Pavel Pavlovich Demidov
Encyclopedia
Villa San Donato
The Villa San Donato is a Palladian palace built by Russian industrialist Nikolay Demidov on 42 hectares of marshland to the north of Florence at Polverosa which he had bought from the Catholic church, after he was made Russia's ambassador to the court of Tuscany. The first stone was laid on 27...
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Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
) was a Russian industrialist, jurist, philanthropist and nobleman of the Demidov
Demidov
The Demidov family, also Demidoff, were an influential Russian merchant, industrialist and later chivalry family, possibly second only to the Tsar himself in wealth during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-History:...
family. His parents were Aurora Karamzina and her husband Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov.
His first marriage was on 1 June 1867 to Princess Maria Elimovna Meshcherskaya (Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, 28 February 1844 - San Donato
San Donato
San Donato is the Spanish and Italian form of Saint Donatus. It can refer to:*Saint Donatus of Arezzo *Saint Donatus of Fiesole *Dukedom of San Donato, noble titleIt is also a place-name:*San Donato di Lecce*San Donato di Ninea...
(or Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, per Ferrand), 8 August 1868). She died two days after giving birth to a son, Elim Pavlovich Demidov, 3rd Prince of San Donato, at Hietzing
Hietzing
Hietzing is the 13th municipal District of Vienna . It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling...
in the suburbs of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
on 6 August 1868. Her loss had a lasting effect on Pavel, who remained inconsolable for a long time, spending a long while in the room in the Villa San Donato
Villa San Donato
The Villa San Donato is a Palladian palace built by Russian industrialist Nikolay Demidov on 42 hectares of marshland to the north of Florence at Polverosa which he had bought from the Catholic church, after he was made Russia's ambassador to the court of Tuscany. The first stone was laid on 27...
where his wife's dresses were kept to try to recover her presence.
In Saint Petersburg on 2 June 1871 he remarried to Princess Elena Petrovna Trubetskaya (Saint Petersburg, 25 September 1853 - Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, 28 July 1917), with whom he had six children:
- Prince and Count Nikita Pavlovich Demidov (17 March 1872 - 25 March 1874)
- Princess and Countess Aurora Pavlovna Demidova (Kiev, 2 November 1873 - Bussolino Torinese, Torino, 16 June 1904), mother of Prince Paul of YugoslaviaPrince Paul of YugoslaviaPrince Paul of Yugoslavia, also known as Paul Karađorđević , was Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the minority of King Peter II. Peter was the eldest son of his first cousin Alexander I...
- Anatoly Pavlovich Demidov, 4th Prince of San DonatoAnatoly Pavlovich Demidov, 4th Prince of San DonatoCount Anatoly Pavlovich Demidov, 4th Prince of San Donato of the Demidov industrial family, was the last Prince and member of his house...
(San Donato 12/31 Nov 1874-Marseille 27 Oct 1943) - Princess and Countess Maria Pavlovna Demidova (KievKievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, 3 February 1877 - Pratolino, 25 July 1955), married in Helsingfors (now HelsinkiHelsinkiHelsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
), 30 April (OS) / 13 May 1897 Prince Semen Semenovich Abamelik-Lazarev (Saint Petersburg, 7 October 1857 - Narsan, CaucasusCaucasusThe Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, 1 September 1916) - Prince and Count Pavel Pavlovich Demidov (San Donato, 4 February 1879 - ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 30 April 1909), unmarried and without issue - Princess and Countess Elena Pavlovna Demidova (Saint Petersburg, 10 June 1884 - Florence, 4 April 1959), married firstly in Saint Petersburg on 29 January 1903 (divorced in 1907) Count Alexander Pavlovich ShuvalovShuvalovShuvalov is a Russian noble family which, although documented since the 16th century, rose to distinction during the reign of Empress Elizabeth and was elevated to counts on 5 September 1746.-Members of Shuvalov noble family:The notable Shuvalovs include:...
(Vartemiagui, 7 September 1881 - LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 13 August 1935) and married secondly in DresdenDresdenDresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
in June 1907 Nikolai Alexeievich Pavlov (TambovTambovTambov is a city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tsna and Studenets Rivers southeast of Moscow...
, 9 May 1866 - VanvesVanvesVanves is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe and the tenth in France -History:...
, 31 January 1934))
They decided San Donato was too full of memories of his first wife and so moved to Villa Pratolino (now known as Villa Demidoff). They ended up selling San Donato, and it was ceded on 5 November 1881 to Gastone Mestayer, with the gardens sold separately to Nemesio Papucci and Rosselli Del Turco. A large part of the enormous Demidov collection
Demidov collection
The Demidov collection was a collection of artworks gathered by the Russian industrialist Nikolay Demidov and considerably expanded by his second son Anatole. It was mainly on show at their Villa San Donato near Florence, in which a private museum of 14 rooms was devoted to them...
of artworks housed in 14 rooms at San Donato were thus dispersed in several sales and memorable public auctions, even the works gathered in the "musée napoléonien" created on Elba
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
by his uncle Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato and the souvenirs that had (mostly) been ceded to Anatole by his father-in-law Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, French Prince, King of Westphalia, 1st Prince of Montfort was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him king of Westphalia...
.
Owning hundreds of factories in Russia, millions of square kilometres of land and palaces in Russia, France and Italy, Pavel was considered as one of the richest men in Europe. He developed the family fortunes and inherited Anatole's title of Prince of San Donato after the latter's death without legitimate issue in 1870 (with the title recognised by king Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
Victor Emanuel II was king of Sardinia from 1849 and, on 17 March 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878...
two years later). He served with the Red Cross rather than the Russian military forces during the Russo-Turkish War and in 1883 he published the pro-Jewish ""The Jewish Question in Russia".
External links
- Jewish Encyclopaedia
- http://jssgallery.org/Essay/Italy/Demidoff/Demidoff_2nd.htm
- Princely House Demidov de San Donato