Museum-reserve of A. S. Griboyedov "Khmelita"

Smolensk Oblast
Khmelita, Smolensk region, 215153
Phones: +7 (48131) 3-06-29
Web site: khmelita.com

The main house-palace houses the only museum of the writer in Russia entitled A. S. Griboyedov and His Time, which boasts a rich exhibition. The museum has several reserves where you can get acquainted with the archival materials of Griboyedov and his family. These are collections of paintings, manuscripts, photographs, graphics and sculpture. Of particular interest is the collection of rare books, where visitors will be keen to see various printed editions of the comedy Woe from Wit. The most valuable of these are the first editions of 1833. Sheets with handwritten text of the verses that were not allowed to print by the censor have been pasted into them.   The museum hosts thematic exhibitions and lectures, as well as intellectual games. In addition to the lectures offered by the museum, the staff can prepare others on a topic proposed by the customer. The museum-reserve includes not only the Khmelita estate with outbuildings, a church, a park and a cascade of ponds, but also other 18th century estates visited by Alexander Griboyedov (Grigorievskoe, Bogoroditskoe, Nikolskoe). By visiting the Khmelita Estate Museum, you can verify the accuracy of the words spoken by the outstanding academic Dmitry Likhachev: “The culture of the last third of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century can be called a manorial one. This means that the estate determined everything basic and new in it, and the entire cultural and spiritual character of Russian life.” Aleksandr Griboyedov was also brought up on this manor culture. Recently, visitors to "Khmelity" are invited to view not only the estates that are part of this museum complex, but also take a trip to the surrounding estates of Lipitsy (Khomyakovs), Volochek (Nakhimovs), Vysokoe (Sheremetevs) and Dugino (Panin-Meshchersky). Since 2010, the museum-reserve has also offered an excursion and tourist route around the estates entitled “All familiar faces...", named after a line from Woe from Wit. Branches: The museum complex includes a permanent exhibition dedicated to the outstanding Russian naval commander, admiral and hero of the Crimean War P.S. Nakhimov, who was born in the nearby village of Gorodok. The museum-reserve periodically hosts scientific conferences, including those dedicated to the memory of Nakhimov. Every year, the All-Russian Nakhimov holiday, the All-Russian competitions in ship modeling sport and other events related to the maritime theme are held here. For fans of military history, it is also possible to visit the military-historical memorial "Bogoroditskoye field" in the village of Bogoroditskoye, a branch of the Khmelita museum-estate. The museum is dedicated to the memory of the soldiers of the Western and Reserve Fronts who were surrounded near Vyazma while defending Moscow from the Nazis in October 1941. The museum display is based on Soviet and German documents, maps and archival photographs. At the site of the heroic breakthrough of the encircled troops, a stele was erected in memory of the soldiers of the 2nd division of the people's militia of Moscow and the sailors of the 200th division.

Museum-reserve of A. Griboyedov "Khmelita" is located in the Vyazemsky district of the Smolensk region. This is the most important attraction of the Smolensk region, which will interest lovers of native Russian landscapes and quiet provinces. "Khmelita" is a complex of unique architectural and landscape monuments on the watershed of the Dnieper and Volga tributaries, near the Moscow-Minsk highway. The center of the museum-reserve is the family estate of the Griboyedovs, "Khmelita", built by the writer's grandfather Fyodor Alekseevich in the middle of the 18th century in the Elizabethan baroque style. This is the oldest of the noble estates on Smolensk territory that have survived to this day, and a striking monument of Russian civil architecture. The future writer and author of the comedy Woe from Wit often visited this place as a child and adolescent.