Russians in Florence. Demidovs

He never returned after his death

To your old Florence.

Anna Akhmatova. "Dante"

There are cities to which there is no return.

Joseph Brodsky. "December in Florence"

“Those who never returned…”

The inscription on the gravestone of Lev Karsavin, an admirer of Florence, and also thousands of those who died in Stalin’s Abez camp

“The Laurentian exile Dante is the founder and patron of all literary and political emigration,” Russian writer and philosopher Dmitry Merezhkovsky once said. It is difficult to name another country and culture for which this statement would be more significant and true than in relation to Russia and Russian culture.

Alexander Herzen, Alexander Blok, Osip Mandelstam, Nikolai Berdyaev, Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilyov, Lev Karsavin, Boris Zaitsev, Pavel Muratov, Vladimir Veidle, Joseph Brodsky - this is just a short list of the names of great Russians, whose work is inextricably linked with the name and fate of the great Florentine wandering poet.

...On the way to exile, Herzen reread the “Divine Comedy” and found that Dante’s poems “go equally well to the threshold of hell and to the Siberian highway.” There, in exile, Herzen staged home performances - “living pictures” based on Dante, where, of course, he himself played the title role...

Anna Akhmatova, while evacuated in Tashkent, loved to recite by heart the terzas of the Divine Comedy in Italian. Relatives recalled the upsurge that gripped the Tashkent literary and artistic colony when, at the height of the war, Akhmatova read a telegram from her friend Mikhail Lozinsky about the completion of his translation of Dante’s “Paradise”...

One of the best experts on Florentine culture, Leonid Batkin, recalls how during the war he and his mother were evacuated to the depths of Kazakhstan. Everything that I managed to take with me, the most necessary things, fit into three suitcases, one of which was filled with books: “I was nine, then ten, eleven years old... I countlessly re-read the contents of the suitcase, often inappropriate or inaccessible in a real semantic volume for a teenager, but still somehow irresistibly shaped and saturated consciousness: this is how nitroglycerin from stickers penetrates through the skin into the blood. Among other things, there was a small volume of Dante in the elegant edition of “Academia”... In that Kazakh winter there were bitter snowless frosts, the wind drove the poor dust through the streets; but the measured movement of sonnets and canzonas, the sighs and tears of mystical young love were much more real than the adobe Kzyl-Orda outside the window...”

In German-occupied Paris, Russian émigré writer Boris Zaitsev descended into a bomb shelter during Allied air raids with manuscripts of a translation of Dante’s Inferno: “When explosions boomed in the distance, I didn’t want him<Данте>to be left at the top to be destroyed - and he saw the hellish corridors below... We truly looked like a squad of sinners from one of his songs..."

If Rome is the Eternal City, Venice is an extremely artificial city, then Florence is a natural city. Perhaps this is exactly what D. Merezhkovsky had in mind when he wrote: “I can’t think of anything other than Florence... It is gray, dark and very simple and necessary. Venice might not exist. What would have happened to us if there had been no Florence!”

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Florence is a rare city among cities of similar scale and significance that can be completely covered from one point. The landscape of Florence, seen from San Miniato or from the heights of Fiesole, creates unique picture: the city does not appear to be man-made, but rather a natural phenomenon. Amazingly often, when describing this city, they convey a feeling of its landscape, even its air. The writer Pavel Muratov said that in the appearance of Florence one can feel “the slenderness of a magnificent tree,” and the stones of Florence seem to be lighter than the stones from which other cities are built. Here are just two of the characteristic descriptions of Florence: “Bluish veils of air, bluish-violet mountains, the silver Arno, light fog and the scent of violets from the mountains. Free wind, music and incense” (Boris Zaitsev); or: “The hills breathe, the famous flowering hills. Coolness, the finest colors of earth and sky and the breeze of the wings of the spirit of Tuscany. Divine City! (Mikhail Osorgin). In the description there is nothing man-made, only natural, but anyone who is familiar with Florence cannot help but agree that we are talking about Florence. It is also difficult to imagine another city, whose sketches would so organically include the themes of the “city of flowers”, “city of bats”, descriptions of “thousands and thousands of butterflies white as snow”, the cries of city donkeys or river otters basking in pairs on the sandy banks of the Arno...

The writer Peter Weil, in one of his Italian essays, generally doubted “human participation in the appearance of Florence” - in his opinion, this is, rather, a phenomenon that naturally grows out of the surrounding Tuscan landscape: “If towers are trees, then cathedrals are mountains. Especially the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, and especially when you look from behind the baptistery, before your eyes are five levels of the mountain range - the baptistery itself, Giotto's campanile, the facade of the cathedral, the apse domes, Brunelleschi's large dome. White-green Florentine marble - snow, moss, chalk, forest?

And Joseph Brodsky, winner of the highest Florentine literary prize “Golden Florin” (of which he was no less proud than the Nobel Prize, and which was solemnly awarded to him in the Palazzo Vecchio), in his “December in Florence” (1976) wrote about Florence as a reserved city where a special type of human existence arises:

There is truly something of the forest in the atmosphere of this city. This is a beautiful city, where at a certain age you simply take your eyes off the person and turn up the gate.

In the memories of many Russians about Florence, the same plot is often reproduced: someone (Dostoevsky, Benois, Rozanov, Zaitsev, Muratov, Dobuzhinsky...) sits on the steps of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and looks thoughtfully at the bronze doors of the Florentine Baptistery located directly in front . This is “The Gates of Paradise” by Ghiberti - a masterpiece that Ivan Grevs wrote about as the quintessence of the magical nature of Florentine art: “You really had to live a lot among the fields, often deeply breathe in the life-giving streams of the pre-dawn air, filled with the aromas of spring, greet with your eyes the appearance of dawn, listen and listen to the song of the nightingale in order to acquire the ability to create in this way and interpret the outside world in this way..."

Dostoevsky assured his wife that if he suddenly happened to get rich, he would certainly buy photographs of “Porta del Paradiso” (life-size, if possible) and hang them in his office so that he would always have this standard of eternal beauty before his eyes. Ghiberti suggested the solution to the attraction of Russian souls to the “gates of heaven” by the same Grevs: “The Russian, not accustomed to encountering such miracles in his poor native environment, feels carried away...”

Many of our compatriots agreed that Florence, like no other city in the world, makes us think not only about the change, but also the continuity of human generations. Florence is the embodiment of the continuity of history, a symbol of universal human immortality. Boris Zaitsev believed that decay could not touch this city, because “some incorruptible, unifying idea has been embodied in it and brings life.” And another connoisseur and admirer of Florence, Vladimir Veidle, later added that death itself cannot be imagined as an old woman in Florence: “If you meet her, wandering among the cheerfully verbose tombstones, then not in the form of a skeleton with a striking scythe, but in the form of a youth , knocking over the torch, - the same as after the Greeks, in the first centuries of Christianity they saw it: a sign, a threshold of immortality ... "

O heart, you are ungrateful!
And pink almonds for you,
And the mountains rising above the Arno,
And the smell of herbs, and the brilliance of the distance...
N. Gumilyov

R The Russians left a serious mark on Florence. And not only with inscriptions in Russian,
but also buildings and financial donations, poems and musical works...
I’ll start with the main thing today - with the material. The Demidovs were especially successful in this. This is a monument to Demidov and his son.

Demidov in Roman clothes... a naked girl is sitting on the left... probably a sister...))) we will return to the monument later)))

The Demidov dynasty of Russian miners was known for its charity. They often lived abroad for a long time and did not skimp on donations. For this, monuments were erected to them, squares were named after them, and medals were cast in their honor. It was customary to earn money in Russia and spend it in Europe even in tsarist times... alas.

For the contribution to the facade of the culture of Florence, on one of the most beautiful and famous cathedrals in the world - the Florentine Santa Maria del Fiore, there is a coat of arms of the Demidovs.

Back in 1587-1588, a decision was made to build a new façade. The old facade, which existed only at the level of the first tier, was dismantled. A competition was announced, but work was not started until the mid-19th century. Either there was no money, or the boards of trustees were torn apart by scandals. Only in 1871, Emilio de Fabris won a new competition for the right to design the facade. The government of Florence launched a fundraising appeal. After all, we have to finish this construction someday!

That’s when Pavel Pavlovich Demidov donated a large sum of money to the municipality to cover the façade of the cathedral with marble. So large that his coat of arms was placed in a place of honor. (Unfortunately, I was unable to find the amount of the amount). The work began in 1876 and was completed in 1887. And this magnificent, stunning neo-Gothic facade appeared, made of multi-colored marble - white, green and red, decorated with sculptures and carved ornaments. And much of the credit for this goes to Pavel Petrovich Demidov.

The coat of arms of Pavel Demidov - Prince of San Donato, representing a shield divided into four parts, covered with a small shield with the coat of arms of the Demidov family, in the upper part of which there are three mining vines, and in the lower part - a hammer. In the four divisions of the coat of arms, the emblems of the coats of arms of the city of Florence are located in a checkerboard pattern - silver lilies and a Greek cross, which reflects the belonging of the territory of the Villa San Donato to Florence. It is located in a place of honor. The first one on the right from the entrance to the Cathedral.

Demidov, on the outskirts of Florence, bought the property of San Donato from the monks of Santa Croce and began building a villa, which his son, Anatoly Demidov, later completed and turned into a magnificent palace, housing his grandiose art collection in it. Several generations of the Demidov family lived in this villa and did charity work in Florence. “The most generous philanthropist in Italy” is what Stendhal called Nikolai Demidov. As the Russian envoy to the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, he built a school (it still exists and bears the name of the Demidovs), a hospital, and homes for the elderly and orphans.

Grateful Florence erected a monument to Nikolai Demidov, which still stands in the square named after him - Piazza Niccola Demidoff on the Arno embankment.

Somehow he looks like Putin. Probably efficiency and authority. About the sister at her feet... this figure sitting with a laurel wreath at Demidov’s feet symbolizes the gratitude of the population of Florence. Like... everything we can... we are ready to give the best... just make contributions...

At the corners of the pedestal there are four allegorical sculptures - Nature, Mercy, Art and Siberia. I didn’t find out which Siberia exactly it was. None of them send chills down your spine.

The embankment is nearby... everything is beautiful. But tourists pass by and no one sees that the monument is to a Russian philanthropist. They think some local emperor. Italians know how to erect monuments to Russians. I would like to erect a monument to Julius Caesar in Moscow like this... in a Russian helmet, with a mace and on a good Russian horse...)))) and write low in Mongolian (so that no one would guess) to whom exactly. But Julius Caesar did not spend money on Russia...

In Florence, they opened cheap canteens for the poor, shelters, and transferred a large sum of money to the municipality to cover the façade of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with marble. For these donations, Pavel Pavlovich and his wife were elected honorary citizens of Florence, and in 1879 a gold medal was struck in their honor using money collected by subscription. In 1880, as a sign of gratitude for the donations made by the prince to the city, the Demidov family coat of arms was placed on the facade of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (see above).

His son Anatoly, who was called the “king of malachite,” presented Nicholas I with a grandiose malachite rotunda in 1835. To this day, this exhibit is one of the most expensive in the Hermitage. A few years later, he donated 15 tons of selected malachite to the treasury for the construction of columns and pilasters of St. Isaac's Cathedral under construction. In Florence, at the Villa San Donato, which he inherited, he collected a grandiose art collection, which was considered one of the best in the world. Just like his grandfather and father, Anatoly Demidov patronized artists. Karl Bryullov, who was then living in Italy, commissioned a grandiose canvas “The Last Day of Pompeii”, O pays for it, shows it first in Rome, then in Milan and Paris, and then brings it to St. Petersburg and gives it to Nicholas I, knowing full well that he will transfer it to the Academy of Arts and it will become the property of the Fatherland. Thus, thanks to Anatoly Demidov, the Italian public was able to get acquainted with a masterpiece of Russian art, and Russia received an invaluable creation of the great master. But the patron of the arts who paid for this painting was twenty years old at that time!

He married in 1840 Matilda de Montfort, the niece of Napoleon Bonaparte, a relative of Nicholas I. It was then that Grand Duke Leopold II of Lorran granted Anatoly the Tuscan title of Prince of San Donato, but (!) Nicholas I did not allow him to wear it in Russia.

The most famous Russian Florentine was Pavel Pavlovich Demidov (1839-1885), who often lived with his family in the family Villa San Donato, and then in the former Medici estate of Pratolino, which he acquired.

Church of the Nativity and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. It was not just built with the Demidovs’ money. They also took a long time to get permission for construction from the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Russian temple on Via Leone Decimo is known not only for its beauty. This is the first Russian church built in Italy. True, a temple was built in Nice even earlier, but it almost immediately ended up on French territory.

The Russians and Italian masters. Like the Savior on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg, the church is decorated with majolica and mosaics. Following the model of northern Russian churches, it consists of an upper (cold, summer) and lower (warm, winter) temple. The decoration of the lower church was mainly donated by the Demidov princes - this is a unique interior of the house church of Russian aristocrats of the mid-19th century. As before, now the lower church is used for worship in winter, and during Holy Week a procession of the cross takes place to the upper church.

In the 20s, the USSR authorities began to lay claim to the church building, but this attempt was unsuccessful (since that time the temple has been under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople). M.P. provided great support to the temple. Demidova, the heiress of a family of famous philanthropists who settled in Florence in the 19th century.

Florence has always been the center of Russian cultural life in Tuscany.

Dostoevsky lived here and, admiring the views of the city, wrote the novel “The Idiot.” From the gardens of Boboli Hill one can see the huge villa of N.F. von Meck, where Tchaikovsky worked.

It is now decorated with a commemorative plaque: “In this villa in 1878, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky lived and worked, who, having arrived to the gentle Tuscan hills from the spacious Russian plain, realized the immortal harmonies of both lands.”

Pyotr Ilyich received this house from his philanthropist Nadezhda von Meck and chose it personally. Well, no matter where the great Russian musician lives :)))

In addition to music, Tchaikovsky also wrote poetry. The poem “Lilies of the Valley” was begun in Florence:

“When at the end of spring I pluck for the last time
Favorite flowers, melancholy presses on my chest,
And to the future I prayerfully appeal:
At least once again I want to look at the lilies of the valley..."

However. Perhaps it was in Florence that he realized that these things were not his... and now we love him for something else...))) The last time Tchaikovsky saw the city on the Arno was in 1890, when he wrote “The Queen of Spades” and sketched a sextet, meter and I had no idea that this was my final visit to Florence.

Brodsky also loved Florence. And then he even received a local coin for his contribution to world poetry...

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.
I. Brodsky

What am I? Let the imperishable lines of our masters speak for me about Florence...

Florence, you are a tender iris;
For whom I alone yearned
Long, hopeless love...

Oh, the hopelessness of sadness,
I know you by heart!
Into the black sky of Italy
I look like a black soul.

There are cities to which there is no return.
The sun beats on their windows, like on smooth mirrors...
I. Brodsky

In an ancient city, alien and strangely close
The tranquility of a dream captivated the mind.
Without thinking about the temporary and base,
You wander along the narrow streets at random...
S.Cherny

The beaten city trembles below
Cleaved anthracite.
Gods and Muse,
Like a grandmother, tenderly forgotten...
E. Schwartz

You need different words.
Another, terrible time.
...Now the Signoria has become menacing,
And in front of her are two fires...
N. Gumilyov

In addition, in the 1980s, director Andrei Tarkovsky visited Florence and the Russian temple.

But the modern Russian contribution, alas, is mostly... like this...

Info and some photos are cynical (C) from different places on the Internet and are supplied with my equally cynical comments. I especially took a lot of information from Wikipedia and here

Felix Moiseevich Lurie was born in 1931 in Leningrad. Graduated from the Leningrad Mining Institute, Ph.D. Prose writer, publicist. Laureate of the “Northern Palmyra” literary prize. Lives in St. Petersburg.

Russians in Florence

Chapter from the book “Florence - the city of geniuses: a non-tourist guide.”

Russian merchants and diplomats have been in Europe since ancient times. The first to leave documentary evidence were the clergy who visited Florence in the summer of 1439, invited by Pope Eugene IV to continue the meetings of the Basel (Ferrara-Florence) Ecumenical Council. In the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Metropolitan Isidore of Moscow (Metropolitan 1436–1441. ├ 1462), at the head of the Russian embassy, ​​listened to speakers calling for the reconciliation of Orthodoxy with Catholicism and the unification of the Christian Church under the auspices of the Vatican. Evidence of this event has been preserved with a description of the debates that took place at the meetings of the council and the “walk of the embassy” from Moscow across Europe to Florence and back. Russian clergy were struck by Florence more than other European cities they had seen. Isidore, a passionate supporter of the unification of churches, signed the Union of Florence without hesitation. Upon returning to Moscow, he was imprisoned, from where the former metropolitan managed to escape in 1441. Once in Rome and converting to Catholicism, Isidore became a cardinal. His signature under the text of the union is still kept in Laurentian today.

Someone from the embassy kept travel notes, called “Walking to the Florence Cathedral.” This is the first description of European cities made by a Russian author. Twenty-one versions of “Walking” have reached us. Let's use the academic list and give a description of Florence from it:

“The same glorious city of Florenza is very great, and such was not found in the prescribed cities; The goddesses in it are beautiful and grand, and the chambers in it are built with white stone, the velmi are tall and cunning. And in the middle of that city flows a great and fast river named Rna; and a stone bridge was built on the river, it was wide, and there were floors on both sides of the bridge. In that city there is a holy goddess and in it there are a thousand beds, and on the last bed there are wonderful feather beds and drag blankets; the same was arranged by Khasrad, a weak newcomer and a stranger from other lands; the same ones are fed and clothed and put on shoes, and washed, and shiver honestly; and whoever can strike the hail with his forehead and go praising God; and a service was arranged among those beds, and they sang every day. There is a yin monastery, built cunningly and firmly with white stone, and the gates are iron; and the goddess is wonderful, and there are 40 services in her; and there are many relics of saints, and many precious vestments with stone, gold and pearls. There are 40 elders in it, but their lives do not leave the monastery, and no Miyans ever go to them; Their handicraft is as follows: the saints sew on the shrouds with gold and silk. In the same monastery there was a gentleman who was right there for us, and she saw everything... In the same city they make stones and Aksamites with gold. There are plenty of all sorts of goods, including olive orchards and tree oil. And now in that city there is a miraculous icon, an image of the pure Mother of God; and there are in front of that icon in the shrine of people who were healed for 6 thousand, waxed, in the image of those people who were shot, or if they were blind, or lame, or without arms, or a great man. Arriving on horseback, it was arranged as if he were alive, or one, or a wife, or a maiden, or a boy, or what kind of damage was on him, or what kind of enemy was in him, and how he was forgiven, or what kind of ulcer, so he became ready . And they make the same scarlet cloth. The same videh of ancient cedars and cypresses; cedar was like Russian pine, it looked a lot like it, and cypress had bark like linden, and needles like spruce, but few needles were curly and soft, and the cones were like pine. And in that city there is a great goddess built, the Mormor stone is white and black; And that goddess has a pillar and a bell tower, the same white stone is Mormor, and our minds cannot comprehend her cunning; and walk up the stairs and count the steps 400 and 50 (San Miniato al Monte. - F. L.).

In the 5th month of July, the former great council was held, and then I wrote letters of collection for how to believe in the Holy Trinity and signed Pope Eugenia, and King John of the Greeks, and all the Guardians, and the metropolitans, each signing the letters with their own hands.

In the same city we saw silk worms, and even then we saw how to eat silk from them.

On the same month, at 6, Pope Eugenia served mass with unleavened bread in the cathedral shrine in the name of the Most Pure Mother of God, and with him 12 guardinals, and 93 biscups, along with caplons and deacons. The Greek King John, sitting in his prepared place, beheld their services, and all his boyars with him; and the same metropolitan, seated in prepared places in the seven hierarchal rank, as well as archimandrites, and hartofilakova, and priests, and deacons of the ecclesiastical order, each in his own rank, and the same Kalugerova, seated in prepared places, serve with vision; the same goes for the laymen from Rus'; Those places are visible through people. If only there were enough people to be allowed in, there would be a lot of people strangled; but my father’s troops walked around in silver armor, and the clubs were trembling in their hands; and the future will not come; and now the candles are lit tremblingly in the hands, and those to the people mohakha, so that they do not attack. And after the service, she began to sing a prayer service with her family, and after the prayer service, the pope sat in the middle of that cathedral on the high throne prepared for him, and placed the amboys near him. And from the Latin curtains the name of Julian came out, and the Metropolitan of Nice, Visarion, brought the assembled letter; and Julian began to honor the Danish letter with great publicity, and after that the Metropolitan began to honor the Greek letter. And after reading the letters, the pope blessed the people. And then my father’s deacons began to sing praises to the pope, and then the king’s deacons began to sing praises to the king. And then the whole cathedral and all the people began to sing in Latin, and began to rejoice in the knowledge of forgiveness from the Greek.

And the king departed from the gathering from Florenza in the month of August 26. And having conducted it with honor, all the citizens and biskupi, and all the people of that city, with trumpets and pipes; and above him the sky was dressed with 12 people; and the horse under him was led by two warriors on foot, which were large cities.

On the month of September 24, the pope served in the Church of St. John the Baptist. And in the service of the Gardinalovs and Artsybiskupi and Biskupi, they dragged themselves into vestments, many of them. And then the Russians Isidore and the Greeks 12 sat down in the same robes, and the pope sat on the throne of the golden rank of hierarchs. And he went up to the high place of the biskup, in the name of Andrei, and began to honor the letter of blessing, and cursed the collection of bases. The Alaman lands did not come to the council before the pope, but held a council for themselves, not wanting to obey the pope; and having divided them he cursed them.

And on the same day Isidore and Avramia, the ruler of Russia, were blessed by the pope for Rus', and left Florenza for Rus' in the month of September at 6.”

The author shared his impressions of Florentine churches and monasteries, from the city itself, described the procedure for accepting and signing the union, solemn services in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Baptistery of San Giovanni Battista, and the departure of the participants of the Ecumenical Council. It is appropriate to recall the fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli in the Palazzo Medici Ricardi depicting a procession of participants in the Council. The text mentions the Byzantine Emperor John VII Palaiologos, the Patriarch of Constantinople Joseph II, Pope Eugenius IV (pontificate 1431–1447) and the Nicene Patriarch Bessarion. Supporters of Eugene IV, who did not recognize the decisions of the Basel Council (1431–1449) and left its meetings, gathered in Florence. The pope's friendship with the ruler of Florence, Cosimo the Elder, contributed to success in many of the actions of these major figures in European history. Without the support of the guardian of the republic, perhaps Eugene IV would not have been able to retain the papal throne.

Two more testimonies from participants in the Russian embassy have been preserved: “The Exodus of Abraham of Suzdal” and “The Tale of the Eighth Council,” but they are of no interest to us.

About half a century after Metropolitan Isidore left for Moscow, the Russian monk, writer and publicist Maxim the Greek (1475–1556) lived and improved his education in Florence at the end of the 15th century in Florence at the end of the 15th century, who shared the views of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who demanded the restoration of Christian virtues. In Moscow, he spoke out against the “debauchery” of the clergy. He was accused of deliberately distorting translations of holy books and conspiring with the Turkish ambassador, for which, by decision of the Council Court, he was sent into twenty-six years of exile.

On August 23 and 24, 1698, the steward Peter Andreevich Tolstoy (1645–1729), sent by Peter I on a trip to Europe, stayed in Florence. Here are some interesting sketches from his diary entries:

“Florence is a great place between great mountains on level ground. And in it lives a grand duke, that is, a great prince, who has a crown, that is, crowned, has under him also considerable other places and his dominion is considerable and populous.

Near the very site of Florence, there is a stone city of ancient construction with stone towers and gates of ancient fashion, but of considerable craftsmanship.

In Florence there are few houses of the heftiest proportions: all the houses are of ancient Florence. The entire city of Florence is paved with stone. And the chambers are high, three and four dwellings high, but the structure is simple, not architecturally speaking.

A large river flows through Florence, called the Arni. Four large stone bridges were built across that river, on stone pillars, between which there is one very large one, which I wrote about in my book above this, on which the silver row is 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 kinds of church buildings.

In Florence the people are pure and very welcoming to farestieri (foreigners.- F.L.). Dresses are worn by honest people in French, and by other persons like Roman dress; and the merchants wear the same dress as the Venetian merchants - black; and the female sex in Florence cleans itself in the Roman style.

Honest people and rich merchants travel in large carriages and carriages; and there are many carriage horses in Florence; Also, wives and girls ride in carriages, well-cleaned, on good horses.

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 kinds, and especially Florence boasts of their skill in making all sorts of things, great and small, from pink marbles, beautifully, flowers and living creatures, with a power as if picturesque.

In Florence, bread, meat, and all kinds of livestock are inexpensive, and there is plenty of it; there is also a lot of fish and inexpensive; and all kinds of fruits are plentiful and very cheap, and even more so there are a lot of good grapes, from which good wines are made, which are famous Florentine wines all over the world; 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 Florentine wines.

Osterium (hotel - F.L.) in Florence there are many in which there are good-sized chambers, and beds, and tables, and chairs, and armchairs, and good-sized beds, and tablecloths, and sheets, and white towels; Also, food and drink by farestir is fair and satisfying.

The vile people are pious, political and extremely respectful and truthful.

In Florence there are many pillars, on which are placed, in memory of ancient past times, famous people, carved in alabaster and from white stones, and on others, copper ones on horses, made with glorious work. In Florence, there are not many fountains, which are damaged, but they are of good craftsmanship, just not like those in Rome, and water does not flow from all the fountains in Florence. In Florence there are many fine craftsmen, painters of considerable Italian skill, who paint a fair amount and charge 50 gold rubles or more for one small image.”

Tolstoy's restrained description is interrupted by admiration for the cathedral and basilicas of Palazzo Pitti. It is not possible to establish where Tolstoy stayed (“osteria, which is called San Luntzi”).

About a year after P. A. Tolstoy’s visit, a group of Russian diplomats from the Grand Embassy arrived in Florence. Peter I, having received news of the Streltsy revolt, interrupted his trip to Europe and hastily returned to Moscow, visiting only Holland and Germany. Only part of the embassy participants traveled the entire intended route, among them was Prince Boris Ivanovich Kurakin (1676–1727), the future ambassador to Rome, London, Paris, etc. Presumably he is the author of the “Journal of Travel in Germany, Holland and Italy in 1697–1699” years, led by the Russians at the Grand Embassy to the rulers of different European countries.” Here are some entries from it regarding Florence:

“On the 27th [June 1698] we came to Florence to eat, the city is large, the streets are unclean, the houses are elegantly built, the endings are made of paper, rarely glass.

In the church was St. John's, a fairly large building, in one limit there were 60 unquenchable candles with lamps, 50 silver candlesticks, silver angels on the walls with candles, the ceiling was carved and gilded. There is also the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos, great, all made of marble.

Immediately I saw a church that has been under construction for 96 years, and half of it is still unfinished, everything inside is made of carved marble and jasper, everything is cut into stone, the work is so hard that it is impossible to believe: it takes three weeks to cut out one letter, and until now it was 22 million shuts (skudi) or efimki.

There was also a large one in the senator’s house, five chambers were decorated with marvelous writing, 15 chambers were decorated with colored damask, 2 tapestries, 5 different velvets, 2 marble, the best carved gilded, marvelous mirrors one and a half fathoms long, they were painted with skillful craftsmanship; He also has a library with two slotted globes, the very large one itself is carved and gilded.

I was right there in the yard where the horses are being trained; I was in the yard where there were all sorts of animals, lions, leopards.

I visited the Prince of Florence in the courtyard (Palazzo Pitti. - F.L.), where all sorts of things are collected, is called a gallery; the first thing I saw was the throne, made of marble of different colors, in the church that has been building for 96 years; a chamber with wonderful letters, another with portselios, a chamber with mathematical instruments, two large globes, a chamber with letters, here is a round table, which was made by 15 people for 30 years, costs several thousand in gold. The box is framed in gold with stones, emeralds, and yachts; two tables are made of jasper, on them there are bone vessels of marvelous workmanship. In the same chamber there is a vendor with crystal vessels and jasper stones set in gold. Right there in the chamber there is an emerald with earth, as if born from nature; there is a turquoise the size of a fist, the person of the king is made; There are enough rifle chambers. Diamond glorious in all the world, set with iron, 148 carats; at the throne there is a golden board with stones, a rich velma, for a new church that has been under construction for 96 years; It is a great supplier, it contains golden vessels.

The Prince of Florence had a stone magnet lying in the yard about two fathoms around, up to a man’s waist. There were marvelous cypress trees planted in the garden, fountains, a bowl made of one stone, 15 fathoms all around; there were, where there were different birds, 5 strophocamilas. They immediately saw a horse whose mane was 11 fathoms long; he measured it himself.”

Not a word about painting, perhaps because in Russia at that time there was no secular painting, except for parsun (portrait) painting. We have given three of the earliest descriptions of Florence belonging to Russian people. The first author paid main attention to temples, rituals, the Florence Cathedral, the second - to architecture, the third - to furnishings and jewelry.

As is known, until the second half of the 19th century, private individuals required the permission of the monarch to travel abroad from Russia. Some did not dare to submit a petition, others were refused, the voyage was allowed mainly to aristocrats with sonorous surnames or large industrialists. There were few Russians traveling around Europe, and they immediately attracted the attention of the natives.

In the late autumn of 1775, the Florentines drew attention to the Russian millionaire, owner of the Ural factories, Nikita Akinfievich Demidov (1724–1789), walking around the city. This was his second trip to the Apennine Peninsula. Among the numerous servants, the master was accompanied by the young talented sculptor Fyodor Ivanovich Shubin (1740–1805), “in order to more profitably examine the ancient monuments preserved by time.” This voyage is captured by the following record of the minutes of the meeting of the Council of the Imperial Academy of Arts dated February 27, 1776:

“We heard a letter from Mr. State Councilor of the Academy, honorary member Nikita Akinfievich Demidov, in which he sent as a gift to the Academy an alabaster likeness taken from the famous bronze church gates in Florence, made in ancient times by the famous artist Jean de Boulon. This likeness to Mr. Belyaev, accepted to be recorded in the register of immovable things and sent to Mr. Honorary Free Community Member on behalf of the Academy thank you letter. And so that such a worthy gift in honor of the gentleman who gave in favor of the arts could be placed in a decent place for the Academy, then Mr. Adjutant Rector Gilet, taking upon himself this likeness, inspected to correct, under his authority, the damage that happened along the way.”

After the restoration by Shubin’s teacher Professor Nicolas Gillet (1709–1791) of the casts from the “Gates of Heaven” made by Lorenzo Ghiberti for the Baptistery of San Giovanni Battista, they were placed in the storerooms of the Academy of Arts. There the casts would have been lost among the plaster models, but the President of the Academy of Arts, Count A.S. Stroganov, who was simultaneously “correcting” the duties of the Chairman of the Commission on the construction of the Kazan Church, having once seen these casts, did not forget about their existence. Alexander Sergeevich visited Florence and remembered “the Florentine doors that amazed him.” As soon as they began decorating the facades and interiors of the Kazan Cathedral, Stroganov, at a meeting of the academy council on March 4, 1805, announced that a contract had been concluded with the foundry and embossing master Evdokimov and the artist Sokolov to decorate the doors of the main entrance of the cathedral, “which are made of alabaster at the Academy of Arts " Come to the superbly executed bronze copy, take a look at the St. Petersburg display of the creation of the great Ghiberti, it is 550 years old. Michelangelo himself, who was jealous of the works of his colleagues, called the Gibertian doors “The Gates of Heaven.” He was shocked by the ideal construction of the compositions with an impeccably thought-out perspective and the mastery of their execution.

Between N. A. Demidov’s two Italian travels, Nikolai Nikitich Demidov (1773–1828), the most outstanding Russian Florentine, was born into his family. A representative of the richest family, Russia's envoy to the Tuscan court, an extremely educated man, Nikolai Nikitich devoted the second half of his life to charity and patronage of the arts, dividing fabulous sums between Russia and Italy. Of course, Russia received more, but Italy bestowed honors on him. Grateful Florentines elected Demidov an honorary citizen of the city, named the square (Piazza Nicola Demidoff) overlooking the Arno embankment after him, and installed a marble monument dedicated to him by Lorenzo Bartolini. Palazzo Serristori stretches along the Arno embankment for a whole block. Its end faces Demidoff Square. It housed the residence of Nikolai Nikitich; later the palace was owned by Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte (1768–1844), where he died. Today, part of the palazzo is occupied by the “Demidoff Institute - a primary school for men and an orphanage.” Its premises overlook Via San Niccolo, parallel to the Arno embankment, and a small palace garden. Nikolai Nikitich founded an art museum and art gallery in Florence, in which he collected works of famous artists, very valuable marble and bronze sculptures and a lot of different rarities. He built a charity home for the elderly and orphans at his own expense, allocated special capital for its maintenance, and donated large sums to churches. When facing the facade of Santa Maria del Fiore, grateful Florentines decorated it with the Demidov family coat of arms.

Nikolai Nikitich's heir, his son Anatoly (1812–1870), acquired the principality of San Donato near Florence. Living for a long time in Italy, Anatoly Nikolaevich was engaged in collecting Roman and modern sculpture. He was helped in many ways by the future art critic V.V. Stasov, who acted as secretary. After the death of Anatoly Nikolaevich, all the property of this branch of the Demidovs passed to his nephew, Pavel Pavlovich Demidov (1839–1885). In 1872 he acquired the Pratolino estate. Villa Pratolino was built by Bernardo Buontalenti in 1568–1581 for Bianca Capello, lover of Duke Francesco I de' Medici. In 1872, Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, with the permission of Alexander II, accepted the title of Prince of San Donato. Pavel Pavlovich donated significant sums to the maintenance of canteens for the poor and shelters. He and his wife Elena Petrovna, nee Princess Trubetskoy, were elected honorary citizens of Florence.

Along the routes laid by the Demidovs, Russians flocked to the Apennine Peninsula, wanting to see a distant overseas country. Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova (1744–1810) reached Florence in March 1780. A participant in the palace coup of 1761, lady of state of Empress Catherine II, the future president of the Russian Academy dedicated two paragraphs to Florence in her notes:

“In two days we passed through Parma, Placencia, Modena and settled for a longer time in Florence, where there is an art gallery, churches, libraries and an office natural history The Grand Duke kept us for more than a week.

His Highness ordered to give me several copies not only of local fossils, having duplicates of them, but also of other parts of the world collected by Cosmas Medicis, whose genius illuminated Italy at the dawn of the renaissance of science.”

The notes of the ambitious Dashkova contain mainly descriptions of lavish receptions, dinners in her honor, and conversations with philosophers and politicians. Florence aroused only philistine curiosity in the princess.

The “Italian Diary of 1781” by Nikolai Aleksandrovich Lvov (1751–1803), a talented architect and versatile educated person, has been preserved. The records testify to the interest in the arts shown by Lvov, his assessments are original when describing temples, museums, palaces; in the Palazzo Vecchio, the architect was most struck by the collection of clothes of the Medici family; the Palazzo Pitti delighted him: “Palazzo Pitti. A rustic, good building with a courtyard better finished than the main façade. Behind the onago there is a large formal garden belonging to this castle, called the grandino de Boboli. There are many good statues in it, especially around the round cage at the bottom.”

Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich and his young wife Maria Fedorovna in September 1781, under the name of the Northern Counts, went on a trip to European countries. For four months they traveled through the Apennines, in Florence they were received by the Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold, the second ruler from the House of Lorraine. The heir to the Russian throne received an excellent education, loved and knew art, and drew well. Based on his sketches, the Florentine Vincenzo Brenna completed the design of the Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg. What they saw in Florence shocked Pavel Petrovich and Maria Fedorovna.

Our outstanding comedian Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (1745–1792) visited Florence on visits in 1784–1785. Having an agreement with the St. Petersburg antique dealer and second-hand book dealer Klosterman, he purchased works of Italian art for his stores, while at the same time acting as a commission agent for the Count Panin family. Fonvizin's letters are saturated with all sorts of everyday discontents; in them he constantly grumbles and complains about the lack of comfort, basic hygiene, and his boring pastime.

In 1786–1790, chamberlain Vasily Nikolaevich Zinoviev (1755–1816) traveled around Europe, but his stay in Florence was not reflected in diary entries this travel lover.

Near Piazza Santissima Annunziata, the famous bibliophile, actual privy councilor, senator, Count Dmitry Petrovich Buturlin (1763–1829) acquired the Palazzo Montauti-Niccolini (Palazzo Buturlin) in 1817; he and his descendants lived in it for a hundred years. Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev (1789–1871), brother of the Decembrist defector Nicholas, often visited Florence. Carrying out diplomatic assignments for the Russian government in Europe, he sought to visit his beloved city. Let us recall that Nicholas I entrusted A. I. Turgenev with the funeral of A. S. Pushkin. The sociable Turgenev met in Florence with the future chancellor, Prince A. M. Gorchakov, the Vielgorsky family and others.

With the simplification of bureaucratic procedures when processing travel abroad, an inexhaustible stream of Russians poured into Europe. Writers, artists, composers, historians, philosophers flocked to Florence; in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, hundreds of Russians visited it, dozens settled for a long time and forever. A Russian colony, an Orthodox Church, and emigrant revolutionary groups appeared in the city. Among them, the most famous are M. A. Bakunin, N. D. Nozhkin and L. I. Mechnikov, the brother of the famous physiologist. There were few of them, they lived in seclusion, huddled in the outskirts, and did not leave addresses. The surviving memories are colorless; they do not represent any interest in describing Florence or everyday sketches.

The two-story Orthodox church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Nativity of Christ was built in 1899–1903. according to the design of M. T. Preobrazhensky, stylized as old Moscow-Yaroslavl churches. The first rector of the Church of the Nativity, Archpriest Vladimir Levitsky (1843–1923), wrote on November 8, 1899: “If Dante in one place of his “Hell” claims that “there is no greater sadness than in its days to remember the days of irretrievably past joy.” , then this truth can also be turned to the opposite meaning: there is no greater joy than experiencing sadness, knowing that it will not return, or better, speaking in the Gospel, not remembering sorrow for the joy that replaced it. God gave this gospel joy to the Russians living in Florence on Saturday, October 16th. When they, with all possible splendor and solemnity, and most importantly - with genuine Christian enthusiasm, celebrated the foundation of their new true Russian church - the first in Italy.

This matter began a long time ago, back in the 70s, on the initiative of the late Metropolitan Isidore in Bose, who repeatedly and persistently invited him to take care of the implementation of the idea first expressed by the late Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, who lived in Florence until 1873. Vladyka Isidore, insisting on the construction of a temple with a splendid purely Russian appearance and precisely where his co-name, the unfortunate false metropolitan of Moscow, so shamefully betrayed the honor and independence of Orthodoxy by accepting the Florentine Union, probably had in mind to atone for this shame, to restore the honor of Orthodoxy, to demonstrate clearly its vitality and stability and all its superiority over the outwardly magnificent Roman Catholicism.”

Money for construction was given by all the noble families who had long lived in Florence and formed the Russian colony. There have been many Russians in the city since the beginning of the 19th century, when the Russian charge d'affaires to the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence was Nikolai Fedorovich Khitrovo, the husband of Elizaveta Mikhailovna Khitrovo, a friend of Pushkin, and the stepfather of Dolly Fikelmon, also a friend of Pushkin, Vyazemsky and many other most brilliant representatives of Russian culture of the first half of the 19th century. The Buturlins, Demidovs, Uvarovs, and Olsufievs lived there. The descendants of the Buturlins and Olsufievs still live there, as well as the granddaughter of Archpriest Levitsky - doctor, artist, poet Nina Adrianovna Kharkevich. And the great-great-granddaughter of Pushkin, charming, graceful as a gazelle, Anechka Vorontsova-Turi, is now in charge of the affairs of the Russian Florentine church.

Pushkin is remembered not only in connection with the names of Khitrovo and Fikelmon. Here, in Florence, his classmate Nikolai Korsakov lived and died, who before his death wrote a couplet for his monument:

“Passer, hurry to your native country!

Ah, it’s sad to die far from friends.”

Korsakov died in 1820. Fifteen years later, another lyceum student, Gorchakov, erected a monument on his grave with this couplet, changing only two letters: instead of “die,” he wrote “die.” And the former lyceum director Engelhardt wrote in his diary: “Yesterday I had a letter from Gorchakov and a drawing of a small monument, which he erected to our poor troubadour Korsakov under a thick cypress tree near the church fence in Florence. This sad gift made me very happy” (O. B. Maksimova).

N. F. Khitrovo (1771–1819), major general, served in Florence in 1815–1817; his widow is E. M. Khitrovo (1783–1839), daughter of M. I. Kutuzov.

The iconostasis and some cult objects of the lower church came from the Demidov Church in San Donato in Polverosa; The iconostasis of the upper church was made with funds donated by Nicholas II. Today the temple plays the role of the center of the Community of Russian Florentines. Sunday services are solemnly held, and all of Russian Florence flocks to them - mainly the descendants of emigrants. There are not so many of them, but no less than the English whom we saw at Sunday mass in the Chapel of St. Luke in the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata. The Orthodox Church is located in a good location inside a green park and is in excellent condition.

It’s strange, but in the memoirs and letters of those who visited Florence there are many negative reviews about this great city. We couldn’t find words worthy of Florence from our wonderful artists O. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, A. N. Benois, M. V. Dobuzhinsky; D. I. Fonvizin, P. I. Tchaikovsky, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. A. Blok scolded her mercilessly for little things unworthy of attention; pale, restrained praise was written by D. S. Merezhkovsky, V. V. Rozanov, I. M. Grevs, who admired her; A. I. Herzen, A. A. Akhmatova, N. S. Gumilyov almost did not notice her. Almost the only exception is P. P. Muratov, the author of the excellent book “Images of Italy”. He traveled for a long time in the Apennines, many believe that it was he who discovered true Italy in Russia. Generations were brought up on his book, they became engrossed in it, it polished their taste and awakened their love for art. Muratov’s close friend B.K. Zaitsev wrote about “Images of Italy”: “In Russian literature there is nothing equal to them in the artistry of the experience of Italy, in the knowledge and grace of execution.”

Pavel Pavlovich Muratov (1881–1950) was born in Bobrov, Voronezh province, into the family of a military doctor, graduated from the Cadet Corps, then in 1903 from the capital’s Institute of Railways. Cold, rainy St. Petersburg did not deter the young engineer from its architectural beauties, museums, theaters and libraries; he moved to Moscow, where his older brother, an officer, lived. There he left the engineering field, served as an assistant librarian at the university, curator of the department of fine arts and classical antiquities of the Rumyantsev Museum, and wrote essays about the Russian-Japanese War for newspapers.

We know almost nothing about Muratov’s childhood or his personal life. The formal things that happened to him in the first thirty years of his life did not at all presuppose what followed. There has been some kind of qualitative rebirth, a leap. Pavel Pavlovich, with his talents, accumulated knowledge, impeccable taste and realized works, won a special place of honor in the history of Russian culture, during the period of celebration Silver Age. He owns two outstanding works: the book “Images of Italy” and the creation of the magazine “Sofia”. Then there was the front, the Cheka, emigration, difficult life in a foreign land and an unknown death in Ireland.

Muratov wrote about Italy with such love and devotion, with such tenderness and quiet passion, with the deepest knowledge and such elegant literary language that hardly anyone can surpass him. Others wrote in such a way that some of them were ashamed - with misunderstanding, irritation, and bitterness. Only a few - with love and gratitude, but no one rose to Pavel Pavlovich Muratov. He opened Italy for Russians, but only those who visited it can truly appreciate his texts.

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, who was 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 Moscow metropolis, which was gaining more and more weight.

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 altarpiece 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 top place and it 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 the Kiev prince 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 patriarchate of Nikon, who had great influence on the tsar, including in matters of 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 in good relations 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 of fresh water had to be thrown into the sea - by the end of the voyage, 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 about 100 people, well-dressed and light-hearted; 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 consideration of his predominantly beautiful appearance and external qualities of the body, he stood at the audiences granted to the 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 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. A great river called the Arno flows through the city of Florence, 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 great, they say, the treasury is 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 large lions, and lionesses, and for six months at a time 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 person, his royal majesty, 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, stands on 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, well tidied 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, some of which are damaged, but they are of good craftsmanship, just not the same as in Rome, and not all the fountains in Florence flow water...”

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; but they say that that fox was brought to Florence from Moscow long ago. 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 scary image was made on wheels, and in it they can former people 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 sights 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 also looked at the Pitti Palace, mistakenly assuming that the Grand Duke was currently there - 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 ... "

An interesting explanation for the difference high self-esteem Tolstoy, why he decided not to disturb 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 of the Tolstoy count family. 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 new history Florence, 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 according to a foreign model, and Antufiev again coped with 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 long legs he was 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 Corsini princes on the right bank of the Arno), visited the Pergola opera house on Via Ghibellina, dressing, according to local custom, in fancy dress, because “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 back in late XVI V. 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), at the end of the 17th century. 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 fertile and abounds in all necessary products. 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, which he undertook 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, son famous historian. 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 (née Princess Meshcherskaya), Pavel Demidov left the diplomatic service, returned to Russia and settled in the provincial city of Kamenets, and then in Kiev, 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 estate to her nephew Pavel, the son of a Yugoslav royal family Karageorgievich.

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. Klosterman, supplied the Empress Catherine II, the heir Pavel Petrovich, the family of counts Panin and other Russian aristocrats with objects of Western art.

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 all 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 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”; “There are, truly, so few honest people throughout Italy 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 a mean 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 at her for a long time daily life, in 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; thousands of villas surrounding Florence, in evening light make an extraordinary appearance. 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 with 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 opened up before me from the Baltic Sea across all of Germany, through the Alpine mountains to wide Lombardy, to the Adriatic Sea to Venice, and from there through 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 spoke several European languages, was one of the largest collectors of ancient art: in his St. Petersburg house he collected a huge collection of 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 in his St. Petersburg house, 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, – what are, for example, the oldest works Italian painting XIII 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 the “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 XIV 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 it 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 critic, 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 the Paris Louvre, but it is all home-grown. 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.

WHAT MADE the Russian soul to the banks of the Arno? Probably, what was missing at home was soft bliss, snowless winters, light skies, smooth lines of Tuscan hills, narrow streets, statues of Madonnas and saints, smiling passers-by, “the ability to live,” wicker bottles of “Chianti”... And , of course, evidence of that gigantic rise in human strength, which is called the Renaissance.

Florence cannot leave indifferent - and especially the Russian person, sensitive to beauty and myths and preferring extremes. And he idolizes her, declares his love, like, for example, Tchaikovsky and the vast majority of Russian visitors to the city, or, disappointed in his illusions, curses her, like Blok.

The history of our relationship with the capital of Tuscany goes back centuries. The very first (we know) description of a Russian trip to Western Europe is a trip specifically to Florence, to the famous Council of 1439. In the Orthodox consciousness, this city will become a symbol of worthless attempts to unite with the “Latins,” and modern ecumenism will be called a “return to Florence.” Paradoxically, this negative memory will bring to life a unique monument - an amazingly beautiful Russian temple, with which its builders tried to atone for the “sin of the Union” (this initial pathos of the building is now forgotten).

But if a Russian pilgrim in Italy passed through Florence in transit and sought further - to Rome (or better yet, to Bari, to St. Nicholas), then the Russian intellectual deliberately arrived here - to Dante, to the luminaries of the Renaissance.

There were also Russian “dacha residents” who chose Tuscany to improve their health, and remained to live here, striking the Florentines with their generous patronage of the arts, breadth of life, and strange antics.

Then - emigrants, whom our homeland scattered widely around the world in different “waves”. However, there were few of them here: this city is not for homeless people.

Finally, already in our era, travelers for whom the classic Venice-Florence-Rome tour was invented, confirming that Florence is a classic. There are many Russian travelers here, and this will always be the case.

PALAZZO BUTURLIN ON VIA DEI SERVI

In 1818, the family of Count Dmitry Petrovich Buturlin, one of the most original people of his time, arrived in Florence after a long journey. The Buturlins became the first Russians to “emigrate” to Italy. What forced the native Muscovite to leave his homeland - God knows. The official motive was, as always, “health status.”

In Moscow in 1812, on the ashes of his library, one of the largest in Europe, Buturlin said: “God gave, God took away.” And in Florence he assembled a new library, no less than the previous one. The Count settled with her, like a real gentleman, in the very center of the city, in one of the best mansions, in the Palazzo Montauti-Niccolini, now considered a classic of the Renaissance. The townspeople, as expected, renamed it Palazzo Buturlin, and so the palace was designated on the map of Florence for almost a century. In 1918, on the 100th anniversary of the family’s arrival on the Apennine Peninsula, the impoverished descendants of Count Dmitry Petrovich sold their Palazzo, leaving their coat of arms on the facade as a keepsake.

DEMIDOV SAN DONATO

Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, Prince of San Donato (1839-1885), continued the philanthropic traditions of his family, one of his benefactions is immortalized on the facade cathedral Florence. Looking at the elegant bulk of Santa Maria del Fiore, it is difficult to imagine that not so long ago its facade was made of torn, untreated stone: in the Middle Ages, the townspeople did not have enough funds to complete the construction of the cathedral. In the mid-19th century, the city fathers called on all wealthy Florentines to donate to a new marble façade. Demidov singled out the most, for which he later saw his family coat of arms in the most honorable place - to the right of the main entrance. The Italian Demidovs received the princely coat of arms along with the title from the hands of local rulers - the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. The coat of arms combines the Ural pickle and the fleur-de-lis of Florence.

The rich Demidovs showered so many blessings on Florence that it was natural for a monument to appear here to the founder of the Italian branch of the Demidovs, Nikolai Nikitich. The sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini depicted Demidov hugging his son, at the feet of the sculpture he placed an Italian girl - an allegorical object of good deeds, and in the corners of the pedestal - allegories of Art, Mercy, Pleasure and even... Siberia - as the source of the untold wealth of the family. Siberia is the only one in the monument fully clothed and wearing a hat: an image of cold.

The square itself is named after Demidov. This is natural - here is the palazzo where he lived, and right there is the school he founded. For a Russian in Florence, it is patriotic to make appointments not “at David’s,” but “at Demidov’s.” And don’t forget that in Italian you have to say “Demidoff” and with the emphasis on the first syllable.

One fine day, the Demidovs got tired of living in a cramped city, and they bought an estate, which they soon nicknamed the “second grand ducal palace.” Actually, they had two such estates: one in San Donato, by the name of which they were given the princely title and of which only minor fragments now remain, the second in Pratolino. It has retained its architectural ensemble of the Medici era, but has noticeably become Russified. In the center of the park, the Russian owners erected a copy of the monument to Nikolai Nikitich, which stands on Demidov Square, in the halls of the palace they hung paintings by Russian masters (primarily Karl Bryullov, who was patronized), and even the flower arrangements in the flower beds were supposed to remind of Russia.

The last Italian Demidova (married to Abamelek-Lazarev) died childless in 1955, leaving everything to her nephew, Prince Pavel Karageorgievich of Yugoslavia. He sold the villa with all its decorations at a Sotheby's auction, and after various ups and downs, the estate found its current owner - the Florentine province, that is, the district administration. This is how the new park-museum “Villa Demidoff” appeared.

Several years ago, the Italian public was alarmed by the loudly announced intention of the Russian government to return its foreign property. In the lists compiled by someone, “Villa Demidoff” was also listed, which had always been a private property. The cautious “district council”, so as not to disturb Russia’s appetite, decided to rename “Villa Demidoff” to “Villa Pratolino”.

However, everyone calls it the old way.

TCHAIKOVSKY HOUSE AT VIA SAN LEONARDO, 64

This house entered the consciousness of Florentines with this name - Casa di Tchajkovskij - especially after 1997, when the house was sold at auction and the local press wrote about it. However, the composer had several addresses in Florence, because of all foreign cities he preferred the city on the Arno, not stingy with compliments. Other addresses - the Sofitel Hotel on Cerretani Street (where the composer stayed in February - March 1878) and the Washington Hotel (spring 1882 and spring 1890) - are not so romantic and do not evoke the desire to hang a memorial plaque on them with the words: “Here the composer nourished his immortal harmonies from the endless Russian plains and gentle Tuscan hills.” These are the words from the plaque at Villa Bonciani, on one of the most beautiful streets in Florence - San Leonardo. Not far from this mansion, Nadezhda von Meck, who rented a “creative dacha” for the composer for the winter of 1878, also lived in a hotel. Nadezhda Filaretovna walked in front of Tchaikovsky’s house every day, but never went inside. But she received scores from him every day (the composer composed “The Maid of Orleans”) - and notes, which are often quoted when they talk about this bright period of the composer’s work.

DOSTOEVSKY

We do not know exactly in which house on Pitti Square Fyodor Mikhailovich and Anna Grigorievna stayed. Dostoevskaya wrote: “...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 favorable effect on my husband, and we began to explore churches, museums and palaces together.”

Having lived like this for almost a year, the Dostoevskys left for Germany, for Dresden - the birth of Lyubochka was approaching, and Anna Grigorievna wanted to give birth in a country whose language she spoke.

Even in the absence of a reliable address, the townspeople decided to commemorate Dostoevsky’s stay. So a memorial plaque appeared on house no. 22 on Pitti Square with a cautious beginning: “In these places he lived...”

Information about the life of the Dostoevskys in Florence is scanty. But the couple's favorite place is known. Dostoevskaya, who was expecting a child, writes: “I was prescribed by the doctor to walk a lot, and every day Fyodor Mikhailovich and I went to Giardino Boboli (the garden surrounding the Pitti Palace), where, despite January, roses were blooming. Here we basked in the sun and dreamed about our future happiness." The Boboli Garden (emphasis on the first syllable) was once the private garden of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

During his four-year absence from Russia, Dostoevsky was madly homesick. Florence helped him out a little: here, 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.” The library, the so-called Viesse Cabinet, was founded at the beginning of the last century by a Swiss philanthropist with the aim of overcoming local provincialism: the main European publications were received here. The library still operates, although in a different location, in the Palazzo Strozzi. And its current user can sign in the library register - following Theodore Dostoewsky.

Florentine authorities, like local authorities in Russia, like to come up with names in memory of certain events or people. Many of these names are not used, and no one knows about their existence. An inconspicuous path in the city park "Kashiny" is called the alley (viale) named after Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The only building on the alley is a post with this name. If you want to stump a Florentine, ask him how to get to viale Dostoevskij.

OLSUFEVA'S HOUSE

Maria Vasilievna Olsufieva is better known in Italy than in her homeland. However, she was born in Italy: her mother had a trusted Florentine midwife.

Among the five children of the tsarist army colonel Count Vasily Olsufiev, who fled with his family from Soviet Russia, daughter Maria retained her Russianness to the greatest extent. During the "thaw" she became interested in a new Soviet literature, which was not accepted among the first wave of emigrants, and began translations. The first was Dudintsev's novel "Not by Bread Alone", translated, at the insistence of the publisher, in a record time - 25 days. Then followed Shklovsky, Okudzhava, Yevtushenko. The translator’s efficiency is amazing: about fifty books have come from her pen, including such complex authors as Andrei Bely, Platonov, Mandelstam, Pilnyak, Bulgakov.

Maria Vasilievna began to visit the USSR, where she was received warmly. Everything changed with the beginning of the persecution of Solzhenitsyn. The exiled writer himself pointed to Olsufieva as a desirable translator of the Gulag Archipelago, and from then on Maria Vasilyevna became persona non grata in the Soviet Union. A new stage of her activity began - assistance to human rights activists, primarily Sakharov.

Olsufieva died in 1988, a little short of the radical changes in Russia, which, no doubt, would have welcomed her again with honor.

Maria Vasilievna’s daughter carefully preserves the old furnishings, library, and family heirlooms.

TARKOVSKY'S HOUSE ON SAN NICCOLO STREET, 91

One of the surprises of modern Florence is the inscription above the intercom: TARKOVSKY. By opening the phone book, you can find out the exact address. House on Via San Niccolo - last place his settled life. The room where he wrote the script for his last film, Sacrifice, is now uninhabited; the widow, now deceased, arranged something like home museum. Here is the director's desk, personal belongings, and an icon of his heavenly patron, the Apostle Andrew. This room is located on the roof of a medieval palazzo, towering above other roofs and reminiscent of a ship's wheelhouse or the nave of a basilica.

In his diary, the maestro wrote: “Florence is a city that restores hope.” Tarkovsky became imbued with it during the filming of Nostalgia: Tuscan landmarks - frescoes by Piero della Francesca, the unfinished cathedral in San Galgano, the swimming pool in Bagni Vijoni (scene with a candle) - became the silent heroes of the film. When the director found himself homeless and wandering around Europe, the Florentine city hall showed nobility by providing him with housing in the ancient quarter of San Niccolo. Now another Andrei Tarkovsky lives here - the director’s son.

BRODSKY

Brodsky and Italy are an example of a happy relationship: the poet admitted that he felt good in a country where so many women resembled his mother. The poet’s love for Venice, forever sealed by his will, is well known; less known is that Joseph Brodsky was an honorary citizen of Florence and the owner of a premium gold florin - an exact copy of a medieval Florentine coin. He received this title and the accompanying award from the local municipality for his contribution to world culture. On a March day in 1996, in the Palazzo Vecchio, Brodsky, surrounded by city fathers and stylized standard-bearers, received these florins and decree from the hands of the mayor, and then read poetry - including about Florence. That was the poet's last visit to Italy.