Mikhailovskoye Estate, Historical estate in Novomikhaylovskoye, Russia.
Mikhailovskoye Estate is a historic property in Novomikhaylovskoye, Russia, made up of a main house, several outbuildings, and grounds with old trees arranged in a garden layout. The buildings reflect different phases of Russian architecture, showing how the property was built and changed over time.
The estate was built in the 1780s by General Mikhail Krechetnikov, a governor of Tula and Ryazan under Catherine II, on the Pakhra River. In 1812 French troops stopped there, and the house stood unoccupied. Maria Bakhmeteva bought it that year; it passed to the Sheremetev family in 1826. Nationalized in 1918, it became a museum, then a rest home; its towers and church were demolished.
The estate church was consecrated to Michael the Archangel, the patron saint of owner Mikhail Kretchetnikov, and linked to the house by covered passages. Sergei Sheremetev moved his library and picture gallery into new wings built to Nikolai Sultanov's design, and his wife Ekaterina, granddaughter of poet Pyotr Vyazemsky, founded a natural-history museum here and was made an honorary member of the Russian Botanical Society.
The 18th-century estate-park ensemble is hidden from the Kaluga Highway by the modern buildings of the Kurort Mikhailovskoye resort, so it is not visible from the road. The main house stood abandoned and without windows for years; emergency works began there in November 2023, and the site is not presented as a visitor attraction. The nearest settlement is the village of Novomikhailovskoye.
The main house once had two symmetrical two-storey towers flanking the parterre: one held a drying room, the other a bell tower of the estate church, consecrated to Michael the Archangel. Both towers and the church were demolished in the 1920s, so only the house itself survives.
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