Maltese Chapel. Maltese Chapel Vorontsov Palace Catholic chapel

And our Golden Fleece 2017 quiz continues, and now we have a question - IN architectural complex This palace includes a Catholic chapel.

Answer options:

A) Stroganovsky
B) Tauride
C) Vorontsovsky
D) Anichkov

The correct answer to the question is C) Vorontsovsky

The Catholic chapel is part of the complex Vorontsov Palace St. Petersburg. Built according to the design of the famous Rastrelli, it is distinguished by its exquisite architecture.

The Vorontsov Palace went to the treasury for debts in the second half of the 18th century. Paul, having accepted patronage of the Order of Malta, handed it over to the knights. The Order included both Catholics and Orthodox Christians. A separate Catholic Chapel was built for Catholics. For Orthodox knights, the house church served as a temple. And the Maltese Cross as a symbol of the Order.
Although in essence, types of the cross are already human fantasy. Orthodox, Catholic, Maltese - that's not the point. Christians worship not the form of the Cross, or even the Cross itself, but the power of Christ crucified on the cross.

The Alupka Palace, a masterpiece of Romanticism architecture, was built over almost 20 years, from 1828 to 1848, by order of the powerful Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, aristocrat and Anglomaniac Count Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov. The count personally chose the place for his Crimean residence on a picturesque stone cape at the foot of Mount Ai-Petri in the little-known Tatar village of Alupka. The Englishman Edward Blore, the author of Walter Scott's castle in Scotland and the court architect of the British crown, managed to organically fit the palace building into the surrounding landscape. In the architecture of the Vorontsov Palace, Blore combined different styles - English, neo-Moorish and Gothic, paying tribute to the secular fashion of that time for the novels of Walter Scott and oriental fairy tales.

History of creation

Initially, the famous Italian architect Francesco Boffo, who had already built a palace for the count in Odessa, was appointed to build the residence. The Englishman Thomas Harrison, an engineer and adherent of neoclassicism, was supposed to help him. Work began, and by 1828 the foundation, which was filled with lead for earthquake resistance, as well as the first masonry of the portal niche of the central building were ready. But Harrison died in 1829, and two years later the count decided to suspend construction of the palace, apparently abandoning the idea of ​​​​building a residence in the neoclassical style.

Vorontsov turns to the Englishman Edward Blore, a brilliant architectural historian, graphic artist and fashionable architect in his homeland. Most likely, Count Pembroke recommended him to Vorontsov. We had to wait almost a year for new drawings. But Mikhail Semenovich liked the result, and in December 1832 the construction of the buildings began. Blore brilliantly solved the problem from a historical perspective: the architecture of the palace demonstrates the development of medieval European and Moorish architecture, ranging from the forms of the early Middle Ages to the 16th century. The palace building is deployed in such a way that it repeats the outlines of the visible mountains. It is surprising that the architect himself, who so accurately fit the building into surrounding nature, never visited Crimea, but used only numerous landscape sketches and relief drawings that were sent to him in England.

The resulting castle could well serve as an illustration for historical novels: five buildings, fortified with defensive towers, different in shape and height, interconnected by many open and closed passages, stairs and courtyards.

The construction was carried out from local greenish-gray stone - diabase, which is not inferior in strength to basalt, which was taken from natural placers in Alupka. Processing it required considerable effort, since complex designs on the exterior of the house could be ruined by one wrong blow with a chisel. Therefore, Russian stone cutters who built white stone churches in Central Russia were invited to carry out the most complex stone cutting work.

The main decorative decoration of the Vorontsov Palace - the motif of a gently sloping pointed keeled arch - is repeated several times in the cast-iron balustrade of the balconies, and in the carved stone lattice enclosing the roof, and in the decorative decoration of the portal of the southern entrance, made in the Moorish style of the Alhambra Palace.

The design of the southern entrance facing the sea intertwines a Tudor flower design and a lotus motif, which ends with the Arabic inscription repeated six times across the frieze: “And there is no winner but Allah,” just as it is written in the Alhambra of Granada.

In front of the façade is the Lion's Terrace and a monumental staircase in white Carrara marble by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Bonanni. On both sides of the steps there are three pairs of lions: the bottom left is sleeping, the bottom right is awakening, above is a pair of awake ones, and the third pair is roaring.

The rear façade of the palace and its West Side, a variation on the theme of Tudor England of the 16th - early 17th centuries, resembles the harsh castles of English aristocrats.

By the way, this palace was one of the first in Russia to be equipped with a water supply system hot water and sewerage.

Construction costs palace complex amounted to about 9 million rubles in silver - an astronomical amount for those times. But Count Vorontsov could afford it, since after his marriage in 1819 to Elizaveta Ksaverievna Branitskaya, he doubled his fortune and became the richest landowner Russian Empire. Elizaveta Ksaverevna, the same one with whom, according to one version, Alexander Pushkin fell in love in exile in Odessa, personally supervised the creation of the building’s interiors, took care of the decoration of the park and often paid for the work.

Inhabitants of the palace

Mikhail Semenovich did not manage to live in the Alupka Palace for a long time. Another assignment followed - this time to the Caucasus. But in Alupka at the end of the 1840s, his daughter, Countess Sofya Mikhailovna, settled with her children. Then, after the death of Prince Vorontsov (he received the princely title in 1845), the palace, by right of primacy, passed to his only son, Semyon Mikhailovich. In 1882, his widow, Maria Vasilievna Vorontsova, went abroad and took many valuables from the palace. She had no children, the palace was abandoned, and to end of the 19th century centuries, the building, park and farm fell into complete disrepair.

In 1904, the castle received new owners - relatives along the Vorontsov-Dashkov line. The wife of the Tsar's deputy in the Caucasus, Countess Elizaveta Andreevna Vorontsova-Dashkova, née Countess Shuvalova, energetically got down to business. She rented out land for sanatoriums and boarding houses and built more than 120 dachas on the estate.

After the revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in Crimea, the lands of the Vorontsov-Dashkovs were nationalized. And on February 22, 1921, Lenin’s telegram arrived in Crimea: “Take decisive measures to truly protect artistic values, paintings, porcelain, bronze, marble, etc., located in Yalta palaces and private buildings, now allocated for sanatoriums of the People's Commissariat of Health...”

At the beginning of the 20s South Coast Crimea, museums were created in a number of the largest noble estates, among them the Alupka Museum. The museum's collection was seriously damaged during the Great Patriotic War: much was taken away by the occupiers, including 537 works of painting and graphics. Only a small part of the paintings were found after the war and returned to the palace.

In February 1945, during the Crimean (Yalta) Conference, the Alupka Palace became the residence of the British delegation. Meetings of the heads of the Allied powers - Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt - took place in the State Dining Room of the palace.

Later the palace became the state dacha of the NKVD. In 1952, a sanatorium was located there, and only in 1956, by decision of the Soviet government, the Crimean state museum visual arts. Since 1990, the palace has been part of the Alupka Palace and Park Museum-Reserve. Its collection today includes works of painting, sculpture and applied art, as well as documents, ancient drawings and lithographs that introduce the history of the construction of the palace.

English park

The English park of the palace is the work of the German gardener-botanist Karl Kebach, whom Vorontsov invited to Crimea in 1824, when there was no design for the palace itself. He eagerly set about creating a park, taking into account the terrain, climate and local flora, combining, however, everything with the latest achievements landscape art. About 200 species of trees and bushes were brought here from all over the world. Parcels with seeds and seedlings came from America, Italy, the Caucasus, Karelia, China and Japan. They said that more than two thousand varieties of roses bloomed here at the same time. The German gardener became so famous in Crimea that landowners began to invite him to create or improve their parks and gardens along the entire coast.

Karl Kebach clearly planned the park on the principle of an amphitheater, maintaining connections in its structure with the main palace and other architectural objects. The coastal highway (Yalta - Simeiz) divides the park into Upper and Lower.

The lower park is designed in the style of Italian Renaissance gardens with fountains, marble sculptures, Byzantine columns, vases and stone benches. The upper one was created according to the principle of English landscape parks of the Romantic era - more natural and natural: in it, rocky debris, shady ponds and preserved areas of the Crimean forest alternate with picturesque meadows, a unique system of lakes, waterfalls, cascades and grottoes. Kebakh created the Upper Park as a place of contemplation of the sea and Mount Ai-Petri, towering above the park and palace, like the ruins of a giants’ castle.

A carefully thought-out drainage system and individual plant care did their job - many, even very rare and whimsical plants, took root well. In total, 250 species of trees and shrubs grew in the park by the end of the 19th century. The plants of Vorontsovsky Park were so popular that seedlings were even sold externally to other gardens and estates.

The glory of Vorontsov Park as a masterpiece of landscape architecture was strengthened by the artists who worked here on sketches: Isaac Levitan, Vasily Surikov, Aristarkh Lentulov... And the parks, gardens and vineyards that belonged to Count Mikhail Vorontsov and his relatives - the Naryshkins and Pototskys, completely changed the appearance of the coast from Alushta to Foros.

St. Petersburg owes its connection with the Order of Malta to Emperor Paul I, who in 1798 accepted the title of Master, the highest religious rank of this knightly union. Thanks to him, the Maltese cross temporarily appeared on the Russian coat of arms, the Order of St. John of Jerusalem appeared among state awards, and the emperor planned to make Malta a Russian province. But these plans were not destined to come true due to the tragic death of Paul I.

Meanwhile, ties with the Order of Malta were not completely severed: Alexander Suvorov, Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II were members of it. The fascination of warriors and monarchs with this religious movement was reflected in urban planning, and today in St. Petersburg you can find places associated with Maltese symbols.

The most striking of them, of course, remains the Maltese Chapel, inaugurated on April 29, 1800. SPB.AIF.RU talks about it and four other “Maltese” attractions of the Northern capital.

Maltese Chapel

Sadovaya street, 26

The Maltese Chapel was built according to the design of the architect Giacomo Quarenghi and was originally conceived by Paul I as a Catholic church of the Order of the Knights of Malta. It is part of the Vorontsov Palace, which today houses the Suvorov School. The palace, which Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli created in the 18th century for Count Vorontsov, changed many owners, and as a result, Paul I, with the adoption of the title of protector, and then the Grand Master of the Order, gave the Vorontsov Palace to the Knights of Malta.

The Maltese Chapel as designed by Giacomo Quarenghi. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Continuing the ensemble created by Rastrelli, Quarenghi built the chapel in the spirit of the Renaissance. The temple has the shape of a rectangle with a barrel vault. Two rows of artificial marble columns divide the interior of the chapel into three naves. Behind the marble altar is an altarpiece by artist A.I. Charlemagne “John the Baptist” (the holy prophet and forerunner of Jesus Christ John the Baptist is the heavenly intercessor and patron of the Order of Malta). To the right of the altar, under a canopy, stood the crimson velvet chair of the grandmaster (great master) of the order.

The chapel was consecrated in June 1800, and a year later Paul I was killed in the Engineers' Castle. His successor Alexander I renounced the title of Grand Master of the Order, but retained the title of Protector. The Maltese cross was removed from the Russian state emblem. In 1803, Alexander I resigned from his title of protector, and in 1817 it was declared by the highest authorities that “the order no longer exists in the Russian Empire.”

For some time, the chapel operated as an ordinary Catholic church. In the middle of the 19th century, a chapel was added to it, where the ashes of the former trustee Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg rested.

In 1928, the building of the Maltese Chapel was transferred as a club to the infantry school named after. Sklyansky, then the Leningrad Twice Red Banner Military School named after. CM. Kirov, and since 1955 it belongs to the Suvorov Military School. The interior of the Maltese Chapel was restored for the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.

Mikhailovsky Castle

Sadovaya street, 2

Mikhailovsky Castle, or the Engineer's Castle, is an example of the extravagant preferences of Paul I. The palace became the last home and place of death of the emperor; it embodied the autocrat's dreams of a “knightly stronghold.”

Mikhailovsky Castle - the dream and death of Paul I. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Aleks G

The palace, which Pavel persistently called a “castle” (however, he even called the Winter Palace that way), was unusual in its architectural design for St. Petersburg. It was erected in extreme haste according to the design of Vincenzo Brenna and was completed by the time the emperor agreed to accept the title of Grand Master of the Order. It was planned that meetings and ceremonies of the Maltese cavaliers would take place here. That is why the image of the Maltese cross is so often repeated in interiors.

On the central wall of the Grand Staircase a bronze coat of arms of the Russian Empire was installed in the version approved under Paul - with a cross. The coat of arms is the only Maltese relic in the castle that has survived to this day.

One of controversial issues In the history of the castle, its mysterious reddish color remains. Eat beautiful legend that the walls were painted the color of the glove that the emperor's favorite Anna Gagarina dropped at the ball. The second version says that brick red is the traditional color of the Order of Malta.

Today, the interiors of the Engineering Castle house a branch of the Russian Museum.

Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands in the Winter Palace

Palace Embankment, 32

Cathedral of the Savior Not Made by Hands (or Great Church Winter Palace) was founded in 1753 as an Orthodox palace church. Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli executed it in the Rococo style. For many years it was the home temple of the imperial family.

This is what the cathedral looked like from the inside until 1917. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Three ancient relics of the Hospitallers were delivered here in December 1799: a piece of the tree of the Holy Cross, the Philermos Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist, which were presented to Paul I in October in Gatchina. In memory of this event, in 1800 the Holy Synod established a holiday on October 12 (25) in honor of “the transfer from Malta to Gatchina of a part of the tree of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the Philermos Icon of the Mother of God and the right hand of St. John the Baptist.” Today, the right hand of John the Baptist is kept in a monastery in the Montenegrin city of Cetinje.

Since 1918, the cathedral has been one of the halls of the Hermitage Museum, used for exhibitions.

Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist

Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 83

The Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist, or St. John's Church, was built in 1778 according to the design of Yuri Felten at the nursing home for sailors of the Baltic Fleet. This building in pseudo-Gothic style can be mistaken from a distance for a Catholic church due to its uncharacteristic Orthodox churches architecture: red brick walls with a pointed gray pointed dome. Lancet barred windows, a narrow canopy over the entrance, and a wooden iconostasis are reminiscent of Gothic.

For some time there was a Maltese cemetery behind the church. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org/IKit

During the time of Paul I, the church was transferred to the Order of Malta, and a cemetery for the Maltese cavaliers was built next to it. The graveyard was closed after Alexander I ascended the imperial throne. In 1807, the remains of the cavaliers were transferred to the Smolensk cemetery. After the construction of the Kamennoostrovsky Palace, the church was transferred to him. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin baptized his two children here.

The church was closed on March 15, 1938, and its devastated interiors housed various organizations. It was returned to the parish in 1989, and services resumed there in November 1990. Today the temple belongs to the St. Petersburg Russian Diocese Orthodox Church, is part of the Petrograd deanery district.

Cantemir Palace

Millionnaya street, 7

The outstanding Italian diplomat Julius Litta, a Maltese cavalier and the youngest general in the history of Russia, lived in St. Petersburg on Millionnaya Street for more than 40 years - he was awarded the rank at the age of 26. Such attention to the Italian was explained by the desire of Catherine II to strengthen ties with the Order of Malta.

Litta appeared in St. Petersburg first as an experienced naval officer and then as an envoy of the Order of Malta to the Russian court. By the way, it was he who brought Leonardo da Vinci’s “Madonna” to Russia, which is displayed today in the Hermitage under the code name “Madonna Litta”.

The house where Litta lived has three addresses at the same time. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Helvin spb

The house behind the Marble Palace has three addresses at once: Millionnaya Street No. 7, Marble Lane No. 1 and Palace Embankment No. 8. In 1715, on this site, at the behest of the Moldavian aristocrat Dmitry Cantemir, Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli built a palace in the Baroque style. In 1743, the Church of the Great Martyr Theodore Stratilates was built on the top floor. Later, Count Alexey Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Count Vladimir Orlov, and Count Pavel Skavronsky lived here. Skavronsky's widow Ekaterina Vasilievna married Litt, who settled with her in the palace. For them, the architect Luigi Rusca rebuilt one of the buildings of the palace in the classicist style. After the death of Julius Litt, the mansion came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance, and is now occupied by the Maritime Register Russian Federation and the Institute of Culture.

One of most interesting buildings in St. Petersburg is the Maltese Catholic Chapel, hidden from the eyes of citizens and tourists behind the facade of the Suvorov School.

How the Maltese Chapel appeared in St. Petersburg

By the end of the eighteenth century, the Russian fleet became the main threat to the fleet of the Ottoman Empire. This led to a rapprochement between the Order of Malta and the Russian Tsar. In 1797, Paul I organized a new main priory of the order on the territory of the Russian Empire. The Hospitallers needed a patron since they were expelled from Malta by Napoleon.

Emperor Paul greatly favored the Maltese. On the territory of Russia, he provided members of the Order with “all those distinctions, advantages and honors that the famous Order enjoys in other places.” Three commanderies were organized, the head of the Main Priory in Russia was introduced to the State Council. Russian nobles were encouraged in every possible way to join it.

In 1799, Emperor Paul awarded the Commander's Cross to commander Alexander Suvorov. The Hospitallers opened the Corps of Pages in St. Petersburg, which produced many military leaders. The Corps of Pages later became the Suvorov School. It was then that a Catholic (Maltese) chapel appeared on the territory of the military school.

However, Paul’s flirting with the Catholic Church, his rapprochement with Rome did not like the Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church) and the entire policy of the emperor towards a foreign religious order was another, among many others, reason for his murder in St. Michael’s Castle in St. Petersburg on the night of March 13 1801.

The new Emperor Alexander I, in the very first months of his reign (August 1, 1801), renounced the title of Grand Master of the Order and ordered the Maltese cross to be removed from the state emblem.

However, the Corps of Pages (now the Suvorov School is based in the building) and the Maltese Chapel remained in St. Petersburg. Lately she has served as concert hall. So in order to look at this unusual building for our latitudes, you need to buy a concert ticket.

p.s. Unfortunately, the chapel is currently under renovation and there are no concerts. But they do conduct excursions. Official website of the chapel:

Maltese Chapel- Catholic Church of the Order of the Knights of Malta, built by Giacomo Quarenghi at the end of the 18th century. The chapel is part of the architectural complex of the Vorontsov Palace in St. Petersburg (attached to the main building of the palace from the garden side).

Story

The Vorontsov Palace was erected by the architect B. F. Rastrelli in -1757 for the chancellor Count M. I. Vorontsov. The construction and decoration of the palace required such large investments that in 1763 Count Vorontsov was forced to cede it to the Russian treasury for debts. The building was empty until 1770, and later began to be used as a guest house. At various times, the palace was occupied by Prince Heinrich of Prussia, Prince of Nassau-Siegen and Count I. A. Osterman. After the accession to the throne of Paul I and his assumption of the title of Protector and then Grand Master of the Order of Malta, the Vorontsov Palace was given to the Knights of Malta, who were forced to seek refuge after the capture of the island of Malta by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798.

Chapel in the 20th and 21st centuries

Architecture and decoration

The temple has the shape of a rectangle with a barrel vault. Two rows of artificial marble columns divide the interior of the chapel into three naves. The choirs are located above the side naves. The planes of the walls are enriched with decorative arches, sculptures of angels, Maltese crosses and plaster garlands. The ceiling of the church consists of semi-circular box vaults, covered with paintings consisting of floral ornaments and rosettes, and plaster garlands.

The altar part is an apse with columns located close to the walls. In the center there is a marble altar, behind which there was an altarpiece of John the Baptist (patron saint of the Order of Malta) by A. I. Charlemagne, created by the artist in 1861. To the right of the altar, under a canopy, stood the crimson velvet chair of the grand master of the order. On the left, under a marble plaque with an inscription about the founding and solemn consecration of the church, there is a bishop's chair and several stools. Here, in front of the altar barrier, there were embassy benches with velvet cushions. In the middle part of the hall there were 14 wooden benches with cushions covered with red cloth.

The altarpiece was in the Maltese Chapel until 1928, then it was transferred to the Museum of Religion and Atheism, and from there in 1932 it went to the State Russian Museum. The canvas was stored in the collections of the Russian Museum without a stretcher or frame, wound on a drum, as a result of which it received numerous damages. In February 2006, the leadership of the Russian Museum decided to transfer the altarpiece to the Maltese Chapel for temporary storage. The restoration of the canvas was carried out in the workshops of the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Corps. In September 2007, the image was returned to its historical place.

Write a review about the article "Maltese Chapel"

Notes

Literature

• . (official site)

Links

• .
• .

Excerpt characterizing the Maltese Chapel

The conversation continued in the living room.
- Ah! chere,” said the countess, “and in my life tout n”est pas rose. Don’t I see that du train, que nous allons, [not everything is roses. - given our way of life,] our condition will not last long for us! And all this is a club, and its kindness. We live in the village, do we relax? Theaters, hunting and God knows what. Well, how did you arrange all this? I’m often surprised at you, Annette. You, at your age, ride in a carriage alone, to Moscow, to St. Petersburg, to all the ministers, to all the nobility, you know how to get along with everyone, I’m surprised, how did this work out? I don’t know how to do any of this.
- Oh, my soul! - answered Princess Anna Mikhailovna. “God forbid you know how hard it is to remain a widow without support and with a son whom you love to the point of adoration.” “You’ll learn everything,” she continued with some pride. – My process taught me. If I need to see one of these aces, I write a note: “princesse une telle [princess so-and-so] wants to see so-and-so,” and I drive myself in a cab at least two, at least three times, at least four times, until I achieve what I need. I don't care what anyone thinks of me.
- Well, well, who did you ask about Borenka? – asked the Countess. - After all, yours is already a guard officer, and Nikolushka is a cadet. There is no one to bother. Who did you ask?
- Prince Vasily. He was very nice. Now I agreed to everything, reported to the sovereign,” Princess Anna Mikhailovna said with delight, completely forgetting all the humiliation she went through to achieve her goal.
- That he has aged, Prince Vasily? – asked the Countess. – I haven’t seen him since our theaters at the Rumyantsevs’. And I think he forgot about me. “Il me faisait la cour, [He was trailing after me,” the countess recalled with a smile.
“Still the same,” answered Anna Mikhailovna, “kind, crumbling.” Les grandeurs ne lui ont pas touriene la tete du tout. [The high position did not turn his head at all.] “I regret that I can do too little for you, dear princess,” he tells me, “order.” No, he is a nice man and a wonderful family member. But you know, Nathalieie, my love for my son. I don't know what I wouldn't do to make him happy. “And my circumstances are so bad,” Anna Mikhailovna continued with sadness and lowering her voice, “so bad that I am now in the most terrible situation. My miserable process is eating up everything I have and is not moving. I don’t have, you can imagine, a la lettre [literally], I don’t have a dime of money, and I don’t know what to outfit Boris with. “She took out a handkerchief and began to cry. “I need five hundred rubles, but I have one twenty-five-ruble note.” I am in this position... My only hope now is Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov. If he does not want to support his godson - after all, he baptized Borya - and assign him something for his maintenance, then all my troubles will be lost: I will have nothing to outfit him with.
The Countess shed tears and silently thought about something.
“I often think, maybe this is a sin,” said the princess, “and I often think: Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhoy lives alone... this is a huge fortune... and what does he live for? Life is a burden for him, but Borya is just beginning to live.
“He will probably leave something for Boris,” said the countess.
- God knows, chere amie! [dear friend!] These rich people and nobles are so selfish. But I’ll still go to him now with Boris and tell him straight out what’s going on. Let them think what they want about me, I really don’t care when my son’s fate depends on it. - The princess stood up. - Now it’s two o’clock, and at four o’clock you have lunch. I'll have time to go.
And with the techniques of a St. Petersburg business lady who knows how to use time, Anna Mikhailovna sent for her son and went out into the hall with him.
“Farewell, my soul,” she said to the countess, who accompanied her to the door, “wish me success,” she added in a whisper from her son.
– Are you visiting Count Kirill Vladimirovich, ma chere? - said the count from the dining room, also going out into the hallway. - If he feels better, invite Pierre to dinner with me. After all, he visited me and danced with the children. Call me by all means, ma chere. Well, let's see how Taras distinguishes himself today. He says that Count Orlov never had such a dinner as we will have.

“Mon cher Boris, [Dear Boris,”] said Princess Anna Mikhailovna to her son when Countess Rostova’s carriage, in which they were sitting, drove along the straw-covered street and drove into the wide courtyard of Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhy. “Mon cher Boris,” said the mother, pulling her hand out from under her old coat and with a timid and affectionate movement placing it on her son’s hand, “be gentle, be attentive.” Count Kirill Vladimirovich is still your godfather, and your future fate depends on him. Remember this, mon cher, be as sweet as you know how to be...
“If I had known that anything other than humiliation would come out of this...” the son answered coldly. “But I promised you and I’m doing this for you.”
Despite the fact that someone’s carriage was standing at the entrance, the doorman, looking at the mother and son (who, without ordering to report themselves, directly entered the glass vestibule between two rows of statues in the niches), looking significantly at the old cloak, asked who they wanted whatever, the princesses or the count, and, having learned that the count, said that their Lordships are worse off now and their Lordships do not receive anyone.
“We can leave,” the son said in French.
- Mon ami! [My friend!] - said the mother in a pleading voice, again touching her son’s hand, as if this touch could calm or excite him.
Boris fell silent and, without taking off his overcoat, looked questioningly at his mother.
“Darling,” Anna Mikhailovna said in a gentle voice, turning to the doorman, “I know that Count Kirill Vladimirovich is very ill... that’s why I came... I’m a relative... I won’t bother you, dear... But I just need to see Prince Vasily Sergeevich: because he is standing here. Report back, please.
The doorman sullenly pulled the string upward and turned away.
“Princess Drubetskaya to Prince Vasily Sergeevich,” he shouted to a waiter in stockings, shoes and a tailcoat who had run down from above and was peeking out from under the ledge of the stairs.
The mother smoothed out the folds of her dyed silk dress, looked into the solid Venetian mirror in the wall and walked briskly up the staircase carpet in her worn-out shoes.
“Mon cher, voue m"avez promis, [My friend, you promised me,” she turned again to the Son, exciting him with the touch of her hand.
The son, with lowered eyes, calmly followed her.
They entered the hall, from which one door led to the chambers allocated to Prince Vasily.
While the mother and son, going out into the middle of the room, intended to ask for directions from the old waiter who jumped up at their entrance, a bronze handle turned at one of the doors and Prince Vasily in a velvet fur coat, with one star, in a homely manner, came out, seeing off the handsome black-haired a man. This man was the famous St. Petersburg doctor Lorrain.