Museum-Estate of N.K. Roerich, house 15a, Izvara village, Leningrad region, Russia, 188414
The Roerich Museum-Estate in Izvara is a unique complex of natural, archaeological, architectural, historical, and cultural monuments, the first state museum in Russia dedicated to the great Russian artist, scientist, traveler, and public figure Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich. This old Russian estate is connected with Roerich’s childhood and youth. Since the beginning of the 18th century, Izvara was owned by well-known noble families such as the Sheremetevs, Trubetskoys, Saltykovs, Weimarns, and others. In 1872, the estate was purchased by the artist’s father. The Roerich family owned Izvara from 1872 to 1900.
The first description of the estate buildings appears in documents related to the sale of the estate in 1785: “The manor house is stone, a distillery with ten copper kettles and equipment belonging to it, with flour and beer mills, a brick factory… with a choir, a carriage house, and a servant’s building…”
The house was built overlooking a pond. Nearby, a wooden barn was located, “yellow with white columns.” In the third quarter of the 19th century, a wing was added to it and a mezzanine was erected. The facades were decorated with turrets at the corners of the mezzanine and window casings.
Another brief mention of the house is found in the “Reports on the summer estates of the Saint Petersburg province…” Early 19th century: the Izvarskaya manor “stone with a part wooden with outbuildings by the lake of the same name.”
Lieutenant of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment Weimarn sold the manor in 1872 to Konstantin Fedorovich, the future artist’s father. From 1872 to 1900 (the Roerich period), no changes occurred in the estate house.
Near Izvara is the village of Zapolye, directly connected with the Roerich family name. Since the 1740s, it was continuously listed as part of the Izvarskaya manor, and in the early 19th century it was called the village of Gryzovo. There is also a legend that in ancient times a fierce battle took place here, in which enemies gnawed at each other like wild beasts. A peculiar confirmation of this legend was the discovery during excavations of Izvar kurgans of old cast-iron cannonballs, about which the priest of the Gryzovo church Rumyantsev wrote.
In 1879, a fire completely destroyed the church. But a month later, with the assistance of Konstantin Fedorovich Roerich, it was rebuilt and consecrated.
Little remains of old Gryzovo: the memory among the people, a small lake, and the foundation of the church built at the end of the last century with the help of Konstantin Fedorovich.
In the Roerich family, there was a tradition about the origin of Izvar, according to which the first owner of the estate, Count Vorontsov, who had traveled to India in his time, brought back this mysterious Indian word — “Isvara,” which translates as “the grace of the gods.” From Finnish, the word Izvara translates as “big mountain,” “father-mountain.”
The Roerich family owned the Izvara estate for 28 years. It was here, in Izvara, that Roerich’s acquaintance with his native history began.
“In our Izvara library, there was a series of old little books about how the Russian Land came to be. From the earliest years, from the beginning of literacy, I loved these stories,” Roerich wrote. The acquaintance with history, numerous legends and traditions preserved by the people inhabiting the Izvara land, rich in ancient monuments, naturally awakened in the inquisitive boy an interest in archaeology.
It seemed that fate itself was helping him. The famous archaeologist Ivanovsky was conducting excavations of local kurgans at that time: “… this only strengthened the desire to get to know these old places better.” Thus, still in childhood, Nikolai Roerich began participating in archaeological excavations under the guidance of an experienced archaeologist. The young Roerich gave his first finds to the gymnasium, “throughout the second half of gymnasium every summer something very exciting was discovered.”
Archaeology became one of Roerich’s favorite pursuits. From 1896, he began cooperating with the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society, in 1897 he became its corresponding member, gave lectures, conducted field excursions with listeners, engaged in archaeological excavations professionally, and made discoveries. Until the end of his life, he considered archaeology a very important science in the process of understanding the history of human culture. In his milestone article “Half a Century,” N. Roerich wrote significant words:
“Also, thank you, Izvar kurgans… Nothing and no way brings one closer to the feeling of the ancient world like one’s own excavation and touch, precisely the first direct contact with an object of great antiquity…”
Through the image of Izvara, the artist in childhood and youth comprehended the image of Ancient Rus with numerous influences of different cultures. It is significant that it was in Izvara, in the old estate house, that Roerich first saw as a child the image of the sacred Himalayan peak Kanchenjunga in a painting. The family preserved a tradition about an Indian rajah who lived near Izvara in Yablonitsy during the reign of Catherine II. Reflections on the roots of Slavic culture lead to the assumption of cultural interaction, of the influence of the East, Indian culture on Russian culture. At the end of his life in India, in the Himalayas, Nikolai Konstantinovich wrote in a letter to Grabar:
“Have you not heard of one curious circumstance? About ten versts from our former estate ‘Izvara’… there was the estate ‘Yablonitsy’ — an Indian rajah lived there during Catherine’s time. The person who told me said he himself saw the remains of a Mughal park. The late Tagore was very interested in this and even asked if there were any local memories… Sometimes we look far away, but it is very close. Izvara becomes the favorite workplace of the young artist, his studio:
“1896. Academy of Arts. The suite ‘Slavs’ is already taking shape. ‘The Messenger. The clan rose against the clan,’ and ‘The Elders Gather,’ and ‘The Campaign,’ and ‘The City is Built’ are conceived… Stasov opens the treasures of the Public Library. In Izvara, the old birdhouse was converted into a studio. Having absorbed with the air of this ancient land the images of its nature, great past, full faith in the also great future of his people, the artist embodies them in his historical landscapes.”
Izvara is also connected with another important aspect of family traditions that had great significance for the formation of the artist’s worldview.
“Two episodes of common significance are recalled from our family chronicle. About 55 years ago, before Great Lent, the church near our estate burned down. Such misfortune threatened the whole district to meet both Holy Week and the bright Feast of Christ without a church. To not leave the local residents without this spiritual joy, my father generously came to help: he donated one of the estate buildings with the surrounding land, and within six weeks, through intensified labor, the building was transformed into a church. The bell tower shone, the iconostasis ripened, and on Palm Sunday, the raising of the cross and the consecration of the church took place…”
The second episode related to the time of Peter the Great: Roerich’s great-great-grandfather refused to destroy a suburban church during military actions “due to his deep religiosity.”
“Apparently, due to family traditions, I also had to repeatedly face troubles related to church building and the preservation of antiquities,” Roerich writes.
Raised in a family with deep religious traditions, Roerich absorbed them deeply from childhood. Documents tell us that the Izvara springs were consecrated during the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the priest was invited by Nikolai Roerich’s mother, Maria Vasilievna. Thanks to her, N. Roerich from an early age had the opportunity to communicate with John of Kronstadt, who was the spiritual father of Maria Vasilievna. Even during his lifetime, Father John became famous for many miracles and healings. History has preserved many testimonies when people of other faiths turned to him for help. Father John once gave Nikolai Roerich his parting words: “Don’t be ill! You will have to work hard for the Motherland.” Thus, love, knowledge, and art, reverence for the Highest Principle in life were united in Roerich’s consciousness in the process of understanding the world already in childhood and youth, in Izvara.
In the 1910s, the estate was acquired from the last owners by the Ministry of Justice for the Saint Petersburg Children’s Agricultural Colony, the architectural ensemble of which organically complemented the appearance of the estate. The Roerich Museum-Estate was opened in 1984. The museum complex includes the preserved Schoolhouse of the agricultural colony in Art Nouveau style with an integrated church dedicated to the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which is still active. On the estate grounds, an 18th-century wooden barn has been preserved. The main manor house is stone, presumably built in the mid-18th century, with wooden additions (wing, veranda, mezzanine) from the mid-19th century — an original combination of classicism and romanticism.
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