News

Visit of a descendant of the founder of the city of Stavropol

16 July 2021

13-15 July, Mr. Pierre Gestkoff, French landscape architect and a descendant of the founder of the city of Stavropol, arrived in Togliatti on a friendly and cultural visit.

Pierre visited the Book History Room of the Library of Community Center AVTOGRAD, which houses a large collection of books from his family library. After a tour of the library, Mr. Gestkoff signed for the friends' album of the Autograd cultural and community center, thereby continuing the tradition of his father and grandfather.

The friendship between the Library of the Autograd community center and the Gestkoff family began in 2000. Nikolai Vladimirovich Gestkoff arrived in Togliatti and, having got acquainted with the library, offered to accept his family collection of books. In 2004, the first 1,000 books were transferred to the Togliatti library. The editions that are in the library are very rare, some of the books were replicated in no more than 500 copies. All books in the family collection are unique copies that have been published in foreign editions in Russian. Among them are the printing houses of France, Italy, Germany and other countries. Today the collection in the library of the cultural center "Autograd" has over 2,000 items.

The visit was supported by Alliance Franaise Togliatti.