The Barclay de Tolly Mausoleum is near the village of Jõgeveste, about 6km from Tõrva. It commemorates one of the most famous Russian commanders who fought Napoleon in 1812 and 1813 and who culminated his triumph with a march through Paris in March 1814. His family was partially of Scottish extraction but from the 17th century had lived in what is now Latvia and Lithuania. Following the Russian conquest of Finland in 1809, he was the first governor-general there until 1812. Jõgeveste was the estate of his wife's family and his body was brought back there after his death in East Prussia in 1818. The mausoleum was completed in 1823 on the instructions of de Tolly's wife Eleanor von Smitten. She commissioned Apollon Shchedrin, a leading St Petersburg architect, to design it and its structure has remained intact since then, although the two coffins were opened during World War II. The exterior design suggests parallels to a Roman triumphal arch, the interior to a chapel with an altar recess where the bust of de Tolly is placed. The statue on the right is of Athena, the Greek goddess of war, and on the left the statue of a sitting woman represents the symbol of mourning. Outside are the tombs of de Tolly's son and daughter-in-law and a Soviet memorial to soldiers killed in the 1944 invasion of Estonia.
In Jõgeveste, on the land which belonged to his family, Barclay de Tolly
(1761-1818), the famous Russian general whose origin goes back to Scotland,
had a mausoleum built for his wife and himself. The building was
constructed at the request of Barclay de Tolly’s wife in 1823 in the classicistic
style (architect A. Shchedrin). An alley of Siberian firs takes you to
the mausoleum, the family’s coat of arms and device “Faith and Passion” are
placed above the door of the mausoleum. The bronze relief on the monument
features one of the most famous events in the life of Barclay de Tolly
– the capture of Paris in 1814 for which he was conferred the rank of Field Marshal and the prince’s title. The monument in the mausoleum is by Vassili
Demut-Malinovsky. After the wars the prince settled down in Jõgeveste. In
1818, Barclay de Tolly decided to travel to Germany to improve his health
but died during the trip. The corpse was embalmed and brought back to
home. Magnus, the only son of the Tollys, has been buried with his wife near
the mausoleum.
