Voronezh region > Castle in Ramon

Castle in Ramon

Ramon... Village at the edge of a forest, a forest land, a proverbial Middle Russian landscape.

No settlement in the Voronezh Region has been the focus of so much attention from the members of the Romanov dynasty. The first shipyard in these parts was established by Peter the Great. In 1879, Alexander II granted the Ramon estate, then governed by the Imperial Treasury, to His niece the Princess von Oldenburg. The Great Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, grandson to Nikolay I, a well-known poet, writing under the pen-name of K.R., visited theestate in 1896. He wrote a small poem to Yevgeniya Maksimilianovna von Oldenburg:

«The palace o'erhanging the deep» is the castle of the Princess von Oldenburg designed by Christopher Neissler in the Medieval style of Western Europe and built in 1887. For many years, it became one of the most amazing, mysterious and unusual architectural constructions of our region.

Not only the castle, but the splendid park, the magnificent stairway, the grottoes, the cascades of waterfalls, the balcony latticework with the mistress' monogram, defied imagination.

During the Soviet era, the castle was long held in desolation, but now the details of the exterior design please the eye with exquisite taste, expediency and easy grace: the main stairway that leads to the second floor, the shape and the porcelain tiles of the fireplaces, spacious arched vaults, the overall design. A tiny replica of Europe at the heart of traditional, ancestral Russia.

The Oldenburg family always was a model of duty, honor, and love, to Russia. They could not imagine themselves living without charity, without aesthetic progress. Ramon flourished under their patronage. A new building of the sugar mill was constructed, as well as a candy factory, a water tower, a railway line, a medical station, and a school.

Today, there exists a restoration plan to improve the castle and the garden. This place is destined to be a unique historical, architectural and scenic site to attract tourists from Russia and Europe alike.

Words can offer no proper inflection, - How my soul fills with sweet harmony As greeted with waves of affection In your beautiful, blessed Ramon.

It is blessed by the forests' low shiver.

By the palace o'erhanging the deep,

By the murmuring roll of the river And the grasslands immeasurable sweep.