Sivershchyna Travel Guide

In the eastern suburbs of Kozelets, on the road towards Danika St. George monastery there is the former estate called Pokorschyna. They say that it got such a name, in memory of the event when Russian Empress Elizabeth “obeyed, resigned herself to (pokora)” fellow shepherd Alexei Rozum. The manor was owned by his sister Vira who by sheer luck being a simple Cossack girl got married to the Colonel of Kozelets Daragan. According to another version on the estate territory Empress Elizabeth obeyed her future mother-in-law Natalya Rozumykha, the mother of Alexei.

A small, cozy one-story wooden estate house was built in the second half of the 18 century, plastered and whitewashed. A hip roof was covered with iron plates and had two flues. In the early 19 th century the house was decorated in the spirit of classical style with porticos under triangular pediments with customary semi-circular window in the tympan.

It was good for an unknown architect to make use of the Tuscan order for the sake of practicality . The columns were made of carefully hewn and whitewashed lime logs. Wooden window frames were decorated with circles and rhombuses according to local tradition, which probably goes back to pagan times,

The interior of the house was decorated with wall paintings of the artist Stetsenko, wallpapers, wonderful furniture and tiled stoves. The plot, as a rule, repeated: family coat of arms, the great men in wigs, the characters in caftans and representatives of the clergy.

There is an alley that leads to the house, Previously on each sides of it there were two one-storey wooden outbuildings. (preserved only one). To the left of the main entrance there is preserved a wooden carriage house decorated with carved patterns . They say that Empress Elizabeth Fedorivna left there her carriage when she visited estate to pay homage to her future mother-in-law, She walked along the alley from the gate to the porch of the estate, where mother of Alexei Rozumovsky was waiting for her.

To the east of the estate house there is an utility room made of brick called Kamenitsa.

Next to the manor and a high-water bed with its picturesque meadows stretches a neglected park.
The ensemble is one of the oldest samples of manor houses and wooden architecture of Chernihiv region which unfortunately requires urgent restoration.