Location
State Museum-Reserve, RUS-181370 Mihailovskoe, Pushkinogorsky rayon, Pskovskaya oblast, Russia, 290 km south-west of St. Petersburg

Content
Mikhailovskoe is the most attractive place of the Pushkin reserve. It is the former family estate of the Gannibal-Pushkins. In 1742 under the decree of the empress Yelizaveta Petrovna the bay of Mikhailovskoe was granted to Abram Petrovich Gannibal (“the Arab of Peter the Great”). This is the way the ancestors of Alexander Pushkin (1799 – 1837) entered this place for the first time. The estate with the house of masters and the houses for servants is situated on a hill, which is over the Sorot river. A park, which turns into a pine forest, adjoins the estate from the south side; from the hillside you can see a beautiful view of the Sorot river, and the large valley with the lake Kuchane, behind which you can see the Petrovsky Park. The old park of Gannibal didn't remain, but is reconstructed in the way it was in the time of Pushkin. Here the museum exhibition is collected.

Pushkin's favourite place for walking was Mikhailovsky Park. This park was laid out in 18th century by his grandfather. A wide fir alley, which used to be the entrance into the estate, goes through the whole park. There are still some 200-year Gannibal's trees in the alley. Instead of the lost trees, in 1947 the reserve workers planted new ones, which have already grown. At the end of the alley the reconstructed family chapel of the Gannibal-Pushkins is situated. At the angle to the fir alley, over a small pond you can see one of the most beautiful alley, the famous lime tree alley, “Kern's alley”, called so in memory of the masterpiece, which Pushkin wrote after in 1825 Anna Petrovna Kern visited Mikhailovskoe. There are several ponds in the park. “The Island of Seclusion” situated on one of the ponds, is the favourite place of Pushkin. The old bridges and arbours in the park have been reconstructed and old paths have been found and cleared.