Gatchina District

Subject / Topography/Administrative - territorial division
GATCHINA DISTRICT, municipal entity. Population: 111,600. Area: 2850.3 sq. km. Established in 1927. Due to renaming of Gatchina Town, it was called Trotsk District in 1927-29, and Krasnogvardeisk District in 1929-44.Gatchina district borders with St. Petersburg and Luga, Volosovo, Tosno, and Lomonosov Districts. G. D. comprises the towns of Gatchina and Kommunar, five urban settlements: Vyritsa, Druzhnaya Gorka, Kobrinskoye, Siversky, and Taitsi, and 234 rural settlements. Adm. center: Gatchina Town. The district is crossed by the St. Petersburg-Kiev highway. Railway branches connect the district to St. Petersburg, Kingisepp, Ivangorod, and Pskov. G. D. is located on the eastern ridges of the Izhora Hills and on the Luga-Oredezh Plain. The Duderhof Heights are in the northern part of the district. Forests cover abt. 50% of the district’s area (mainly in the south and east), marshes, abt. 10%, agricultural lands, 21%, and meadows, 8%. The most important rivers are Oredezh, Izhora, and Suida. In the vicinity of Pudost are deposits of stone (soft yellow limestone), which was used in the construction of the Gatchina Palace and many buildings in St. Petersburg. The Upper Oredezh, a historic and natural park, is in the territory of G. D. The “Moon Stone” glacial boulder near Siversky is a natural monument. There have been many archeological finds in the district (see Archeological Monuments): medieval mound, sepulchrum, and ground burials. Lampovo Village has retained wooden architecture monuments related to the culture of Russian Old Believer peasants. The proximity to St. Petersburg promoted appearance of many nobility estates in the area of G. D. (26 estate complexes of the 18th and 19th cc. have been preserved to different extents): Batovo, Belogorka, Vyra, Druzhnoselye, Dylitsi, Zhabino, Ivanovka, Kobrino, Orlino, Rozhdestveno, Sivoritsi, Taitsi. At different times, writers K. F. Ryleev, A. N. Maikov, M. Y. Saltykov-Schedrin, I. A. Goncharov, A. N. Plescheev, A. M. Gorky, A. N. Tolstoy, I. A. Yefremov; artists I. N. Kramskoy, V. G. Perov, V. V. Vereschagin, I. Y. Repin, I. I. Shishkin; architects I. Y. Starov, A. D. Zakharov, and A. I. Shtakenshneider lived in G. D. The estates of Rozhdestveno, where writer V. V. Nabokov spent his childhood, and Suida, once owned by A. P. Gannibal, an ancestor of A. S. Pushkin, are turned into museums. Related to Pushkin memorial places are the museums “The Postmaster’s House” in Vyra village and “The House of A. S. Pushkin’s Nurse” in Kobrino village (see Yakovleva, Arina Rodionovna.) The district has numerous monuments in memory of the events of WWII (see Memorial To Leningrad Sky Defenders.) In our days, the district is a traditional place of dacha resting of St. Petersburg residents, where large collective gardening settlements appeared in the 1970s–80s. G. D. has 79 cultural institutions, including 34 clubs and 37 libraries (see Vyritsa settlement library, Gatchina central district library, and A. N. Maikov Siverskaya popular library/reading room), 8 children’s music schools, amateur theatre companies, e.g. “April” children’s academic choir and “Surprise” dancing ensemble (Voiskovitsi Settlement), “Litsa” folk theater. The district’s cultural life is covered in the “Gatchinskaya Pravda” newspaper. Orthodox parishes function in the settlements of Belogorka, Vyritsa, Dylitsi, Kartashevskaya (see St. Apostles Peter and Paul’s Church), Kommunar Town, Orlino (see Transfiguration Church), Rozhdestveno, Siversky, Suida (Voskresenskoye), Susanino, Syaskelevo, Taitsi. The Evangelic Lutheran Church of Ingria has parishes in Kolpani (see Lutheran Church of St. Peter) and in Skvoritsi (see Lutheran Church of St. Catherine)
See also Gatchina District: Arms and Flag. Chistyakov, Anton Yuryevich
Goncharov, Ivan Aleksandrovich
Gorky, Maxim ( Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov)
Hannibal, Abraham (Ibrahim) Petrovich
Kramskoi, Ivan Nikolayevich
Maikov, Apollon Nikilayevich
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich
Perov, Vasily Grigoryevich
Pleshcheyev , Aleksey Nikolayevich
Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeyevich
Repin, Ilya Yefimovich
Ryleyev, Kondraty Fyodorovich
Saltykov-Shchedrin , Mikhail Yevgrafovich (the real name was Saltykov)
Shishkin, Ivan Ivanovich
Stakenschneider, Andrey Ivanovich
Starov, Ivan Yegorovich
Tolstoy, Aleksey Nikolayevich, Count
Vereshchagin, Vasily Vasilyevich
Yakovleva, Arina Rodionovna
Yefremov, Ivan Antonovich
Zakharov, Andreyan (Adrian) Dmitriyevich
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Belogorka Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Drruzhnaya Gorka Urban Settlement
Topographical landmarks/Duderhof Heights, the
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Dylitsi Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Gatchina Town
Leningrad Oblast, the/Ivangorod Town
Topographical landmarks/Izhora Hills, the
Topographical landmarks/Izhora River, the
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Kartashevskaya Settlement
Leningrad Oblast, the/Kingisepp District/Kingisepp Town
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Kobrino Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Kobrinskoye Settlement
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Kommunar Town
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Lampovo Village
Topographical landmarks/Luga-Oredezh Plain, the
Topographical landmarks/Oredezh River, the
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Orlino Village
Neighbouring Territories/Pskov City
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Pudost Settlement
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Rozhdestveno Village
Saint-Petersburg City
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Siversky Urban Settlement
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Susanino Settlement
Topographical landmarks/Suyda River, the
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Suyda Settlement
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Syaskelevo Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Taytsi Urban Settlement
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Voyskovitsi Settlement
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Vyra Village
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Vyritsa Urban Settlement
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Vyritsa Urban Settlement
Бурлаков А. Туристские маршруты Гатчинского района. Южное направление. Гатчина, 2003.
Иванова И.П. Культурная жизнь Гатчинского района // 75 лет Ленинградской области. Прошлое, настоящее и будущее. СПб., 2002
Batovo, a country estate
Belogorka, a country estate
Co-operative gardens
Druzhnoselye, a country estate
Dylitsi, a country estate
"Faces", the Amateur People Theatre
Gatchina Central District Library named after A.S. Pushkin
Gatchina Palace -and - Park ensemble, the
"Gatchinskaya pravda" ("Gatchina Truth"), a newspaper
Ivanovka, a country estate
Kobrino, a country estate
"Lunny Kamen" ("The Moon Stone"), a natural monument
Orlino, a country estate
Rozhdestveno, a country estate
Siverskaya Popular Reading Library named after A.M. Maykov
Sivoritsi, a country estate
Taitsi, a country estate
The Transfiguration Church (Orlino Village, Gatchina District)
The Church of Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul (Vyritsa Town, Gatchina District)
The Church of Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul (Kartashevskaya Village, Gatchina District)
"The House of a Station Master", a museum
"The House of A.S. Pushkin's Nanny", a museum.
"To Defenders of Leningrad Sky", memorial
"Verkhny Oredezh", a natural historical park
Vuritsa Settlement Library named after I.A. Yefremov
Vyra, a country estate
Zhabino, a country estate
Zhalniks (sepulcrums).