Introducing the architectural history of Saint Petersburg and its suburbs, among the first architects mentioned is Andrey Ivanovich Shtakenshneider, without whose numerous creations the city is unimaginable. It is enough to recall how many palaces he created: Mariinsky, Nikolaevsky, Novo-Mikhailovsky, the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, not to mention the buildings and interior decorations of the royal residences in the famous suburbs (Shtakenshneider worked in Tsarskoye Selo, Peterhof, Gatchina, Oranienbaum, Strelna...).

Besides his own house on Millionnaya Street, the estate of Andrey Ivanovich in the Pudost area, named Myza Ivanovka, was also described — a carved wooden house near a ruined mill, the "pink dacha" on the fast-flowing Izhora River. Listed in directories and tourist maps, this estate unfortunately no longer exists today.

Finding the remains of the estate is not easy, from Gatchina through the Zverinets park, moving along a path in summer or a ski track in winter. Traveling for the first time, it is easy to miss the object of your search — the remains of the stone mill are still visible by the river, but only the foundation remains of the dacha. A local resident said: "Just last year (that was in 2004) the house was standing, now everything has been taken apart. I usually walk here, you could admire it — it was so beautifully decorated. A woman used to live here, she tried to guard the house, but she was recently killed." (The voluntary guardian was Vassa Mikhailova — Aunt Vassa — well known in Pudost.)

Under the bridge, the Izhora River runs over stones. On the shore, the walls of the old mill, faced with limestone, have survived. The mill "with two posts with fields and hay meadows belonging to it" was leased in 1791 by the German Johann Shtakenshneider, who a few years later built a stone house nearby. In 1802, the miller’s son Heinrich was born there, who later became famous as the architect Andrey Ivanovich Shtakenshneider. The estate was named by the architect’s grandfather Friedrich, who called it Myza Ivanovka after Johann’s son. Friedrich Shtakenshneider came to Petersburg from the German duchy of Brunswick at the end of the 18th century — among other specialists, the Russian government invited him "to establish leather factories."

Instead of his father’s stone house — which was already becoming too small for the growing family — Andrey Ivanovich Shtakenshneider built his own wooden house at the end of the 1850s, when he became the owner of the estate. The architect drained the adjacent swamps and reinforced the soil. The one-story house with an attic and balcony earned the name "pink dacha" because of its color. Together with the wing and veranda, the building formed an inner courtyard. Dormer attic windows on the high roof, intricate carved shutters, and window trims with the mood of the ancient Russian North long distinguished the estate from nearby buildings.

Not far from where the dacha stood, the remains of stone utility buildings are now visible. The base of the chimney of Shtakenshneider’s former house, dismantled over several years by locals and visitors, barely peeks through the snow in winter...

The fate of one’s labors and thoughts cannot be foreseen, just as the future cannot be calculated looking from childhood. Having early recognized his abilities and inclinations, Heinrich Shtakenshneider entered the Academy of Arts at thirteen and graduated in 1820. After several months of hardship and fulfilling private commissions, the young man obtained a position as a draftsman in the leading design and construction organization of Petersburg at the time — the Committee for Buildings and Hydraulic Works. Monferran, who served there, noticed the talent of the newcomer and repeatedly gave him opportunities to distinguish himself. In 1825, the famous architect helped Shtakenshneider transfer to the Commission for the Construction of St. Isaac’s Cathedral and later arranged for a foreign trip for his pupil.

At the age of twenty-nine, Andrey Shtakenshneider decided to leave government service and move to private practice. The completion of his very first commission determined his architectural destiny. Nicholas I visited the rebuilt Benkendorf estate near Reval and was pleased with its transformed appearance. From then on, Andrey Ivanovich began receiving state orders, initially related only to the reconstruction and interior decoration of existing buildings. His first major work was the palace on St. Isaac’s Square for Nicholas I’s daughter Maria (1838). Andrey Ivanovich Shtakenshneider, who became an academician in 1834 and later a professor at the Academy of Arts, was by 1856 already titled "Architect of the Highest Court."

Having his own house in central Petersburg, where his wife ran a literary salon attended by many intellectual and famous people of the time, Andrey Shtakenshneider was always attached to the place of his childhood — Myza Ivanovka.

The family came there — to the river, the mill, the garden — to rest. And in 1862, the estate became their only place of residence when, due to "excessive expenses," they had to give up the house on Millionnaya. Poets Polonsky, Benediktov, Maykov, Shcherbina visited the architect in Ivanovka...

              "And there — through the shade — lights by the tea,

              Through the windows — music... The moon

              Shines like a sickle..."

(From the poem by Yakov Polonsky "At the Myza")

Soon after the liberation of the Pudost region from the fascist invaders, by decision of the Leningrad Regional Executive Committee, the largest poultry incubation station in the region was established on the estate’s territory. A brief note published in August 1944 in the newspaper "Gatchinskaya Pravda" reported: "The premises of the Pink Dacha in Pudost have been allocated for the station. It will annually supply collective farms of the Leningrad region with 66,000 chicks. The incubator installation will begin this month."

Later, in the late 1950s, the poultry station was moved from Myza Ivanovka to the Pudost collective farm. The manor house freed from the incubator — the Pink Dacha — was converted into a multi-apartment residential building. Then the house was abandoned. Several times conservation efforts were made — the roof was repaired, the lower logs were replaced, openings were boarded up. Baba Vassa lived in the house for a long time and guarded it. Shortly after her murder, in 2003, the house burned down; the Gatchina mill was also set on fire. Over time, the remains of the manor house, the utility buildings, and the one-story "state" house on the opposite bank of the river were dismantled.

Literally not a stone remains now from the summer house where once a tense creative life flowed; the house’s foundation is overgrown. The territory of this cultural heritage site is being developed. The mill is falling apart. The park is gone. In memory of past grandeur, only a few trees remain.

Sources:

https://gtn-pravda.ru/2022/03/12/gatchinskaja-melnitsa-dlja-odnih--istorija-dlja-drugih--tseh.html

http://history-gatchina.ru/article/shtakenshn.htm

Darya Velizhanina

© Historical journal "Gatchina Through the Centuries"