Sverdlovskaya Embankment, 40, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 195027
On the lands where the Kushelev-Bezborodko estate later appeared, there were gardens and the country house of the commandant of the Swedish fortress Nienshanz, located nearby on the Okhtinsky Cape, already at the end of the 17th century. During the Great Northern War in 1703, the fortress was captured by Russian troops. Later, Peter I gifted it to his second wife, Catherine I. According to legend, the name for this area, Palyustrovo (from Latin — marshy), was invented by the tsar himself. Later, the name began to be written as Polyustrovo.
In 1718, the new owner of these lands — Peter I’s personal physician Lavrenty Blumentrost — discovered healing springs here. (According to another version, the discoverer of the springs was Robert Karlovich Areskin.) In the 18th century, trips abroad to mineral waters became somewhat fashionable among the Russian nobility, so the actual privy councilor and senator Grigory Teplov decided to save money and, instead of going abroad, around 1770 went to the outskirts of the city in Palyustrovo. He liked the area on the banks of the Neva and planned to build a country house here. With the permission of Empress Catherine II, Teplov became the owner of the Polyustrovo estate. In the 1770s, a three-story house with a balcony and round towers on the sides was built for Grigory Nikolaevich; the authorship of the design is attributed to Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov.
Greenhouses and a garden appeared nearby. It is believed that the previous communications (roads, drainage ditches, gutters, wells, and so on), preserved from the time of Swedish rule in Ingria, were excellently maintained, and the estate builders skillfully used them.
Later, Teplov claimed that he not only did not improve his health with the local water but almost poisoned himself with it.
After the senator’s death, his son Alexey Teplov, who was in great need of money, sold the estate. The new owner was the powerful Catherine-era nobleman and imperial chancellor Alexander Bezborodko. He paid Teplov a huge sum for those times — 22,500 rubles.
On the site of the former house, a new mansion was erected according to the project of architect Giacomo Quarenghi. However, according to some sources, the project was prepared not by the Italian but by the Russian architect Nikolay Lvov. The building still faced the Neva with its main facade, but now it was a residence in the neoclassical style. Semi-circular colonnades led from the main building to two side wings.
The dacha of I. A. Bezborodko in Polyustrovo. Watercolor by G. S. Sergeev. 1800
Later, the wings were rebuilt into enclosed galleries, and the resulting front courtyard was separated from the road running along the Neva by an unusual fence: between the facades of the wings, sculptures of twenty-nine sitting lions were placed. The predators’ jaws were connected by thick chains. This solution seemed unique. Over time, the estate became known as the “House with Lions.”
About the same time, in the 1780s, a pier was arranged, connected to the estate house by an underground passage. Alexander Andreyevich held lavish balls that were famous throughout Petersburg. Among the guests at these festivities was Empress Catherine II herself!
Alexander Bezborodko did much for the surrounding lands. He resettled his peasants here from other estates and stimulated the development of agriculture, workshops, and fishing industries.
After Alexander Bezborodko’s death, the estate passed to his niece, the daughter of Ilya Bezborodko’s younger brother, Princess Cleopatra Lobanova-Rostovskaya. She, in turn, raised the son of her older sister Lyubov Kusheleva, Alexander Kushelev’s nephew.
Due to the extinction of the male line of the Bezborodko family, in 1816 Alexander I issued a decree allowing Alexander Kushelev to add the surname Bezborodko to his own. He became the owner of the estate, which came to be called the Kushelev-Bezborodko dacha. However, the estate eventually became known simply as the “Kushelev Dacha.” In the mid-19th century, the estate became a fashionable health resort. Specially invited reputable doctors gave positive reviews of the quality of Polyustrovo water.
Pharmacist Fischer rented a plot of land here and built an entire resort town. In summer, life was bustling here. Resort guests had wooden cottages, a restaurant, and bathing facilities at their disposal. A glass of Polyustrovo water cost one kopeck at that time. In the second half of the 19th century, the village of Polyustrovo began to be actively built up with dachas. Composer Mikhail Glinka, painter Karl Bryullov, poet and playwright Nestor Kukolnik, and many other representatives of St. Petersburg’s cultural bohemia visited here.
In 1855, after the death of Alexander Kushelev-Bezborodko, the estate passed to his son Grigory. This man was seriously interested in literature — in particular, he became the publisher of the magazines “Russian Word” and “Chess Leaflet.” In 1858, he persuaded the author of “The Three Musketeers,” Alexandre Dumas Sr., to come to Russia. During his stay in St. Petersburg, the famous writer lived at the Kushelev Dacha. “Before me opened a wonderful view — large granite stairs descend from the embankment to the river, above which rises a pole six feet fifty inches high. At the top of the pole waves a banner with a count’s coat of arms. This is the count’s pier, where Great Catherine stepped ashore when she showed mercy to Bezborodko and took part in the celebration arranged in her honor,” wrote Alexandre Dumas about the view from the balcony.
It was thanks to the efforts of Count Alexander Grigorievich and his son Grigory Alexandrovich Kushelev-Bezborodko that in the mid-19th century Polyustrovo became a fashionable resort: people were treated here for anemia, nervous disorders, and took beneficial carbonated and mud baths. Artists Ilya Yefimovich Repin and Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev, composers Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, actors of the Alexandrinsky Theatre, members of the Russian aristocracy, and guests from abroad rested and healed here. There was even a popular saying: “To Polyustrovo — for waters and entertainment.” The resort was equipped with the latest technology: the owners even imported a special steam engine from England. For the amusement of vacationers, concerts and fireworks were often held here.
In 1868, a significant part of the resort burned down as a result of a fire. Some time later, Count Kushelev-Bezborodko died. He left no heirs, and the estate passed to his sister Lyubov Musina-Pushkina. The new owner divided the estate into several parts in 1873 and sold them to new owners. Soon, a brewery called “New Bavaria” (now CJSC “Sparkling Wines”) appeared very close by. Very soon, the former dacha pastures were replaced by factory enterprises. But the unique residence retained its appearance.
In 1896, the “Kushelev Dacha” mansion and part of the remaining park passed into the ownership of the Red Cross Society. The former noble estate housed the Elizabethan community of Sisters of Mercy, named after its founder — Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. Reconstruction of the buildings for new needs began. Brick hospital buildings were erected in the park, and apartments for staff, a pharmacy, and an outpatient clinic were arranged in the central building of the former estate. In 1901, according to the project of architect Alexander Kashchenko, the Church of St. Panteleimon the Healer was built. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the park contained an alley of sculptures, artificial ruins, a grotto, and a statue of Catherine II.
After the Bolsheviks came to power, the church was closed in 1923, and the mansion housed the Karl Liebknecht Infectious Diseases Hospital. The Bezborodko dacha was restored in 1960–1962 under the project led by architect Sherstnev. After restoration, a tuberculosis dispensary was opened in the mansion. The medical institution occupied the building for decades and only moved out in 2017.
In 1959–1960, during the construction of the Sverdlov Embankment, the pier was restored according to the project of architect Rotach. The pier was again decorated with figures of four sphinxes made of gray granite — modeled after the sphinxes at the Stroganov Palace.
The lion fence of the Bezborodko dacha appears in one of the episodes of the film “The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia” (in the plot, the heroes search for treasures buried under a lion).
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