The area near the Gus River has long been considered rich in iron ore, and iron foundry production arose here in the 18th century. On the banks of this river was located Goose Iron.

The founder of the Batashev mining family is considered to be the Tula blacksmith Ivan Timofeevich Batashev, who began building factories on the Tulitsa River, and later in Medynsky district. The factories were inherited by his sons - Rodion and Alexander. After the death of the second, the entire iron foundry business of the Batashevs passed into the hands of Rodion. And his sons, Andrei and Ivan, were actively engaged in expanding production. Their first business was the founding of two factories in the Vladimir province. These are Unzhensky (1755) and Gusevsky (1758). A little later (in 1766) they built the Vyksa and Veletmensky factories in Nizhny Novgorod province(the plant in Vyksa still exists). After this, the brothers founded the Ilevsky, Pristansky and Zheleznitsky factories. In 1783, the entire Batashev family was elevated to the dignity of nobility and the Gusevsky plant went to Andrei Rodionovich. Andrei Batashev decided to establish his residence in Gus Zhelezny. And today the iron goose is a continuous attraction of Ryazan.

The main house of the residence was so large that there were even rumors that one end of it went to one province, and the other to another (Ryazan and Vladimir, respectively). The owner was famous for his toughness and unbridledness, and therefore was inaccessible to the administration of the two provinces.

But still, the size of the manor’s house is nothing compared to the cathedral. Trinity Church is very slender and beautiful. No one claims this, but its construction is attributed to Andrei Rodionovich. But this is debatable, since with him it could only have been laid. And the temple was completely completed only in 1847-1868. And given such a long construction period, it is worth guessing that during this time significant adjustments could have been made to the original project. But the result turned out very beautiful. Trinity Cathedral carries the atmosphere of those times and it is very tempting.

Perhaps someone believes that the Trinity Church, of course, lacks that special Bazhenov lightness and perfection of proportions, but this is easy to explain quite long period its buildings. Time has left its mark and it fits perfectly into the overall picture.

There were gardens adjacent to the main house of the estate, and one of them was even called the “garden of horrors.” All courtyard buildings, together with gardens, were fenced with a strong brick wall with high towers and loopholes. The height of the walls reached seven meters. All events took place behind closed gates. It is also interesting that there were many structures underground and almost no one knew what was happening there. This made this place even more mysterious and interesting.

It is known that Andrei Rodionovich was a Freemason and other members of the order often came to him. There were special rooms in the house for such meetings. There were also rumors about the existence counterfeit money in his dungeon. And when Batashev heard about the government audit, he filled up the entrances to his dungeon, where he also buried several of his workers alive. Appearance Goose Iron like the whole life of Andrei Rodionovich, it is full of secrets and mysteries.

Time for inspection: less than an hour.

Why go to Gus-Zhelezny:
1. Gothic Trinity Cathedral, not inferior to many Gothic cathedrals in Europe either in beauty or size.
2. The estate of the Batashov industrialists “Eagle’s Nest”, covered in gloomy glory.

Orientation. It is impossible to get lost in the village: the Trinity Cathedral literally hangs over the village and is visible from any point. The Batashov estate is located at the foot of the cathedral, on the banks of the Gus River.

Trinity Cathedral is truly amazing to see. With its disproportion it is even ahead of the Holy Cross Cathedral of the St. Nicholas Monastery in Verkhoturye. Perhaps this is the largest of all rural churches in Russia, but size is the first, but not yet the strongest, impression of the cathedral. Trinity Cathedral is one of the rare examples of pseudo gothic style, and Bazhenov’s handwriting is visible in the methods of its construction, although there is no exact information about the author of the cathedral. Moreover, the cathedral was started in 1802, after Bazhenov’s death, so we can only talk about construction according to his design (for which there is also no documentary evidence). It was completed only in 1847-1868. However, unlike the slightly tawdry Novo-Nikolsky Cathedral in Mozhaisk, from the Polish-Lithuanian Vladimir Church in Bykovo, the Trinity Cathedral turns to a completely different tradition: the closest analogues of this temple are ancient English abbeys. The Trinity Cathedral surprisingly faithfully and effectively repeats their outlines with its high dark gray walls with several rows of lancet windows, a pointed bell tower above the entrance, and a rounded altar. Despite the fact that Russia has always been alien to the Gothic traditions, the Trinity Cathedral in Gus-Zhelezny, in the most primordially Russian Ryazan region Asti, is not inferior to many Gothic cathedrals in Europe either in size or beauty.

Estate "Eagle's Nest", which belonged to the industrialists Batashov, was preserved much worse, and was initially of much less value. Survived in disrepair manor house(according to legend, this house faced one end into the Vladimir province, and the other into the Ryazan province, and therefore, when guardians of the law arrived from Vladimir, the Batashovs moved to the Ryazan half, and when they came from Ryazan, they hid from the law on the Vladimir part), as well as a high brick wall that once covered the entire estate. This wall was not inferior in power to many fortress walls, and such similarity is not accidental - about the atrocities of the Batashovs, in short term legends were made up of peasants who became first industrialists and then nobles. The darkest of these legends tells of huge dungeons where several hundred people minted counterfeit coins. The dungeons were allegedly flooded along with all the slaves when danger loomed over the owners. However, it is most likely that this is nothing more than a legend, since similar stories they tell it in Gus-Zhelezny, and in Nevyansk, and in many other places in Russia.

All that remains of the ironworks is the dam on the Gus River. It was once a monumental marble structure with sculptures, but in the 1950s it was badly damaged during the construction of a bridge. Now there is a bridge over the dam, and all the splendor has disappeared, although the hydraulic structure of the 18th century has been preserved.

The toponymic dictionary of Evgeniy Pospelov states that the name settlement The goose comes from the river of the same name. For toponymy - the science of the origin of names - this is a common thing. Rivers similar to Goose gave their names to Moscow, Samara, Tomsk and others. But where the Gus River got its name from - big question. The traditional association with poultry sounds, but looks unconvincing, because Goose is kept company by rivers that do not have such clear names. In the Ryazan region there are nearly nine hundred rivers and rivulets, and along with the Goose, Unzha, Vorsha, Kishnya, Solotcha, Narma, Kad, Ushna, Tolpega, Niverga, Kolp, familiar to the ears of Pra and Oka, flow along Meshchera. The vast majority are distinguished by their longevity - rivers outlive peoples and civilizations, going back to the pre-Slavic past. It is known that a thousand years ago, before the arrival of the Slavs, Finno-Ugric peoples lived here on earth, their current descendants - the Mordovians - live next door. Mordovians are not united - they are two nationalities - Moksha and Erzya. Interestingly, according to one of the scientific interpretations of the name of the city of Ryazan, there is a simple rearrangement of syllables from the old Erzyan - this happens often in the language.

Logic dictates that the roots of the name Goose are hidden in the Mordovian language, where a similar-sounding “kuz” is found, and in the Finnish language “kuusi”, both of which are translated as “spruce”. This argument is also weighty because from time immemorial names have been given based on the uniqueness of the place. A taxi to Dubrovka will undoubtedly take you to an oak grove, which is surrounded by traditional forest. Most of Meshchera is occupied by pine forests and birch thickets in burnt areas, clearings and swamps, because the soil here is sand, and only pine can tolerate such hungry conditions. But in the east of the Ryazan region, as you approach Gus and Kasimov, the soil becomes richer, and it’s easy to notice - from a car, before reaching Gus-Zhelezny, light pine forests give way to dense pine-spruce trees. By the way, Ramenskoye, located near Moscow, apparently comes from the word ramen - this is spruce forest. So the names of the tourist center “Yolochka”, Ramensky and Goose are the same root, only in different languages.

If you move further away from the Goose into the forest and come across a suitable clearing, it is quite possible that you will find ditches the size of a man. A hundred years ago, ore miners lived in these places and dug holes and ditches - “pipes” - along the banks of lakes and rivers, and even in the forest. The “pipers” mined swamp ore, from which they made iron. That's why they called the goose the Iron Goose. Looking for Meshchera deposits on a map is a futile task; geologists are not interested in iron-poor bog ore. The same could not be said about the domniks - they didn’t know anything better, and the teams of “pipe makers” worked here until the 18th century. Brown iron ore is easy to recognize when you meet it - the banks of Goose, Pra and Narma are completely covered in red-red spots. If you dig deeper, then four meters into the ground there are ore layers 20-30 centimeters thick. Ore from a birch or aspen forest was more valuable, iron from it was more pliable, but ore from a spruce forest was harder and stronger. It has been possible to get more and more ore since the days of the Meshchera reservoirs. They searched with an iron pole - a “rod”, and got them out with long-handled scoops. The ore was taken in August, dried, roasted and transported to smelt until October. Cooked ore in a furnace at charcoal, while the bellows were manually inflated in its lower hole for a constant flow of air. This is how they made strong iron, and the blacksmiths forged axes, nails, locks, stirrups and many other useful things from it.

The German traveler Peter Simon Pallas once looked into these places; in his diary dated August 1, 1768, he writes that behind the village and the Chaura river “the old limestone with shells appears again,” “we finally stopped at the village of Mishkina, having crossed the Sintur river, flowing with the above into the Gus River.” “An iron plant with a high blast furnace was built here, owned by the Tula merchant Balashov, where iron ore is brought from the Oka.” This is how Pallas’s small Goose is mentioned in “Travels through Various Provinces of the Russian Empire.”

Although the local swamp ore was poor, it made the nobles Andrei and Ivan Rodionovich Batashev fabulously rich. In 1758, the brothers acquired vast lands in the vicinity of the Verkutsy churchyard in Vladimir district, built a pond near the Gus River and erected an iron foundry nearby. The first to come out into the world was their grandfather - the Tula blacksmith Ivan Timofeevich Batashev, who in the era of Peter the Great served as manager of Nikita Demidov, the founder of the dynasty of Tula gunsmiths. Cannons and cannonballs were supplied from the blacksmith's factories to supply the Russian army. The metallurgy of the Batashevs reached the Vladimir, Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tambov and Tula provinces. Within the Melenkovsky district, on the Gus River, two empires were formed - glass and iron. In the upper reaches of the river, the Maltsev merchants created a glass production center, while downstream the Batashevs settled and became the kings of the metallurgical kingdom in Gus-Zhelezny. For about a century and a half, two Geese were listed as belonging to the Vladimir region, but in the 20th century, after a series of administrative and territorial reforms, Gus-Zhelezny turned out to belong to Ryazan.

The Batashev brothers built their residence in Gus exactly like a medieval one. Behind a powerful red brick fence with turrets and loopholes for firing muskets, a two-story house-palace and a theater were built, peaches and pineapples were grown in greenhouses, there was a park, and quarters for guards and servants. The brothers used their power to the full: it is known that the Batashevs once stole an entire village from an intractable owner who did not want to sell it. In one night, all the huts were dismantled and transported to the land of the Batashevs, armed servants also herded the peasants here, and in the place of the manor’s house and village it ended up being a plowed field. Self-will reached such extremes that it gave rise to the legend that the Batashevs’ house was built exactly on the border of the Vladimir and Ryazan lands, therefore, when inspectors, for example, from Vladimir, came in response to numerous complaints, the brothers went to the Ryazan side, and when they came from Ryazan, they hid from Law on Vladimirskaya.

In the meantime, the management was playing around, up to a thousand peasants were working for it, and they were doing it for mere pennies. There is a document: “Inventory and assessment of the movable and immovable estate of the cornet Grigory Martynov, son of Svishchev, located in the Kasimov district in the village of Borki. Committed on May 17, 1784... There are peasants in the yard: Pimen, whose price is three rubles, Moses, whose price is three rubles. Pimen has a wife, Anna Afanasyevna, whose decrepitude deserves no price. They have an illegitimate adopted son, raised by them Korney through his godfather Mikheev, who is worth ten rubles. Moses has a wife, Afrosinya, whose price is four rubles. The daughter is a girl Maria, whose price is one ruble. Black hut pine forest on seventeen crowns, it is dilapidated with four glass windows, covered with shingles. The clay oven costs only two rubles and fifty kopecks. The front canopy is dilapidated and costs ten kopecks. In the courtyard there is a pine bathhouse with thirteen crowns, covered with straw, costing one ruble.” In the Batashev workshops, such Pimens and Moses worked hard, whose price was fifty dollars more than a clay stove. Andrei Batashev remained in history as an extremely cruel person. It is no coincidence that a legend has survived to this day, according to which Batashev, having learned about the upcoming inspection, destroyed the evidence by opening the floodgate and flooding the underground workshops, while up to a hundred peasants were minting counterfeit money for him.

Batashev’s entrepreneurial spirit attracted the attention of the producers of a project on the REN-TV channel about the mysticism and mysteries of civilization. Television people, discussing the topic of immortality and life extension, put Batashev on a par with Chinese centenarians and ancient Sumerians. They noticed the Masonic column, which is installed on local cemetery in the village of Gus-Zhelezny. Next to the column is the grave of Andrei Batashev. The author of books on the history of alchemy, Andrei Fomin-Shakhov, says that when the grave was opened in the 1980s, it turned out to be empty. The disappearance of the landowner is allegedly associated with immortality, and his cruelty towards the serfs is associated with a secret that he carefully hid. The editors of the “Race of Immortals” program suspect what exactly Batashev was doing in the underground workshops.

The hard-working Gusevites were tormented by more than one generation of Batashevs. The factories were working, but the pay for labor was extremely unstable - sometimes the wait for a salary could reach three months. When patience ran out, the people's anger made itself felt - they went to the factory. True, walking for money was, as a rule, fruitless. The grandson of Andrei Batashev - Emmanuel Ivanovich - turned out to be a worthy descendant of his grandfather. Under him, production volumes grew and equipment was updated. It was at the factories of Emmanuel Batashev that they launched the first regenerative puddling furnace in Russia with two working spaces. True, it was under him that the plant came into operation. In 1904, the demand for pig iron fell sharply, military orders were reduced, and iron ore reserves on the banks of the Goose were depleted. Soon the owner fell ill and died. The last owner of the estate in Gus-Zhelezny was Emmanuel’s widow, Zinaida Vladimirovna Batasheva. In 1918, all her property was confiscated by the Soviet government. The 75-year-old woman was shot on November 16, 1918. The verdict of the revolutionary tribunal read: “For active and passive action against Soviet power" In 1931, they even dealt with the dead Batashevs, opening their family crypt. Thus ended the rule of the Batashevs in Gus, which lasted exactly 160 years. Today, a children’s boarding school is located in the rather shabby Batashev palace. A red brick wall leads into the old park - there are centuries-old linden trees and paths trodden by local and visiting pedestrians. The spirit of that time captured even the house that joined the place children's creativity. Legends also remain in Gus-Zhelezny. They talk about underground passages that are supposedly located inside the old estate-fortress. The romance of these places is unique. And you can feel it when you find yourself face to face with the Trinity Cathedral. It was erected by order of Andrei Andreevich Batashev, it took 66 years to build - from 1802 to 1868. It is believed that the author of the cathedral project was famous architect Vasily Bazhenov is the builder of the Pashkov house in Moscow. The church smells of the Middle Ages - people come to look at the Gothic temple from the most distant corners of Russia. From Ryazan to Gus it is 138 kilometers, along the road to Kasimov through Klepiki and Tuma. From Moscow you can get here along the Yegoryevskoye Highway. From Gus there is a road to Lubyaniki, from where few people know the walking route to Brykin Bor through the Oka Biosphere Reserve.

Gus Batashevsky

Gus-Zhelezny is an urban-type settlement in the Kasimovsky district of the Ryazan region, the administrative center of the Gusevsky urban settlement.
Located on the Gus River (there is a dam on it, built in the 18th century), 18 kilometers northwest of Kasimov. The village is surrounded by coniferous trees and mixed forests. “The village of Verkutsy, better known under the name of Gus Batashevsky, near the river. Gus and the artificial lake Gussky, is located on the border of the Melenkovsky district with the Ryazan province, 55 versts from the district city () and 140 from the provincial one.”

Up to half XVIII century it was an insignificant village. May 11, 1758 with his wife Al. Iv. Suvorov "on factory rights", the famous breeders Batashevs, bought land near Verkuts for 9,000 rubles. together with 241 peasants with their wives, children, newborns, etc. By decree of the Bergkollegium of October 29, 1759, the Batashevs founded Gusevsky plant“about one blast furnace with a decent number of hammer factories.”
When obtaining permission to build the Gusevsky plant, the Batashevs had to overcome strong opposition from a number of local landowners and “distinguished” princes, whose properties were adjacent to the Batashevskys.
In 1770, an iron smelter and an iron plant were established here; For work at the plant, a huge artificial lake was built (7 inches long and from 2 to 5 inches wide).
The Batashevs found themselves in the factories with several thousand fugitive serfs and various wandering people who took refuge and found work there. All these people were recognized as serfs and assigned to factories.
But, not content with this, Andrei Rodionovich, judging by the legends, widely took advantage of the opportunity to quite arbitrarily seize other people’s serfs, lands and lands. Legends describe in detail one of the cases of such seizures.
Some landowner had an estate in the middle between Batashev’s Gusevsky and Syntulsky estates. Andrei Rodionovich offered the landowner money for his estate, but he refused. Then Batashev, waiting for the landowner to leave his estate, came there with lancers and men. The lancers bandaged all the peasants and transported them to the Gusevsky plant. The Batashevsky men, under the leadership of the “master” himself, set fire to the estate and the village from all four ends and in one night they plowed up and fenced off the fire. The landowner returned home, and on the site of his estate there were only firebrands and a plowed field. It’s hard to believe the possibility of such outrage, but it happens.
The estate in Gus was built in the 1780s. coll. ac. A.R. Batashev (1729–1799).
According to legend, the manor park was called nothing more than a “terrible garden”. In it, Batashev organized brutal demonstration beatings of his guilty workers, and, in the so-called “pavilion of love,” the most beautiful serf maidens delighted Batashev’s guests.
Folk legends about Andrei Rodionovich also say with great insistence that his capital increased from the work of a secret mint. Having learned that an audit is coming to Gus, check the rumors about the underground mint, Batashev allegedly ordered to block all the exits from the dungeon, thereby walling up 300 workers alive.
In 1840, the staff captain of the gendarme corps wrote to the Vladimir governor, and this one to the Minister of Internal Affairs:
“From the main house, where the late landowner Andrei Rodionovich Batashev lived, there are secret underground passages that extend under the entire space occupied by the plant’s buildings. There are rumors that one heir allegedly said that the late landowner left a large wealth in cash, consisting of hard coin and it is in the dungeon.”
The underground mint is described in folk legends and from V. Gaidukov, and from Chekina, and from Melnikov-Pechersky, and in a letter from teacher O. Abbakumova, stored in the archives of the Vladimir Scientific Archival Commission (1905, case No. 8).
It is difficult to say how much all this corresponds to historical truth.

Since 1802, according to the division between the heirs of A.R. Batashev’s estate-industrial complex was owned by his son from his first marriage to A.S. Finger call ac. and gentleman A.A. Batashev (b. 1751).
Since 1835 - according to the new section - the half-brother of the last coll. reg. I.A. Batashev (d. 1845); further – his widow L.P. Batasheva (nee Erina) with children M.I. Batashev (b. 1840) and O.I. Batasheva (b. 1844); until 1917 the estate belonged to M.I. Batashev and his wife Z.V. Batasheva.

Having received the nobility, the Batashevs began to buy peasants for themselves in different provinces and settle them, in particular, at the Gusevsky plant to work at it. These peasants did not receive a land allotment, therefore they could not engage in arable farming, but were mining workers. Without a land allotment, they were freed from serfdom in 1861, and at the end. In the 19th century, due to the decline in work at the plant, this landless population was forced to look for income on the side, at other iron factories.

Verkutsky parish (Gus Batashevsky)

According to the construction of the plant, the Batashevs built a wooden church here in 1766 in the name of the Holy Prophet John the Baptist; this church burned down in 1812. When establishing the church, the Batashevs contributed 15 quarters of arable land per field and 15 kopecks of hay for the benefit of the clergy.
In 1812, construction began on a two-story stone church; in 1825, following the death of the temple builder Andrei Batashev, work was suspended. Main temple by this time the dome of the upper floor was reached, and the refectory and bell tower were brought to the cornice. The church remained in this unfinished state until 1847. Meanwhile, on the lower floor everything interior work were completed before 1825, three altars were built in it and divine services were performed.
In 1847, with funds from Batashev’s heirs and the factory workers, work was resumed to finish the upper floor of the temple and the bell tower. All work, both external and internal, was finally completed and the temple was consecrated only in 1868.
There are four altars in the church: on the top floor in them: Life-Giving Trinity(consecrated in 1868), in the lower one in the name of the Nativity of Christ (consecrated in 1823), St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (consecrated in 1816) and in the name of St. ap. Peter and Paul (consecrated in 1818).
The church is quite richly equipped with utensils, a sacristy, and holy icons. Of the Holy icons, the Bogolyubsk Icon of the Mother of God is especially revered by parishioners. This icon was donated to the church by the Bogolyubsky Monastery in memory of the fact that the factory workers in 1865, with especially ardent zeal, hosted miraculous icon Bogolyubova Mother of God on the occasion of the epidemic disease that was raging among them. The workers decorated the donated icon with a precious silver gilded chasuble (worth 1,300 rubles). Another remarkable shrine in the church is a small silver altar cross, in which particles of St. relics of St. John the Merciful and other saints.
The clergy at the church according to the staff is: two priests, a deacon and two psalm-readers. The maintenance of the clergy from services and required corrections amounts to up to 1,700 rubles. per year.
When establishing the church, as was said above, Batashev added 15 quarters of arable land. in the field and hay for 15 kopecks, but until 1871 this land was in the possession of Batashev. In 1871, the guardianship of Batashev’s heirs exchanged the former church land for a new one in the amount of 38 dess. 1092 soot At the same time, the houses built by Batashev’s heirs became the property of the clergy, during which the exchange took place, and 10 dessiatines were given for heating and repairing the houses. construction timber. This forest is at stake. XIX century, partly sold, and partly used to repair clergy houses.
The parish consisted of the village of Verkuts and the village of Chaura (8 ver. from the church), in which, according to world records, there are 2,283 souls. gender and 2443 female.

Gusevskoye-Batashevskoye, men's school, Gusevskaya volost, in the village of Verkutsy. Founded in 1849. The nearest school is Kolpskoye in the 20th century.
In 1884, “The premises were public, made of wood, together with the volost administration; uncomfortable in terms of light and warmth; There are apartments for teachers; two classrooms: the first - 12 long, 10 ¾ wide, 4 arches high; the second is 10 ¾ long, 8 ¼ wide, 4 arches high. Teaching aids not enough - 185 rubles. 53 k. There is no library, except for 30 books. There is no land. The teacher of the law, priest Vasily Sanchursky, a student at the Vladimir Theological Seminary, has been teaching since 1854; senior teacher Dmitry Tyutin, who completed a course at the Novinsk Teachers' Seminary, has been teaching since September 1, 1882; junior teacher Mikhail Shirogorov, from the 4th grade of the Vladimir Theological Seminary, has been teaching since 1881. Trustee from the nobility Manuil Ivanovich Batashev; I didn't make any donations. There were 146 students by January 1, 1883. 28 students dropped out before completing the course at the request of their parents. 17 students completed the course with certificates. 44 students were newly admitted. By January 1, 1884, there were 145 students. Age: 7 - 8 years old. - 24, 8 - 9 l. - 28, 9 - 10 l. - 36, 10 - 11 l. - 24, 11 - 12 l. - 18, 12 - 13 l. - 12, 13 and above - 3. Of the students: 141 from the village. Verkutsy, 1 from Kolpsky-Vyselka in the 20th century, and 3rd in the Ryazan province, namely: 1 from the village of Lamakina - 7th century, 1 - from the village of Kurilova - 25th century. and 1 - Belyaeva village - 1 ½ c. There is no overnight shelter or people living in apartments. Orthodox religion. By class: spiritual. - 1, local - 1, cross. - 143 boys Funds: from the zemstvo 341 rubles. 10 kopecks, from the volost 306 rubles, from individuals 1 ruble. 60 k.; There is no tuition fee. Expenses: heating, lighting, servants and repairs 65 rubles; salary - 30 rubles for teachers, 540 rubles for teachers; for books, teaching aids and awards 13 rubles. 70 k. Attended classes incorrectly 2 students; measures - suggestion to students and advice to parents. Reception in September; Everyone arrived illiterate. Due to the cramped space, 12 was refused. Academic year from September 10th to May 5th. Learning to sing is simple. They study 5 ½ hours a day and take home lessons. 2 departments with 4 groups. Lessons per week: on the Law of God - 3, on the Russian language - 13, on Slavic language- 2, in arithmetic - 4, in singing - 1. Received 4 awards. Those who received certificates studied for 3 - 4 years. Those who did not complete the course studied until 2 ½ years. The school was inspected once by an inspector of public schools. There is no training in crafts. There are no Sunday talks or readings.”
There were 116 students in 1896.

Gusevskoye-Batashevskoye, women's school, Gusevskaya volost, in the village of Verkutsy. Founded by Mrs. Batasheva in 1873. The nearest school is Kolpskoye in the 20th century.
In 1884, “The premises are rented, wooden, separate; very comfortable in terms of light and warmth; The teacher has an apartment; There is one classroom - length 10, width 6, height 5 arsh. There are not enough teaching aids - 48 rubles. 13 k. There is no library, except for 14 books. There is no land. The teacher of the law, priest Fyodor Kazansky, a student at the Vladimir Theological Seminary, has been teaching since May 16, 1862, and at the present school since 1873; teacher Maria Suslina, has the title of teacher, has been teaching since 1873, and at the present school since 1880. Trustee from the nobility Zinaida Vladimirovna Batasheva; I didn't make any donations. Students by January 1, 1883 40 days. Dropped out before completing the course at the request of parents 7 days. 4 girls completed the course with certificates. They re-entered on the 16th day. By January 1, 1884, there were 45 virgins. Age: 7 - 8 years old. - 6, 8 - 9 l. - 16, 9 - 10 l. - 7, 10 - 11 l. - 7, 11 - 12 l. - 9. Of the students: 43 from the village. Verkuts, 1 from the village. Alekseev in the 18th century. and 1 from the mountains. Kasimova - 20th century. There is no overnight shelter or people living in apartments. Orthodox religion. By estate: local. - 1, cross. - 44 girls Funds: from the zemstvo 225 rubles, from the society 60 rubles; There is no tuition fee. Expenses: heating, lighting, servants and repairs 60 rubles; salary - 25 rubles for a teacher, 200 rubles for a teacher. 10 students attended classes incorrectly due to illness. Reception in September; Everyone arrived illiterate. Due to the cramped space there was no refusal. The academic year is from September 15th to May 13th. They study 6 hours a day and give home lessons. 3 departments. Lessons - according to instructions. Received 2 awards. Those who received certificates studied for 3 years. Those who did not complete the course studied for up to 2 years. The school was inspected once by an inspector of public schools. Handicrafts are taught. There are no Sunday talks or readings.”
There were 59 students in 1896.

Parochial school opened in 1884. There were 35 students in 1896.

In 1872, ore was found in the “surroundings of swampy areas lying in large areas near the village. Verkuts (Goose). Near the village of Verkutsy, it is mined in quarries building stone, used for factory needs.

Fifth medical station Melenkovsky district (1906) consists of 2 volosts: Gusevskaya and Lavsinskaya, with a population of about 8,000 people. The site is headed by doctor M.A. Ostroumov. In the area (Gus-Verkutets village) there is a hospital with 10 beds. The hospital consists of a midwife, a paramedic and 3 servants: 2 for women and 1 for men.

“A massive house, the stone ruins surrounding it, a huge hundred-year-old park behind the house, surrounded by a high wall with towers stretching two miles in length, a nine-verst pond stretching in front of the estate, along which sailing ships once sailed, a three-verst dam made of white stone, damming three rivers and held back gigantic masses of water for a whole century without much harm to itself - all this cannot but evoke titanic work tens of thousands of hands that created all this in just two years. Incredible!
- Belokonsky I.P. Batashevs. // In the book: Village impressions. - St. Petersburg, 1900.

In accordance with the resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “On new network districts of the Moscow region" in 1935, the Belkovsky district was formed with a center in the village of Belkovo, 5 kilometers from Gus-Zhelezny (the road from Moscow to Kasimov passed there at that time). In 1937, the area became part of the newly created Ryazan region.
By 1940, Gus-Zhelezny became the center of the district. In 1959, the Belkovsky district was abolished, its territories became part of the Tumsky and Kasimovsky districts.

The status of an urban-type settlement has been since 1964.

On the northern outskirts of the village there is a natural monument of regional importance “White Forest” with small karst lakes Bolshaya and Malaya Klyuchnaya Yama.

Published with permission and approval Elena Shchipkova
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There is a village in the Ryazan region with a little unusual name- Gus-Zhelezny. The first half of the name was given by the Gus River, which flows through the village, and the second part of the name was given by iron ore deposits, which, in fact, gave life to the village.
Two hundred years ago, ore miners lived in these places and dug holes and ditches - “pipes” - along the banks of lakes and rivers, and even in the forest. The “pipers” mined swamp ore, from which they made iron.

It was this swamp ore that made the Batashev brothers, Andrei and Ivan, fabulously rich.
In 1758, the brothers bought vast lands here, built a pond with a dam near the Gus River and set up an iron foundry.
And the founder of the Batashev dynasty is the Tula blacksmith Ivan Timofeevich Batashev, who served as Nikita Demidov’s manager in the era of Peter the Great. It was he who began to build the first factories on the Tulitsa River, after which he developed large enterprises in Medynsky district. All his factories went to his sons, who continued their father's work. In 1783, the Batashev family became noble and Andrei Batashev built a huge estate for himself in Gus Zhelezny, and a little later, in 1802, the construction of the Trinity Church began, which lasted more than half a century and ended after the death of Andrei Batashev. . The architect of the temple still cannot be named, but there is an opinion that Bazhenov himself had a hand in designing the church in such an unusual Gothic style for Russia.

Today the temple is the architectural dominant of the entire village and is visible from almost any point.
It is also unusual in that it has two floors - the main church is located below, and the summer church is on the second floor, very bright and spacious.

In the 19th century, the interior decoration of the temple was very rich; for example, the Bogolyubsk Icon, especially revered by parishioners, was kept here Mother of God, as well as a silver altar cross, into which particles of the relics of St. John the Merciful were placed. However, in 1921, on the initiative of the Council of People's Commissars, all valuables were confiscated, and then, in 1932, the temple was completely closed and used for economic needs. Now the church is holding services again

On the square near the church there is a memorial sign to the founders of the village, the Batashev brothers, but the full owner of everything that was here was the elder brother Andrei.

In Gus Zhelezny Andrey built himself a huge, almost medieval estate, surrounded by a six-meter stone fence with turrets and loopholes intended for defense, although it is not clear from whom he was going to defend. In addition to the main house, there was a serf theater, a menagerie and a poultry house. The large garden was divided into three parts, in which greenhouses with exotic plants were built, and one of the parts of the park was called the “Garden of Horrors” because it was there that Andrei Batashev, who was sometimes called the Russian Dracula, fiercely punished and even executed the guilty.
Now the once beautiful manor house looks so deplorable. Three years ago there was a children's sanatorium here, but now the estate is dilapidated and destroyed.

There are many legends about what was done in the basements of the Batashevsky house. It was believed that escaped convicts minted counterfeit coins in the dungeons, and when an investigator sent by Paul I arrived at the estate, Andrei Batashev ordered the entrance to be filled up (according to some sources) or flooded with water (according to others), burying 300 workers alive.
According to other legends, Andrei, as a member of the Masonic order, was engaged in obtaining philosopher's stone, who turned metals into gold and gave immortality to man.
The basements of Batashev's house had several floors. On one of the floors there were, let's say modern language, prison cells where people could be tortured and tormented. Whether this was true or not is unknown, but what is known for sure is that in the basement there was a huge glacier in which all year round there was ice. Throughout the summer, two cartloads of ice were sent to the plant to cool water for the workers.
One day, the heir to the Batashev family, Emmanuel Batashev, decided to melt a glacier that had been melting for two years. According to legend, a melted glacier released a cast-iron door with locks, they were able to open it, they went along an underground passage, reached the second door, but they got scared and did not go further. Emmanuel ordered both doors to be walled up, locked them and threw the key into the lake. Since then, no one knows what really happened behind those doors.

In general, Andrei Batashev, feeling his complete impunity, was not used to denying himself anything, and if he wanted something, he got it at any cost. It is known that Batashev once stole an entire village from an intractable owner who did not want to sell it. In one night, all the huts were dismantled and transported to the land of the Batashevs, armed servants also herded the peasants here, and in the place of the manor’s house and village it ended up being a plowed field.
Batashev's estate was built exactly on the border of two lands - Vladimir and Ryazan. And since the official had power only on his own land, when an official came from Vladimir, he came out to him with the words “The master deigned to leave for the Ryazan province” and the official had no choice but to leave without a sip. With Ryazan officials, history repeated itself exactly the opposite.
Andrei Batashev was married three times, and all three wives lived with him at the same time. And he was not just married three times, but married three times, violating all secular and Orthodox laws, but the priests preferred to turn a blind eye to his outrages, otherwise they had many chances to say goodbye to life.

From the central gate you can exit onto the central alley of the park. The alley led to the opposite side of the park and to the “Scary Pavilion”. Why “terrible” - because according to legend, those who entered it never returned. and no one knew what happened to people.
According to rumors, Andrei Batashev could, as a hospitable host, feed and drink a person he did not like, invite him to take a walk in the park, go to the “Scary Pavilion” and, as befits an owner, let the guest go ahead. At this moment, the floorboards opened and the guest fell into the dungeon, and the floorboards returned to their place.

Opposite the “Terrible Pavilion” was the “Pavilion of Pleasures”, guests from St. Petersburg and Moscow were invited to it for carousing, and young girls from Batashev’s serfs were “supplied” there. Often the girls ended their lives in the pond that was nearby.

The "Scary Pavilion" was located approximately here. Although, strangely enough, no one has ever tried to look for at least some remains of this pavilion or the remains of the people who disappeared in it.

Immediately behind the fence of the estate begins the area formerly called Vyshvyrki. Here lived those who did not please Batashev in some way, but did not deserve cruel punishment and were thrown out of the estate. This is where the toponym came from. I wonder if the people living here now know the history of the village and the estate?

As I already said, the temple is visible from almost everywhere. This is how it looks from the estate.

We leave the estate and walk along the Batashevsky offices to the dam. And again, there are many legends and speculations here. The biggest mystery is these vaulted semicircular windows located almost near the ground.

What happened behind these windows is unknown, but people’s imagination loves all kinds of horror stories, and therefore they say that there were torture chambers there, although there is no evidence of this.

Perhaps this is one of the exits from the dungeons, or maybe just a water pipe, and again there are more questions than answers.

And in front of us is the pond on which the iron foundry was built. Three rivers flowed here and the forest was just the border of the pond. Now the pond is almost overgrown, but in those days there was not only a dam on it, but also locks that allowed ships to sail through the pond during high water and then sail further to the Oka. This was a unique phenomenon in world practice.

Now along the dam there is a road. They decided to make the road passable, and therefore the width of the dam turned out to be insufficient and it was decided to do something drastic - the dam was demolished and a bridge was made from it. And since there is no dam, then there is no pond, and instead of its former splendor we now see a gradually overgrown swamp.

The remains of the production premises of the Gusevsky plant, which are also gradually being destroyed. We walked around them a little and it’s strange - practically no trees grow here and there are no traces of people, i.e. There are no “homeless rookeries” that are already familiar to us, or informal youth hangouts, as is usually the case in such places. What is the aura here? Or maybe ghosts walk at night?

And here is the Goose River itself, beloved by kayakers and fishermen.

And again Trinity Church. We got to Gus-Zhelezny right on Trinity Sunday, because all the interior of the church is decorated with birch branches.

A festive service had just ended here; we waited for the believers to leave and decided to explore the temple.

By the way, unlike cool Moscow churches, where people come in Mercedes and Bugattis, here in Gus-Khrustalny they go to the temple on bicycles. I have never seen such a number of two-wheeled vehicles near any church.

And we have the opportunity to go up to the upper temple. As I understand it, finishing work is still ongoing.

The climb up is via a fairly steep staircase.

And here she is summer church, very bright even on a cloudy day.

Saying goodbye to Goose, one last time general photo. We have learned a lot of interesting things, many mysteries remain to be solved.
Andrey Batashev is perhaps one of the most mysterious personalities Russian history. Whether he really was so cruel or whether people’s rumors attributed other people’s atrocities to him, no one can say for sure until the basements of the manor house are opened and studied, while the secrets of the “scary house” are sprinkled with the soil of the manor park...

And we simply could not miss this magnificent view from the bridge over the Gus River; it is this view that greets and sees off everyone who comes to Gus-Zhelezny.

You can get to Gus-Zhelezny by car along the P-105 highway
There is no railway connection with the village, so if you don’t have a car, you can get here by bus from Kasimov, Vladimir Ryazan or Moscow.
On average, the journey by bus from Moscow will take 5 hours.

The travel_russia community thanks the Managing Director of VSW JSC Alexander Mikhailovich Barykov, the General Director of the Batashev Hotel Viktor Mikhailovich Brovka (OMK-Tour LLC), as well as the TIC of the city of Vyksa for organizing the blog tour