Markovilla, Former estate and school building in Kirovskiye Dachi, Vyborg, Russia
Markovilla is an estate on the shore of Zashchitnaya Bay in Vyborg. Its wooden two-storey manor house, built in classicism, has not survived; the stone building of the former Vyborg Teachers' Seminary (1913–14), designed by engineer Leonid Glushkov in the Russian Revival style, stands empty. A stone water tower, now used as an observation tower, also remains.
The estate takes its name from Marcus Wright, the British consul who built it; Fyodor Tolstoy bought it and spent summers there from the early 1850s until his death in 1873. In 1896–1897 the architect N. S. Petrov added the Church of Michael the Archangel. A teachers' seminary opened in 1913–1914 in a four-storey stone building by engineer Leonid Glushkov, and in April 1917 it hosted the First Regional Congress of Soviets of Finland.
The name comes from Marcus Wright, the British consul who built the estate. From the early 1850s F. P. Tolstoy spent summers here and painted "View in the Garden of the Markovilla Dacha in Finland" in 1855. Guests included the painter G. G. Chernetsov and the historian N. I. Kostomarov. The estate later became the summer residence of the Vyborg and Finland diocese, whose archbishop Sergius stayed only in summer.
The former seminary building stands empty and is not open to visitors; the wooden manor house of F. P. Tolstoy has not survived. What remains is the stone water tower, now used as an observation tower, in the Kirovskiye Dachi district on the shore of Zashchitnaya Bay, opposite Monrepos. The site can be reached from central Vyborg by road.
The stone building of 1913–14, designed by engineer-colonel Leonid Glushkov for 46 rooms, was the Vyborg Teachers' Seminary, funded to mark the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. Boys of at least 16 were trained there as teachers for Russian primary schools in the Grand Duchy of Finland, with trial fields for agriculture laid out around it.
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