A million for orphans, the richest gardens and unprecedented eccentricity: Maecenas Demidov

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

One of the richest Muscovites of the 18th century, a generous philanthropist, founder of Neskuchny Garden and the first commercial school in Europe, sponsor of the Moscow Orphanage, Honorary State Councilor and passionate botanist. All these merits belonged to the hereditary industrialist Prokofy Demidov, who left his own sons beggars and entertained all of Moscow with his unprecedented quirks.

Russian industrialist who shocked foreigners

Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov was the grandson of the founder of a dynasty of Ural industrialists known in Russia. After the death of his father, according to his will, he became the heir to a huge fortune. Owning dozens of factories that regularly brought high incomes, he did not bother himself with routine work. Having fun overseas travel, he shocked Europeans with his fabulous spending on entertainment.

During one of these trips, Demidov was seriously offended by the British, taking it as disrespect for their refusal to sell the goods Demidov needed at a reduced price. The offended rich man decided to take revenge on them. When they arrived in St. Petersburg to buy hemp, Prokofiy Akinfievich bought up all the stocks in the capital. To the requests of English merchants to sell raw materials for any money, he answered with a firm refusal. And then he simply rotted away the hemp that he did not need at all.

Passion to grow gardens, Demidov palaces and the tropics

Demidov had a passion - to grow outlandish gardens in each of his estates. And in his Moscow palace on the banks of the Moskva River, he founded a real botanical garden. All the city nobility came to admire his creation. Among the rarest tropical plants were thousands of cages with exotic birds singing trills in every way. Moreover, everyone could walk in the garden - the gates were never locked.

At some time, thieves got into the habit of trampling flower beds and stealing birds. Demidov, decide to deal with the marauders in his characteristic original manner. Prokofy Akinfievich ordered the Italian statues to be removed from the garden pedestals and replaced by men from their own servants - completely naked and painted with white paint. With the onset of darkness, intruders, as expected, appeared in the garden. The statues naturally came to life, horrifying the thieves. More looting in the Demidov lands was not observed.

Demidov's quirks that entertained all of Moscow

Almost every Muscovite was aware of the everyday eccentricities of a local rich man. A crowd gathered in front of his house on Basmannaya Street at noon, wanting to gawk at Demidov's business trip. After the gates of his palace were thrown open, an unusual carriage appeared. The bright orange wagon was harnessed by a train of six horses. The first and third pairs of horses were small, shaggy peasant nags, and between them tall bityugs marched. A two-meter posture was sitting on small horses, whose legs literally walked along the ground. The big horse was controlled by a dwarf.

The footmen also dressed up wonderfully. One part of their dresses was silk, the other was made with matting. One foot was shod with a shoe, the other with a bast shoe. On both sides the carriage was accompanied by hounds with dozens of dogs, from small Maltese lapdogs to huge Great Danes. Demidov's Moscow house itself was no less eccentric. From the ground to the very roof, the building was sheathed with metal from a probable fire. In the myriad of luxurious interior rooms, a wide variety of animals roamed freely. Here it was easy to run into a fox, a hare, a monkey, overseas fish cruised in numerous pools, and cages with songbirds of all colors of the rainbow hung from the ceilings.

Demidov's unscientific experiments

Prokofy Akinfievich never missed an opportunity to have fun with the people. Once he offered a high reward to someone who decides to lie in his house all year without leaving his bed or moving. The person who wished was assigned a special room with servants who did not take their eyes off the ward around the clock, fed and watered him. Those who survived the test were owed more than one thousand rubles. The one who left the distance was supposed to be whipped and driven out. Demidov was amused by the offer to anyone who met him to stand in front of him for an hour without blinking. At the same time, the entertainer was actively waving his hands in front of his eyes and in every possible way provoked to lose.

Once the ruined merchant Merder turned to Demidov for help. Demidov promised him all the necessary amount, but on condition that he gave him a ride on his back. The merchant rolled the fat Prokofy Akinfievich on all fours for a long time, but he also received the entire considerable amount promised in full. And somehow, in the midst of a hot summer, Demidov wanted to ride around Neskuchny Garden in a sleigh against the backdrop of a winter landscape. To do this, it was decided to pluck all the foliage from the roadside birches, buy all the salt in the area and sprinkle it on the road three miles long. Having driven through artificial snow, the rich man, pleased with himself and with life, returned home for dinner.

Demidov - philanthropist and scientist

All his eccentricities Demidov more than paid off with good and important deeds throughout the country. For the development of Moscow University, he donated more than one hundred thousand rubles, for which a memorial plaque was dedicated to him in the assembly hall of the university. For his regular and generous charity, he was awarded the title of State Counselor. Demidov invested over a million in the construction of the Moscow Orphanage, where it was planned to place a huge staff of doctors. By the way, the experimental foundation of Russian pediatrics was laid within those walls.

He founded a philanthropist and the first commercial school in Europe, named Demidovsky. In 1780, the philanthropist's personal botanical garden was studied and described by academician P. S. Pallas. Based on the results of the research, a weighty catalog of plants was compiled, numbering over 2000 species. Demidov himself was seriously fond of scientific research in the field of botany, collected the richest herbariums, wrote and published a treatise "On the care of bees" in a scientific journal. At the same time, Demidov tried to leave his three own sons beggars, deliberately selling off all his production facilities by the end of his life.

But one of the Demidovs even became related to Napoleon Bonaparte himself.