Bobrinsky - The First Count

The First Count

The Russian Empress gave birth to her only illegitimate son on April 11, 1762, several months before her ascension to the throne. The child was named Aleksey after his uncle and godfather, Count Aleksey Orlov. He was brought up in Bobriki, a village in the Tula guberniya. On April 2, 1781 Catherine sent him a letter, in which she openly avowed her maternity. She long hesitated in choosing his surname, styling him Romanov one day and Sitsky the other, but finally settled on Bobrinsky, a surname derived from the estate he lived in. On the 5th day of his reign, Emperor Paul made his half-brother a Count of the Russian Empire and promoted him General-Major. He married Baroness Anna Dorothea von Ungern-Sternberg (1769–1846) and had issue which continues to this day. The first count Bobrinsky died on June 20, 1813 in his estate of Bogoroditsk, to the east of Tula.

The Bobrinsky family seat in Bogoroditsk was designed by Ivan Starov and constructed in the 1770s and 1780s, starting in 1773. The nearby Kazanskaya church was completed by 1778. The park was laid out by the palace's administrator, Andrey Bolotov (1738–1833), who is better known as one of the first Russian economists. It was Bolotov who established the Children's Theatre in Bogoroditsk. The palace and estate were renovated in the 1870s. In the 20th century, the premises suffered enormous damage from the Bolsheviks, who demolished the wings of the palace in 1929, and from the Wehrmacht, who blew up the chateau in December 1941. The palace was restored in the 1960s and now functions as a museum.