Khmelita - Estate of Griboyedov Family

Khmelita is the oldest manorial estate in Smolensk province, which survived until our days. Presumably the XVIII century. Known as the ancestral estate of Griboedovs. The famous playwright, composer and diplomat Alexander Griboyedov in childhood often spent summers at the home of his uncle A. F. Griboyedov, now in a family house is a Museum of Griboyedov. In the estate except stone manor house with four wings was a huge park with numerous alleys, flower gardens, stud farm, stables. In the house an extensive library, paintings, home theater. The favorites of the aristocratic society gathered to balls here.

The Khmelita miraculously spared and civil, and Domestic war. A fatal blow was inflicted on the estate in 1954. Here was a school, the collective farm office and warehouse. On the floor of the palace were dried linden bast. Because of neglect the palace was burnt down. Peasants dismantled burnt bricks for household needs.

In 1967, the famous restorer P. D. Baranovsky and his disciples V. E. Kulakov and M. M. Yermolaev has carried out a comprehensive restoration of the monument in the (alleged) original forms of the mid-eighteenth century.