September 2012
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... The knight rides on a horse across the night field. Black and blue clouds swirl darkly. The ominous light of the moon snatches a terrible bulk out of the darkness. The rider circles it, and a terrible sight opens up - the monstrous hill turns out to be a gigantic head in a helmet. A flock of black crows croak out as the creature lifts its eyelids. The strongest wind escaping from her mouth almost knocks down the heroic horse ...
This is the legendary “living head” from the poem by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. There is a lot of magic in the poem - and the evil sorceress Naina, and the insidious bearded dwarf Chernomor, and magical gardens, and the wonderful invisibility hat, and the sword, which has no equal in battle. But the image of a giant living head is one of the most amazing and fantastic. What inspired the poet to create such an incredible creation?
For the answer to this riddle, we go to the nearest suburb of St. Petersburg - to Sergievka Park, located in the vicinity of the city, on the border between Old Peterhof and the village of Martyshkino.
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Sergievka Park, or the former estate of the Leuchtenbergskys, is a unique monument of history and culture of the 19th century. To this day, the estate and its surroundings are fraught with many mysteries that have yet to be solved by descendants. This extraordinary place has always attracted people, among whom there were many outstanding personalities. According to one version, in July 1818, young Alexander Pushkin visited here ...
... The park even now, despite some neglect, is beautiful and mysterious. It seems that something extraordinary awaits the traveler around every turn. We go down the path along the bed of the river Kristatelka, flowing in one of the deep, boulder-lined ravines that cross the park towards the bay. And now the old fir trees are moving apart, and an unusual sight suddenly opens up to the eye!
This is a huge granite boulder head with a spring beating at its very base. It seems to grow out of the slope leading to the ravine. The features of the massive stone face are striking in their expressiveness - clearly and concisely outlined, imperious, they bear the stamp of greatness and deep sadness.
Perhaps this is how this monument appeared almost two centuries ago before Pushkin, and in the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila", completed two years later, a magical plot appeared, inspired by the impressions of what he saw ...
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But whose image is actually an amazing sculpture made of solid stone? Its history is shrouded in mystery, and there are different versions of its appearance.
The "Head" is a direct relative of the "Thunder-Stone" - the very one that serves as the base of the pedestal of the sculpture of Peter the Great, "The Bronze Horseman", sung by Pushkin. Its origin is associated with moraine deposits that appeared after the melting of the glacier, which occurred about 15 thousand years ago.
Another famous "relative of the Head" is located in the estate of Pushkin's great-grandfather, Hannibal in Suida (Gatchinsky district of the Leningrad region). There is a boulder in the park, in which, by order of the owner, a huge garden chair was hollowed out. Interestingly, in the village of Petrovsky (Pushkin Reserve in the Pskov region), one of the attractions of the central, most beautiful part of the park is also a large stone, on which, according to legend, Abram Petrovich seemed to like to sit. For him, perhaps, it was not just a rest during walks. If Abram Petrovich was really born in Ethiopia and was a descendant of its rulers Bahar-negash, then he, like his ancestors, could consider these huge stones fallen from the sky, sacred.
There are several hypotheses for the creation of the sculpture itself. In different sources, it is called differently - "Old Man", "Samson's Head", "Adam's Head", "Rusich".
According to one of the legends, architect F. Brower created an amazing work around 1800 at the behest of Emperor Paul I. The large metal helmet of the knight, which has not survived to this day, was attached to a hole in the bridge of the nose.
According to another, this is the head of Peter I, carved by a master from the Peterhof Lapidary Factory, whose child was allegedly baptized by the emperor himself ... Most likely, we will never be able to find out the true name and original purpose of the amazing monument. It is also not known for certain whether the mysterious stone head actually served as the prototype of the "living head" in Pushkin's poem, or vice versa, after the poem was published, it was created as a kind of illustration in stone.
But we can say with confidence that any of the versions has already connected these places with the amazing fairy-tale creation of Pushkin with a spiritual thread. Just as they are connected by an invisible spiritual thread with the names and destinies of other remarkable sons and daughters of Russia. This area remembers Shishkin, Repin, Levitan, Somov, the Benois family, writers Nekrasov, Panaev, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Shchedrin, composers Rubinstein and Glinka - the author of the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila, which premiered 170 years ago, on November 27, 1842, on the stage of the Bolshoi (Stone) Theater in St. Petersburg.
Sergievka Manor Park has the status of a State Natural Monument, but it is famous not only for its beautiful oak forests and picturesque ponds.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the estate became the property of the imperial family. In 1839, Nicholas I gave it to his daughter Maria Nikolaevna on the occasion of her marriage to Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg. To give the estate a look worthy of new owners, the architect A. I. Shtakenshneider was invited, who had already managed to prove himself well in the construction of palaces for members of the royal family. As a result, a palace and park ensemble appeared in Sergievka, pleasing to the eye to this day, although not to the same extent as it was during the life of Maria Nikolaevna.
However, back to the stone. Where he came from in the ravine, no one knows. But about how it turned into a head, something is known. The sculpture was made by an unknown master according to the design of the architect Franz Brouer in 1799 or 1800. The same Franz Brouwer, who participated in the creation of the Roman fountains in Petrodvorets. According to various sources, the stone was supposed to depict the head of a sleeping warrior and be called "Rusich".
It is believed that once he had a helmet like a Russian hero, most likely a metal one. This is confirmed by a hole on the nose - supposedly it was left from the fastening of a vertical protective plate, typical for the helmets of Russian warriors. Subsequently, when the helmet disappeared, the original name of the sculpture was also forgotten.
Now the stone head has several names. Different authors call the stone "Warrior", "Old Man", "Samson's Head", "Man's Head". Employees of the BiNII and students usually refer to the stone as Adam.
The main attraction of the Sergievka park, which we wanted to see, is a stone head that has grown into the ground near the path not far from the palace.
The mysterious boulder Head, with a spring spouting at its very base, lay in the western ravine of the Sergievka park. In a variety of documentary and artistic sources, the head is called “Elder”, “Old Man”, “Adam's Head”, “Rusich”, “Samson's Head”, “Warrior” and a very rare name - Svyatogor's sculpture.
The massive granite face is carved from a single stone. The features of the face are laconic, the eyes are expressive and overshadowed by deep sadness. A hole can be seen in the bridge of the nose, in which, probably, a metal helmet was once attached. No one has seen him, or at least there is no mention of it. If there was a helmet, then this part is now lost.
No one really knows the history of this head. But such a wide variety of names suggests that many legends are associated with the head.
Legend one:
The very real, it is the official version, the head was created from a boulder around 1800 at the behest of Emperor Paul I. The author of the project was the architect Franz Petrovich Brouer, quite famous at that time. The name of the stonemason remains unknown.
Legend two:
The head has been standing since ancient Russian times. But in times so old, numerous Finno-Ugric tribes lived here, and there was no “smell” of Russia here. Unless random Novgorod detachments wandered, lost their way to Koporye and Karel.
Legend three:
According to another legend, a statue of a huge stone giant is buried in the thickness of the earth. No one has bothered to check this version.
Legend four:
The legend says that when the spring runs out, beating from under the head, it will fall into the ground. And then great grief will happen - the city of Petrov will disappear from the face of the earth along with people and houses.
Fifth legend:
This is the head of Emperor Peter I himself. The monument was commissioned by Sergei Petrovich Rumyantsev, a descendant of Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev, who was an associate and colleague of the sovereign. But allegedly the customer did not like the monument, and he ordered to bury it.
Legend six:
Also associated with Peter I. The head of Peter was made by order of Emperor Paul I, who decided in this way to perpetuate the memory of his ancestor.
Seventh legend:
It says that a daughter was born in the family of a stonemason from the Peterhof Lapidary Factory (some say a son). Sovereign Peter I became the godfather of the child. In memory of this event, the grateful master immortalized the features of the emperor in stone.
Legend eight:
There is a version that the head is part of a monument to some Swedish king. Carved during the reign of the Swedes on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, for some reason it was not taken out by the owner. The Swedes dragged her to the sea on a ship, but they did not drag her and abandoned her. So she remained in a deep ravine.
Legend nine:
Researchers of the Pushkin legacy claim that in July 1818, Alexander Sergeevich, together with his friend Nikolai Raevsky Jr., visited the Sergius estate and visited the shady ravine near the “sleeping” head. Perhaps it was this block of stone that became the prototype of a living head, so vividly drawn by Pushkin in the poem Ruslan and Lyudmila, completed two years after visiting Sergievka.
Legend ten:
The head was made in the middle of the 19th century by admirers of Pushkin's talent as an illustration for the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila". The head itself was much lower, and a stream flowed from its mouth like a small waterfall.
Interest in sculpture revived in the 1930s. Then the Spartak magazine published a photograph of young pioneers sitting on a granite monument. During these years, a tradition of collective photographs against the background of a stone head appeared. Among the creative intelligentsia, a sign arose - if you stroke a stone sculpture and drink water from a spring, inspiration and good luck will always accompany you.
About three thousand years ago, an Indian culture arose on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, called the Olmec. This conditional name was given by the name of the Olmecs - a small group of Indian tribes who lived in this territory much later, in the 11th-14th centuries. The very name "Olmecs", which means "rubber people", is of Aztec origin.
The Aztecs named them after the area on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico where rubber was produced and where the contemporary Olmecs lived. So actually the Olmecs and the Olmec culture are not at all the same thing. This circumstance is extremely difficult to understand for non-specialists like G. Hancock, who dedicated many pages to the Olmecs in his book "Traces of the Gods". Such publications only confuse the problem, while at the same time not explaining anything on the merits of the case.
The civilization of the ancient Olmecs, the beginning of which dates back to the second millennium BC. e., ceased to exist in the first years of our era and one and a half thousand years before the rise of the Aztec empire. The Olmec culture is sometimes called the "mother of cultures" of Central America and the earliest civilization of Mexico.
Oddly enough, despite all the efforts of archaeologists, nowhere in Mexico, as well as in America in general, has so far not been able to find any traces of the origin and evolution of the Olmec civilization, the stages of its development, the place of its origin, as if this people appeared as already fit.
Absolutely nothing is known about the social organization of the Olmecs, nor about their beliefs and rituals - except for human sacrifices. We do not know what language the Olmecs spoke, what ethnic group they belonged to. And the extremely high humidity in the Gulf of Mexico led to the fact that not a single Olmec skeleton was preserved.
The culture of the ancient Olmecs was the same "corn civilization" as the rest of the pre-Columbian cultures of America. The main sectors of the economy were agriculture and fishing. The remains of religious buildings of this civilization - pyramids, platforms, statues - have survived to this day. The ancient Olmecs cut down stone blocks and carved massive sculptures from them. Some of them depict huge heads, known today as "Olmec heads". These stone heads are the biggest mystery of the ancient civilization...
Monumental sculptures weighing up to 30 tons depict the heads of people with undoubtedly Negroid features. These are almost portrait images of Africans in tight-fitting helmets with a chin strap. The earlobes are pierced. The face is cut with deep wrinkles on both sides of the nose. The corners of the thick lips are turned down.
Despite the fact that the heyday of the Olmec culture falls on 1500-1000 BC. e., there is no certainty that the heads were carved in this era, since the radiocarbon dating of pieces of coal found nearby gives only the age of the coals themselves. Perhaps the stone heads are much younger.
The first stone head was discovered in the 1930s by American archaeologist Matthew Stirling. He wrote in his report: "The head was carved from a separate massive basalt block.
She rested on a foundation of uncut stone blocks. Being cleared from the ground, the head had a rather intimidating appearance. Despite its significant size, it is crafted very carefully and confidently, its proportions are perfect. Unique among Native American sculptures, it is notable for its realism. Her features are distinct and clearly of a Negro type.
By the way, Stirling made another discovery - he discovered children's toys in the form of dogs on wheels. This innocent, at first glance, discovery was actually a sensation - after all, it was believed that the civilizations of pre-Columbian America did not know the wheel. But it turns out that this rule does not apply to the ancient Olmecs ...
However, it soon turned out that the Maya Indians, the southern contemporaries of the ancient Olmecs, also made toys on wheels, but did not use the wheel in their economic practice.
There is no big mystery here - the roots of such ignoring the wheel go back to the mentality of the Indians and to the "corn economy". In this regard, the ancient Olmecs differed little from other Indian civilizations.
In addition to heads, the ancient Olmecs left numerous examples of monumental sculpture. All of them are carved from basalt monoliths or other durable stone. On the Olmec stelae one can see scenes of the meeting of two distinctly different human races. One of them is Africans. And in one of the Indian pyramids, located near the Mexican city of Oaxaca, there are several stone steles with scenes of the captivity of bearded white people and ... Africans by the Indians.
Olmec heads and images on steles are physiologically accurate images of real representatives of the Negroid race, whose presence in Central America 3000 years ago is still a mystery. How could Africans have appeared in the New World before Columbus? Maybe they were native Americans? There is evidence from paleoanthropologists that as part of one of the migrations to the territory of the American continent during the last ice age, people of the Negroid race really got into it. This migration took place around 1500 BC. e.
There is another assumption - that in ancient times contacts were made between Africa and America across the ocean, which, as it turned out in recent decades, did not at all separate ancient civilizations. The assertion that the New World was isolated from the rest of the world, which dominated science for a long time, was convincingly refuted by Thor Heyerdahl and Tim Severin, who proved that contacts between the Old and New Worlds could have taken place long before Columbus.
The Olmec civilization ceased to exist in the last century BC. But their culture did not die - it organically entered the cultures of the Aztecs and Mayans.
And the Olmecs? In fact, the only "calling card" they left behind is giant stone heads. African heads...
The landscape park Sergievka in Peterhof is a natural monument of regional importance. Together with the estate of the Leuchtenbergskys, the park makes up a palace and park ensemble, which is included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites "The Historic Center of St. Petersburg and Related Complexes of Monuments."
The area of Sergievka park is 120 hectares. More than 200 species of plants grow on its territory. There are 185 species of birds and 35 species of mammals in the forests, among which there are very rare specimens - the Green Woodpecker and the Pygmy Owl.
The drainage system of the park's paths, created back in the 19th century, still works perfectly. Even in heavy rain, the paths remain dry. Sergievka is ideal for family vacations and outdoor walks. In addition to the forest, the park has several ponds with bridges and dams.
Monument of nature "Park" Sergievka ": google-panorama
History of the park
The land on which Sergievka Park is located became part of the Russian Empire after the Northern War and the annexation of Ingermanland. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I transferred this territory to the possession of his associate, Alexander Ivanovich Rumyantsev. Subsequently, the estate was inherited by his grandson, Sergei Petrovich, after whom the park was named Sergievka.
After 1822, the estate was owned by Kirill Naryshkin, and after his death, Nicholas I acquired the land with the landowner's house and turned Sergievka into a country estate for his daughter and her husband, the Duke of Leuchtenberg.
In 1839-1842, the architect Stackenschneider built a country palace for the Leuchtenberg family. In the 19th century, active work was carried out to decorate the park - benches and sculptures from stone blocks were cut down and other landscape works were carried out. At the same time, according to experts, a giant stone head appeared - a unique monument, which is a symbol of Sergievka.
After the October Revolution, the park was transferred to the state, Sergievka was given the status of a natural monument. The Leuchtenberg Palace was placed at the disposal of the Faculty of Biology and Soil of Leningrad University. During the Great Patriotic War, the estate was badly damaged, restoration work continued for many years, but some buildings were lost forever. Among them: the church of St. Catherine, the Chinese house, a water-lifting machine and a Catholic chapel.
Stone head in Sergievka park
Head or Sculpture at the source- This is a monument carved from a granite block by an unknown master. Its height reaches 2 meters. The sculpture represents the head, presumably of a male warrior, which is only half visible from the ground. The master processed only part of the face, the back of the head remained intact.
The monument is located on the territory of the former estate of the Leuchtenbergskys and has not only the status of an object of cultural heritage of federal significance, but is also the hallmark of Sergievka. There are several versions of the creation of the Head: the main one says that this is a monument to an ancient Russian warrior and there used to be a metal helmet on the head. The poet A. S. Pushkin allegedly wrote the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" under the impression of this monument. According to another version, the Sculpture at the source depicts an unknown Swedish king and was created during the reign of the Swedes in this area.
Leuchtenberg Palace in Peterhof
Manor Leuchtenberg refers to the style of late classicism. It was built in 1839 in the northeastern part of the Sergievka park (western part of Peterhof). The construction of the building took only 2.5 months, but the decoration of the premises took almost three years.
The palace has two floors, its architecture is carefully thought out. The furnishings of the rooms have not survived to our time. Elements of sculpture and stucco were restored during a long reconstruction. The Leuchtenberg manor had four facades, each of them was unique. In general, the palace resembled a Roman building, on the facades there were many ledges, open terraces and galleries. In the post-war years, the palace in the Sergievka park was restored, and today it can be seen during walks.
Visiting Rules
Entrance to the park is free, but visitors are asked to follow some rules of conduct.
In the park strictly prohibited:
- carrying out construction, restoration and repair work without approval;
- the passage of motor vehicles, except for the Oranienbaum highway;
- collection and damage of rare plant species;
- tourist parking;
- littering the territory;
- making fires.
During the bird nesting period (from April 15 to June 15), the park administration asks not to disturb the birds, not to come close to the trees, not to make noise, move exclusively along footpaths, walk pets on a leash ..
Taxi and transfer
You can call a taxi through the mobile applications Yandex.Taxi, Gett, Uber and Maxim. With their help, you can quickly select a car of the desired class, as well as calculate the cost of the trip and track the route.
For comfortable movement outside the city, we recommend ordering a transfer from KiwiTaxi.
Natural monument "Park" Sergievka ": in Peterhof: video
