It must be admitted that we are poorly acquainted with the surroundings of the city we live in. Near us lie true royal palaces in neglect, where tours are no longer conducted.

For example, what do we know about Ropsha? Many at best have heard that it is a settlement in the Leningrad region and that it once belonged to the Romanov dynasty. Few know that there was a remarkable palace and park ensemble there, created by outstanding architects, sculptors, and masters of park design.

Ropsha today is a small settlement between Strelna and Kipen. There, as everywhere else here, potatoes and other vegetables are grown, and fish are bred in ponds. But no one pays attention to the ponds of strange shapes, with intricately indented shores, the trees—huge, three arm-spans around, with knots on the trunks—traces of old pruning. And among them, as if hiding in shame for its squalor, stands a crippled palace without a roof, in half-rotted forests. It seems soon this ensemble will have to be spoken of in the past tense.

One wants to trace what place Ropsha held among other, more splendid Romanov estates, and what attracted attention to it.

Ropsha is located 49 km from Saint Petersburg on the Strelka River, which flows into the Gulf of Finland, in the northern part of the Izhora Upland on the Ropsha Heights, rising about 130 meters above sea level. From the 10th to the 17th century, this territory was part of the Kipensky Pogost of the Vodskaya Pyatina of Novgorod land, and now it is part of the Lomonosov district of the Leningrad region.

The settlement stretches for more than a kilometer along the highway from Strelna to Kipen. This was the former medieval Narva route connecting the trading city of Nevskoe Ustye (also known as Nien), located at the mouth of the Okhta River into the Neva, with Narva.

The name Ropsha possibly derives from a changed name of the village Khrapsha, which existed here in the 15th century. Khrap or Khrapsha is an ancient Novgorod male name. In the “Census Lease Book of the Vodskaya Pyatina of 1500” it is recorded: In the Kipensky Pogost of the Grand Duke, the village and hamlets of Khrapsha, the village of Glyadenets, the village of Ivanovskaya on Knyazhy Hill; altogether with Mikhailovskaya.”1 The surnames of Ropsha residents are mentioned—Maksimka Yakhnov, Fedotka Izheranin, Kuzemka Tarasov and his son Karpik, Lembitka Ivashkov, Onashka Kirillov, and others. They engaged in agriculture and livestock breeding. They paid tribute in hay, rye, oats, barley, flax, meat, sheepskins, and beer.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Russian government led by Vasily Shuisky invited the Swedes to Muscovy as allies in the fight against the Poles. But they behaved like conquerors. This struggle ended with the signing of the Treaty of Stolbovo on February 27, 1617, in Vyborg, according to which the Swedes received the fortresses of Ivangorod,

Yam, Koporye, Oreshek, and Korela. About the significance of the Stolbovo peace, the Swedish king Gustav Adolf said: “How many fertile regions and rivers rich in fish, important for trade, were annexed to Sweden by this peace.”

According to the terms of the peace, lands along the Neva banks passed to the Swedes, and all Russian inhabitants, except nobles, their servants, and monks, were to remain in place and submit to Swedish authorities. However, many residents fled to Russia. The area was depopulated. The Swedes began resettling Finnish peasants from the northwestern regions of Finland there. They laid the foundation for the Finnish population of the Izhora land (in Swedish — Ingria). At that time, villages with Finnish names appeared near Ropsha: Telezi, Kempelovo, Alakyulya. The main city of Ingria was the fortress of Koporye. During Swedish rule, Ropsha belonged to General Gasfer. He was an Estonian nobleman, a vassal of the Swedish king. For him, a manor and a stone Lutheran church were built in Ropsha. From the beginning of the 18th century, Ropsha became part of the Saint Petersburg province. Having reclaimed Ingria during the Northern War and distributed these lands to his close associates, Peter I retained Strelna, Peterhof, and Ropsha. Unlike the first two, located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, where he planned to create grand ensembles, Peter I arranged a small estate in Ropsha. Visiting Strelna and Peterhof, observing construction work, he also came to Ropsha to study the sources of the future water conduits — Strelna and Peterhof. The tsar heard from locals about the healing mineral springs of Ropsha and decided to test their curative properties himself. Returning in 1712 from Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary), where he was treated with waters,

Peter created a “healing estate” in Ropsha — the first Russian resort. His close attention was attracted by the strongest of the available springs — Jordan, near which, on Knyazhy Hill, his estate with wooden buildings and a formal garden was located. The “journal, or daily note” records that Peter I came to Ropsha in July 1713 “for treatment.” From Peter’s estate, several mighty trees, the remains of the palace foundation, and a significantly rebuilt stone church have survived. The church is a very ancient building. The 1500 census book records: “Kipensky Pogost, and in the pogost — the church of Great Dmitry.” It was named after Dmitry of Thessaloniki, whose name appears on the first pages of Russian chronicles. Possibly, the church’s name is connected with Alexander Nevsky’s son, Prince Dmitry, who in 1301 burned the Swedish fortress Landskrona, built on Novgorod lands. Ropsha residents still call the church “Swedish” — in the 17th century, it was Lutheran. In the 18th century, the church was rebuilt and renamed Peter and Paul’s. The Ropsha church is an elongated building from east to west, made of rubble stones, topped with a gable roof. Its walls are almost entirely (4 meters) pierced by 14 through arches. Once, decorative heraldic coats of arms of cities taken by Russian troops were in the wall niches: Vyborg, Reval (Tallinn), Riga. Swedish trophy banners were hung in the Peter and Paul cathedral. The eastern altar part of the Ropsha church is pentagonal, illuminated by two arched windows. The lower half of each window was covered by wrought-iron decorative grilles, with four rings in the center of each link. On the surviving grilles, images of horse heads are wrought. On one of the altar wall’s outer sides, a niche with stone shelves remains. It recalls an ancient local custom: once, residents came to pray in the church with their icons. The west entrance was decorated with a small bell tower rising above the roof. The bell tower was built of brick later, in the second half of the 18th century. It rests on stone pillars forming three entrance arches. Under Peter I, the church had no bell tower, but perhaps it was planned, as in 1966, during earthworks near the church, an old wooden bell tower model carved from a single piece of wood was found.

It is assumed that this model was made by Peter I himself, as he was fond of wood carving. Initially, the model was kept in the Ropsha school, but its current location is unknown. About 80 meters southeast of the church, on a hill, stood Peter I’s wooden palace, which, according to legend, was connected to the church by a covered gallery. The palace was “dismantled due to dilapidation” in 1780; now a large pit overgrown with bushes remains on its site (there was a cellar under the palace). Peter I’s palace was a rather large building, stretched from south to north for 15 sazhen (about 32 meters). It was topped with a high four-pitched roof, typical for buildings of that time. There is information that the palace was built from rectangular logs. The smooth outer surface of the walls was plastered and painted with “cherlen” — red paint. Large windows had small panes. Part of the palace furnishings — a walnut cabinet and two mirror frames decorated with wood carving — were made by Peter I. According to a mid-18th-century plan, one can get an idea of Peter’s Ropsha estate. It had clearly expressed elements of regular planning. In front of the palace was a square courtyard 30 by 30 sazhen, bordered by trees. The entrance was flanked by two symmetrical buildings. From them, a road cut through the forest to Glyadino and Gostilitsy went westward, through which one could then travel to Koporye, Peterhof, and Oranienbaum. The palace was the compositional center of the entire estate. About 30 sazhen southeast of the palace was an economic complex consisting of four buildings forming a square.

The inner square courtyard was bordered by an L-shaped building — the stable. The estate also had a pond and a park. Northeast of the palace, about 40 sazhen away, three guest huts and three smaller buildings were erected. Like all Peter’s estates, Ropsha was very simple in design and built according to a “model project” developed by architect Domenico Trezzini.

In 1714, Peter I gifted Ropsha to the head of the Preobrazhensky detective office, Prince-Caesar Fyodor Yuryevich Romodanovsky. In Ropsha, under Romodanovsky, state criminals were held. Pylyaev noted that when Romodanovsky owned the estate, “innocent blood often flowed” in Ropsha. Criminals were kept in his house under the guard of a trained female bear, which did no harm but did not let them out of the prison. There was also a “torture establishment.” Under Romodanovsky, large hunts were held in Ropsha, ending with noisy feasts. After the prince-caesar’s death, Ropsha passed to his son Ivan Romodanovsky, who in the 1720s gave the estate as a dowry to his daughter Ekaterina, who married Mikhail Gavrilovich Golovkin — son of the first Russian chancellor and president of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs. At the wedding of E. Romodanovskaya and M. Golovkin, Peter I was the best man — the chief organizer. The tsar visited Ropsha later as well. The “Campaign Journal” of 1720 records: “August 1st. In the morning, His Majesty rode on horseback to inspect the waters from which to conduct to the Peterhof ponds, cascades, and fountains.” In 1721, construction began on the Ropsha canal to supply water from the springs on the Ropsha Heights to the fountains of Peterhof. The water conduit was built by the first Russian hydraulic engineer V. Tuvolkov. When the construction was completed, the same “Campaign Journal” on August 8 recorded: “His Majesty, together with the Empress, the Duke of Holstein, foreign ministers, and many dignitaries, went to the Ropsha estate and personally opened the river flow into the new water conduit with a spade.” The unique gravity-fed water conduit with all hydraulic structures still operates successfully today.

Under Golovkin, near Peter’s wooden palace, a large stone palace with a formal park and ponds appeared. It is assumed that architect Yeropkin participated in the palace’s construction.

A new chapter in Ropsha’s history opened with the accession of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna to the throne. Golovkin did not manage to accomplish much of what he planned. In 1741, as an opponent of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, he was exiled to Siberia. Ropsha was confiscated and became state property. 

Elizabeth Petrovna chose Ropsha as her country residence and ordered “to enlarge the stone house in the village of Ropsha and add chambers on both sides to the former chambers.” Golovkin’s stone house was too small to accommodate the royal retinue, and the reconstruction was entrusted to architect Rastrelli. The Office protocol of June 22, 1748, records: “The Office of Buildings heard the report of the chief architect Count de Rastrelli, submitted on June 15, stating that Her Imperial Majesty verbally instructed him to inspect the site at the Ropsha estate and prepare drawings for the new building.”

According to Rastrelli’s design, Golovkin’s house was thoroughly rebuilt — expanded and lengthened. In composition, it began to resemble the Grand Palace in Peterhof.

In the central building, only the grand two-story Blue Hall was left unchanged. Two more wings were added on either side, connected by one-story galleries ending with tall pavilions. On the north side was a church, on the south side an “Hermitage,” which was to have a dining hall with a lifting dining table called a “kredenstafel” — a lift table. The palace acquired a striking stepped silhouette. The facade was decorated in Rastrelli’s favorite Russian Baroque style, distinguished by extraordinary splendor and luxury. Using all the possibilities of the relief and local features — hills and depressions, springs and streams, forest and fertile soil — the architect redesigned the park. The work done can be judged by the “Plan of Her Imperial Majesty’s own village of Ropsha,” developed by architect Rastrelli. The plan shows that the western rectangular parterre was to be fenced with a hedge, decorative shrubs, and eight “guest wings.” Four more stone wings were built inside the Private Garden. West of the Private Garden was the Upper Park, decorated with rectangular lawns, four canals, flower beds, and alleys. West of the Upper Park, Rastrelli planned a Menagerie. It was fenced and had 26 guest wings, from whose windows one could observe wild animals brought from various places. For convenience during hunting, the Menagerie was divided by 10 straight alleys into 16 squares. From the palace to the western fence ran the central alley — through the Private Garden, Upper Park, and Menagerie. On Knyazhy Hill, where Peter I’s palace still stood, Rastrelli planned to build a huge palace similar to the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. But this part of the architect’s plan remained unfulfilled due to the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War. Only wings and some palace services were built. A large courtyard was cleared in front of the palace, where four white fir trees trimmed into pyramids were planted, and many apple trees lined both sides of the courtyard. North of Rastrelli’s rebuilt palace, several rectangular Fish Ponds were created, which have survived to this day, where trout were bred. Fish were raised to portion sizes (about 200 grams) and served to the royal family and high-ranking nobles. On the east side of the palace, the Lower Park was laid out, which, like the Upper Garden in Peterhof, was formal, parterre, and rectangular. The open garden space revealed a panorama of the entire extended facade of the building. The main alley was oriented toward the palace center. The entire territory was divided into 12 squares, possibly analogous to the New Garden in Tsarskoye Selo, created at the same time by landscape gardener Girard. This suggests he also participated in the planning of the Ropsha ensemble. The garden had a flower bed divided by 25 alleys into small plots. These alleys radiated like sun rays from two inner clearings, intersecting repeatedly to form many colorful triangles. On the south side of the parterre, three greenhouses were built, and behind them, a large pond of whimsical shape was dug. Along the alleys of the Lower Park, Spanish lindens were planted, their crowns trimmed into spheres, cubes, and pyramids. Some of these lindens have survived. The parks were adorned with streams, cascades, and bridges.

One of the cascades — “Rushnik” — in a rebuilt form has survived near the palace’s southern pavilion. Rastrelli’s design impresses with its grandeur and scale. The palace and park complex stretched 1.5 kilometers from west to east and was located on three natural terraces: on the upper — Knyazhy Hill, on the middle — Menagerie and Upper Park, on the lower — Lower Park with ponds. The palace Ropsha of Elizabeth Petrovna’s time was one of the most beautiful suburban imperial residences. In the ponds surrounding the palace, trout, carp, and crucian carp were bred — the empress and heir to the throne loved fishing. In the parks, which seamlessly transitioned, as in Oranienbaum, into dense spruce and deciduous forests, bears, wolves, hares, and other animals lived.

To please the empress, who was an avid hunter especially in her youth, deer were specially brought and released here. Shortly before her death, Elizabeth

Petrovna gifted Ropsha to the heir to the throne, Grand Duke Peter Fyodorovich, the future Emperor Peter III. His last days were spent there. Grand Duke Peter Fyodorovich and his wife Catherine Alexeyevna sometimes came to Ropsha for hunting. The Grand Duchess wrote in one of her letters: “The place called Ropsha is very secluded and very pleasant.”

It was to Ropsha Palace, under heavy guard, that the deposed Emperor Peter III was brought. His further fate was tragic. Catherine

understood that if Peter remained alive, she would never be safe in her power. Some historians believe Catherine herself ordered the prisoner’s death; others think her supporters merely guessed their mistress’s secret wish.

Comparing Shtelin’s notes on the last days of Peter III’s reign, Catherine II’s correspondence with Orlov and Poniatowski, her own “Notes,” and the “History of the Overthrow and Death of Emperor Peter the Third,” written by Danish diplomat Andreas Schumacher, who witnessed the events of that time, one can form an idea of the emperor’s last days.

Although one should not fully trust the accuracy of these accounts. Catherine II wanted to whitewash herself in the eyes of posterity, and although Shtelin and Schumacher compiled a complete chronicle of events from Peter’s arrest to his murder, they were not present in Ropsha themselves.

An active participant in the conspiracy was not only Alexei Orlov but also his brother Grigory, Catherine’s favorite. In 1764, the empress granted “the Ropsha estate with appurtenances to General-Lieutenant Count Grigory Orlov in perpetual hereditary possession.” During Orlov’s ownership, Ropsha fell into increasing neglect. Devoting all his attention and resources to Gatchina, also gifted by Catherine II, Grigory rarely visited Ropsha.

In literature, there is only mention that under him, a stone bell tower with a wooden dome was added to Peter I’s house church. Wooden buildings deteriorated, stone ones required repairs, ponds and canals were overgrown with silt. By the late 18th century, still heir to the throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich decided to revive the Ropsha estate in memory of his father, who was killed there. But to avoid his mother’s anger, he did this through a front owner — court usurer and jeweler Ivan Lazarevich Lazarev (Ovanes Lazaryan). He was Armenian by nationality, a successful businessman, and immensely wealthy. In 1795, Lazarev bought Ropsha from the relatives of the deceased Orlov for only 12 thousand rubles. He spent 300 thousand rubles without sparing money to restore the estate. For the reconstruction of the Ropsha estate, engineer Grigory Ivanovich Engelman, trained in Holland and Germany, and architect Antonio Porto were invited. Porto preserved Rastrelli’s composition but rebuilt the palace in the then-fashionable classical style. He decorated it with a protruding portico with 10 columns resting on an arcade, from which a granite staircase led to the park. A rotunda-belvedere rose in the center of the building, offering picturesque views of the surroundings.

With the involvement of architects Felten, Rusk, and Sokolov, luxurious palace interiors were created. Engelman showed amazing imagination in creating the intricate western shoreline of the Large Pond. It was so complicated that it was impossible to take in its entirety from any point in the park. Dams, bays, backwaters, and channels formed capes of various shapes. These whimsical bends allowed the creation of many landscapes. Bridges adorned the park. They were built of cement and remain remarkably strong to this day.

Lazarev invited garden master Thomas Gray to oversee the park work. It was Gray who created a magnificent landscape park in Ropsha with a system of reservoirs and cascades. He planted decorative groups of trees along the pond banks, considering their color contrast at different times of the year. Mainly oaks, lindens, maples, ashes, elms, white willows, birches, and larches were planted. Among shrubs, honeysuckle and lilac were especially popular. In total, the Ropsha landscape park had over 40 species of trees and shrubs. The solemn character of classical architecture was emphasized by a large green meadow arranged on the site of the Lower Park in the form of a bulengrin, i.e., a depression in the green parterre surface, which enhanced the spatial impression in front of the palace. Such open space could be found only in English parks, and in Russia, this was done by Gray for the first time. Trees were planted along the sides of the bulengrin so that the view opened only to the central part of the palace. A path encircled the bulengrin’s perimeter, leading to the Large Pond, named Ivanovsky after Lazarev.

The park construction was completed with the creation of another pond. Opposite the Lower Park and Ivanovsky Pond, a pond named Artemyevsky was dug in honor of Lazarev’s son Artemy Ivanovich. The Artemyevsky Pond was connected by a canal to Jordan and by channels to the Strelka River, which carries its waters to the Gulf of Finland. The total area of the Ropsha ponds became 25 hectares, with the entire park covering 66 hectares. This was possible thanks to the Jordan spring and other less powerful springs that fed all these ponds. Therefore, the Ropsha park can be called a water park or “hydropark.” Thomas Gray worked in Ropsha for about half a century and died there on March 1, 1840. He was buried near Ropsha in the village of Gorki cemetery.

Between 1788 and 1794, on the shore of the then newly appeared Fabrichny Pond, a paper mill building was constructed according to architect Felten’s project. Construction was supervised by Bernikov. The factory operated using the energy of falling water. The factory complex included a mill on the Mill Pond. It was built of limestone slabs and was a two-story building on a high basement floor. In the center was a chamber for the water wheel, and on both sides were milling rooms. The water intake was at the second-floor level, and the water discharge channel was at the basement. The Mill Pond is an amazing structure where the water level was above ground level, maintained by a four-meter circular dam adjoining the mill.

In February 1801, Lazarev sold the estate to Paul I in excellent condition for 400 thousand rubles and was awarded the Maltese Order. He wanted to name Ropsha “Bloody Field” in memory of his father’s death, but he did not succeed — he himself was killed in the Mikhailovsky Castle. Until 1917, Ropsha remained an imperial estate.

From 1801 to 1825, during Emperor Alexander I’s reign, Ropsha was under the management of His Imperial Majesty’s Cabinet. The park and buildings were carefully maintained. During this period, all works planned by Engelman were completed. In 1826, Nicholas I gifted Ropsha to his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, who loved this quiet place and spent much time here. She also opened a public school and a hospital branch in the settlement, which still exist. In the mid-19th century, detailed estate plans were made from nature. Great attention was paid to maintaining hydraulic structures. New works were carried out under architect Eduard Lvovich Han’s supervision. Behind Artemyevsky Pond, in a birch grove, paths were laid, and a cascade and waterfall were arranged. At the same time, Senator Tseymern established commercial trout breeding in Ropsha’s ponds with clean spring water. By the late 19th century, trout fry, American grayling, whitefish, and carp could be purchased in Ropsha for breeding. After Nicholas I’s death in 1857, Ropsha came under the Department of Imperial Domains. The department’s chief architect Rezanov drafted a project for repairing and remodeling the palace and service buildings. West of the Greenhouses, a Cavalier House with a garden was built.

The last Russian emperor Nicholas II mentioned hunting in Ropsha and its surroundings in his diary. But with the outbreak of World War I, these trips ceased.

After the 1917 revolution, a sanatorium was located in the Ropsha palace. The building was rebuilt for the third time, lengthening the second floor by three windows on each side, which distorted the former silhouette.

During the Great Patriotic War, Nazi occupiers were stationed in Ropsha. They turned the palace into a hospital. On January 19, 1944, the settlement was liberated by a powerful strike of the 131st Rifle Division, commanded by Major General Romanenko. Here, the troops of the Leningrad Front met, advancing from the Oranienbaum “bridgehead” and from the Pulkovo Heights.

During the Great Patriotic War, the palace was severely damaged, although some interiors partially survived. In the postwar period, it was restored externally. Its facades were restored under the guidance of scientific staff from Leningrad workshops. After the war, the palace was owned by several tenants. First, it was the Research Institute of Fisheries, then the building was leased by the “Russko-Vysotskoye” poultry farm, which dreamed of arranging a holiday home in the estate and even developed a reconstruction plan. But perestroika began, the poultry farm went bankrupt, and the palace was left without an owner. Local residents took advantage of this and began removing oak parquet, stucco, and tiles from the palace. Today, only cast-iron radiators remain from the interior decoration. The current state of the Ropsha palace can be described in one word: ruins. One stormy night in 1991, homeless people broke into the palace, made a fire, and fell asleep. Firefighters could only record the complete destruction of the palace’s wooden structures, the collapse of the roof, and all floors.

Still, what is out of sight and not on the path of popular tourist routes among foreigners is forgotten. Only time has no power over the Ropsha park. It is significantly smaller than other parks belonging to the magnificent palace and park ensembles of Peterhof, Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Oranienbaum, and Gatchina. It has neither formal gardens nor park pavilions. Only the beauty of landscapes remains, as if created by nature itself. The park is currently maintained by workers of the Glukhovsky park-forestry — they cut down invasive alder, protect centuries-old trees, and maintain the historically established layout. But although the park around the palace is still alive, it is by no means healthy. Huge larches, ashes, and elms are often disfigured by burnt hollows. Old oaks and lindens have cracked from the inside. Some trees are struck by lightning at a height of 3–4 meters. Many have been set on fire by local teenagers who like to make fires in hollows. Giant galls hang on birches — tumors that from afar look like a bear hugging the tree trunk. On the dams between the ponds, sluices remain, completely ruined and clogged with debris, but water still seeps here and there, simply amazing in taste.

Undoubtedly, among the brilliant suburban ensembles, Ropsha held a special place and was used not for celebrations and festivities but for the rest of the imperial family members.

Today, Ropsha is a dacha settlement. And if you want to get acquainted with its sights, see the still surviving traces of former beauty, come to Ropsha. But hurry. One does not want to believe that the time of irreversible losses of historical monuments has come, although with each year there are fewer and fewer of them. Ropsha is surrounded by an aura of mystical mystery. Most of its owners died violent deaths. Thus, Doctor of Historical Sciences N. M. Moleva suggests that Peter I may have been poisoned. She bases this conclusion on the fact that during the tsar’s illness, on January 9, there was an improvement, but then, just a few hours after dinner, a sharp deterioration occurred — vomiting began, numbness in the hands and burning in the stomach appeared — signs of poisoning. After which, until Peter I’s death on January 25, no health improvement occurred. Golovkin was exiled to Siberia by Elizabeth Petrovna, where he died. Peter III and his son Pavel I were killed by conspirators. It is said that the violent death of Peter III in Ropsha was foreseen by the famous Swedish scientist, theosophist, and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, who lived in Stockholm. Locals tell stories of ghosts wandering at night among the palace ruins, of mermaids living in the Ropsha ponds and coming out onto their overgrown shores to comb their hair.

During excavations by Korentsvit in the late 1980s on the territory of the Ropsha park, a fragment of an underground passage was discovered. It was established that it begins in the cellars of the Ropsha palace, but no one knows where it leads. Locals knew about this passage long ago, and even before the revolution, two men decided to explore it, entered the underground passage through a spare entrance, and disappeared without a trace. It is assumed that a collapse occurred somewhere.

Such legends and tales are kept by the ancient walls of the Ropsha palace. There is another legend that says the shadow of Peter III takes revenge on the Ropsha palace, which is why its history turned out so unfortunate afterward. Ropsha holds many secrets that will remain secrets unless immediate reconstruction begins. But it is important that such corners of history and culture of our land are preserved.

Sources:

K. V. Pankratova: History of the Ropsha Estate

https://mos-holidays.ru/spb/dostoprimechatelnosti/ropshinskij-dvorec/

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ропшинский_дворец

https://www.colta.ru/news/14519-ropshinskiy-dvorets-peredadut-rosnefti-na-49-let