Travel Snapshots: Yaropolets - the first Russian village to get a hydropowerplant

The settlement of Yaropolets is situated 135 km from Moscow on the banks of the Lama River. Archaeological evidence indicates the settlement is around 1000 years old. Two landmarks, not altogether ancient, have survived to this day. They are the Goncharov Estate and the local hydropower plant.

It was here in Yaropolets that Russia's first rural hydropower plant opened in 1919. The opening was attended by Vladimir Lenin and his wife.

Yaropolets HPP operated until October 30, 1941, when it was blown up by German forces advancing on Moscow. In 1980 the plant was restored as an historical monument.

This is the building of the plant. It originally housed a windmill connected to a 13-KW generator. That's how residents of Yaropolets got their first taste of electricity.

Till 1939 the plant underwent frequent modifications. That year saw the installation of a new generator that brought power to 22 nearby settlements.

Today Yaropolets HPP is not operational. It is home to a custodian who makes sure the building is in good condition.

In the mid-18th century the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist was build on the grounds of the estate. An alternative name is the Church of Catherine the Great Martyr. And sometimes it is simply referred to as the Baptist, St John, or Nativity church. Some sources say that it was in this church that Natalia Zagryazhskaya, Alexander Pushkin's mother-in-law, was christened in 1785.

The main courtyard is approached via side gates built in the form of crenellated turrets. These gates and the south wall are the only parts of the stone fortification to have survived to this day.

The courtyard is also accessible from the north side through a set of iron-wrought gates built in the late 18th century.

Dotted along the perimeter of the courtyard, arranged in a semicircle, are outbuildings. Built by architect Ivan Yegotov, the estate is one of the finest examples of this style of 18th century construction.

The estate was built in the style of Russian classical architecture. The manor house is made of red brick, decorated with stucco, and attached to two wings with covered galleries.

Alexander Pushkin visited the estate in 1833 and 1834. Even then he commented that the buildings were beginning to deteriorate. This is a quotation from one of Pushkin's letters to his wife: "I arrived in Yaropolets late on Wednesday. Natalia Ivanovna greeted me in the most hospitable fashion... She is very keen for you to spend next summer with her. She lives a quiet and secluded life in her dilapidated palace and tends to her kitchen gardens above the ashes of your great-grandfather..."

The main house, adorned with a portico of Corinthian columns, has an unusual (for Russian estates) color scheme. All the buildings, apart from the church, are scarlet-colored and augmented with white stone details and moldings.

Today the mansion is home to a guest house. The remaining buildings are either semi-derelict or derelict.