How did a piece of Italy end up near Russia’s Nizhny Tagil?
"Next stop is San Donato!" It feels like you're somewhere in Italy, but, from the window, you see a typical Ural landscape. But, there's no mistaking it: there really is such a station in the suburbs of Nizhny Tagil!
Nikolai Demidov, former Russian envoy to the Principality of Tuscany and owner of numerous Ural iron and copper smelters, purchased land near Florence from Catholic monks in 1827. Construction of a villa began on the land and was completed under the watch of Demidov's son, Anatoly.
In 1840, Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, granted the owner of this magnificent estate the title of ‘Prince of San Donato’. It was his wedding gift to Anatoly Demidov and Matilda Bonaparte.
It soon became clear that he could only be called a prince in Italy. Emperor Nicholas I, upon learning of the new title, grimaced: "We have enough princes of our own!" The situation changed, however, under Alexander II. By then, San Donato in Italy had been inherited by Pavel Demidov.
The emperor permitted the use of the title in Russia, but the laws of the time required that there be a holding with that name in the country. So, in 1878, ‘San Donato Station’ opened on the Ural Mining Railway, connecting the Mednorudyansky and Vysokogorsky mines, as well as the Nizhny Tagil and Vyisky plants. The nearby village was also renamed San Donato.
After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, it was renamed the ‘Third International Mine’, but the station itself has retained its name to this day.
