Petrovskoe

The estate name – Petrovskoe – opens up a very rich historical layer. Near the village Kuchane, which is mentioned in the cadastres of the 16s century as Kuchanskaya, a new patrimony of Pushkin’s ancestors revived. In 1742 Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna presented it to Pushkin’s great-grandfather Abram Petrovich Hannibal, “The Blackamoor of Peter the Great” (1696?-1781). After his death Petrovskoe passed to his middle son, Pyotr – Pushkin’s cousin twice removed, who lived there 40 years. Pyotr gave the estate the very view that Pushkin found and that still partially exists. From him Pushkin got very interesting documents relating to the Hannibal genealogy.

In 1822-1839 the son of Peter Abramovich, Veniamin – Pushkin’s uncle, became the owner of Petrovskoe.

After death of the last of the Hannibals, Veniamin Petrovich, Petrovskoe passed to the Knyazhevichi, who owned the estate till 1917. They held sacred the memory of Pushkin, carefully keeping the estate, avoiding reconstruction of the manor house.

In troubled days of the civil war in 1918 February 19, the estate was burnt down.

In September 1969 the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation adopted a special decree on restoring the house of Hannibals in Petrovskoe. In 1977 the doors of the house-museum were widely open for tourists from all parts of the country and abroad.

By the 200th anniversary of Pushkin’s birth the scale reconstruction of the estate of the poet’s ancestors was carried out, as a result of which the house the house of Peter the Great’s Blackamoor is restored.

The museum expositions allow the visitors to receive the richest information on life and activity of the Hannibals of three generations, passed one way or another throught Pushkin’s in his lineage reflected in his work. Among them: “Peter the Great’s Blackamoor”, and “My lineage” and “How the Czar’s Blackamoor Thought Of Marrying” and “Start Of An Autobiography” and others.