Riddles of the count de Botello

Kobrin → Creativity of fellow countrymen → Marchuk Nina Grigoryevna

In the western part of Argentina there is a wine-making province in which center there is a city Mendoza. In 1540-1592 the viceroy Diego de Mendoza and his daughter Ana de Mendoza are mentioned in the South American Peru. It is for certain known that roots of this foreign surname are in Portugal, and for the first time it is mentioned in the Russian Empire at the time of Catherine II. Someone from men with this surname was the captain of fortress in which the family of the rebel Yemelyan Pugachyov was for life provided: his lawful spouse with the daughter and the son and the second wife is "queen Ustinya". At the Russian imperial yard in 185 years two pages with a surname of Mendoz de Botello are mentioned. However about everything one after another.

Suvorov heritage

On August 18, 1795, after the third section of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian autocratrix Catherine II "for special merits before the Fatherland" with the stroke of the pen gave the earth of royal manors of Stanislav Augustus Ponyatovsky Kobrin the Key with 6922 man's souls to the commander A.V. Suvorov to lifelong possession. But having twice managed to visit the possession, A.V. Suvorov in 1800 dies, and his spouse Varvara Ivanovna and the son Arkady who did not complicate themselves visits to Kobrin district become successors. After death of the mother Arkady in 1808 began to sell these lands. The owner our Glinyanok and Cherevachits becomes the Brest marshalok Jan Nemtsevich (1762-1831) . By the way, in Cherevatsitsakh he built the big and beautiful farmstead house which is imprinted in Napoleon Orda's drawings, but in nature did not remain. "Province" was bought then by somebody Leonard Zelinsky. This is his descendant with the gun in hands will meet on the estate (nowadays park of A.V. Suvorov) fascists on September 16, 1939 and will die after the first shot. Lands near the city will be bought by Alexander Mickiewicz, professor, the brother of the famous poet Adam Mickiewicz. The village of Grushevo with adjacent lands will be bought by the father of the Polish writer Maria Radzevich. The part of lands will be bought by the major Gelvig, and then this earth will be resold by his relatives to Shabelskiye.

Owners of Zalesya

According to data from National historical archive of Belarus in Grodno, on April 22, 1814 lands of the village of Zalesye with 89 souls of male peasants for 5340 rubles were bought by the collegiate adviser Pyotr Przhenets. The same source contains information that in 1816 Zalesye and Zakrosnits's manor with 164 souls of male serfs belonged to Anella Przhenets (perhaps, the widow of the collegiate adviser of Pyotr Przhents). On records of 1845, Zalesye's manor with the settlements of Zakrosnitsa and Selets with 127 souls of serfs Anastasia Petrovna Przhenets at that time owned, and her brother Fyodor possessed 7 souls of domestic and 155 serfs. One more record from archive of January 9, 1861 eloquently reports that the part of a manor of Zalesye is rewritten addressed to Aleksandra Aleksandrovny Mendoza by de Botello, the count's daughters, that which coffin with a body is based in a crypt upon an old cemetery of Kobrin near a church. Date of death – on March 11, 1905.



Who is he, mysterious Mendoza de Botello

In the Russian state historical archive there are data on what in 1794 (times of government of Catherine II) the native of the Portuguese noblemen de Botello count Osip (Iosif) Stepanovich Mendoza serving we plow at court of the empress, was appointed to military service. It is obviously about the father of our zalessky count. The same source reports that in 1825 on military service the page of the emperor Alexander I by the name of Alexander Iosifovich Mendoza was defined by de Botello. And it any more not who other, as the zalessky count. I find two lines about the person whose life is so mysteriously connected with Kobrin district in one of Internet sources: "Columns A.I. Mendoza de Botello from 1843 to 1847 was a governor of a town in of Oshmyana. He was married to Anastasia Przhenets. The son Konstantin was born in Oshmyanakh in 1847 in a family of the count".
Follows from the above that de Botello count Alexander Iosifovich Mendoza after 1847 moves to a manor of the wife, to Zalesye of the Kobrin County where he lives, apparently, up to the most death in 1877.

An eye on a tomb of the count

And now we will return on a zalessky cemetery, to the count's gravestone. Except greatness and monumentalism, the gravestone is interesting also that on it directly under a cross the sign known as a symbol of masons – the eye concluded in a triangle is represented. It is thought, this image is not casual. Whether Alexander Iosifovich belonged to secret order of "free bricklayers"? If everything was quite so, then this fact clears up a lot of things.

Masons are adherents of the religious and ethical movement which arose in the 18th century in England and gained distribution worldwide. In the Russian Empire there were fourteen so-called Masonic lodges which united in themselves more than 400 people and worked up to 1917 while the Masonic movement was not strictly forbidden by the Soviet power. Masons saw the purpose creation of world association of mankind, were rather religious, and professed those religious views with which came to a box, and special attention from their party to questions of religion and belief was only welcomed. The Masonic movement was involved in broad charity. From here and "church" which was funded by the foreigner": perhaps, Masonic views pushed the count de Botello to allocate funds for construction of church near which he found eternal rest subsequently.

Today any of us can see a Masonic symbol – the truncated pyramid above which there is an eye in a triangle, the so-called "eye of Omniscience" symbolizing itself an eye of ubiquitous God – on a banknote of the USA of 1 dollar. "Eye of Omniscience", same as on a gravestone of the count de Botello, is on a banknote of Nicaragua, the Estonian krone and the Ukrainian banknote of 500 hryvnias.

The track is lost

According to data from National archive of Grodno, in 1905 Zalesye's manor did not belong to none of mysterious family of Mendoz de Botello any more. Today any of old residents does not know where there was a count house. There are assumptions that it could sgoyet in World War I. And there was it, apparently, where today there is a school. The people said that to collective farm there were several houses which owners were called by "domestic". If someone from readers has information on this family, let will share it with readers and will shed light on destiny of the count with an exotic Portuguese surname.

Kobrin-Inform newspaper, on May 28, 2015.

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