As we all remember, more than two months ago, one of the architectural gems of Sloboda Ukraine—the palace in Stariy Merchyk—burned down. Questions about the cause of the fire and the restoration of this site remain unanswered to this day. No one has been punished; in fact, no one has been found guilty. However, this beautiful palace will never be the same again. That is why every memory shared by contemporaries who visited the palace is priceless to us. That is precisely why today I invite everyone who is interested to step into a “time machine” and see Stariy Merchyk through the eyes of those who visited it in the 19th century.
Vasily Ivanovich Yaroslavsky, the nephew of the renowned Kharkiv provincial architect Pyotr Antonovich Yaroslavsky, frequently visited the estate in the early 19th century and was acquainted with its owner. In his memoirs, Yaroslavsky writes:
Grigory Romanovich Shidlovsky was, in his day, the most distinguished landowner in the province. In Stariy Merchyk, he built a huge two-story stone house on a high foundation; stoves were located on the ground floor, and they heated the walls of the double-height hall and living room, which featured a gallery for musicians. Opposite stood a two-story stone wing housing the kitchen and servants’ quarters. There were two more stone wings: one for guests and the other for the butler; in the back yard were stone stables and barns. In the garden stood a stone riding arena, a gazebo, a reservoir, and a rotunda shaped like a two-story circular temple with vaulted ceilings; music would sometimes be played upstairs, while visitors rested in the coolness below. All the residential and garden buildings were surrounded by a stone fence. In addition, two two-story stone houses were built in the village, one for the priest to live in and the other for the tenant. All these buildings were constructed according to plans by A. A. Palitsyn. Grigory Romanovich’s estate was well-maintained; all the peasants’ houses were clean and fenced in.
Bishop Savva of Kharkiv and Okhtyrka, whom we already know, also visited Stariy Merchyk in 1878 during his visitation of the parishes in the Kharkiv Governorate. The estate made a great impression on the bishop; he mentioned his stay there in his autobiographical notes, “Chronicle of My Life.”
On June 8, after an early afternoon tea, I hurried on my way and, passing through the settlements of Trostyanets, Bakirevka, Kirikovka, and Novaya Ryabina, I arrived at the settlement of Matveevka, where D. N. Kovan’ko, the leader of the Bogodukhov nobility, warmly invited me to lunch. From Matveevka, via the town of Bogodukhov and the settlements of Aleksandrovka and Novy Merchik, I arrived at the settlement of Stary Merchik after sunset, having traveled 108 versts that day. The church in this settlement, illuminated at night, struck me as very magnificent, abundantly furnished with sacred vessels and vestments thanks to the devotion of its pious owner, Evgeny Mikhailovich Dukhovsky. I was offered lodging for the night in the landowner’s house, which, given its size and magnificent decorations, could rightly be called a palace. But here, too, the same thing happened as in Trostyanets: I was expected here for the night of the 6th, but I arrived on the 8th. Of the three Dukhovsky brothers (they were the sons of a St. Petersburg priest), the eldest, Evgeny Mikhailovich—to whom the house and estate actually belonged—was in Paris at that time; the second—Sergei Mikhailovich, a lieutenant general—was in the Caucasus; and the youngest, Viktor Mikhailovich, who had remained at home, was eagerly awaiting my arrival and had invited some of our neighbors and acquaintances from Kharkiv to meet me. But, after waiting in vain for two days, he sent his guests away and went to Kharkiv himself on his own business, leaving the entire house at my disposal in case I arrived and instructing the steward to give me a fitting welcome. After a sumptuous dinner, which I shared with Father Klyuchar, the local dean, the parish priest, and the district constable who was accompanying me, I hurried to bed, feeling extremely exhausted from such a long day’s journey. This was my last night’s lodging on the road.
On the 9th, after refreshing myself with a morning walk through the vast manor garden and park and having a cup of tea, I left my hospitable host and set off for home…
Alexander, the son of Prince Dmitry Fedorovich Golitsyn, a landowner from Kharkiv, is a figure well known among those who appreciate the history of our city and region. In the early 20th century, Alexander Dmitrievich served as chairman of the Kharkiv County Zemstvo Council and was the county leader of the Kharkiv nobility; during the war with Japan, he actively participated in the work of the Red Cross, became one of the founders of the “Union of October 17” party (the most progressive party of that time), and later served in the Third State Duma, supporting Hetman Skoropadsky. Later, while living in exile in Paris, he headed the “Kharkiv Community.” In his memoirs, the prince speaks with great love and warmth about the estate in Stariy Merchyk. This is not surprising—after all, his relatives lived there, and the prince often visited them during his childhood.
…After my grandfather’s death, my mother and I would travel every year to Starye Vodolagi for the anniversary of his passing, where a memorial Mass with a funeral service was held in the church above his tomb. Incidentally, these annual trips to Starye Vodolagi from our permanent home—Dolzhik—are imbued with a special charm and the haze of a distant past, so much so that they are worth describing… Making this trip in a single go did not seem feasible. Fortunately, exactly halfway there lay the rich and extensive Merchik estate, belonging to Evgeny Mikhailovich Dukhovsky, who was married to my mother’s cousin, Sofya Nikolaevna. This estate, too, was historic. At its center stood a palace of marvelous Rastrelli architecture, with beautiful paths leading down into a vast park that surrounded it over a hundred desyatinas. This estate originally belonged to the Shidlovsky family; later, it passed to Orlov, commander of the Life Guards Cossacks during the Battle of Austerlitz (a painting of that battle, depicting the three emperors on a hill and Orlov riding ahead of his regiment as it charged into battle, hung in one of the palace’s halls). Later, the estate passed to Luzhin, then to von Mecca, and was finally purchased from him by Dukhovsky… It was on this very estate that Dukhovsky, already an old man of 54, married my mother’s cousin, the twenty-year-old S. N. Bakhmeteva, the daughter of a neighbor on the estate, who by that time had gone bankrupt, we would stop halfway between Dolzhik and Starye Vodolagi. The horses were unharnessed, fed, and allowed to rest, and if we were in a hurry, we would continue on by evening in the cool of the day, arriving home in time for dinner. But more often than not, this stop halfway would last several days, especially when it coincided with July 30, the day of some Dukhovsky family celebration. In such cases, a separate wing with the appropriate staff was placed entirely at our disposal, and we made ourselves at home there.
Our stays in Merchik during our childhood and adolescence left me with the fondest memories. As I have already described, there was a huge, wonderful park next to the palace, where one could get lost and stroll for hours on end. The park had several ponds with running water where one could swim. In a secluded part of the park lay the entire “Daryal Gorge”—a deep ravine overgrown with forest that filled us with fear…
Years have passed, and now there is no music playing in the halls of the Stariy Merchyk Palace, nor are there any paintings hanging on the walls. The Bishop of Kharkiv no longer strolls through the once-beautiful park, and children no longer play there. Ruins, decay, and desolation—that is what the estate in Stariy Merchyk has become. And there is absolutely no chance that in 10 or 15 years, these pitiful “remnants” of what was once a magnificent architectural ensemble will be preserved for future generations. However, human memory lives on. How wonderful, then, that we can take a brief trip back in time together and see the palace in Stariy Merchyk during its heyday—vibrant and full of life.
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