Prince Nikolay Yusupov and the bitter orange trees in the Arkhangelskoye orangeries

When I wrote that Arkhangelskoye has nothing in common with Versailles, I was slightly mistaken. Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov, great-grandson of the first baptised Yusupov, Abdul-Murza (Dmitry Seyushevich in baptism), who was himself a great-grandson of the founder of the line, the ruling sultan of the Nogai Horde Yusuf, who lived in the early sixteenth century, so then, Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov enriched Arkhangelskoye, bought for a hundred thousand roubles from the Golitsyns, quite incredibly, and not only with works of art and architectural refinements, but with garden plants as well.

Under Nikolai Borisovich the orangeries acquired two thousand bitter orange trees, one of which was 400 years old and had been bought from Razumovsky for 3,000 roubles, that is, for 3% of the value of the estate. A truly unique tree: its only equals were two other ancient bitter orange trees from the orangery of Versailles.

The orangeries themselves, incidentally, appeared here back when the estate under the Golitsyns consisted of wooden boyar buildings, and even then they housed exotic plants from all over the world. Today, on the site of the Golitsyn and Yusupov orangeries, two hulking structures rise, clad in tasteless artificial stone: they seem to be the former three-storey residential annexes to the orangeries.