A. L. Durov House-Museum

About museum

In this house from 1901 to 1916 lived the Russian circus artist Anatoly Leonidovich Durov (1864–1916). On his estate he created a kind of museum that existed from 1907 to 1913. The original estate buildings were located on three terraces descending to the river and connected by a white-stone staircase. On the upper terrace, in addition to the residential house, there was a belvedere-gazebo and an arena (manege) for animal training with an entrance shaped like a mask. On the middle terrace stood a semi-ruined medieval castle, which was connected to an underground passage. The castle displayed picture-dioramas painted by A. L. Durov himself. Below were museum pavilions housing collections of paintings, sculptures, antiques, as well as archaeological and ethnographic exhibits. The museum catalogue included 20 sections on natural science, archaeology, history, etc. The grounds were decorated with flower beds, gazebos, fountains, antique statues, and a grotto with an aquarium. There was a landing stage on the river. The house-museum was open to the public. F. I. Chaliapin and many other performers, artists, and writer-friends of A. L. Durov visited there. The wooden museum pavilions were dismantled in the 1920s–1930s; part of the house and some of A. L. Durov's paintings were destroyed during the war; in the postwar years the remaining park structures of the estate were removed. The house and the wooden gazebo on the lower terrace were restored in the mid-1970s according to a project by architect N. V. Troitsky. Apart from these structures, the original estate with its amusement park on the terraced slope has preserved: the staircase separating it from the house, an iron grille with a gate, and a structure continuing the upper terrace with a balustrade.