November 7th, 2014, 05:57 pm
On my route "Dear evil spirits", based on the work of Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", I often had to deal with the guards of Moscow houses and streets in the form of sculptures of lions, as well as griffins, gargoyles and other mystical animals.
Therefore, the presence of lion guards and the presence of dark spirits and devils on the streets of Moscow will continue my mystical theme.
Drawing up a map of the lion's places, and visiting them, will perfectly complement the image of mystical Moscow, and as the people say - It's better to see once than hear a hundred times ...
The largest lions in Moscow appeared in 2005, at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. And again, the author of the current sculptural composition was A. Rukavishnikov (the architect Igor Voskresensky and the artist Sergei Sharov also participated). The composition in unity with the Monument to Tsar Alexander 2 looks very enchanting ...
This is a rare, natural replica of Lviv and the only place where you can hold the Lion by the open mouth. 
After seeing the bronze lions, I turn to the topic.
When visiting the habitats of sculpted Lions, I draw your attention to the fact that they are often located opposite each other, protecting their possessions and squeezing the evil spirits away further ...
- Part one
* Metro Mayakovskaya, there is clearly not enough lions in the Aquarium garden, but apparently the place is taken, so here we have a "devil-satyr" and a mascaron of evil spirits "jellyfish-gargon". The aura of this place, as you know, is not very friendly and tries to drive uninvited guests back to the Garden Ring.
Along Sadovoy we pass a house with a bad apartment number 50, the Unclean Force continues to live there, and a huge black cat runs from the entrance to the entrance, the lions cannot break through here either ...
We go to Patriarch's Ponds(formerly Goat-Devil's swamp), and we see the first huge lions along the route, they lay down on the high ramps of the arch of the general's house. Their gazes are fixed on all people passing along the line of the Patriarchs. The left lion is resting but focused and ready to jump, but it's time for the right lion to powder the nose of the restorers to the beautician.
Opposite their lion's gaze to the Patriarch's Ponds, there is another Lion. The fabulist Ivan, not Homeless, but Krylov. He collapsed like the King of Beasts, his chest plowed like a lion's mane, all so important and unshakable. And what is interesting in the Summer Garden of St. Petersburg, the Krylov sculpture has lions, and here, on the Patriarch's, the composition itself is the Lion.
Skirting the Goat Swamp, we go out onto Spiridonovka Street to house 17, this is the “Ghost House”, the mansion of Savva Morozov, with gargoyles and lions on the balconies. There is even a lattice of the fence, crowned with images of a gargoyle's head, now the reception of the Foreign Ministry is located in the mansion, for meetings with foreigners, but at night the "Ghost" of the suicidal owner Sawa wanders around.
Moving along the winding street Spiridonovka, we stop at the furious left, which tears the Dragon to pieces. The history of the owner of this house is also quite mystical, during the years of the revolution he simply disappeared ... and the ownership passed to the Bolsheviks ...
Today, this is the mansion of the Greek Embassy, looking for lions in the opposite direction. House number 9, here, too, on the facade there are mascarons driving away lions, this is a small two storey house built before the revolution.
After passing Spiridonovka, we turn to Knife, Skaterny, Bread and Povarskaya.
At metro Rzhevskoye, pay attention to the Embassy of Georgia, 6, this is a house with bats, mermaids and lions. This building in the Art Nouveau style (built in 1902 by the architect S.U. Soloviev) has a mystical history to the novel by M. Bulgakov "MM", as a mansion where Margarita could live, who agreed to become the Queen of Darkness ...
Nearby, turning to Khlebnikov d.15, we see the Gribov Estate, the owner hastily left the possession of the Leninists, during the revolution ... Now here is the Residence of Belgium. These are very "necessary" lions in Moscow, they are importantly dangling their paws, guarding the den of foreigners.
in the park there is a sculpture of Leo Tolstoy, reminiscent of Leo tired from the road ...
well, Gorky at the house of writers, is also important and proud, but not Lev. 
Further in the Mendovsky mansion on Povarskaya in 1903-1904 there were two mansions, both designed by Lev Kekushev. They were bought by the wealthy manufacturer Ivan Mindovsky ... Now the house number 44 is occupied by the Embassy of New Zealand. Above the semicircle of the cornice, there used to be a statue of a stranger and on the right, on the Gothic turret, there was a lion's head, there are also lions inside the house.
On the other side of Povarskaya Street, lions meet at the House of Justice and at the house of I. Bunin.
On Povarskaya, there is also the German Embassy, and here along the cornice and above the doors there are also mascarons of lions.
Moving along Rzhevskoe we go out to Malaya Molchanovka, here is the famous all over Moscow, the historic "House with Lions". These are three-meter large Lions, similar to the Belfort lion in Paris, Grizzly bear lions, they look huge and strong. There are only 17 apartments in this house, and according to the Internet, the daughter of I. Kabzon periodically lives in mulberries.
At the end of the first part, we move from Novy Arbat to Old, where a brutal promenade has already been organized, like Okudzhava's "I am evicted from Arbat, Arbat emigrant" ... / see. continuation /
Walking by the Patriarch's Ponds, a magnificent mansion at the address Ermolaevsky lane, 9... One gets the impression that it clearly had to be built in the century, that way, XVIII-XIX. In extreme cases, at the beginning of the 20th century.
You come to such conclusions, examining the entrance gate with monumental pylons, on which the formidable guards of the city estate - African lions - seem to have perched.
And right before your eyes there are luxurious carriages, a wealthy audience, small talk in the state halls ...
Photo 1. Ermolaevsky lane, 9 in the city of Moscow
The history of the "General's House" or "House with Lions"
Everything turns out to be more prosaic. In fact, this splendor was rebuilt in last years World War II - for the period from 1944 to 1945 (according to other sources - it began to be built in 1939 and finished in 1946).
The history of the construction of the "house with lions" at the Patriarch's Ponds in Ermolaevsky lane, 9 began with the wish of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin to express his gratitude to the country's top generals for serving the Motherland in the terrible war years and to settle them in the center of the capital in a luxurious, classicism style, mansion ...
The little-known specialists from the architectural bureau of Ivan Vladislavovich Zholtovsky - Mikhail Mikhailovich Dzisko and Nikolai Ivanovich Gaigarov - were entrusted with supervising the construction work. The idea of such an unusual embodiment of the wishes of the leader belongs to their leader.
It is believed that a pre-revolutionary city mansion, which stood not far from this place, was taken as the basis for the architectural project. True, the new building received more decor and, accordingly, looked more pompous and original.
The same applies to the layout of the General's House.
Apartments, the total number of which in a three-story building is only six, are considered luxurious even for our time: 12 rooms, a huge hall, an obligatory living room and an entrance hall, rooms for an office and a nursery, bedrooms and rooms for household needs.
During the Khrushchev era, when the USSR began to struggle with the so-called architectural excesses, house No. 9 in Ermolaevsky lane was one of the targets of attacks and an example of "how not to build."
The history of the house is connected with the names of General of the Army Mikhail Sergeevich Malinin, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Konstantin Andreevich Vershinin, Colonel-General of the Medical Service Efim Ivanovich Smirnov, Minister of Defense of the USSR Andrei Antonovich Grechko, as well as the spouses - conductor Algis Marcelovich Zhyuraytisalena and opera diva Yeraitisalena and opera diva Efim Ivanovich Smirnov who lived here.
Walking around the Patriarch's Ponds, it is impossible not to notice a luxurious house (Ermolaevsky lane, 9) in a classic style, with lions and majestic columns and a portico. This house in Moscow is often called the “House with Lions”. And if you do not go into reference books on Moscow, then everyone is sure that this house is old and was built no later than the beginning of the 19th century.
However, it is not! This magnificent house was built in the middle of the 20th century as a residential building of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR on the idea of the famous architect Ivan Vladislavovich Zholtovsky. He was very fond of classical architecture and especially the early form of classicism, which grew out of the ideas of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio. The architect said: “Harmony is what underlies all forms of art throughout human history. True, she is always personified in specific stylistic forms. But style is a transitory phenomenon, and each style is only a variation on the only theme that human culture lives on, on the theme of harmony. " By the way, Ermolaevsky Lane was Zholtovsky Street from 1961 to 1994.
The construction of the house began in 1939 and the plans for the house were called "Residential House of the Higher Commanding Staff". After the war, in 1946, the house was finally completed and received high-ranking residents. The authors of the house project were architects Nikolai Ivanovich Gaigarov and M.M. Dzisko. It was no coincidence that they got the design of the house, N.I. Gaigarov was the chief architect of the Military Project, M.M. Dzisko also worked in this department and subsequently built a residential building of the Ministry of Defense on Petrovsko-Razumovskaya alley (house 16 or "house with balls"). Most likely, strategic underground structures were designed under the house, which was usually practiced to be erected under such houses.
There are only 6 apartments in this house. Each apartment roughly consists of an entrance, a hall, a living room, an office, a toilet room, a corridor, a nursery, a bedroom, a dining room, an anteroom in front of the kitchen and the kitchen itself, a housekeeper's room, a pantry, a toilet, etc. The area of the apartments is approximately 200 square meters each one. Once in the 1980s I happened to visit the apartment of General of the Army Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Sergeevich Malinin on the 1st floor of this house. My sister was friends with the Marshal's granddaughter, and I brought my sister to her birthday. I was greeted politely, offered to undress and were escorted through all the enfilades of rooms. It seemed to me that I literally walked around the house among all these amazing rooms with elegant furniture, a grand piano and paintings on the walls.
In other apartments lived: Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force and Chief Marshal of Aviation of the USSR Konstantin Andreyevich Vershinin, General of the Army Ivan Yegorovich Shavrov, Colonel General of the Medical Service Yefim Ivanovich Smirnov, Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal Andrey Antonovich Grechko. Until 1998, the conductor of the Bolshoi Theater Algis Marcelovich Zhyuraitis lived here, and until recently his wife, the famous opera singer, People's Artist of the USSR, Elena Vasilievna Obraztsova. Bystanders used to often hear the singer and the sounds of the piano. It is strange that there is not a single memorial plaque on this house.
Stunning sculptural images of lions were made by the sculptor V.A. Lviv! There is a version that the lions were dedicated to Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev, whom he built the most monumental buildings for the military. The bas-reliefs were worked on by L.A. Kardinsky, stucco work was done by D.M. Nikulin, the painting on the plafonds was done by the artists Lev Alexandrovich Bruni, Vladimir Andreevich Favorsky, Georgy Alexandrovich Echeistov, S.S. Prusov and Dora Volkovna Brodskaya (wife of the architect of the house N.I. Gaigarov).
Walking near the Patriarch's Ponds, be sure to consider this amazing house, and then sit on a bench near the pond and look at two white swans brought here from the Moscow zoo in early spring, and taken away only in late autumn. Date of publication - 23.11.2015
"House with Lions", Ermolaevsky lane, house 9.
The first name of the house at the beginning of construction in 1939-1940 was "Dwelling house of the Higher Commanding Staff", and the new name "dwelling house of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR" appears. Dzisko and Nikolai Ivanovich Gaigarov. Full name M.M. Dzisko did not find, only initials. And this, by the way, is a revealed object cultural heritage... M.L. Kaganovich, N.A. Skarzhinskaya and engineer M.A. Lavrov. It is believed that the project was supervised by Ivan Vladislavovich Zholtovsky.
By the way, Ermolaevsky Lane from 1961 to 1994 was called Zholtovsky Street.
This is what Sergei Konstantinovich Romanyuk writes in his book From the History of Moscow Lanes. Perhaps the most notable building from the surrounding pond is house number 9, about which the famous architect F. Novikov said that this is "a manifestation of false monumentality, genuine philistinism in architecture." From afar, it stands out beyond measure with large columns and lions, which in the last century adorned almost every estate, noble one or the one that wanted to seem like it. However, this house was not built in the last century, but in 1944-1945 for the generals. The apartments there consisted of the following rooms: an anteroom, a hall, a living room, an office, a toilet, a corridor, a nursery, a bedroom, a dining room, an anteroom in front of a kitchen, a housekeeper's room, a kitchen, a pantry, and a closet.
The house has six apartments with an average area of about 200 square meters each. I would also like to know a complete list of the first tenants of these apartments Here are those whom we managed to find out about: Konstantin Andreevich Vershinin - Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force and Chief Marshal of the USSR Aviation, Algis Marcelovich Zhyuraitis - conductor of the Bolshoi Theater, Elena Vasilievna Obraztsova - mezzo-soprano and People's Artist, Mikhail Sergeevich Malinin - General of the Army, his wife Nadezhda Grigorievna Grekova is a political and statesman of the BSSR, Ivan Yegorovich Shavrov is an army general.
The sculptures were made by V.A. Lvov (amazing - Lvov made Lvov), L.A. Kardinsky, stucco works by D.M. Nikulin. The painting on the plafonds was done by the artists Lev Alexandrovich Bruni, Vladimir Andreevich Favorsky, Georgy Alexandrovich Echeistov, Dora Volkovna Brodskaya, S.S. Prusov.
Dora Volkovna Brodskaya was the wife of Nikolai Ivanovich Gaigarov since her studies at the graphic faculty of VKHUTEMAS, and this is 1927-1928.
In the magazine "Our Heritage" in numbers 43-44 for 1997, issued for the 850th anniversary of Moscow, there is an article by Yuri Nikolayevich Gaigarov "Double portrait against the background of the city", which tells ... about two unusually talented people who studied, lived and worked in Moscow and in many ways devoted their work to their beloved city, the artist Dora Brodskaya and the architect Nikolai Gaigarov. A touching story.
Writer Vladimir Alexandrovich Potresov left curious memories of this pair in the book "Stories of the Old Arbat" ...is he(Gaigarov) then he was the chief architect of the Military Project - he received an impossibly luxurious three-room apartment in the house designed by him for the senior command personnel on the Smolenskaya embankment(we are talking about house 5/13 on the Smolenskaya embankment, a residential building for the general's staff). The project for the development of the Smolenskaya embankment was developed in 1955 by architects B.G.Barkhin, M.M.Lerman and N.I. Gaigarov.
Nikolai Ivanovich Gaigarov graduated from the Higher Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering in 1931. Gaigarov co-built the CSKA swimming pool in Moscow in 1955 and the building of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in 1965. Nikolai Ivanovich in 1964 became an Honored Architect of the RSFSR.
He gathered some interesting information from an interview with Marusya Gorina with architect Yevgeny Viktorovich Ass. ... and here is this gate, which is with lions. These lions, in fact, were dedicated to Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev, at least from the architects, the authors of this house, whom I knew personally, Mikhail Ivanovich Dzyazko and Nikolai Ivanovich Gaigarov: they claimed that they had installed these lions to perpetuate the memory of Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev.
But everywhere the initials of Dzisko M.M. and here is Mikhail Ivanovich. And the spelling of the surname differs between Dzisko and Dzyazko. Unfortunately, Marusya Gorina has a number of inaccuracies, for example ... well-known military leaders lived in our house - Shtymenko, Malinin, Grechko. I don’t know Shtymenko, and no one knows him, everyone knows General of the Army Sergei Matveyevich Shtemenko, during the war the chief of the Operations Directorate of the General Staff. And Sergei Matveyevich never lived in a house with lions, but lived in a house, which in my photograph is in his rear, in a gray one, facing Sadovoe. There is also a memorial plaque.
P.S. Somewhat later
“Where are the castles in Moscow from? - you ask. "When they were born they weren't here, our architecture is not the same." This is partly true, there are probably no castles in Moscow. And what we examined as part of the walking tour only vaguely resembled typical medieval castles. Rather, they are successful stylizations, mansions with architectural elements characteristic of castles. No deep ditches, stone impregnable walls and crossbow guards on the towers. Some shooter-psychopath, however, still found. He cursed loudly, was rude and promised to shoot us to hell if we, dispersed here, did not leave the porch of his not quite modest dwelling. But about him, the psychopath, later. And now ... the castles.
Profitable house A.I. Sinitsyna in Blagoveshchensky lane
Blagoveshchensky lane, house 3. The profitable house of the merchant A.I. Sinitsyn, the owner of the cloth factory in Shchelkovo and the company “Sinitsyn A.I. with son". The house was built in 1909 by the architect S.M. Goncharov in the style of German Gothic. The forms of the building are close to those of the "Gothic" apartment buildings built in Germany in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, already touched by a new style - Art Nouveau, or Art Nouveau, as it was called in Germany. There are many Gothic elements in the Sinitsyn apartment building: a triangular attic in the center of the facade, thin corner hipped turrets (one of them was lost during the extension of a neighboring house), pointed arches-niches, Gothic ornaments, etc. The structure of the facade is also inspired by the Gothic: decorative vertical posts, the gaps between which are filled brickwork, spacers between the uprights. These means of plastic solution of the facade and decorative design visually stretch the building, direct it upward, enhancing the similarity of the house with its medieval prototypes.
Profitable house A.I. Sinitsyn. Facade
The color scheme of the facade is also interesting. The planes between the overhead plastered racks are faced with ceramic tiles: in the lower part of the house - with a monochromatic “hog”, and in the upper part - with three-color tiles, laid out in a checkered pattern on the facade and in the form of lilies on the bay windows. In the outline of the arches of the first and second floors, in the decoration of the bottom of the building, in the unusual combination of individual details of the exterior, the motives of Art Nouveau are guessed, which determined some of the disharmony of the building.
F.O. Shekhtel in Ermolaevsky lane
Ermolaevsky lane, house 28/15. The private mansion of the architect F.O. Shekhtel, built by him together with his student V.D. Adamovich in 1896.
Franz Osipovich Shekhtel was a truly outstanding architect, during his life he built about 60 buildings in Moscow, each of which is unique, expressive and distinctive, among the buildings to which the "light of Russian Art Nouveau" had a hand, Yaroslavsky Station, the Moscow Art Theater, the famous mansion Savva Morozov on Spiridonovka and many others. And among this variety of structures of the great architect there is one that he built not to order, but personally for himself and his family.
In 1896, Shekhtel, who at that time was 37 years old and who had already gained some material wealth by this time, having declared himself a number of unusual architectural projects, looked after a small piece of land for himself at the intersection of Trekhprudny and Ermolaevsky lanes, where once there was a temple of the holy martyr Ermolai, and decided to purchase it for the construction of his own house. Shekhtel demolished all the wooden buildings that were located on the plot he bought, and, according to his own design, erected a nice two-story brick mansion on it. By the time the construction of his own house began, the architect had already managed to amaze the public with the completed project of Morozov's mansion on Spiridonovka, the style of the so-called English Gothic embodied in it was reflected in the Shekhtel's project of his own house. However, the Shekhtel mansion, in addition to the Gothic features, also expresses the gradual appeal of its creator to the ideas of the style, which, after the construction of this house and a number of others, will soon be called Russian Art Nouveau.
He himself jokingly called the romantic miniature castle-mansion, built by Shekhtel, "a hut of obscene architecture, which the cabbies take either for a pickaxe or for a synagogue." The mansion building rises behind a stepped stone fence, distinguished by a round tower topped with a cone-shaped spire. The huge central window was once entwined with ivy, which clung to the ceramic tiles of the wall of the main facade and gave the building even more mystery and color. The massive hexagonal tower on the right also stands out, hinting even more at the Gothic castle prototypes; it contains the main entrance to the mansion. The main entrance is adorned with a superb, exquisite mosaic depicting three purple irises against a golden background - blossoming, blossoming and withering - symbolizing the three periods of existence.
Shekhtel lived in this castle-house for 14 years of his life, full of creative pursuits, family joys and sorrows. In 1910, the architect moved from here to his other house, located on Bolshaya Sadovaya, and the mansion in Ermolaevsky passed into the possession of the honorary citizen E.Ya. Dunaevskaya. After the 1917 revolution, the building of the mansion was given over to accommodate various institutions. Since 1944, the house was transferred to the Main Directorate for Servicing the Diplomatic Corps under the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and since then has been used to house diplomatic missions. Today the building houses the Embassy of the Republic of Uruguay.
"Volotsk houses" in Trekhprudny lane
Tryokhprudny lane, houses 11-13. Famous householders "Volotsk houses" with an impressive monumental corner tower that looks like a crown.
The construction of these tenement houses began in 1911 by order of Count Volotsky. The well-known architect E.-R.K. Nirnsee. Houses were built gradually, the first buildings were erected on a site located closer to Bolshoy Kozikhinsky lane, the second stage of buildings began in 1912 and is already located closer to Trekhprudny. The six-story "Volotsk Houses" grew in length slowly, allegedly the customer did not buy out land plots for building immediately, but as he accumulated funds, and the houses were gradually completed, from the entrance to the entrance, over the course of three years. That is why the building of the apartment building is so heterogeneous in composition, no entrance is similar to the others, and some apartments in it are even staggered, at the junction of the Kozikhinskaya and the three-pond parts of the house there is an entrance, the staircase of which, winding along its perimeter, unites apartments , the levels of which do not coincide on half a floor.
After the revolution, communal apartments were arranged in the apartment building, today almost all of them are settled, and mainly the composition housing stock has changed towards large elite apartments of completely different layouts and sizes, formed from the same purchased communal apartments. In the 1920s, according to rumors, there was a card den, which Mayakovsky and Yesenin often visited, in one of the apartments of a tenement building. And in Soviet time in the house lived the writer Lazar Lagin, the author of the famous fairy tale "Old Man Hotabych", he "settled" in his own house and the hero of his work - the boy Volka. Natalya Bonk, the author of the English textbook, famous throughout Russia, which, it seems, is familiar to everyone who has ever studied English, also lived in Volotskiye Domi. But the main "attraction" of these tenement houses in Soviet times was the liquor store, which daily gathered huge lines from all over the area from fans of alcoholic beverages.
Today, Volotsk Homes are popular with celebrities. They say that Nikita Mikhalkov bought an apartment here for his daughter Anna. Actress Tatyana Dogileva has been living in the house for quite some time with her husband. Also, the name of a famous hockey player, and now a sports official, Vyacheslav Fetisov, is associated with this address. Several years ago, Lyudmila Gurchenko and her husband, producer Sergei Senin, bought a three-room apartment in Volotskiye Domi, in this apartment she died in March 2011, and the actress's fans brought flowers to her entrance for a long time.
A.A. Skoropechatnya Levenson
Trekhprudny lane, house 9, building 1. Typographic castle - A.A. Levenson. The building of the printing house was built in 1900 according to the design of F.O. Shekhtel.
A.A. Levenson, one of the largest firms of that time engaged in the production of lithographic products, was founded in 1881 and first occupied a house in Rakhmanovsky Lane, which belonged to the founder of the firm, the famous Moscow doctor A.S. Levenson. The enterprise was actively developing, and by the end of the 19th century, the premises it occupied in the house in Rakhmanovsky lane became cramped, so the Partnership decided to purchase a plot of land in Trekhprudny lane for the construction of a new printing house. The owner of the company wanted to build a modern, well-equipped printing factory, equipped with the latest technology and built with modern architectural trends in mind. The firm announced a competition for project work a new building, which was won by the already well-known by that time architect Shekhtel, who presented a project of a surprisingly solid, graceful structure with ideal proportions, which combined the strict canons of Gothic architecture and the artistic expression of modernity. This amazing project was brought to life by him, executed with great taste. The customer really liked the newly built castle.
Tower of the typographic castle
The building of the print shop was built in the style of medieval European buildings, and its decorative decoration was made in the so-called "new style", which softened and shaded the gloom and severity of medieval architecture, so the building looks light and even somehow fabulously miniature, despite its solid sizes. The high hipped roof with peaks, light and beautiful lines of the silhouette of the building, moderation and at the same time, the originality of the decor make this mansion truly unique in its beauty a creation of architecture.
It is noteworthy that it was in this building of the printing house that the first poetry collections of Marina Tsvetaeva, who lived next door to the print shop, were printed.
In 1917, Levenson's printing house was acquired by Zemgor, after the revolution it was nationalized, on its basis the 16th state printing house of the Mospoligraf trust was formed, liquidated in 1942. Today, the print building houses the offices of commercial organizations.
Tryokhprudny Lane, 8. Residential building of the Tvorchestvo cooperative. The construction of the building began in 1926, but was not completed until the end, although the house was used as a residential building, in 1948 it was reconstructed and built on.
At this address, before the construction of a brick high-rise building, there was a small one-story wooden house ik, which belonged to the father of Marina Tsvetaeva, professor of Moscow University I.V. Tsvetaev, a famous historian, philologist, founder of the Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. His daughter Marina Tsvetaeva, a future poet, was born here in 1892 and lived in this house for almost 20 years, until her marriage. After the death of the owner in 1913, the wooden house of the Tsvetaevs was inherited by Tsvetaev's brother, Andrei, who during the First World War gave it to the needs of the hospital, and later, during the revolution, the house was demolished, and in 1926 a new one began to be built in its place. apartment house cooperative "Creativity".
Marina Tsvetaeva in her poems seemed to predict the fate of her home:
Houses with the sign of the breed,
With the look of her watchmen,
Freaks replaced you
Heavy, six floors ...
Residential building of the cooperative "Creativity"
The cooperative house was built according to the individual project of the architect M.E. Priemysheva. But for some reason, the work was suspended, the project was not finally completed, although the house was brought to an acceptable condition for habitation and moved in. The house consisted of many communal apartments... Most of them, by the way, have not yet been settled. Only in 1948 did the house take on the look that we can contemplate today. It was built on and reconstructed by the architect D.D. Bulgakov, who created a kind of hybrid of Baroque and medieval castle architecture. The rich, fashionable for those times décor of the house makes it something like an embellished fortress with lookout corner towers with swallow-nest balconies. True, the implementation of the reconstruction plan here turned out to be incomplete due to the difficulties of implementation - tenants for a while construction works not evicted. The façade of the house that faces Trekhprudny lane is the closest to the original project.
Savva Morozov's mansion on Spiridonovka
Spiridonovka street, house 17. Savva Morozov's mansion on Spiridonovka.
Built by Shekhtel in 1898 for the "uncrowned emperor of Russia" - the merchant Savva Morozov, a prominent businessman and philanthropist. Morozov, being himself rather unpretentious and even ascetic, ordered a luxurious mansion for his wife Zinaida, an extremely vain, ambitious and pretentious woman. Zinaida Grigorievna did not count her husband's money and led an exceptionally wasteful lifestyle, she realized her popularity in ways that were most understandable to the merchant environment: she lived luxuriously, lived on a grand scale and delightedly indulged in social pleasures. Savva Timofeevich, although he did not share her views, being passionately in love, turned a blind eye to the quirks of his wife and indulged all her whims. The construction of a mansion on Spiridonovka was one of the actions in Madame Morozova's exciting game of secularity, which many referred to as "the dance of millions." New house Morozovs was called upon to defeat the capital. And, perhaps, he succeeded.
The architect F.O. Shekhtel. It must be said that the Morozov family clan was one of the first to discern Shekhtel's outstanding talent. By the time the house was built on Spiridonovka, they already had to use the services of this architect. Earlier, Shekhtel developed for Savva a project of a wooden dacha in Kirzhach, and for his cousin Vikule he designed a manor house, a farm building and a stud farm on the Odintsovo-Arkhangelskoye estate. Shekhtel developed the plan and composition of the house on Spiridonovka in a couple of months. With his own hand, he drew about 600 drawings of the future building, including plans, sections, wall sweeps, facades, furniture, details, chandeliers. Working on the house as on a living, unified organism, Shekhtel strove to take into account every little detail and avoid accidental mistakes either in general or in details. The architect worked in alliance with the artist M.A. Vrubel, the latter was the author of the sculptural group "Robert and the Nuns" on the front staircase of the mansion, the stained-glass window "Knight", the panel "Seasons", the drawing of the ornament in the office of the future owner of the house and a number of other elements of the interior decor of the building.
The construction of the mansion began in 1893, and its final finishing was completed in 1898. Within a few years Shekhtel created a unique building, which was destined to become a landmark in the history of Russian architecture. The result of his work was excellent and brought the architect well-deserved recognition and success. The customer, or rather, the customer, was completely satisfied: the merchants had never allowed themselves such pretentious and provocative "family castles".
The mansion, executed in the spirit of "English Gothic", is amazing. Pointed turrets, battlements, lancet windows, a wrought-iron fence decorated with dogs' heads, intricate lanterns on the gates - the house smells of the Middle Ages. At the same time, the features of the house can be traced to the Moorish architectural elements... These two styles, brought together by the plastics of Art Nouveau, as well as the inextricable interaction of architecture, sculpture and painting, have given the mansion a unique originality, amazing sophistication and exceptional plastic harmony and unity. Who would have guessed then that this creation of Shekhtel would become the messenger of a new architectural style emerging in Russia. But then one thing was for sure: such a castle had never happened in Moscow.
And the Morozovs' mansion on Spiridonovka immediately became one of the prominent Moscow landmarks, bringing its owners the opportunity to rotate in the highest circles of secular society. Even the aristocracy did not consider it shameful to attend a reception in the house of the Morozov merchants, just to look at a luxurious architectural curiosity. Balls, evenings, receptions took place in the mansion in succession, Zinaida Grigorievna bathed in the rays of glory and sparkled in society. And Savva Morozov, who had not shared his wife's thirst for secular entertainment, the further, the more the spouse's habits were sickened, he rarely attended the receptions arranged by her, he was indifferent to enthusiasm about joining aristocratic circles, and over time, to the wife herself cooled, however, mutually. The married couple lived in the same house, but practically did not communicate, their mutual passion over the years grew into mutual indifference, and later into complete alienation.
The Morozovs' mansion on Spiridonovka is guarded by devilish creatures
After the mysterious death of Savva Morozov in May 1905, Zinaida Grigorievna decides to part with the mansion on Spiridonovka. The ghost, who settled in the "ancestral castle", did not give her a quiet life in her beloved house - according to her, at night the spirit of her deceased husband, who did not find comfort, wanders around the house and moves things in his office, disturbing and frightening her. In 1909, Morozova sells her chic mansion Ryabushinsky, who lived there until the summer of 1918. After the emigration of the owners, in the first years after the revolution, Soviet authorities placed the provincial food committee in the mansion. And in the 1930s, the mansion passed into the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation). Today, the building houses the reception of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
It is worth mentioning one more important fact concerning this house. The fact is that the house-castle of the Morozovs is considered one of the possible prototypes of the Gothic mansion in the novel by M.A. Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita". This is an unconfirmed version that the Morozovs' mansion on Spiridonovka is Margarita's house, the location of the mansion hardly matches the one described in the novel, but it is quite possible that Bulgakov did the same with Margarita's house as he did with other houses featured in the novel - he united the two houses in one: house with appearance, corresponding to the description in the novel, but with a location that does not match the description, and a house that outwardly does not fit the described house of Margarita, but is located where it is needed (Margarita's mansion, presumably located at 12 Maly Vlasyevsky per., in the Arbat area ).
General's House at Patriarch's Ponds
Ermolaevsky lane, house 9."House with lions" or general's house.
It is not entirely clear what it has to do with castles, except that it is guarded by four majestic lions and a nervous tenant from the first floor, the same one mentioned at the beginning. Why it was included in the route of the excursion is a mystery. Most likely, it was simply a sin to pass by, walking in these surroundings, and not pay no attention to him. The house is really impressive. It seems that it was built in the 18th-19th centuries, at most at the beginning of the 20th, it looks very much like a magnificently executed city manor those times. It seems that horse carriages drove up to these gates with monumental pylons on which huge lions rest, from which ladies in silk dresses came out to plunge into the atmosphere of the luxurious living room of the owners of the house, to conduct small talk about literature, music and political news.
But no. It is hard to imagine this, but the House with Lions was built at the end of the Great Patriotic War, in 1944-1945, at the personal order of Stalin, who wanted to thank the top commanding leadership of the Soviet army with such a luxurious gift - moving into a chic classicist mansion in the center of Moscow , at the Patriarch's Ponds.
The construction of the general's residence was supervised by two little-known architects - M. Dzisko and N. Gaigarov, pupils of the workshop of I.V. Zholtovsky. The very idea of the original house, stylized as a classic manor house, was submitted by Zholtovsky himself. They say that the project of the house was "written off" from the pre-revolutionary mansion located here, in the depths of the courtyards, at number 11, only the authors of the general's house slightly embellished their creation with additional decor, giving it pomp and originality. Of course, the internal layout of the building was also different, apartments for the generals were built truly luxurious at that time - 12-room apartments, which included a large hall, living room, antechamber, an office, a nursery and a bedroom, a dining room, a kitchen, a housekeeper's room and a number of utility rooms. It is difficult to say how things are now with the layout of apartments, perhaps something has changed, but it is unlikely that this has made it less prestigious. In any case, the habits of the tenant, who just came home during our inspection of his immodest habitat, speak of irrepressible ambitions and ambition worthy of real generals' blood. It is a pity that the time did not give the general's offspring and followers the gloss of education and tact. Well, what to take from them, from the warriors, apparently, they are incorrigible.
By the way, in the era of Khrushchev, to whom we should be grateful for the massive standard building of gray and unsightly apartment blocks, an active struggle was waged against the so-called architectural excesses, and the "house with lions" on Patriarch's was just cited as a vivid example of these very excesses, an example of that , "How we do not need to build." But thank God, time has put everything in its place, Khrushchev's five-story buildings are being demolished and are valuable only as a prospect of getting more comfortable housing, and houses with architectural excesses are as they were, and their value only increases every day.
This concludes our walking tour "Moscow Castles". But, I will please you, it is far from the only one dedicated to the capital's castles, and I promise to publish in the near future at least one more walk about the buildings of Moscow, which resemble medieval fortresses and castles in their appearance.
