Austrian Councillor of Commerce Karl von Zinzendorf’s Stay in Moscow (Based on His Diary of 1774)

• Main Author: Éva Ring-Ághné
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cherepovets State University 2019-06-01
• Series: Historia provinciae: журнал региональной истории
• Subjects: austrian councillor of commerce; journey; post relay; carriage; border; city; russian bathhouse; palace; inn; aristocracy; merchant and banker; war; peace; kremlin; moscow orphanage; cathedral; bell; summer residence
• Online Access: http://en.hpchsu.ru/archived-issues/the-journal-of-regional-history-v-3-no-2/austrian-councillor-of-commerce-karl-von-zinzendorf-s-stay-in-moscow-based-on-his-diary-of-1774/

After a number of longer European journeys, Count Karl von Zinzendorf, the councillor of commerce of the Vienna court, visited Moscow in 1774. He was accompanied by the Portuguese Duke Don Juan de Braganza. Between August 6 and 11, 1774, they stayed in German Quarter (Nemetskaya Sloboda), at the place of a wine merchant called Louis. In Moscow the travellers met the leading politicians of the Russian Empire: Prince Mikhail Volkonsky, Count Fedor Ostermann, and Count Petr Sheremetev. They witnessed the moment when Count Nikolay Repnin and Count Semen Vorontsov brought the signed peace treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji directly from the battlefield. They visited the Moscow Orphanage and the bookstore of Rüdiger and Weber, saw a traditional wedding ceremony in a Greek Orthodox church, visited Kuskovo Estate, a summer residence of Count Sheremetev at that time, attended a Russian bathhouse, and made shopping in Kitay-Gorod.