The Timokhovo-Salazkino estate is located within the city of Vidnoye, Moscow Region, not far from the Rastorguevo station. The restoration of the complex was completed in the fall of 2018. Now the territory is open for free visits, the park and alleys have been put in order.
Timokhovo-Salazkino History
The village of Timokhovo in the middle of the 18th century belonged to Ekaterina Ivanovna Golovkina (née Romodanovskaya) – the last representative of the princely family and a cousin of Empress Anna Ioannovna.
After her, the estate was sold several times, and at the end of the 19th century it was acquired by the Bronnitsky merchant of the 1st guild Ivan Alekseevich Kononov. He was no less famous than his father Alexei Kononov; he successfully conducted trade in various provinces and cities.
Since 1862, he owned a distillery in the village of Kokman, Vyatka province. And since 1880 the plant has been redesigned to produce glass. There is an interesting historical fact that many German engineers worked at the Kokman plant, and one of them is the Austrian mechanic Leonard Avgustovich Knipper – the father of Olga Knipper, who became a famous theater actress and the wife of the great Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. Kononov acquired another plant in Penza, which produced beer and alcoholic beverages. Those who knew Ivan Nikolaevich remembered him as a talented and sharp-witted businessman, a millionaire who had houses and luxurious estates in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Timokhovo was undoubtedly one of these luxurious estates.
At this time, the English style was in vogue in architecture, especially among manufacturers and merchants. Almost all buildings were built in this style with elements of eclecticism.
Architecture
The main house is made with pseudo-Gothic elements: with spiers, diamond-shaped windows on the tower. A donjon tower was erected over the front door of the house. The mansion is wooden, but on a stone base.
The rest of the buildings are made of red brick with white-stone inserts ornaments: circles, rhombuses, stars, corners, etc. In the central part of the courtyard, the estate was equipped with a water meter – a front courtyard bounded by the main house and alleys. A landscape park descended down the slope and went into the forest. There were gazebos in it.
The Kononovs became famous not only for their commercial activities, but also for their generous charity. At the expense of Alexei Kononov, the largest bell in Bronnitsy was cast for the Church of the Jerusalem Mother of God and a silver robe was arranged for the miraculous icon. He also participated in the construction of the magnificent bell tower with a clock, which still adorns the city square of Bronnitsy.
In the 1870s, the Assumption Church was built in Bronnitsy, Kononov Jr., Ivan Alekseevich made his contribution and dedicated one of the chapels to the memory of his father – St. Alexis the Man of God. In the early 1990s. the Timokhovo estate passed into the possession of the merchant Vladimir Sergeevich Salazkin and his wife Nadezhda Ivanovna, who remained the owner from 1911 to 1917. After the revolution of 1917, a club was opened in the main house of the estate, a pioneer camp, DOSAAF, and a sports and technical club were located in the buildings of the estate. During the Soviet period, the estate was not restored and was dilapidated.
Only in 2002, the Timokhovo-Salazkino estate was taken under state protection and became an object of cultural heritage.
Currently, the estate is owned by the Palmira Group, which has returned the estate to its former appearance.
The main house, stables with a barnyard and other outbuildings have survived to us almost completely. The homestead houses a restaurant, a cafe, a workshop, a shopping arcade and a museum.
