Nikolaev. Outlines of the old city
"White sail over the estuary
And acacias in bloom
I see the city of shipbuilders
On the high bank".
Yes, it is Nikolaev that is called the city of shipbuilders, because it owes its birth to the Black Sea Fleet. Just now I told you a story about the southern sunny city of Kherson, the first governor-general of which was His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, who attached particular importance to strengthening the fleet of the Russian state. And since the Dnieper delta was very narrow at that time, it was decided to build the first shipyard on Ingul. From this very shipyard, on August 27.1789, the history of the glorious city of Nikolaev began. And he owes his name to the victorious battle near Ochakov in the war against the Turks, which took place on the day of memory of St. Nicholas.
The history of the city is interesting, and having been here many times, I always paid attention to the silhouettes of the old city, which, probably, will soon fade completely, since the fathers of the city, but rather its "stepfathers" and "stepmothers", do not nurture their brainchild. But while the outlines of the past era are still available to the tourist, I will show you the antiquity, which is more than two hundred years old. For the centuries-old history of mankind, this is quite a bit, but for the descendants of the third millennium it is of artistic and historical value.
The ship town began with the construction of only two dozen houses, accommodating a little more than a hundred inhabitants. And the first ship built in Nikolaev was the frigate "Saint Nicholas", laid down on the stocks of the Nikolaev Admiralty and launched on August 25.1790.
For the construction of ships, craftsmen and laborers were needed, and for the naval service, sailors and officers, and they were all men, therefore, there was an acute shortage of females. It was announced that a new southern city was being built, in which any girl could find a groom to her liking. But can you imagine what kind of girls came here? Who will go to an unfamiliar area, having overcome such a long journey, without having relatives and friends? Of course, they were mostly adventurers with a dubious past, but this was not important for the men of the fatherland, the instinct to preserve the family was much stronger. And the first wedding took place not in the Temple, but right on the military parade ground. All those eager to find a family hearth were crowned by the first priest of Nikolaev, Efim Savursky, who himself had as many as 22 children in distant St. Petersburg, and, performing the ceremony, he invariably repeated: “Be fruitful and multiply, ” which was taken literally by the townspeople and two years later in the city there were almost two thousand inhabitants, as well as many shops and cellars, and even shopping arcades were opened. This is how Admiralteyskaya Slobidka appeared with “red rows”, where they traded in simple belongings, and in some manufacturing shop, the clerk asked: “Madame, would you like a chintz, three kopecks per arshin? ”.
And Catherine II received letters from her subjects, in which it was stated that “a lot of buildings have been completed and a lot has been started. The water in the wells is good, and the fountains are excellent. A lot of trees have been planted. Gardens for cooking plants are planted on farms and lands are plowed up for sowing bread. I confess that I was amazed to see so many buildings in the place where two years ago I saw only two huts made of reeds.
Even an Austrian traveler left such memories of the city: “I went straight to Nikolaev, the most beautiful city among the steppes of all Tavria: it has many large streets, with detached houses, with columns, beautiful squares and a large the Admiralty building together with the shipyard.
The Admiralty Gate has also been preserved:
And the street with beautiful houses began to be called Admiralskaya.
Here, on Admiralskaya, there are buildings of the former naval barracks. This is a complex built in the style of Russian classicism designed by Karl Ackroyd. By the way, almost all the buildings of that era were built according to the designs of this architect. The British were shocked by this fact, because they did not understand why all of a sudden such an honor was given to some provincial town of a foreign state. Their eminent Karl Ackroyd is building some kind of Nikolaev. The Old Navy Barracks now houses the Nikolaev Regional Museum of Local Lore.
And from the windows of the stables, which had long been bricked up, peeked out the curious muzzles of horses.
Nearby is the former Aleksandrovskaya Men's Gymnasium:
However, the old Prisoner Ostrog, located on the corner of Bolshaya Morskaya Street is considered to be an old-timer of the city. Erected before the founding of the city as a defensive redoubt for a shipyard, it was later transformed into a prison, where prisoners of the maritime department were kept at first, and then all other convicts. The chronicles say: “A certain citizen Ivanova was kept here, hitting her rival with a laundry basket. ” Yes, even for such offenses they were imprisoned in prison, where severe hunger, cold, and terrible crowding reigned. But even this was not the biggest misfortune of the prison, but the lack of baths where one could “wash clothes”. The inhabitants of the surrounding streets suffered greatly from the terrible stench and lice, but the rulers of the city thought for 60 years how to solve this issue, and as a result, the baths were built at the expense of the townspeople.
Later, a church with an unusual history even appeared on the territory of the prison, but, unfortunately, it has not survived to this day.
On the other hand, the oldest temple of Nikolaev Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been preserved. The church is located on the street. Lyagin (former Rozhdestvenskaya). At that time, only a very rich man from the officer class could settle here. At first it was a small wooden church, from the foundation of which Karl Pavlovsky built a stone church in 1800.
Slightly later, the Cemetery Church of All Saints is erected in the city cemetery.
This is the oldest church in Slobodka, where services have never stopped since 1806.
The church has a very good energy, which I was personally convinced of, and the pilgrims told me that this church is one of the strongest Orthodox parishes in Nikolaev.
Well, since we are in the Necropolis, we will walk along the cemetery paths and remember those who have remained in this land since the 18th century: admirals, generals, doctors, writers, musicians, priests and many other outstanding personalities. And marble angels will decorate our way.
Here, in the Necropolis, rests two hundred years of history, and this needs a separate story. And now I want to stop at one monument to the captain of the brig "Mercury" Alexander Kazarsky, who accomplished a feat that became an example for posterity.
There was a Russian-Turkish war. On patrol off the coast of the Bosporus was the brig "Mercury" under the command of Captain Alexander Ivanovich Kazarsky. And now the brig is overtaken by two Turkish ships carrying almost two hundred guns on their sides. Our brig could only oppose them with only 18 small-caliber cannon guns. The superiority of the Turks was almost tenfold! But the captain decides to take the fight. For three hours, "Mercury" bravely fought with two ships of the Turkish fleet. And soon, the wounded but not defeated brig enters the Sevastopol Bay. The Mercury's victory was so fantastic that all military experts unequivocally declared "It is absolutely impossible to allow such a small vessel to disable two battleships. " It is clear that after such a triumph, the name of Kazarsky was on the lips of all of Russia, and the modest naval officer became a national hero in one day. The order of the emperor read: “Captain-lieutenant Kazarsky to be promoted to captain of the 2nd rank, to give George the 4th class. All officers - to the following ranks. Whoever does not have Vladimir, give Georgy 4th class, all lower ranks - insignia of the military order and all officers - a double salary and a lifetime pension. On the brig "Mercury" - the St. George flag... So that the memory of the famous merits of the team of the brig "Mercury" and his name in the fleet never disappear and, passing from generation to generation, serve as an example to posterity forever. However, the captain of the brig was poisoned in 1833 under mysterious circumstances. At that time, the city was ruled by Alexei Greig, who squandered the treasury money for personal purposes. About the deeds of the governor, Kazarsky repeatedly wrote reports to the emperor, which Greig did not like very much. And then one day a lady in the Assembly offered the captain a cup of coffee that contained poison. The death of Kazarsky stirred up the city, the hero was remembered and loved, the people were ready to tear the governor apart, but Greig was quickly removed from the city, thereby tempering the people's anger, saving the negligent governor.
But in fairness, it should be noted that under Greig, Nikolaev was built and expanded. The military governor did a lot to decorate the city: he greened the streets, planted gardens and parks, even built a city water supply system and an optical telegraph. However, the most significant construction project, of course, was the Naval Observatory, which became the pride of the southern navy. The observatory is currently operating and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Walking along the old streets, you listen to their names - Spasskaya, Rozhdestvenskaya, Admiralskaya, Nikolskaya. . . By the way, the name of Nikolskaya Street was given by St. Nicholas Greek Church. The temple opened its monastery for parishioners in 1817, exactly one hundred years before the well-known revolutionary events.
There are twelve religious parishes in Nikolaev. There is even aLutheran church, towering in the center of the old town. Any parishioner could come here and accept the Protestant faith.
For the Turkic peoples, namely the Karaites, the Karaite kenasa was built, however, at the moment, it is not operating.
For officers, of whom there were a lot in the city, he opens his own monastery "Winter Noble Assembly". How does it sound, huh? Not what it is now “Navy Officers’ House”, but simply DOF, boring, young ladies. Whether business then! There are few women, many men, which means that passions are raging! Hats, boutonnieres, midshipmen and new shoes for 5 rubles in gold... There was only one library, and that one was from the sea. Therefore, the ladies were more versed in lunettes and muskets than in hats and crinolines.
In order to prevent officers from drinking, in the city, under a government program, the so-called "Sobriety Park" was opened, in which lectures were given on the dangers of alcohol, and then served tea with sugar. Why do officers need tea? They wanted to drink champagne in the Assembly and enthrall the ladies, but instead they were forced to sit in the park with their wives, listening to a boring lecture, and drinking tea.
But not all citizens had the opportunity to live in the central part of the city. The lower military ranks, sailors and laborers settled far from the main streets. It was the area of Admiralskaya Slobodka, but even here, for the daughters of the lower ranks of the naval department, a school was opened, nicknamed the Horned Institute. The Horned Institute got its name due to the fact that everyone who served in the Navy at that time was called stags because of the shape of the steering wheel. Many naval officers said, “Why does a woman need a letter? ” After all, they were mostly cooks' children, but the state program was built for the education and development of children of all classes, and this institute gave its graduates three professions at once, mainly seamstresses, nannies and governesses came out of there. Looking at these houses, it seems that now a girl with a basket of flowers will run down the stairs and say “Your order, young lady. ”
Many houses of that time jealously kept their secrets for a long time. One of these mysterious houses was the house of the merchant Dymov, located on Faleev Street, where all the nobility and rich men lived - merchants, bankers, owners of tenement houses. The history of this house was covered in mysteries for a long time about who was its owner, but sooner or later the veil of mystery falls and it turns out that the house belonged to the Bulgarian Fyodor Dymov. He wanted a lot of land, but he was given a small piece of land near St. Nicholas Church, so the house was built up like a merchant, although Dymov was in fact a state councilor and a high-ranking official, which allowed him to have the appropriate capital.
I would like to tell you about one more unsightly house of that era. They say that despite all its unattractiveness, it is impossible not to fall in love with this house, because it is real. And lieutenant Stepan Volkov lived in it. Being himself from the children of soldiers, he decides to marry only at the age of forty, having reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. And he takes nineteen-year-old Ksenia Makoveyeva as his wife. And he gets fame thanks to his son Evgeny Volkov, who later founded the railway education system of the Russian Empire.
The building of the city council of Nikolaev. Previously, there were "stone shops" and traded the best goods. Then the administration of the military port was placed here. However, during the war years, the house was completely destroyed, but already in 1954 a new building was built, which now houses the city council of Nikolaev.
In this story, I tried to collect and show the era of the birth of the city, relating to the very origins of its foundation. Maybe a little later I will continue the story of the glorious city of shipbuilders, which has a very interesting history and a difficult fate.
From the cycle "Amazing Ukraine".
