The Memorial Museum-Estate of Rimsky-Korsakov consists of two estates – Vechasha and Lyubensk – and represents a corner of wonderful Russian nature, inseparably connected with the life and work of one of the geniuses of Russian culture of the 19th-20th centuries, Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov.

Vechasha is located 14 km from the Plyussa railway station, 6 km from the St. Petersburg – Kiev highway (at the 186th km from St. Petersburg).

In this beloved region, Nikolai Andreyevich spent 16 summer seasons, and the Ogareva estate Vechasha became especially dear to his heart, where the Rimsky-Korsakov family came for the summer season. Vechasha once belonged to Dmitry Vasilyevich Tatishchev, who received it as a gift from Catherine II in 1785. Then Vechasha passed to Actual State Councillor Pyotr Ilyich Yurkevich. At the very beginning of the 1890s, it was bought in the name of his wife, Sofya Mikhailovna, by Colonel Ogarev, apparently a distant relative of the famous poet and publicist Ogarev.

Of the entire 35-hectare estate land, more than half was occupied by a huge old picturesque park stretching along the shore of the poetic Lake Pesno.

Its somewhat neglected shady alleys with centuries-old trees and lush bushes of white and scarlet roses between them; sunny park lawns and the wide expanse of the lake bordered by coastal reeds; modest wooden estate buildings; silence and solitude – all were to Nikolai Andreyevich’s liking. This setting was conducive to creativity and rest from the city bustle. There, in “dear Vechasha,” from 1894 to 1905, Rimsky-Korsakov spent his summers and worked on his compositions six times. Of his 15 operas, Rimsky-Korsakov composed in Vechasha “Christmas Eve,” “Sadko,” “The Tsar’s Bride,” “The Tale of Tsar Saltan,” and “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh.”

In “The Chronicle of My Musical Life,” he described this place as follows: “A house of heavy and clumsy construction, but spacious and comfortable. The bathing is wonderful. At night, the moon and stars are wonderfully reflected in the lake. There are many birds. The forest is a little farther away, but beautiful. Work went well. During the summer, the opera ‘Christmas Eve’ was almost completely written.”

Fate treated the estate harshly. Vechasha remained in the possession of the noble Ogarev family until 1919, then it also became part of a state farm. The estate house was preserved as housing for peasants, but in 1929 it was dismantled for building materials. The old park also suffered great damage.

The decision of the Ministry of Culture to create a unified Museum-Reserve on the territories of Vechasha and Lyubensk was made more than 30 years ago (April 1967). Soon, restoration of the park began, aiming to preserve it as it was during Nikolai Andreyevich’s time.

Now, along the alleys with several preserved old lindens, many trees have been planted, and the alley pathways have been renewed. On the shore of Lake Pesno in Vechasha, near the exit to it from the Bathing Alley, piers have been built extending far into the lake, as it was when the Rimsky-Korsakovs lived there.

Interestingly, it was in Lyubensk and Vechasha that Pavel Lungin filmed his “Lilac Branch” about Rachmaninoff in 2006, and here in 2007 Igor Zaytsev shot scenes for the TV series “Saboteur. The End of the War” (episode 4).

Sources:

https://pskovkid.ru/muzej-usadba-n-a-rimskogo-korsakova/

https://museumpskov.ru/locations?slug=muzej_usadba_rimskogo-korsakova

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Museum-Reserve_of_N._A._Rimsky-Korsakov