Little Russian madness in Brittany
Near the city of Concardo, that in the south of French Brittany, a friendly construction began. Workers fuss, trucks drive up, and the launched plot with the tempered buildings as if awakened from sleep. At the sight of unfolding works, the local old men, who still remember that the castle once smoked here – as if from the fairy tale of Charles Perro.
Meanwhile, the construction at the Atlantic coast of France directly concerns Russia. Travelers who crossed Brittany from north to south – from rocks from rose granite in Persian-Gairec through the monumental temple ensembles of Saint-Tagonnek and Gimio to the picturesque bay of Morbian, certainly paid attention to the fancy-romantic castle with the elegant name of the keryola. Art historians and experts make it difficult to determine his architectural style and only shrugs at the sight of a lace facade, friction turrets and a overgrown garden, in which the elderly goose. Someone called Keriola "Little architectural madness", And now, this epithet invariably accompanies in numerous guidebook Description of the castle, erected here in the XIX century by whims of the wayward Russian princess. The name of her Zinaida Ivanovna Naryshkin (1809 – 1893).
Z.AND. Naryshkin belonged to the ancient Russian family from near Smolensk. Coming out married a valid Stat adviser, the gofmister and leader of the St. Petersburg nobility of Prince Boris Nikolayevich Yusupova, she not only became princess, but also entered the story as the most successful representative of the family, over which there is a centuries-old rock. When the sons of the Nogai Khan Yusuf, who conducted his pedigree from the nephew of Magomet – the Prophet Ali, accepted Orthodoxy and became Yusupov, Tatar Witch put on them a terrible curse that had to lead to the extinction of the genus. However, Anathema was not particularly affected by either the welfare of the YSUPOV, which before the revolution of 1917 remained the most rich in Russia after the Romanov, nor on the fate of Zinaida Ivanovna.
Contemporaries called a dazzling beautiful, educated and prone to the elegant arts Princess Yusupov "Decoration of salons" and "star first magnitude". She entered the Pushkin environment, and her fans were Russian emperor Nicholas I and French Napoleon III. In addition, after the death of her husband in 1849, the captivating Zinaida turned out to be the owner of an irrelevant state, including palaces in Moscow and Arkhangelsk, in St. Petersburg and Koreiz. Having learned about the pagan curse, the winsted princess did not want to put up with the fate, and indignant against Rock, as they say, did not refuse himself. Her extravagant lifestyle has become a parable in the Languages under the Imperial Court, and the fatal passion for the prisoner of the Schlisselburg fortress by the young revolutionar-population received particularly fame among its numerous adventures. Using your considerable opportunities, the influential Naryshkin has achieved that the beloved will be released from a dungeon at night. They say, after the revolution in her house, a coffin with a disheveled body was found on the foundry prospect.
In 1855, Zinaida moved to France, where he took a luxurious mansion in the Park of the princes, not far from the Boulogne Forest, and frightened the careless French women with two huge protasian grey. She, of course, was in the Higher Paris Society, and at one of the techniques she was presented with a brilliant officer of the Imperial Guard Charles Shawovo (1828-1889). A man of a little bit, Charles nevertheless was accepted at the courtyard, as he managed to win Napoleon III confidence, appointed his secretary of the Imperial Chamber. In turn, conquered by the exquisite manners of the adorable Frenchman Zinaida, despite the fair difference aged (she – 57, he – 32!), decided to marry him. But to conclude a marriage with a widow of the prince, Charleu had to have a noble title too. And Zinaida bought the subject of his passion at once two – Count Sovo and Marquis de Serr.
The imperial courtyard of Russia, who did not approve of the departure of Knyagini, nor her new marriage, demanded that the new nobleman had a serious state position. At that time, the Finister’s Department was the vacant place of the general adviser Canton Cubcarno. In 1860, Charles managed to receive this position, pre-assured the local prefect in the intention to settle in the Department. After all the formalities were finally settled, in September 1860, Zinaida and Charles signed a marriage contract. The marriage ceremony took place in Russia, in the chapel of the St. Petersburg Palace of Yusupova on the sink in the presence of the French ambassador. And in 1862, newlyweds acquired in Brittany, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, a small castle, surrounded by dense shady alays. Documentary evidence of it has been preserved from the XV century.
On the ancient Breton Kerole means "House of Sun", And it is assumed that the castle tower, which was visible far from the ocean, served as a lighthouse for local sailors. Princess, accustomed to comfort and luxury, energetically took up the arrangement of his new dwelling, resembling rather severe medieval fortress. To rebuild the castle, the main architect of the region of Josephu Bigo, who carefully listened to the wishes of the Russian lady, was honored with her refined taste.
And yet the updated castle produces a strange-gloomy, a phantasmagoric impression, reflecting, apparently, the mindset of the hostess at the time. From an architectural point of view, the new structure was a hybrid of several styles – Negotic, French Rennes and Local Breton. On the roof – terrible chimeras and. Slavic witch on the loss. The facade is decorated with the symbols of Brittany – the mountainous, royal lilies and. Occult five-pointed stars. Among the jewelry – the bas-relief of the bear, which looks east, reminding the sources of Naryshkina, the noble crowns of Sovo and Serra, and the motto "Always and contrary to everything".
The castle area was significantly increased, calorificates were installed in the basements, which were created for the Russian princess unprecedented at the time comfort and comfort. The new-fashioned heating system was considered an unprecedented luxury, but its effectiveness remained weak. Hot boilers only slightly softened the Atlantic dampness in the premises, contributing to the preservation of collections that Zinaida transported to Brittany from Paris. And today in Kerio, you can see the works of art – paintings, sculptures, tapestries. In a separate room – Russian Kokoshnikov, painted trays and unchanged nesting. At the honorable place – the picturesque portraits of the arrogant-capricious Zinaida and a false and famous chall.
The total cost of paid Naryshkina work on the arrangement of the estate reached one and a half million francs. In 1889, Count Louis-Charles-Onor Sovo, Marquis de Serr, whose political beliefs did not differ in particularly resilience (Bonapartist, Republican, monarchist), died. Since the marriage turned out to be childless, he bequeathed Keriola. His sister, forgetting to warn about this spouse! As a result of Zinaida, which invested a considerable share of the state in the reconstruction, was supposed to redeem his own estate from the probabilenitsy as one and a half million francs.
Meanwhile, the princess of Naryshkina, who reached old age, moving from Paris to Concanno was still harder, and she decided to present the estate together with the collections as a gift department of the Finister. But with the condition: use keriola "For aesthetic education and walks of residents", Saving it in the same form. October 28, 1894 Zinaida died in his Parisian mansion. She was 90 years old. The dust, according to the suicide wish, was sent to Russia and was buried in the family crypt, and the gift of France gained legal force.
By visiting Keriola, members of the Supervisory Committee compiled a protocol in which it was indicated: "At the sight of such a wonderful variety of artistic wealth, remarkable styles, persistent and wonderful desire for beauty, we better understood that Madame Sovo-Naryshkina wanted to protect his brainchild from the vintage of fate, and we express our gratitude to the princess, intended France and Brittany such a magnificent gift". Fate gave Keriela a few calm decades. Only during World War II, German soldiers were housed here, who plundered the castle and cut the trees, staged a stable and shooting range on its territory. And at the end of the war in the estate housed a military hospital.
In 1948, the Breton Castle suddenly remembered the great-grandfather of Zinaida – Prince Felix Yusupov, entered the story as the killer Grigory Rasputin. However, in the pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg, he was known and other "Mlowes". So "Fallen angel" Felix loved to wander in a female dress on the streets of the northern capital, pretending to be a prostitute. They say that Rasputin in the fateful night of December 18, 1916, he managed to bring to himself thanks to the charms not his wife Irina, nee, the Great Princess Romanova, as official historians believe, and with their own. According to rumors, Yusupov was a clairvoyant and a medium, fond of yoga and kabbalah. Finally, it is known that already in emigration for some mysterious merit, he was awarded an important order.
Felix settled in Paris, Felix decided to check the execution of the transmission conditions of Keriela as a gift. The experts appointed by him discovered numerous violations of the paragraphs of domestic: trees were cut down, the altar from the chapel was transferred to the local church, and Flemish carpets – at the museum of the neighboring city of Keecom. A number of land plots and part of the furniture were sold, and the castle himself periodically surrendered to various parties. Yusupov immediately demanded the return of the keryola. In 1951, he sent the appropriate letter to the Forefer Forex and simultaneously appealed to the court, putting forward a claim for compensation for damage to 4 million francs. The General Council of the Department, who was not embarrassed by the birdlikeness nor the mysterious merits of the Russian prince, appointed counter-use, which stated only minor violations. In addition, the prefect said that some of them are explained by force majeure, and the other is written off for years. As a result, the Department of Court rejected the lawsuit of the Naryshkina.
In 1954, under pressure from numerous lenders and on the advice of Paris lawyers, Felix appealed to the highest instance, not subject to the press of local authorities, – the Court of Appeal of the city of Renna. The move was true: new judges made a final decision in favor of Yusupov. Now the General Council of the Forechener should not only free the castle and return the collections, but also to pay the prince compensation in the amount of 25 million francs. Barely entered the possession of the desired property, Felix began to hastily get rid of it. To pay with huge debts, he devastated the champs, selling works of art, furniture and a unique archive with documents of the XII-XIX centuries. And then he suggested the municipal council to buy the estate itself.
In 1960, Yusupov broke the adjacent land with a total area of 48 hectares into small areas, yielding them to those who will give more. Someone from the locals even filed to the court to stop building the area around the castle in accordance with the French Law on the Protection of Forests and Historical Monuments. When only the castle remained unsalted, the owner suddenly found him "ugly, devoid of style and taste". Without unfortunately, he threw Keriela on the mercy of fate and returned to Paris, where he died in 1967, being completely ruined. The last yusupov is buried with Irina’s wife, daughter and her husband in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Geneva de Boua under Paris in the grave of the mother, as there was no longer a separate place for money.
And the estate went with the hammer, and the new owner at first wanted to turn the castle in an income house, but refused to have this idea due to excessively large expenses for reorganization. New loot began: stained glass and internal columns, carved wood and kitchen utensils exported from the estate. The statues of Anna Breton and Charles VIII were damaged in the garden, only a miracle was preserved a monument to Notre Dame D’Esperance – Our Lady of Hope. Stone behind a stone was disassembled the chapel, and the building material was used for the construction of a residential building in the center of Concardo. In 1988, a destructive hurricane, not sparing and a long-suffering estate, not spared France, was swept away: trees were sang in Keriola, the roofs were broken, the glass was broken. Indirect damage in a flooded water castle was applied to wooden ceilings and floors. It seemed that the estate had fallen in the ruins.
But here there was a new turn of fate, which as if herself suggested that hope should never lose. In Keriola, a certain Frenchman drove accidentally, somewhere heard about the castle built in the Brittany of the madman Russian princes. The rays of the sun suddenly magically illuminated the remnants of once a magnificent facade of white granite, and passage, surviving wonderful insight, decided to buy a castle and return it to him.
– Who is this fabulous prince? – I asked the Miloid Francoise, which works as a guide and enthusiastically in the castle and enthusiastically tells about the terny history of Keriola to a few visitors.
– The owner of one of the companies in Paris, who is not looking for fame – a girl answered with a mysterious smile.
And on the territory of the estate, restoration work unfolded in full swing. Part of the castle is already open for excursions, and the spirit of Russian Princess Zinaida Naryshkina again settled from the obligance of Keriola.
