Nicolas Demidoff

The count Nikolay ( Nicolas ) Nikitich Demidoff is an industrialist and Russian patron born the November 9th 1773 and died in Florence (Italy) the April 22nd 1828.

Biography

Wire of Nikita Akinfievitch Demidoff (1724-1786) and of his third wife Alexandra Safonova, Nicolas Demidoff inherited at fifteen years the industrial empire his father. He started to spend in a way so ill-considered that the Government had to provide it curators.

In September 1795, it married the baroness Elisabeth Alexandrovna Stroganoff (1779 - 1818) of which it had two wire: Pavel (Paul) (1798 - 1840) and Anatoly (Anatole) (1812 - 1869), created in 1840 Prince de San Donato.

Nicolas Demidoff entered the diplomacy and the young couple settled in Paris where both supported Napoleon i ardently. They place then in the hotel of Brancas-Lauragais, with the angle of the Rue Taitbout and the Boulevard of the Italians. But the rise of the tensions between France and Russia involved the recall of Nicolas who returned to Russia in 1812 and settled with Moscow. It was distinguished during the Russo-Turkish war (1806 - 1812).

After the beginning of the Countryside of Russia, Nicolas Demidoff financed the creation of a regiment of infantry of which it took the command. In 1813, it made gift with the mineralogical museum of Moscow of important collections to replace those which had been lost in the fire of the Russian metropolis and also gave to the University of Moscow of important collections of Article It also financed the construction of four bridges with Saint-Pétersbourg.

With the age, Nicolas Demidoff became him also an advised industrialist. He modernized the technical infrastructure of his factories and doubled his fortune. He equipped his fatherland with several industries, there created establishments of public utility, improved the exploitation of the mines, and was made by his industry an income which rose has 5 million. It is him which acclimatized in the Crimea the vines of Bordeaux and Champagne, as well as the Olivier de Lucques.

Nicolas Demidoff was chamberlain of the tsar, commander of the Ordre of Midsummer's Day of Jerusalem and member of the private council. In 1819, it was named ambassador of Russia attached to the court of Toscane.

It spent its last years in France and Italy, alive in the company of the scientists and spreading around him innumerable benefits.

It bought with the Catholic church 42 hectares marshy grounds in the north of Florence where it made build a palate, the Villa San Donato. It also financed the creation of schools, hospital and other institutions charitable in Tuscany. In San Donato, it created a theater, an academy of foreign languages. The villa itself included/understood, in addition to richly furnished private apartments, a private museum including/understanding fourteen rooms.

Between its residences of Paris, Moscow, Saint-Pétersbourg and San Donato, the collection of art of Nicolas Demidoff was famous the most important private collection of Europe at its time. It collected the Flemish and Italian Masters and decorative arts, and joins together a famous collection of weapons, today with the Wallace Collection with London. Its collection of Greek and Roman statues is with the Musée of the Hermitage in Saint-Pétersbourg.

By decree of February 23rd 1827, the large-duke Léopold II of Tuscany did it “count de San Donato”, for services rendered to the Toscane by the creation of a manufacture of soiries.

In Florence, a monument by Lorenzo Bartolini located on Piazza Demidoff on the edges of Arno, continuous to point out the memory of Nicolas Demidoff.

Internal bond

Family Demidoff

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