The Architectural and Spatial Organization of the Country Estate Complexes of the Kursk Region from the XVIII to the First Half of the XIX Centuries

The study is based on the discovered archival and printed sources and the author’s field researches, which enable to more reasonably reconstruct the image structure of the lost nobility and merchants estates in the field of the reconstruction of their architectural and spatial organization in the border region of Russia. The basis of the research is the study of the topography and physical-geographical types of terrain characteristic of the Kursk region. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the author's expeditions aimed at identification of the signs of existence and a full-scale examination of a number of preserved manor complexes, which previously did not attract the proper attention of researchers. The identification of archival and printed sources that allow to more reasonably reconstruct the image and the material structure of the lost elements of nobility and merchants estates is of particular importance. The special significance of the complex research work is due to the opportunity to fill the gaps in the study of important pages in the history of national and regional Russian culture, which affected the formation of regional features of construction techniques and the images of architectural ensembles of the estates of the Kursk region. Keywords—Kursk region (guberniya, governorate); landscape; topography; relief; estates; composition; planning; gardens; parks; ponds; manor houses; churches; construction;