Oneg Estate Park

The Oneg estate stood on the left bank of the Volkhov River. Archaeologists say people lived in the area several thousand years ago, while Oneg itself is first mentioned in 1500. The village belonged to the Petrovsky church district and initially had only one tax-paying household. In the 19th–20th centuries the estate became part of Podberezskaya Volost, Novgorod District. Until 1855 the lands belonged to the Obolyaninov nobles, later passing to the Butakov family, then to physician and State Councillor Anton Antonovich Rokhel. In 1906 the house was bought by senator’s son Nikolai Valeryanovich Muravyov. In 1924 the Oneg estate was placed under protection by the Provincial Committee for Museums and Preservation of Art and Antiquities. It was then rented by E. K. Marquart, who later used the premises for work purposes. In later years the estate housed a state-farm branch, the Kalinin orphanage and a pioneer camp. This continued until World War II, when occupying German forces took over the house and it was soon destroyed to its foundations. The original ochre-painted wooden house with a mezzanine was a modest noble residence, divided into ceremonial, living and service areas connected by a corridor. The ceremonial suite had three rooms; the hall opened into an unheated vestibule leading outside. Corner stoves heated the house. The kitchen and other utility rooms stood outside the main house or in a cellar level with strong stone walls supporting the building. Other estate buildings included a wooden house with four rooms and a kitchen, a livestock yard for 60 head, a grain barn, log hay sheds, laundry and spare cottage. A fence of old spruce trees surrounded the estate. The entrance from the Novgorod–St. Petersburg road was cobbled and lined with linden and acacia trees. Fruit trees grew deeper in the grounds, and vegetable gardens on both sides of the main house were enclosed by acacia hedges.