The first mention of the settlement in Taytsy dates back to 1500, when in the Novgorod cadastre book of the Vodskaya Pyatina ("Census Lease Book of the Votskaya Pyatina") it was listed under the name of the village Staischa, a village of the Bogoroditsky Dyagilinsky parish, belonging to the boyar Bogdan Yesipov. At the beginning of the 18th century, during the Great Northern War, Tsar Peter I gifted these lands to Admiral Golovin. After the admiral’s death, the estate was divided into Greater and Lesser Taytsy. Lesser Taytsy included the villages of Staritsa, Ivanovskaya, Klyuchi, Tikhvina, Istina, and Pegelevka, while Greater Taytsy comprised the villages of Kuznechikha, Taytsy, Saki, Mogilevo, and Lower and Greater Pegelevka. Each part was sold and resold several times. Among the owners were Naryshkin, Amosov, Korf, Abram Hannibal.
On December 1, 1772, the Taytskaya manor with a land allotment of 1,231 desyatins and six villages was purchased from Baron Korf by Alexander Grigorievich Demidov (1737–1803), the great-grandson of the famous mining industrialist Nikita Antufiev and one of the wealthiest people of his time. From this moment, a new stage began in the history of the Taytskaya manor.
To create a luxurious garden and park ensemble, Demidov invited his sister’s husband — Ivan Yegorovich Starov, a young architect and adjunct professor at the Academy of Arts.
Construction began in 1774 and continued until 1786. The formation of the ensemble took place in two stages. In the first stage, on the bank of the Verevka River, the manor house was built, and west of it, a complex of utility buildings. Behind a long stone fence was a five-part quadrangle, which included the two-story residential wing preserved to this day, the manager’s house, four stables, a gatehouse, a carriage house, and other structures. An alley led to the manor house, curving around an oval parterre in front of its western facade.
The scale of the main building of the ensemble, the manor house, situated on a small elevation, was intended to be perceived from a distance and therefore was open to view from all sides. The house stands on a high plinth made of slabs. The brick walls were plastered and painted to resemble natural stone, creating the effect of solidity and unity of the entire building. Later, the plinth was plastered and rusticated, and the color scheme of the house’s facades changed. In plan, it is a square with rounded corners. The rounded and originally open loggias allowed admiring the surroundings without leaving the house.
The second stage in the formation of the manor ensemble was the creation of a park composition on a picturesque site with forest and underground springs that gave rise to the Verevka River. For this, in 1780 Demidov exchanged his land allotment near the village of Pevgelevaya with Hannibal for land adjoining the manor from the north and east near the Berezovsky (Soninsky) springs. The enlarged park area amounted to 110 desyatins. First, the springs were connected by a channel to the river; then, using a dam on the Verevka, the Taytskoye Lake was created, and several other artificial channels formed a branched water system with sluices, backwaters, numerous bridges, cascades, and grottos. In the northern part of the park, an area with a regular layout was planned, called the "Star." At the junction of 12 alleys stood a round pavilion — the Temple of the Sun. The park also featured many other buildings imitating styles of various eras, including the Gothic gates that have survived to this day.
After Demidov’s death, the estate passed to his son, Actual State Councillor Grigory Alexandrovich. Under him, the landscape part of the park was further developed by planning the forest area to the southeast and east of the house. The forest, divided into two sections ("Ekaterinwald" and "Zverinets"), was cut with clearings that divided the territory into rectangular and triangular sectors. In the first half of the 19th century, utility buildings near the manor house were supplemented by a stone well, which can still be seen today.
In 1827, the estate was inherited by Demidov’s children: Alexander, Peter, and Pavel. In 1830, after the division of the estate, the middle son of Demidov, Lieutenant of the Cavalry Guards Regiment Peter Grigorievich Demidov, became the owner of the manor. At that time, the territory of the Taytskaya manor amounted to 2,247 desyatins. The estate included carpentry and wheel factories, a mill, four stables, three cattle yards, three stone greenhouses with cherry sheds, and many other buildings.
By 1830, the estate was already mortgaged to the Guardianship Council, and debts continued to grow. The water conduit from the estate supplied water to Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk, so in 1869 Taytsy was acquired by the treasury and incorporated into the Imperial Domain Department.
In 1870, garden master Hekkel presented a report on the park’s wild overgrowth and proposed to demolish all dilapidated buildings, convert the park into hayfields, and lower the water level in Taytskoye Lake.
In 1872, a highway was constructed from the Baltic railway line platform to the former manor.
Emperor Alexander II allocated 476,255 rubles for the establishment of a sanatorium. In 1897, by decree of Nicholas II, the estate was transferred to the "Society of Russian Physicians in St. Petersburg," which established a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients here. The new purpose required remodeling the palace and constructing additional buildings. Between 1897 and 1898, the society carried out repair and construction work to adapt the estate for medical use. From the magnetic pavilion designed by Stepanov, a wooden church was built and consecrated in honor of Saint Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles. The women’s department ("Mariinsky") was housed in the main building, and a special two-story building was constructed for the men’s department ("Georgievsky"). The sanatorium began accepting patients of all social classes. It was equipped with central heating, ventilation, and a disinfection chamber. The poor were provided with clothing and shoes, which they could keep after discharge.
Order in the park was maintained only in the area adjacent to the palace. In the northern part of the park, various sanatorium facilities were created, including a dairy and a poultry house. The water was drained from the lake, which did not disrupt the functioning of the water system.
In 1919, the complex of buildings and territory were nationalized. During the Civil War, the ensemble suffered significant damage. Between 1920 and 1927, repairs and remodeling of the building were carried out in connection with the installation of central heating, as well as landscaping of the territory. The main part of the estate was again allocated to Sanatorium No. 10 Semashko. The sanatorium operated until World War II, although in Soviet times it was repurposed as a hypertension sanatorium. Soviet scientists, after testing the water and air, concluded that the air was not suitable for tuberculosis patients but ideal for hypertensive patients. In the post-war period, the estate housed the Sverdlov Sanatorium, and part of the territory belonged to a state farm.
During the Soviet era, an apple orchard was established near the manor house. The varieties were selected so that the apple trees bore fruit over a very long period. Strawberries, potatoes, and other cultivated plants were also planted here. On the territory of the ensemble belonging to the state farm, an apiary was arranged. The sanatorium operated in Taytsy until the late 1980s.
In 1947, the manor and park were placed under state protection, and in 1960 they were granted the status of historical and cultural monuments. Since 1990 and to the present day, the manor holds two statuses: it is a federal cultural heritage site and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
From 1991 to 2011, the Demidov manor house was leased by various organizations. Since 2015, the monument has been owned by the Leningrad Region. Since 2020, the palace and park ensemble in Taytsy has been transferred to the operational management of the state budgetary institution of the Leningrad Region "Park Agency" to organize restoration and adaptation works on the cultural heritage site. The Demidov manor is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site but currently stands empty and is deteriorating.
Sources:
T.S. Isaeva, Researcher: Taytskaya Demidov Manor — Following the Traces of History
https://gtn-pravda.ru/2022/04/09/taitskaja-usadba-demidovih--po-sledam-istorii.html
