginning of his Italian journey:
“The first glance at Italy did not produce on Stankevich that joyful feeling that was produced by the world more familiar to him, Germany. The generic traits of Italy are much stricter, and we have much less preparation to accept and understand them. Italy requires some compliance, some self-confidence, especially the elimination of ingrained habits in life and even in judgment; then it reveals itself in the greatness of its simplicity or backwardness, if you like. Stankevich peered for a long time into her everyday life, into this mixture of classical and medieval customs, enclosed in a strictly elegant frame formed by unchanging nature ... "
From Genoa, travelers went by sea to Livorno, the main port of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany:
“From the minute we set sail until we landed on the shore, I was tormented by unbearable nausea, so that for two days afterwards I could not indifferently hear the words: sea and steamer. This was probably my last trip by sea(that’s what happened, unfortunately - A.K.). We glanced briefly at Livorno, which was seething with sellers, buyers, factors and scammers (this is a Franco port) and hurried to Florence.”
Letter to parents November 4, 1839 from Florence
Suffering from consumption, Stankevich initially intended to spend the winter in Pisa, located closer to the sea, but ultimately chose Florence. On November 4, 1839, he wrote to his parents from the capital of Tuscany: “Finally, I am in Florence and could not be happier with a permanent home... At first I thought of spending the winter in Pisa, not far from here, – but since Florence is much more pleasant, I preferred to stay here. Until now, the climate here seems very good to me. Today, November 4, my windows are open, and the warm wind replaces the firewood. In Pisa, they say, it is even warmer, but I am more afraid of its low position, and most importantly, the fact that, according to the general verdict, it is rather boring and filled with visiting patients. I don't want to put myself in that category. During the first few days I spent my time looking for an apartment and therefore saw few of the local wonders. The city is not large and the streets are quite cramped - which takes away from the view of many beautiful buildings ... "
Piazza Santa Maria Novella. In the house closest to the church in 1839-1840. lived N.V. Stankevich
In the capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Stankevich settled in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, in the house closest to the famous church (now it is one of the buildings of the Grand Hotel Minerva). He wrote to his parents about his new apartment:
“I found myself a home in Piazza Santa Maria Novella, facing south, just as I wanted. I have a fairly large room and a small office for sleeping. It costs 40 francs (rubles) per month. They really like mirrors here, and that’s why I have three of them in one room, and they are very large, but there are just as many chairs...”
In subsequent letters to his parents, Stankevich regularly described his life in Florence, never tired of reassuring his loved ones about his health:
“I have already notified you that I have a special apartment, – So far I'm very pleased with it. Thanks to its position, I can manage without firewood for now, despite the fact that there have already been several cool days here, but this cold is felt especially only in the cramped streets and, moreover, more in the rooms than in the yard. In our square, in clear weather, it can be unbearably hot. It rains quite often, but in a quarter of an hour all the streets dry out, paved slightly sloping in the middle, so that the water does not hold on to them and quickly runs into this depression, along which it flows where it is needed. But for several days we enjoyed a completely clear sky: at this time the whole of Florence was emptying, residents and foreigners were scattering around the area... To tell the truth, we are in Italy clear sky more needed than anywhere else. All that is good in her, – for eyes. If fog fell on this side for a long time, it would not be worth staying there. It’s a different matter in Germany: there a bucket and bad weather mean little, and a traveler can always observe, learn and share all his thoughts with good Germans, because there is no thing in the world that would not interest them and about which they would not talk. Every land has its own know-how: and we must thank Italy for refreshing and cheering our senses and warming our bones...”
From a letter to parents November 12, 1839
“For more than a month now I have been living in Florence and enjoying her benefits: she is very merciful to me. Despite the predictions of everyone who has ever spent winter in Florence, promising cold, the time hardly changes. It rains occasionally, but almost as much as we have in May, so one umbrella is enough for a walk through the streets, and an overcoat is put on only to imitate the Italians, who really like to wrap themselves up... They say that Florence wants to start having fun. The theaters are gradually closed for the balls that will mark the carnival. However, all this is not my part, and my amusements are limited to walks around the city, surrounding areas, churches and collections of various oddities; here, in passing, I accustom my eye and prepare it for the miracles that await it in Rome. I’m thinking of staying here until the end of February, and at the beginning of March going to Rome, where the whole world comes to Maslenitsa... The Italians are very far behind the rest of Europe in everything and live, it seems, from day to day. The land here is better than the people – however, they are quite kind, helpful and quick-witted; I haven’t known any Italians from the upper class until now, and among the common people there are, by the way, features that are very reminiscent of our Russian peasants; This, by the way, includes the habit of bargaining, which exists in all, even the best, stores. – But what surprises me most is the ability of small traders to shout all day, day to night, in a deafening voice, in order to sell a few sulfur matches or drops for exterminating bedbugs. You can’t help but stop when passing by these heroes, who passionately extol their goods and offer them to everyone passing by...”
From a letter to parents December 5, 1839
In Florence, Stankevich also maintained correspondence with an old friend from Moscow and Berlin, Timofey Nikolaevich Granovsky; on February 1, 1840, he wrote to him:
“The first days I ran a lot around the galleries, outside the city, rode horseback and did almost nothing; Finally, he came to his senses and began to work somehow... The local galleries are really rich and even to me, a barbarian, they bring a lot of pleasure... Now a few words about Florence: the first glance at it is not at all amazing. The streets are terribly narrow and dark: it seems that they were deliberately trying to hide from the sun in them. The houses that line the Arno on both sides are very unpicturesque, except for a few. But on the other hand, four glorious bridges are thrown across it, and the view along the river, down and up, is very good: you see hills with gardens, villas, etc... On holidays, from morning to evening, you see crowds of people walking along the Arno, and in the evening the caffes are filled with men and women... There is a park here - Kashino; there are many carriages and horsemen in it every decent day; pedestrians walk along the embankment near the Arno; the air is sometimes intoxicating; The thousands of villas surrounding Florence make an extraordinary appearance in the evening light. The Boboli Garden, belonging to the Grand Duke's Palace, surpasses everything I have seen so far from the gardens. Our square, S-ta Maria Novella, is also not bad. There is a beautiful church and two monuments on it; but unfortunately, the porches surrounding these monuments are always soiled by boys... I read several boring dramas and novels to improve myself in the Italian language; I am now finishing “The Florentine History” by Machiavelli...”
Piazza della Signoria with Palazzo Vecchio
Loggia Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria
Stankevich liked the mild winter in Florence, and he invited Granovsky to join him next year:
“I admit, you did a bad thing by not asking the count to leave for the winter in Italy - he probably would have agreed(we are talking about the trustee of Moscow University, Count S. G. Stroganov - A.K.). Can't you go somewhere on the water next summer, and definitely come here for the winter?.. Think, Granovsky! Is it possible to go to the waters in the spring: to Ems, for example, or somewhere?.. Don’t forget: winter, winter in Italy, – It will mean a lot."
P. V. Annenkov noted Stankevich’s “special style” when inspecting new places in Europe. Many of them, glorified by road guides, Stankevich considered “punishment for travelers”:
“Not to see is a shame, but to look is not worth it. He does not look into the book, completely surrendering himself to his impressions... The general character of freedom, space, given by his own receptivity, not constrained by other people's ideas..."
At the end of December, Stankevich’s Florentine friend, the Englishman Kenya, organized a trip to Livorno and Pisa, about which Stankevich wrote on January 3, 1840 in a humorous letter to his younger sisters:
“His stroller is so nice and well-packed; he put biscuits and bread and butter in it - we, he says, will travel for four days; We’ll leave on Thursday, we’ll arrive on Sunday; I hired horses, wrote ahead to the hotel keepers so that we could have rooms with a fireplace, – and we moved... Wonderful side! So that you are not too annoyed even with the beggars who are constantly running on both sides of the carriage... Efremov is very funny on the road: around 4 o'clock he usually begins to ask me: do I feel anything special? This means he is hungry. And after dinner, he usually goes straight to bed..."
At the end of February, the weather in Florence changed, northern winds blew, and doctors advised Stankevich to go to the south of Italy. He arrived in Rome on March 8, 1840 and rented an apartment on the third floor at Corso, 71. Then, in Rome, he took under his wing the young Ivan Turgenev, who left us a portrait of Stankevich at that time:
“Stankevich was more than average height, very well built - from his build one could not assume that he had a tendency towards consumption. He had beautiful black hair, a sloping forehead, small brown eyes; his gaze was very affectionate and cheerful, his nose was thin, with a hump, beautiful, with movable nostrils, his lips were also quite thin, with sharply defined angles.”
Due to his worsening illness, Stankevich was unable to organize a campaign for Efremov and Turgenev on their trip to Naples, but decided to rest in the town of Albano near Rome, from where he wrote to his Russian friends, the Frolovs, who remained in Florence:
“Traveling is still not easy for me because of the pains that keep traveling along my right side from place to place and do not allow me to sleep properly... The air here would be good if I could walk far, but this way I can only enjoy the magnificent view from my windows. My room is for a poet: dirty, brick floor, faded walls, small, but with a window in the middle, from where you can see wooded hills, a plain and the sea in the distance. The servant, about 55 years old, if not more, is fat and with a red nose, speaks exactly like a Gogol judge, like an ancient clock that first wheezes and then strikes.”
Letter from N.G. and E.P. Frolov in April 1840 from Albano.
One of the last joys for Stankevich was the arrival in Rome of Varvara Alexandrovna Dyakova (nee Bakunina), the younger sister of his early deceased fiancee Lyubov Bakunina. Varvara Dyakova then actually separated from her husband and traveled around Europe with her four-year-old son Alexander.
On May 19, 1840, Stankevich wrote a long letter to the famous philosopher and politician Mikhail Bakunin, brother of Lyubov and Varvara - his deceased bride and his last found love:
“Dear Michel!.. First of all, I’ll tell you that Varvara Alexandrovna is here in Rome. I was going to go to Naples, I fell ill - and she, having learned about this, came specifically to see me... Now you can judge what the holy, brotherly participation of your sister is for me, – I can’t tell you a word about what her arrival has done, but she sees it, I’m sure of it. I just ask myself day and night: for what? What is this happiness for? It's not deserved at all.
She surrounds me with the strongest, most holy brotherly love; she spread a sphere of bliss around me, I breathe more freely, my health and heart have risen, I am becoming stronger and holier... I am still weak, although I am getting better every day since the arrival of your sister... Today, at a general consultation, it is necessary that I I went to Lago di Soto and drank Ems water there. Varvara Alexandrovna also intends to go there, and we are thinking of spending the winter together in Nice. This future now gives me strength and makes my heart tremble with joy..."
At the beginning of June 1840, Dyakova and Efremov, who had returned from Naples, took the slightly stronger Stankevich from Rome to Florence. After living there for several days, they left by mail carriage to Genoa, from where they headed to Milan to move further to Lake Como. Stankevich intended to spend the rest of the summer in Germany or Switzerland, and move to Nice for the winter. He still believed that he would overcome the disease and was full of plans for a large philosophical work devoted to expounding the philosophy of Hegel.
However, at the first stop, in the town of Novi Ligure, forty miles north of Genoa, Nikolai Alexander Stankevich died on the night of June 24-25, 1840. His body was transported to Genoa and there temporarily buried in one of the churches. After some time, the coffin was loaded onto a ship sailing from Genoa to Odessa, and then transported to the Stankevich family estate of Uderevka, Voronezh province (now the territory of the Belgorod region).
The death of Stankevich, unexpected for most, became a tragedy for an entire generation of young Russian intellectuals. His younger friend Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev wrote:
“We have lost a man whom we loved, in whom we believed, who was our pride and hope...”
Memories of Stankevich and his letters, carefully collected and published years later, influenced Russian cultural figures who had never seen him during his lifetime. For example, L. N. Tolstoy, after reading Stankevich’s correspondence, wrote to the philosopher B. N. Chicherin:
“Have you read Stankevich’s correspondence? My God! what a beauty this is! Here is a person whom I would love as myself. Can you believe it, I have tears in my eyes now. I just finished it today and can’t think of anything else. It’s painful to read: it’s too true, a devastatingly sad truth. This is where you eat his blood and body. And why, why did such a sweet, wonderful creature suffer, rejoice and desire in vain? For what?…"
Fedor Ivanovich Buslaev
Fyodor Ivanovich Buslaev (04/13/1818, Kerensk, Penza province - 07/31/1897, Moscow) - philologist, historian, art critic. Specialist in the field of history of the Russian language, Slavic philology, history of Byzantine and Old Russian art. Professor at Moscow University, academician since 1861.
After graduating from the Faculty of Literature at Moscow University, he was invited to work as a home teacher in the family of Count Sergei Grigorievich Stroganov, a trustee of the Moscow educational district. In the summer of 1839, Stroganov took him with him to Italy, where Buslaev was supposed to teach Russian history and literature to the count’s children.
Buslaev later recalled the beginning of his first European journey - sailing by sea to Lubeck:
“On the instructions of the professor of Roman literature Dmitry Lvovich Kryukov, I stocked up in St. Petersburg with Otfried Müller’s guide to the archeology of art, and the manager of Count Stroganov’s houses exchanged Russian notes for me into Dutch ten-franc chervonets and, accustomed to serving his illustrious patrons at a high price, took me a ticket on the ship to Lübeck was not second class, but first, which caused considerable damage to my wallet and doomed me to an exclusive position among first-class passengers from high society. In a shabby frock coat of a modest cut and a black silk shirtfront instead of Dutch underwear, I seemed like a dark spot on the multi-colored pattern of the smart suits of the crowd surrounding me. However, this did not bother me at all, because both sitting in the cabin and walking along the deck, I did not have a free minute to pay attention to anyone, with my nose buried in Otfried Müller’s book. I devoted all the time on the ship to studying it, in order to gradually and in advance prepare myself for special classes on the history of Greek and Roman art and antiquities in Rome and Naples. On the next day of the voyage, I happened to notice that among my first-class companions I was known as a sculptor or painter, sent from the Academy of Arts to Italy to improve his art. This greatly flattered my pride, and especially since I was going on such a long journey and with such a lofty goal, while everyone else was heading - some to have fun in Paris, London or Vienna, and some to rinse their stomachs at mineral waters…»
From Lubeck Buslaev traveled by stagecoach to Leipzig, from where there was already a railway to Dresden:
“For the first time in my life I went along this newly invented path. I rejoiced and, for greater joy, sat down in the first class carriage, and all the time until the very end I remained alone in it, freely enjoying the unprecedented sensations of the dizzying speed of the train ... "
From Leipzig to Naples itself, Buslaev - already together with the Stroganovs - rode in the same carriage with the tutor of Stroganov’s sons, a doctor of philology, the German Trompeller:
“This was not an easy and quick trip abroad, such as is now done on rails, but an old-fashioned real journey of the kind that Karamzin depicted in “Letters of the Russian Traveler.”
Fyodor Buslaev was then in his early twenties, and he was heading to Italy with an enthusiastic feeling:
“In order for you to fully understand this bright and triumphant mood of my spirit, I must draw your attention to my personal situation and to the external conditions determined by the then order of things. At that time, there was no cheap long-distance transportation by rail, which is now possible even for people with limited means. Riding horses from Russia not only to Italy, but even to Berlin or Dresden, was then possible for rich or at least wealthy people. Moreover, those traveling abroad were subject to a heavy tax of five hundred rubles from each person. I, a poor man, of course, never dreamed of finding myself in Italy. There was no end to my joys when such great happiness fell to my lot in reality... During my entire two-year stay abroad, a continuous bright holiday began for me, in which hours, days, weeks and months now seem to me like an endless string of new and new ones. some rosy impressions, unexpected joys, never-before-experienced pleasures and breathtaking, amazing interests. I was still very young then, both in years and in soul... I knew neither people nor the world, and, except for my Kerensk, where I was born, except for the Penza gymnasium and the state-owned dormitory at the university, I did not see or remember anything else. And suddenly an immense and alluring prospect from Baltic Sea throughout Germany, through the Alps into wide Lombardy, to the Adriatic Sea to Venice, and from there across the Alps to Florence, Rome and finally to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. My spirit was occupied, my head was spinning, I couldn’t feel my feet under me in the rapid anticipation of seeing all this, feeling and experiencing it, assimilating it to my mind and imagination. I dreamed in advance of re-creating myself and transforming myself, and at the same time I was convinced that not my dreamed, but the real reality with its enchanting charm would surpass my wildest fantastic expectations...”
Count S. G. Stroganov, who had visited Italy several times, this time went there with his whole family: his wife, sons Alexander (a student, a year younger than Buslaev), Pavel 16 years old, ten-year-old Grigory and one and a half year old Nikolai, as well as daughters Sophia and Elizabeth, 15 and 13 years old. They were accompanied by the German tutor of the eldest sons (a doctor of philology from one of the German universities), the Lausanne governess of the daughters, the German Bonne Nicholas, the count's valet, the countess's maid and the cook. There was also a special courier, fluent in four languages, who rode ahead of the carriages and made arrangements for lunch and overnight accommodation. In case of long stops, the same courier hired a house or villa for the Stroganovs with all the furnishings and servants. In hotels, rich travelers also relied on a guide - a “lone footman” (in Italian - domestico di piazza).
Count Stroganov, being one of the most educated people of his time, knew Europe very well. He owned several European languages, was one of the largest collectors ancient art: in his St. Petersburg house he collected huge collection ancient coins; the Moscow house of Stroganov was famous throughout Europe for its collection of Byzantine and Russian icons. Subsequently, Stroganov’s sons (and Buslaev’s students) continued the family tradition: Pavel Sergeevich placed a large art gallery, and Grigory Sergeevich, who lived mainly in Italy, collected a unique collection of monuments of ancient Christian and Byzantine art in Rome in his palazzo on via Sistina. Buslaev remembers the entrance to Italian Tuscany, when, on the road from Bologna to Florence, travelers had to overcome the Apennine ridge:
“Up the steep climbs of the mountain, our carriages were slowly dragged by oxen harnessed to them, which walked so lazily and restrainedly that each of us could get ahead of them with an even and medium-sized step. When about two hours later we climbed higher than half the mountain, the sun to our right was already setting. Bored by the tedious, barely noticeable movement of the phlegmatic oxen, the count and the children and even the countess herself got out of the carriages, followed by Trompeller and me. It was for everyone the most pleasant walk in the mountain air of the evening day. The children jumped, stretching their imprisoned legs, and ran back and forth along the road; the governess and tutor warned them not to approach the edge of the slopes, which dropped steeply on the right hand; the count walked with the countess. Only I, on my own, slowly walking along the left side along the wall of solid cliffs, paid no attention to anything or anyone, deep in my reading. Suddenly the Count comes up to me. "And don't be ashamed, – he says, – be such a pedant! They buried their nose in their Kugler. Drop it and turn back. Look all around at these immense pages of the great book, which divine nature itself is now revealing to us.” I turned back and began to look. From behind the rocks below, a wide plain stretched out before me into the misty distance. Along it, as on a painted land map, here and there hills and hillocks rose and descended in waves; between them were small clusters of estates, villages and towns; dark stripes and threads of rivers and canals stretched. I looked at the details, which I still seem to see in front of me..."
The travelers sought to quickly reach the Bay of Naples (where the Stroganovs planned to spend the winter) and therefore stopped in Florence at that time for only a week:
“To study the history of art, I had to be content with only a cursory overview of its main periods in individual schools and styles, and of the details - only the largest and most outstanding, and then according to the instructions of Count Sergius Grigorievich, – such as, for example, the most ancient works of Italian painting of the 13th century, in which, based on the Byzantine legends of the flourishing era, there are already glimpses of the high grace of that fertile environment where, two hundred years later, Michel Angelo and Raphael could be born. Of these treasures, I will tell you two altarpiece icons: one in the Siena Cathedral, with images of the Passion of the Lord in separate quadrangles, by the ancient painter Duccio di Buoninsegna, and the other in Florence, in one of the chapels of the Church of Maria Novella, with the image of the Mother of God with the Child Jesus Christ , written by the famous Cimabue, whom Dante mentions in his “Divine Comedy” ... "
Cimabue. Madonna and Child with Angels (1285). Cathedral of Santa Maria Novella.
From early youth and throughout his life, Dante’s “Divine Comedy” became, without exaggeration, the main book in Buslaev’s life:
“In Florence, I visited the baptistery in which Dante was baptized, as well as the house where he lived next door to Beatrice, whom he glorified forever in poetry and prose; Of course, I did not fail to sit down on that stone on which the great poet sat and always admired the beautiful cathedral of Maria del "Fiore, with the graceful bell tower, which his comrade and friend Giotto built and decorated with bas-reliefs. Visions of the afterlife, in the mysterious charm of the mystical symbols inspired by " Divine Comedy“, wafted at me from everywhere, from the walls painted by the disciples and followers of Giotto, in the Florentine church of Maria Novella and in the adjacent Dominican monastery. This is the same church in which, during the terrible plague that befell Italy in the 14th century, the cheerful interlocutors of Boccacci’s Decameron, gentlemen and ladies, gathered and agreed to retire together from the infected city to a secluded villa. Michel Angelo especially loved this church and called her his bride..."
Dante's House in Florence.
In November 1839, the Stroganovs finally arrived in Naples, where they lived until April 1840. They spent the summer on the island of Ischia and in a villa in Sorrento, and then moved to Rome, where they lived for several months. They set off on the return journey from Rome in April 1841: again they stopped briefly in Florence; then through Vienna, Warsaw, Brest and Smolensk they arrived in Moscow.
Buslaev later recalled the final moments of his first Italian trip:
“I vaguely remember this return journey through Italy, like a heavy dream with instant glimpses of joy, as happens when you have just met a loved one and immediately say goodbye to him for eternal separation: together both joyfully and bitterly. From that time on, an alarming feeling of an unsatisfied thirst for that happiness that I did not have time and could not fully enjoy must have been deeply and strongly embedded in my soul. And for a long time later, for many years, even when I was already a professor, I sometimes dreamed that I was immediately leaving Rome or Florence forever, and there was still so much left for me to see that I had not seen that I had to say goodbye to what I love so dearly, and it’s as if some hostile power is forcibly tearing me out of its embrace dear friend: I’m languid and sad, and I happily wake up from a painful nightmare...”
The next time (for the third time) F. I. Buslaev, who by that time had become a famous philologist and art historian, professor and academician, came to Florence many years later, in 1864. This trip was described in detail by him in the essay “Florence in 1864”, which was then included in the first part of the memoirs “My Leisure” (it is used in the second part of this publication under the heading: “Return to Florence”).
Finally, for the fourth time, Buslaev came to Florence in 1875 from France (via Turin, Genoa and Pisa), together with his wife Lyudmila Yakovlevna Tronova.
“This is my fourth time in Florence; Now she is even dearer and dearer to me. The whole city is a museum, and all this artistic splendor is not brought in from outside, as in the St. Petersburg Hermitage or Paris Louvre, and it’s all homegrown. All these great artists, from the 14th to the 16th centuries, were born here, lived here and gradually decorated their hometown. In order to fully understand the history of art, in order to enjoy the elegant as a necessary, essential element of life, one must live in Florence.”
After then spending several months in Rome, the Buslaevs returned to Moscow in the fall of 1875.
Vladimir Dmitrievich Yakovlev
Vladimir Dmitrievich Yakovlev (1817, St. Petersburg - November 3, 1884, St. Petersburg) - poet, translator, traveler, memoirist. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts, then at the St. Petersburg Pedagogical Institute. He taught in parish schools, published poems and stories in the spirit of romanticism. Yakovlev's poor health required an obligatory trip to the south, but his material resources were so meager that at one time he was forced to take on the responsibility of reading proofs in several magazines, although such work was extremely harmful for him.
However, thanks to a happy coincidence of circumstances, at the end of 1846, the thirty-year-old writer Yakovlev attracted the attention of the heir to the Russian throne, Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich (future Emperor Alexander II): from his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, Yakovlev’s wife, served as the chamber’s favorite girl before her marriage. The Tsarevich heir, a pupil of the poet Zhukovsky and himself a lover of romantic poetry, then granted the young writer and husband of the court favorite a large sum - five thousand silver rubles for treatment abroad.
End of introductory fragment.
The Demidovs, who became the princes of San Donato Demidoff in Italy, amazed the imagination of Italians with their fabulous wealth, patronage of the arts, and charity. The Demidovs especially loved Florence. They made their fortune by exporting rare metals to Europe - the Demidovs owned rich mines and factories in Nizhny Tagil.
The first of the Demidovs to appear in the capital of Tuscany was Nikita Nikitich Demidov (1773-1828). This Demidov chose a diplomatic career over entrepreneurship and in 1815 moved to Florence, taking the position of Russian envoy at the Tuscan court. The title Prince of San Donato was first introduced in 1840 by the Tuscan Grand Duke Leopold II for Nikita Nikitich's son Anatoly so that he could marry Matilda Bonaparte, the niece of Napoleon I, without compromising her status as a princess.
Among the Russians who lived for a long time in Florence, the Demidov family occupies an exceptional place. The Demidovs lived on a grand scale: their country estate was even considered the second most magnificent palace after the palace of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
The memory of the Demidov patrons is still carefully preserved in Florence. The Demidovs are the only ones to whom the square on the embankment of the Arno River in the San Niccolo quarter is dedicated, and the street Via della Villa Demidov in the Novoli area, where their country residence was located. The Demidov family is immortalized in the majestic monument to Nikolai Nikitich Demidov. This magnificent monument is located on the square named after Demidov.
Photo
The inscription on the pedestal of the monument reads: “So that the residents of the San Niccolo quarter always have before them the living memory of Commander Nikolai Demidov, a tireless and generous benefactor, his son Anatoly donated this monument to the city of Florence in 1870.”
The monument was commissioned by the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini Anatoly Demidov for the park of the family residence, and in 1870 it was donated by the customer to the municipality of Florence. Then the city authorities decided to install it on the square named after Demidov, where it still stands. The location was not chosen by chance: it was on this square in the palace of the counts of Serristori that Nicholas lived for several years, showing himself to be a generous philanthropist and trying to alleviate the plight of the poor population of the San Niccolo quarter.
In the city on the Arno River, Nikolai Nikitich compiled a rich art gallery. He happily ordered famous artists own portraits and portraits of family members.
Nikolai Nikitich Demidov (1798-1840). From the collection of A. Tissot Photo
He founded an orphanage and a free school for boys, which taught, among other things, painting, silk making, weaving, shoemaking and printing. He also took care of maintaining a doctor, who had to live in the same area and who could be called at any time. The doctor was also required to regularly examine the school children.
Nikolai Nikitich died in Florence on April 22, 1828. By his will and with the permission of Emperor Nicholas I, his body was transported from Italy to Russia and interred in Nizhny Tagil. To his two sons, who already represented the sixth generation of the dynasty, Nikolai Demidov left a fortune twice as large as what he received from his father.
Anatoly Nikolaevich (1812-1870) continued his father’s charitable work and, in addition to financing a school and maintaining a doctor, founded a pharmacy where the poor were given free medications. But on Via del Giardino Serristori in the San Niccolo district there is a nursing home named after Demidov (Residenza Sanitaria Assistenziale Demidoff); on Via San Niccolo above the entrance to the school for poor children there is a cast-iron coat of arms of the Demidovs with their motto “Acta non verba” - "Deeds, not words." The square and the monument are evidence that the Demidovs were faithful to this motto, leaving a lasting trace of their presence in Florence through their deeds.
In the Palatine Gallery of the Pitti Palace in Florence there now hangs a ceremonial portrait of A.N. Demidov brushes by Karl Bryullov.
K.P. Bryullov. Portrait of Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov on a horse. Photo
Another Florentine philanthropist Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, 2nd Prince of San Donato (1839-1885), nephew and heir of the childless Anatoly Nikolaevich, opened schools, orphanages, and set up cheap canteens for workers. In 1879, the grateful population of Florence presented Demidov with a gold medal with the image of him and his wife and the address delivered by a special deputation. On this occasion, the municipality elected the Prince and Princess of San Donato as honorary citizens of Florence.
Louis Gustave Ricard (1823-1873). Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, 1859. Photo
When Pavel Demidov decided to leave Florence in 1880, he donated his home church to the Orthodox Church and sold his magnificent collection at auction. The financial result of the auction turned out to be insignificant. The Palace of San Donato was destroyed.
A.A. Kharlamov (1840-1925). Portrait of four children from the second marriage of Pavel Pavlovich Demidov: Aurora (1873-1904), Anatoly (1874-1943), Maria (1877-1955) and Pavel (1879-1909)). Pratolino, 1883. Photo
Grateful Florence also noted the contribution of Pavel Demidov, who allocated a significant amount for the final decoration of one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world - cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore.
The coats of arms of the donors were placed on the façade of the cathedral. The location and size of the coats of arms were determined by the amount contributed.
The Demidovs' coat of arms turned out to be one of the largest and in the most honorable place - on the main facade, first to the right of the central portal.
Pavel Pavlovich's daughter from his second marriage is Maria Pavlovna Demidova, Princess of San Donato before her marriage, and in her marriage Princess Abamelek-Lazareva (1877-1955) - the last representative of the famous family, whose destinies were closely connected with Florence. Maria Pavlovna - beautiful, smart and educated, was also a wonderful ballerina.
When, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Princess Maria Pavlovna married Prince Semyon Semenovich Abamelek-Lazarev (1857-1916), one of the richest people in Russia, she received as a dowry from her mother the family estate of Pratolino, located on the outskirts of Florence. In 1916, Maria Pavlovna was widowed: her husband was killed in the Caucasus. He left his wife the luxurious Villa Abamelek in Rome and a large account in an Italian bank. After the October Revolution, all the property of the Demidovs in Russia was nationalized. But in Italian and other European banks, Maria Pavlovna retained significant capital in her accounts, which allowed her, continuing the family tradition, to carry out charitable activities.
N.P. Bogdanov-Belsky. Portrait of M. P. Abamelek-Lazareva, 1900s. State Hermitage Museum
Maria Pavlovna was the head of the Russian church in Florence. She compiled entire lists of monthly benefits to Russian emigrants, individuals and entire institutions. She helped many people - the Sergius monastery in Paris, the monastery of St. Nicholas in Bari, the Athonite monks, the Valaam monks and many private individuals. The princess supported the Kuban Cossack choir created in Florence. M.P.'s troubles Demidova’s work on organizing the destinies of her compatriots usually received a favorable response from the Florence Commune and the University of Florence.
In 1935, in memory of her husband, the princess founded the National Home for Seriously Ill Participants of the First World War. In 1939, in the suburb of Pratolino, she rented housing for poor people left homeless.
Maria Pavlovna with guests in Pratolino, 1913 Photo
The last of San Donato left no heirs, and all her property passed to her nephew, the Yugoslav Prince Pavel Karadjordjevic. Prince Paul took the most expensive items from Florence, and he simply abandoned the princess’s correspondence and her archive. And all this would have been lost if the Italians had not picked up these pieces of paper in Russian, which were simply scattered in Pratolino, and would not have put it all away for the time being in the archives of the province of Florence.
Good memory of Princess M.P. Demidova is still alive in Florence. Her grave is sacredly preserved in Pratolino, next to the family’s home church. There is a marble tombstone on the grave, and people still bring flowers here, remembering the owner and her good deeds...
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The princess, who managed to save significant funds, maintained the villa in good condition for a long time. She invested a lot of effort and money in preserving this unique historical and cultural monument. After the death of the childless princess, the villa, created according to the plans of Francesco I de' Medici in the 16th century, went through several owners and was bought by the Italian state. Now there is a museum here, the villa building is surrounded by magnificent gardens with numerous pavilions, sculptures and fountains.
Photo commons.wikimedia.org User:Sailko
A worthy tribute to the memory of the last of San Donato is also the preservation of the archive of M.P. Demidova and his publication. The archive also preserves documents related to the fate of the Abamelek-Lazarev villa in Rome. But that's a completely different story, and someday I'll tell it...
If this is not your first time in Florence or you have had the opportunity to spend more than one day in this city, walk through the streets and squares again and immerse yourself in the memories of the great compatriots who visited these places. They also walked along the trails paved by tourists, enchanted by the city on the Arno River.
In contact with
Doors inhale air and exhale steam; But
you will not return here, where, having broken up in pairs,
the population walks over the shallowed Arno,
resembling new quadrupeds. Doors
they clap, animals come out onto the pavement.
There really is something of the forest in the atmosphere
of this city. This is a beautiful city
where at a certain age you simply look away from
person and raise the gate.
Brodsky “December in Florence” (1976)
Of the famous Russians who visited Florence, perhaps only Alexander Blok did not like it. The rich Demidovs allocated huge funds for the restoration of the great monuments of Florence, Brodsky and Tarkovsky glorified this city in their works, and Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky often stopped here during their European travels. And all of them, in one way or another, left their mark on Florence.
The Russians became interested in Florence and first came here back in 1439. This was associated with an important religious event - Union of Florence, a failed attempt to unite the Russian and Catholic churches. Since then, Russian pilgrims visited Florence, who briefly examined the city and hurried to Rome and Bari, Russian intellectuals who were attracted by Dante and the masters of the Renaissance. There were also so-called “dacha residents” who came here for a long time to improve their health, and remained to live here, engaging in patronage and collecting. Emigrants came for the summer residents, among whom were Dostoevsky, Brodsky, Tarkovsky and others.
Today, numerous tourists stop here, paying tribute in droves to the Uffizi, David, Ponte Vecchio, and discerning travelers who seek in their trips not only a connection with the global past, but also with their native roots.
Wherever you stay in Florence, start your walk with the Duomo. This symbol of Florence consists of three elements - the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore itself, the Baptistery with the golden gates of Paradise by Ghiberti and the bell tower of Giotto.
Panorama of Florence. Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Giotto's bell tower, dome of the Basilica of San Lorenzo / Shutterstock.com
The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was built on the site of the ancient church of Santa Reparata, named after the patroness of Florence in the 4th century. The striking scale of the building, the dome, unique by European standards, and the magnificent complex marble facade refer us to the medieval history of competition between the majestic Florence and its envious neighbors - the cities of Pisa, Luca, Siena. Beautiful cathedrals began to be built there from the 11th century, and in Florence the ancient church of Santa Reparata still stood. The leading position of the Florentine state obliged to build a new cathedral. The architectural design competition was won by Arnolfo di Cambio, who erected a gigantic structure 153 meters long, 38 meters wide and 107 meters high. The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was built in 1434, and at that time became the largest in Europe. The authorities of Siena made an attempt to surpass Florence, but their plans were not realized, and the city remains to this day with an unfinished cathedral.
Looking at the interesting facade of the Duomo, it is worth remembering that for the most part it was built at the expense of the Ural factory owners Demidovs. Their family coat of arms is located in a place of honor - to the right of the main entrance to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
The history of the Demidovs’ connections with Florence begins with the name of Nikolai Nikitich Demidov, who in 1819 moved with his family to Tuscany to improve his health, and remained here. Florence and the Tuscany region became his second homeland. According to various testimonies, Demidov held the position of Russian envoy or attorney at the Tuscan court, and among ordinary Italians he became widely known for his generosity, love of art, and large-scale charitable activities.
Nikolai Demidov allocated funds for hospitals, helped the poor, and was a keen collector of fine art. His son Anatoly donated funds for the restoration of the facade of the Cathedral of Santa Croce and from time to time acquired works by Perugino, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, and also received the title of Prince of San Donato (named after the family villa near Florence) from the Duke of Tuscany. Anatoly’s nephew Pavel Demidov opened schools, cheap canteens, and rooming houses in Florence. In addition, he donated 38 thousand lire (money of the 19th century had a gold equivalent, but this amount can be equated to hundreds of thousands of euros) for restoration work and the construction of the facade of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which until the 19th century was covered with unpolished stone (now such a facade can be seen at the Cathedral of San Lorenzo). Today, the tourist's eye is lost among the numerous sculptures and decorative elements made of white, green and pinkish marble.
View of the city from the dome of the cathedral. Arch. F. Brunelleschi / Shutterstock.com
If you like to look at the city from above, then the Duomo offers two such opportunities. You can climb Brunelleschi's dome and see it from the inside (entrance €8). In the warm season there are always long queues. You can also climb Giotto’s bell tower (entrance – 6 euros). If you are a fan of steep climbs along narrow spiral staircases, then this is the place for you. Neither building has an elevator, and the climb is about 400 steps. However, the main disadvantage of such entertainment is that from the height of the Duomo the cathedral itself will not be visible, and of course, this view will not compare with what will open from piazzale San Michelangelo or from the hill of San Miniato, where we will go a little later.
Walk around the Duomo and take a close look at the façade. It may seem incongruous that such a huge structure stands in an inappropriately small area and cannot be seen in its entirety. However, a distance of several steps gives majesty to this spiritual center of the city, this was the main idea of the architects. Monuments to them stand to the left of the main entrance (if you stand with your back to the cathedral): Filippo Brunelleschi and Arnoldo Di Cambio were enemies during their lifetime, but the Florentines decided to reconcile them and erected monuments to the creators next to each other.
After going around the cathedral on the left, we go out onto Via dei Servi, leading to Santissima Annunziata Square. Here, at house number 2, you can remember another of our compatriots, Count Dmitry Petrovich Buturlin.
Orphanage (Ospedale degli Innocenti) and monument to Ferdinando I de' Medici in Piazza Santissima Annunziata. Arch. F. Brunelleschi ©pio3 / Shutterstock.com
Native Muscovites, the Buturlins, having lost their huge library after the fire of 1812, became the first Russian emigrants in Italy (1818) and, having settled in Florence, began collecting a new collection of books in the luxurious Renaissance mansion Palazzo Montauti-Niccolini (today simply Palazzo Niccolini) in the very center cities. On the map of Florence, until recently, this mansion was designated only as Palazzo Buturlin, and the coat of arms of Count Dmitry Petrovich Buturlin remained on the facade.
Today, this mansion houses an expensive hotel, where all the interiors of the 19th century have been preserved. If you ask permission, you will be allowed to see not only the courtyard of the mansion, but also its interior decoration (go through the gate and on the left go up the stairs to the second floor).
Return to the Duomo and follow Via dei Calzaiuoli until you reach Piazza della Signoria. On the way, pay attention to the beautiful Orsanmichele (St. Michael the Archangel) building with an interesting facade with sculptures. This building served first as a market, then as a church, and most importantly, it became an illustrative example of the development of Renaissance art. In 1290, the architect of the Duomo, Arnolfo Di Cambio, built a Loggia here, which served as a market, but soon the structure was badly damaged by fire, and in 1337 it was restored, adding a third floor and turning the first into the Church of the Virgin Mary and her mother Anna. The temple is decorated with sculptures of the patrons of various guilds who ruled the city. The sculptures fell into disrepair over time due to frequent rains, and were replaced in accordance with new artistic trends. Its location between the Duomo and Piazza della Signoria has made Orsanmichele a symbol of the power of art over secular and spiritual authorities.
If by this time you are hungry, go to the restaurant of authentic Tuscan cuisine “Osteria dei Buongustai” on Via dei Cerchi, 15/r (open from 12:00 to 15:00). Osteria fully lives up to its name “Gourmet”. It is better to come here no later than 13:00, because this place is popular with the Florentines themselves. The restaurant has a menu in English. For guests of the city, if they are a little keen on Tuscan exotic dishes made from beef innards (lampredotto or trippa), we advise you to enjoy homemade pappardelli pasta, spinach crespelle, and for dessert order a piece of traditional hot chocolate cake.
Take Via Dei Cerchi to Piazza della Signoria and the City Hall, Palazzo Vecchio. It was here in March 1996 that Joseph Brodsky was given the title of honorary citizen of Florence for his contribution to world culture and was given a premium gold florin - an exact copy of a medieval Florentine coin.
It must be said that in Italy Brodsky became more famous as an idol of Venice, where he was buried. The poet’s love for Florence is little known and is best conveyed in the poem “December in Florence” (1976).
The eye, blinking, swallows, plunging into the damp
twilight, like memory pills, lanterns; And
your entrance is two minutes from Signoria
hints dully, centuries later, at
reason for exile: near a volcano
it is impossible to live without showing your fist; But
and you can’t unclench it when you die,
because death is always the second
Florence with the architecture of Paradise.
The visit to Florence in 1996 was Brodsky's last visit to Italy. The poet died the same year in the USA.
Stone pavements, small gaps between numerous houses, rather narrow streets, crowds of tourists, chaotic cyclists who do not get off their two-wheeled friends, noisy smoky transport, general bustle in the city - this is what Florence was like a century ago, but Alexander Blok and Joseph Brodsky had it I have different impressions of her.
Courtyard of Palazzo Vecchio / Shutterstock.com
At Palazzo Vecchio you can visit the courtyard for free, the entrance to which is located next to a copy of Michelangelo's famous David. And in the summer you can come to the “Old Palace” (this is how “Palazzo Vecchio” is translated from Italian) in the evening (last entrance at 23:00), and after viewing the works of Michelangelo, Verrocchio and other Renaissance masters, go up to the top floor and enjoy the view of the Florence at night from the open balcony.
Before entering the patio, on the wall to the left you will notice a profile carved into the stone. It is believed that Michelangelo himself made this profile with his eyes closed to demonstrate that art does not require physical vision, internal vision is sufficient.
If you decide to go to the gallery on this day, then you can forget about a further walk (the gallery, although small, is full of masterpieces). On this same walk, we advise you to go to the embankment of the Arno River. Here, from a small observation deck, you can see the unusual ancient bridge Ponte Vecchio and the Vasari corridor connecting the Uffizi with the Pitti Palace.
Ponte Vecchio and the Vasari Corridor connecting the Uffizi Gallery with Palazzo Pitti / Shutterstock.com
Don't rush to turn right and walk across the Ponte Vecchio bridge itself. Take the opportunity to see it from afar. To do this, turn left and head towards the next bridge, Ponte alle Grazie.
Just across the bridge, higher up, you can see Villa Bardini. This area of Florence - Oltrarno - is a very prestigious and expensive place where wealthy native Florentines live; many houses right on the Arno River embankment are rented to foreigners. It's not as bustling as the historic center around the Duomo, with fewer shops and restaurants. However, even here the embankment has its own rich history.
From the bridge we turn left and go into a green park, located on the square under the telling name Piazza Demodoff. Approach the gazebo with the monument in the center of the square.
L. Bartolini. Monument to N. N. Demidov on Demidov Square in Florence© Flickr.com
By order of Anatoly Demidov, grateful Florentines erected a white marble statue of the first Demidov in Florence - Nicholas, made by the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini. The symbols depicting the power and qualities of Demidov used in the monument are interesting: Nicholas himself is depicted as a Roman senator who presses his son Anatoly to his chest, and a female figure next to him symbolizes gratitude and presents Demidov with a laurel wreath. At the corners of the pedestal there are 4 allegory statues: Nature, Art, Mercy, Siberia (the latter holds Plutos in his hands with a bag of gold - the untold wealth of the Demidov family). Please note that only the last figure - Siberia - is fully dressed and wears a hat, because all Italians know how cold it can be in Russia.
Upon his arrival in Florence, Nikolai Nikitich founded a shelter for orphans and the elderly in this square, which was called “Demidov’s shelter”. Today its facade is decorated with a high relief image of Nikolai Nikitich. The shelter is located not far from Palazzo Serristori (to the left of the monument in the park - Lungarno Serristori, 21), where Demidov himself first lived. This building is closed today, but its abandoned appearance can please many photographers and antiquity hunters.
It so happened that in this area of Florence a lot is connected with the name of Nikolai Demidov - the area itself is named after St. Nicholas, there is a street of the same name, an arch, and also a church. And the Florentines joke that if the locals agree to meet at David’s, then the Russians can patriotically meet at the Demidov monument.
Very close by, on Via San Niccolò, on a rather modest house number 91, a sign recently appeared: “Andrei Tarkovsky, incomparable director of spiritual cinema, an exile in Florence, spent the last years of his life in this house, guest and honorary citizen of the city of Florence.”
“Florence is a city that restores hope,” wrote the director, who found himself a homeless wanderer in Europe. The Florence City Hall gave him a room in Via San Niccolò, where the great Russian director lived from 1983 to 1986 and where he wrote the scripts for the latest films “Nostalgia” and “Sacrifice”. There is something similar in the destinies of two masters - Brodsky and Tarkovsky. Both of them loved Florence, both spent the last years of their lives here, both became honorary citizens of Florence.
By the way, if you are a big fan of Andrei Tarkovsky’s work, then you can arrange a short tour around the outskirts of Florence, to the places where the film “Nostalgia” was filmed. This is the unfinished cathedral in San Galgano and the swimming pool in Bagni Vijoni.
Calculate the further direction of your route according to your strength. If you are tired and not ready for a heroic climb, then from Tarkovsky’s house go towards Ponte Vecchio, and then straight to Palazzo Pitti (skip the part of the route with ascent and descent, which will take you about an hour).
If you still have strength, continue along San Niccolò street and follow the signs to the San Nicolo gate. This is the only gate in Florence that has retained its original height; the others do not reach such a height, because they have long grown into the pavement.
Go through them and go up the stairs to Piazzale Michelangelo. The fairly steep climb will take about 15 minutes. If you take your time and enjoy the gradual ascent and views of Florence, you will especially enjoy this section. Now you definitely won’t regret not climbing the Duomo dome.
From Michelangelo's platform, walk along Via Galileo to the stairs leading to the Benedictine monastery of San Miniato. Oddly enough, fewer tourists come here, apparently due to ignorance or fatigue. But this place is worth visiting both for the monastery and for the stunning view.
Facade of the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte / Shutterstock.com
Among all the basilicas, San Miniato al Monte is the only one that has survived almost unchanged since its construction in 1018 (the facade began in 1090). You will have an excellent opportunity to take a closer look at the typical Romanesque decoration of the temple and admire the frescoes depicting the life of St. Benedict, as well as the majolica vault created by Luca della Robbia.
Next to the church is the Cimitero delle Porte Sante cemetery, where famous Italians are buried, including the creator of Pinocchio Carlo Collodi, the artist Pietro Annigoni, the poet and writer Luigi Ugolini, the director Mario Cecchi Gori, the physicist Bruno Benedetto Rossi and others.
Near the basilica you can buy unusual souvenirs - foods and potions made by the Benedictine monks themselves.
From the stairs leading to the Church of San Miniato al Monte you will have a stunning view of Florence, especially strong at sunset. Blue skies, golden villas, terracotta roofs, olive trees and dark green cypress trees. You will remember these panoramas for a long time in snowy Russia.
Go down to Galileo Street and follow it to the left until it intersects with San Leonardo Street. Now try to imagine an excerpt from the great “Seasons” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and pay attention to the memorial plaque on the house 64 on San Leonardo Street: “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky lived and worked in this villa in 1878, where from the endless Russian plains and gentle Tuscan hills brought to life the immortal harmonies of both regions.”
This is not the only place in Florence where Tchaikovsky lived during his visits to this city. However, the Sofitel and Washington hotels are not so romantic as to place such words on them, unlike this secluded corner of the Villa Bonciani and one of the most beautiful streets of Florence, San Leonardo.
Not far from this mansion, Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck, a fan of the composer’s work and his patron of the arts, also lived in a hotel. During 13 years of correspondence, Tchaikovsky never met her. Von Meck provided him with extensive financial support, but wished to remain unknown to her idol.
The composer loved Florence. In the spring of 1890, during his last stay here, Tchaikovsky, in an unprecedentedly short time, in just 44 days, wrote in sketches his favorite brainchild - the opera “The Queen of Spades”. At the same time, a dedication to his beloved city was written - the sextet “Memories of Florence”.
If you are tired, you can return back to the center of Florence by bus (line 23). But you will not regret if you take a half-hour slow walk through the most Tuscan part of Florence among numerous villas, olive bushes, and cypress trees. Continue down Via San Leonardo until you reach Via Costa Giorgio, which takes you down to Piazza Felicita’.
We go down to the city, to the Church of Santa Felicita. The Vasari Corridor runs right through this church. Tickets for the Vasari Corridor itself need to be booked well in advance, but you can enter the church for free. Tourists also come here to look at the “Entombment” by the artist Pontormo.
From Piazza Felicita, turn left and walk along Via Guicciardini to the sloping Piazza Pitti Gallery.
Facade of Palazzo Pitti © Inu / Shutterstock.com
“...At the end of November 1868 we moved to the then capital of Italy and settled near Palazzo Pitti. The change of place again had a beneficial effect on my husband, and we began to explore churches, museums and palaces together,” F.M.’s wife wrote in her memoirs. Dostoevsky Anna Grigorievna Snitkina.
The exact address of the house in which Dostoevsky lived remains unknown. However, in the 20th century, the poet Yevtushenko studied the documents of that time and found out that Dostoevsky lived in house number 22 on Guicciardini Street, where a memorial plaque subsequently appeared. According to evidence, it was in this house that Dostoevsky completed his 17-month work - the novel “The Idiot” in 1869.
Dostoevsky first came to Florence in 1862 together with the critic N.N. Strakhov, and then after ruinous travels around Europe, returned here with his new wife Snitkina, who took up financial support writer. Florence attracted Dostoevsky with its mild climate and library.
According to Anna Grigorievna, “there was an excellent library and reading room with two Russian newspapers,” and the writer “went there every day to read after lunch.” We are talking about a library - the Scientific Cabinet of Viesse, which received the main European publications. Today this library is located in the Palazzo Strozzi building.
Boboli Gardens and view of Florence / Shutterstock.com / Shutterstock.com
“I was prescribed by the doctor to walk a lot, and every day Fyodor Mikhailovich and I went to Giardino Boboli (a garden located behind the Pitti Palace), where, despite January, roses were blooming. Here we basked in the sun and dreamed of our future happiness,” writes Anna Grigorievna.
On the way to the bridge, you can stop by one of the many restaurants on the embankment. It is worth keeping in mind that all of them here are quite expensive, but do not lose in quality, despite their tourist purpose. Thus, one of the restaurants, the recently opened Open Air, boasts fish dishes and a magnificent view of Ponte Vecchio and the opposite bank (lunch costs 50-100 euros).
At this point you can end your walk by returning along the Ponte Vecchio bridge. Having immersed yourself in the golden web of jewelry shops, you will smoothly flow into the luxury of fashion stores and go out to Republic Square, which found all the great compatriots we have listed. This square is different from other squares in Florence because it was built specifically for Florence's impending appointment as the capital of Italy (1865-1870).
When returning home, think about the fact that you have walked through a city where Russians have been since the 15th century. And who knows, maybe someday a sign with your name will appear on the hotel where you are staying.
There are cities to which there is no return.
The sun hits their windows like smooth mirrors. That
Yes, you can’t get into them for any amount of gold.
There is always a river flowing under six bridges.
There are places where I fell with my lips
also to the lips and with a pen to the sheets. AND
it ripples from arcades, colonnades, and cast-iron scarecrows; there the crowd is talking, besieging the tram corner,
in the language of a person who has departed.
I. Brodsky “December in Florence”