{{Short description|Official country residence of the Russian President}} [[File:Dmitry_Medvedev_2_July_2008-4.jpg|200px|thumb|The Russian national football team with Dmitry Medvedev at Barvikha Castle, 2008.]] '''Meyendorff Castle''' or '''Meindorf Castle''' ({{langx|ru|Мейендорф}} or Мейндорф) is a Châteauesque architectural extravaganza constructed at the turn of the 20th century to Pyotr Boytsov's designs as a private residence of the Swedish-Baltic German {{Interlanguage link|Meyendorf family|ru|3=Мейендорфы}},{{efn|Meyendorf ({{langx|ru|Мейендорф}}) is also spelled Meiendorf, Meindorf, and Mayendorf.}} (a cadet line of the Baltic German noble House of Uexküll).<ref name="History">{{cite web |url=http://www.terra.ru/history/barvikha.htm |script-title=ru:Барвиха |trans-title=Barvikha |work=Terra Real Estate |last=Блюмин |first=Георгий (Blyumin, Georgy) |date= |access-date=21 February 2020 |archive-date=25 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225124625/http://www.terra.ru/history/barvikha.htm| url-status= live}}</ref>{{efn|In 1679, Swedish lieutenant general Baron Jacob Ikskul at Castle Ikskile in Ikskile, Latvia, of the ''House of Iksskuli'' or the ''House of Uexküll'', which used the letters H and X for its house, researched his family line and found that Baron Konrad Meyendorf in the 11th century established the Ikskule or Ikskile castle {{convert|28|km}} from Riga in 1185.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}} This castle and church built in 1186 were located on the high right bank of the Western Dvina or Daugava River.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}} These facts led Jacob Ikskul to realize that the Ikskul line is a Meyendorf.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}} Between 1932 and 1934, Alfred Rust discovered the Hamburg archaeological culture which had the oldest known arrows from about 14,000 to 16,000 years ago near Hamburg, Germany, at Meiendorf along the {{Interlanguage link|Stellmoore Paleolithic lake|de|3=Stellmoor (archäologischer Fundplatz)}}.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}}{{sfn|Rust|1937}}}} Located between Barvikha and Odintsovo along Podushkinskoye Highway ({{langx|ru|Подушкинское шоссе}}) A106 in Odintsovsky District, Moscow Oblast west of Moscow, the castle was constructed between 1874 and 1885.<ref name="History"/>
==History== The Meindorf family{{efn|The Meindorf family owned the entire Odintsovo okrug: nearby Usov and its railway, post office and sawmill, which is a closed area today, as well as Likov and the estate of Samynok.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 6}}<ref name=OdinstovoPodushkino>{{cite web |url=https://odintsovo.info/memorial/?id=2649 |script-title=ru:Подушкино. Усадьба Подушкино |trans-title=Podushkino: Manor Podushkino |work=«Одинцово-ИНФО» (Odintsovo-INFO) |last=бондарева |first=Наталья (Bondareva, Natalia) |date=2002 |access-date=21 February 2020 |archive-date=21 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080121071540/https://odintsovo.info/memorial/?id=2649 |language=ru}}</ref>}}{{efn|Nadezhda Alexandrovna, the wife of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Baron Mikhail Feliksovich Meyendorf (1861–1941) who was the son of {{Interlanguage link|Feliks Kazimirovich Meindorf|ru|3=Мейендорф, Феликс Казимирович}} ({{langx|ru|Феликс Казимирович Мейендорф}}), held the estate from 1886 to 1917.<ref name=CastleBavikhaHistory>{{cite web |url=https://odintsovo.info/news/?id=4367&m=-1 |script-title=ru:Цитадель истории: Барвихинскому замку — 120 лет |trans-title=The Citadel of History: Barvikhinsky castle – 120 years |work=«Одинцово-ИНФО» (Odintsovo-INFO) |last=Митронов |first=Николай (Mitronov, Nikolay) |date=20 December 2005 |access-date=21 February 2020 |language=ru |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303172315/https://odintsovo.info/news/?id=4367&m=-1}}</ref>{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}}}}{{efn|Nadezhda Alexandrovna Meyendorf, the daughter of Major General Alexander Borisovich Kazakov who obtained the Podushkino-Rozhdestveno estate on which the castle was built, received the estate as a dowry in 1886 upon her marriage to Colonel General Staff Evgeny Aleksandrovich Verigin in 1882 but became a widow in 1891 and then married Baron M. F. Meyendorf in 1898.<ref name=CastleBavikhaHistory/>{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}}<ref name=OdinstovoPodushkino/> Returning on a Baltic steamboat to St. Petersburg from a European capital with important papers in his briefcase in autumn of 1891, Colonel Verigin inadvertently dropped the case overboard, dove into the stormy Baltic Sea, retrieved the documents, but later had a fever and became ill.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}} He died from his exposure in his wife's arms.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}} Built before the castle, the original manor house burned down in 1892.<ref name=OdinstovoPodushkino/>}} established their estate including the castle Barvikha or the ''castle of Baroness Meyendorf'' ({{langx|ru|Усадьба Мейендорф}}) here in 1904 prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 6–7}} In 1908, under the Russian ambassador to Denmark, {{Interlanguage link|Baron Karl Karlovich Buksgevden|ru|3=Буксгевден, Карл Карлович}}, Baron F. M. Meyendorf became a diplomat with rank as a Russia state advisor (equivalent to a colonel) and became the first secretary of the Russian diplomatic mission to Denmark which was a very esteemed honor because Tsar Nicholas II's mother, the Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna, was born a Danish Princess Dagmar of Denmark.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}}
After the outbreak of the Great War the owners of the castle left Russia for abroad.
After the October Revolution the castle was occupied by Vladimir Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders. In 1935, the grounds were declared a high-profile, exclusive sanatorium. Mikhail Bulgakov, Sergey Korolyov and Yuri Gagarin were among those who vacationed at Barvikha.<ref name=OutdoorsRu>{{cite web |url=http://www.outdoors.ru/russiaoutdoors/index9.php?id=1754 |script-title=ru:Барвиха Московская область |trans-title=Barvikha Moscow Region |work=outdoors.ru |access-date=21 February 2020 |language=ru |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304214851/http://www.outdoors.ru/russiaoutdoors/index9.php?id=1754}}</ref> There is also a World War II cemetery marked by Yevgeny Vuchetich's miniature copy of his Mamayev Monument.
During Vladimir Putin's visit to the castles of the Loire valley in 2002, Jacques Chirac commented that Russia had nothing to compare with these French castles.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}} Putin directed his staff to find a castle near Moscow and restore it.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}}<ref name=OdinstovoPodushkino/> At only 20 minutes from Moscow, his staff transferred ownership of Bavikha to the {{Interlanguage link|Office of the President of the Russian Federation|ru|3=Управление делами президента Российской Федерации}} as the residence of the President and remodeled the {{convert|1300|m2}} manor to the grandest in Russia when it opened for use in November 2008.{{sfn|Блюмин|2012|loc=Chapter 7}} The {{Interlanguage link|Barvikha castle or Meyendorf Manor|ru|3=Усадьба Мейендорф}} is officially called ''State Residence Barvikha'' ({{langx|ru|«Госрезиденция „Барвиха“»}}) since November 2008 but others (RIA Novosti and Echo Moscow) refer to it as ''Meyendorf Manor'' or ''Meyendorf Castle''.<ref name=CastleBavikhaHistory/>
In the 21st century, Barvikha Castle has been designated a country residence of the President of Russia.<ref name=CastleBavikhaHistory/> It was there that the Meyendorff Declaration of 2008 was signed by the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in a bid to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.<ref name=RFE02112008>{{cite news |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/Kremlin_Hosts_Peace_Talks_Over_NagornoKarabakh/1337420.html |title=Armenia, Azerbaijan Sign Joint Declaration Over Nagorno-Karabakh |work=Radio Free Europe |date=2 November 2008 |access-date=21 February 2020}}</ref><ref name=MeyendorffDeclaration>{{cite news |url=https://www.newsru.com/russia/02nov2008/karabah.html#1 |script-title=ru:Президенты РФ, Азербайджана и Армении подписали декларацию по Нагорному Карабаху |trans-title=Presidents of the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a declaration on Nagorno-Karabakh |work=newsru.com |date=2 November 2008 |access-date=21 February 2020 |archive-date=6 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081106040633/https://www.newsru.com/russia/02nov2008/karabah.html |language=ru}}</ref>
While Gorky-9 ({{langx|ru|Горки-9}}) was undergoing renovations, Dmitry Medvedev, as president of Russia, resided primarily at Barvikha until the Gorky-9 renovations were completed upon which Medvedev primarily resided at Gorky-9 which is {{convert|15|km}} from Moscow.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.mail.ru/politics/8873892/?frommail=1 |title=Медведев и Путин поменяются кабинетами, но не резиденциями |trans-title=Medvedev and Putin will exchange offices, but not residences |language=ru |work=«РИА Новости» |date=7 March 2012 |access-date=8 July 2021 |archive-date=10 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510050612/http://news.mail.ru/politics/8873892/?frommail=1}}</ref>
== See also == * Massandra Palace * Millerhof
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Books== <!--This section is ONLY for books that are cited in footnotes of this Wikipedia article.--> {{Refbegin}} *{{cite book |script-title=ru:Рублевка и ее обитатели. Романтическое повествование |trans-title=Rublevka and its inhabitants. Romantic story |last=Блюмин |first=Георгий Зиновьевич (Blyumin, Georgy Zinovievich) |publisher=Центрполиграф (Centerpolygraph) |date=3 September 2012 |access-date=19 February 2020 |language=ru |isbn=978-5-227-03668-1|url=https://www.e-reading.club/book.php?book=1033937}} *{{cite book |title=Das altsteinzeitliche Rentieriagerlaeer Meiendorf |last=Rust |first=Albert |author-link=Albert Rust |location=Neumünster |date=1937}} {{Refend}}
== External links == * [http://www.meiendorf.ru/ Official site of Meyendorff Castle] * {{Commons category-inline|Meiendorf Castle}} {{coord|55|43|27|N|37|16|20|E|region:RU-MOS_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki|display=title}}
Category:Châteauesque architecture Category:Buildings and structures in Moscow Oblast Category:Castles in Russia Category:Odintsovsky District Category:Official residences in the Soviet Union Category:Houses completed in 1885 Category:Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Moscow Oblast