Davydov's house. Davydov Denis Vasilievich. Description of the excursion route

When I get ready for any trips, I usually glance at the websites of regional administrations; sometimes I come across such funny things in the “tourism” section. Well, I went here too, it’s listed on the website of the administration of the Krasnozorensky district, and what do I see there? And I see that they have a restored one in the village of Davydovo!! the estate of not just anyone, but Denis Davydov himself, and even not just anything, but a whole museum-reserve has been organized. (http://www.krzarya.ru/article5 - second paragraph about heroes;)) And in the district’s investment passport so indicated. Well, how could you not stop by here?;)
In general, the navigator immediately laid two roads leading to Davydovo exclusively on dirt roads (which is a bit strange for a museum-reserve, isn’t it ;)), one of which was very bad, the second was a detour through the field. People obviously don’t travel from Krasnaya Zarya to Denisovo very often. The road, in the end, is generally one, dirt, really washed out on the hills to small faults, runs along the field, which immediately made me very alarmed. You can see when someone is driving, and when no one is driving at all. Well;) All this clayey shit takes up about 7-8 km and runs directly into such a remote village. Fortunately for us, there were still living people here who told us that yes, there is an estate, but this year the bridge was demolished and the road was washed out and you couldn’t get through it on your own. But you can go around on the other side, but there are also about 10 kilometers of “shit” and there is some kind of bridge in the form of a pair of logs, and if you want and have some skill you can, in principle, cross to the other side. Well, what would you do in our place?;) Don’t retreat when the goal is less than a kilometer away;) In short, I armed myself with a camera and set off to cross the river. And the rest of the team remained in the company of a very not sober local resident Yuri, who said that he goes to mow around the estate, etc. In short, it’s really impossible to get to the river with anything, even a tractor, because the faults in the ground are more than a meter long. There was no trace of any semblance of a bridge, so I had to take off my shoes and socks and open the swimming season;) But that’s not the whole adventure;) Having got out to the shore, I walked along the road, I keep walking, but there’s no sign of the estate . And the grass is waist-deep, and the road is such that people obviously don’t drive on it often. Well, I think, you never know, they suddenly respect authenticity, the estate is a partisan one, not just anyone, but Denis Davydov;) In short, I walked about a kilometer and a half and turned back. I look and see in the distance some trees that are clearly not typical of our traditional forest belt. And they stand somehow painfully symmetrically. Well, I think, here it is, I finally found it, but since the vegetation is really lush everywhere, and on my feet I had to walk with light boots with extreme caution, because you never know what there might be in this grass that hisses and stings, it’s in the middle of nowhere. Long story short, this is what finally appeared before my eyes ;)


Well, not an estate, but definitely a nature reserve;)
So, everything is like in that film about Sherlock Holmes;) “I implore you, my children, do not believe everything that is written on the Internet;)

The main two-story house with a mezzanine, located at the back of the plot and oriented towards Prechistenka, was built in the 1750s, and in the 1780s. on both sides there are two-story outbuildings attached to it, forming a front courtyard along Prechistenka.

The property was established within its modern boundaries in 1750 by Prince M.I. Shakhovsky: having inherited a small plot of land on the corner of Prechistenka and modern Sechenovsky Lane, Mikhail Shakhovsky expanded the boundaries of the site in several stages by buying up neighboring properties.
Plot on the corner of Sechensky lane. and Prechistenki also belonged to the father of M.I. Shakhovsky, Ivan Perfilyevich Shakhovsky (1636–1716). The formation of the site took M.I. Shakhovsky just over fifteen years. The purchase of two plots (from the widow of the palace solicitor I.F. Zveretinov in 1733 and from Prime Major Ivan Ogolin in 1737) made it possible to expand the property to the line of modern Sechenovsky Lane. In 1745, Shakhovsky’s property occupied the entire width of the block along Prechistenka between two lanes and in 1750 the property acquired its final boundaries, which exist to this day without changes.

The first plan of the estate dates back to 1758. The main building - residential stone chambers - was placed in the depths of the site, parallel to Prechistenka. The main house of the estate was an elongated rectangle with four asymmetrically located projection projections at the corners. The length of the building along the front facade was about 18 fathoms. Residential wooden buildings were adjacent to the house.
After the death of M.I. Shakhovsky in 1762, ownership passed to State Councilor A.I. Zatrapezny, the owner of Yaroslavl manufactories.

At the end of the 1770s. the estate was pledged to the Moscow magistrate, from where it was bought at auction in 1779 by the Moscow Chief of Police, Lieutenant General N.P. Arkharov, the brother of I.P. Arkharov, the owner of house No. 16. He demolishes all the wooden residential and utility buildings along the perimeter of the site and in 1780 lays two stone one-story outbuildings adjacent to the main house and facing Prechistenka.

Subordinate to N.P. Arkharov there was a police regiment that kept the entire city in fear. Apparently, this is where the word “Arkharovets” came from, in the sense of a robber, a thug. N.P. Arkharov gained fame as a legendary detective; even in Paris they knew about his police talent. In 1782–1784 he was the civil governor of Moscow.

In 1781, N.P. Arkharov sold the estate to Major General Gavrila Ilyich Bibikov, in whose family the estate remained until 1833. In 1789, G.I. Bibikov demolished two park pavilions and shifted the garden along the line of Barykovsky Lane. He built a wooden pavilion in the garden.
Bibikov was a great music lover; there were concerts and balls in the house. In 1831, Pushkin danced here at one of the balls. The owner's son was a member of the Welfare Union.

During the fire in 1812, all the main stone volumes were preserved. In 1815, the main house was built with a stone mezzanine, and the stone wings of the front yard were restored exactly within the old main walls.

In 1835, the Davydovs and their three children settled in a mansion on Prechistenka. The wings of the front yard were completely built to two floors. During this period, the architectural, artistic and compositional structure of the estate reached its heyday.

Denis Vasilyevich Davydov - lieutenant general, poet-hussar. Here he was visited by E. A. Baratynsky, N. M. Yazykov, I. I. Dmitriev. However, it was difficult to maintain such a house, and already the next year Davydov wrote to the director of the Commission for the Construction of Moscow, A. A. Bashilov, a comic “Petition” (published in the third issue of Pushkin’s Sovremennik):

“Help me sell it to the treasury
A rich house for a hundred thousand,
Majestic chambers,
My Prechistensky Palace.

It’s too small for a partisan:
Hurricane's companion
I love, Cossack fighter,
A house without windows, without porches,

Without doors and brick walls,
House of limitless revelry
And daring raids,
Where can I have my guests?

Treat with buckshot in the ear,
A bullet to the forehead, or a pike to the belly.
Friend! This is my true home;
He is everywhere - but it’s boring in him,

There are no guests for refreshments...
I'll wait... Until then
Delve into the grief of the Cossack
And respect his prayer!”

After this, the estate changed many owners. Already in 1841, the “Prechistensky Palace” was listed as the property of Baroness E.D. Rosen, who ordered the left wing to be turned over to a bread shop, and the right wing to a locksmith, saddlery and tailoring establishment. In 1861, in the same right wing there was one of the first photographs in Moscow - “the artist of the Imperial Academy of Photographer I. Ya. Krasnitsky.”

In 1874, according to the design of the architect A.L. Ober, major construction work was carried out with the goal of increasing the profitability of the property. The wings of the front yard of different heights were built to two floors with the simultaneous replacement of floors, stoves and roofing.

Later, S. A. Arsenyeva’s girls’ gymnasium was located in the manor house. Sofya Aleksandrovna Arsenyeva was the daughter of the architect A.L. Vitberg, the author of the unrealized project of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on Sparrow Hills. Maria Ermolova’s sister A.N. Sheremetevskaya taught here. “If families had both daughters and sons, then parents often sent their sons to Polivanovskaya, and their daughters to the neighboring Arsenyevskaya gymnasium. The students of these two gymnasiums knew each other well, and the same teachers taught there, who sometimes played the role of carrier pigeons, without their own knowledge carrying romantic notes from high school boys and girls in their pockets.”

At the end of the 1870s, after a private gymnasium was located in the main building, the enfilade layout of the second floor and the premises of the first floor of the main house were adapted to the set of premises required by the private gymnasium-boarding school.

After the revolution, the women's gymnasium was transformed into seven-year school No. 12. The memorial plaque to Denis Davydov disappeared in an unknown direction.
In 1931, the school was replaced by the Workers' University, which was located in the building for about 2 years.

In 1970, in order to expand the usable areas, the end wall of the architectural monument (from Sechensky Lane) was dismantled and a two-story building was built along the red line of the lane.
At the end of the 1990s. the main house was transferred to the use of the Specialized State Unitary Enterprise for the sale of state and municipal property of Moscow. Subsequently, the main house and two front wings came under the jurisdiction of the Interregional Foundation for Presidential Programs.

In 2001-2002 A large-scale reconstruction and restoration of the building is taking place. The basis is the Planned (restoration) task and the “Complex project for repair and restoration work” developed by LLC “TIAMAT-project” on the basis of this task.
According to the project, wooden stairs, floors, and mezzanines were replaced; windows and doors replaced; new walls and partitions were erected; the building's load-bearing structures have been strengthened; the facades and interiors of individual premises were restored; the fence and gates have been restored.

Now the palace is occupied by AFK Sistema.

Object of cultural heritage of federal significance.

This territory in the 16th century. and later was part of the Bolshaya Konyushennaya Settlement, which in 1653 consisted of 190 households. Here lived “the stirrups, herd solicitors and grooms, stable watchmen, stable horseshoe men, the sovereign's horsemen, etc. There were also stables here. And it is believed that it was in this place that the chambers of the Konyushennaya Sloboda stood, which are still there at the base.
Under Grozny, these lands went to the oprichnina.

And yet, Prechistenka in the 18th century became a kind of “Saint-Germain” suburb of Moscow, where in the labyrinth of clean, calm streets and winding alleys lived the old Moscow nobility, whose famous names are often mentioned in Russian history before Peter I. There were the estates of the Vsevolozhskys, Vyazemskys , Arkharovs, Dolgorukys, Lopukhins, Bibikovs, Davydovs, Counts Orlovs, as well as Gagarins, Goncharovs, Turgenevs, whose names we find in books on the history of Russia and numerous memoirs of contemporaries.

This photo shows Prechistenka. Postcard ed. "Scherer, Nabholz and Co." 1902.
In the foreground on the left is Lopukhina’s house (early 19th century, architect D.G. Grigoriev). A fire tower is visible in the background on the right. On the right is the fence of our house.

Although modern studies claim that the building that has survived to this day is based on chambers from the early 18th century, the authors do not provide documentary information about the owners.

At the end of the 18th century and until 1818, it was owned by Ivan Petrovich Arkharov.


The younger brother of the Moscow Chief of Police Nikolai Petrovich Arkharov, whose house is located almost opposite on Prechistenka (later Denis Davydov lived there).
He was married to Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna Rimskaya-Korsakova, a second cousin of Elizaveta Petrovna Yankova.

They were very friendly with my sister. Elder sister E.A. Arkharova took her second cousins ​​with her daughters out into the world, since the sisters were left without a mother by that time.
Shortly before the Napoleonic invasion, the Yankovs bought a house opposite the Arkharovs and visited them often. In my grandmother’s memoirs, every now and then I come across “I saw him at the Arkharovs, my girls learned to dance at the Arkharovs,” etc.

But let's return to Ivan Petrovich Arkharov. He owed his career to his brother - at that time the St. Petersburg Governor-General N.P. Arkharov, who, in a conversation with Emperor Paul I, somehow chose the right moment to patronize his brother. Ivan Petrovich was immediately demanded to St. Petersburg, promoted to infantry general, awarded the Order of St. Anna of the first degree and a thousand souls of serfs.

With the help of the Prussian Colonel Hesse, appointed by the Emperor as a parade major to help Ivan Arkharov, the new military governor formed a regiment from desperate brave men, welded together by harsh discipline, which Muscovites feared like fire. It’s not for nothing that the word “Arkharovets” has become a household word.

One of the best experts on the everyday history of the 18th century, S.N. Shubinsky, wrote: “Arkharov lived in Moscow as a great gentleman. His house on Prechistenka was open to all his acquaintances both morning and evening. Every day at least forty people dined with them, and on Sundays they held balls, which brought together all the best Moscow society; in the vast courtyard, no matter how large it was, sometimes the carriages of the arriving guests did not fit.

Widespread hospitality soon made the Arkharovs’ house one of the most pleasant in Moscow...”

Ivan Arkharov successfully reigned as governor for two years, when suddenly his career was interrupted by an anecdotal incident caused by his brother’s excessive zeal to please the emperor. While Pavel, after the coronation, went to inspect the Lithuanian provinces, Nikolai Arkharov decided to give him a surprise. Knowing the emperor’s love for “the aesthetics of barriers and police boxes,” he ordered all St. Petersburg residents to immediately paint the gates of their houses and fences with stripes of black, orange and white paint. Unforeseen urgent and large expenses caused discontent among the residents, and the governor’s “surprise” had a strong, but completely opposite to the expected effect on the emperor. Astonished upon entering the capital by the mass of buildings painted in a monotonous pattern, he asked what this absurd fantasy meant? They answered that “the police forced the inhabitants to immediately carry out the will of the monarch.”

So am I a fool to give such commands? - Pavel I exclaimed angrily.

Nikolai Arkharov was ordered to immediately leave St. Petersburg and never appear before the monarch again. Soon the turn of the Moscow brother came. On April 23, 1800, an order was given to dismiss both Arkharovs from service, and the next day the emperor sent an order to the Moscow governor-general: “Upon receipt of this, I command you to announce my order to the brothers generals from the infantry Arkharovs to leave Moscow immediately to their villages in Tambov, where they will live from now on until commanded.”

The link did not last long. After the assassination of Paul I and the accession of Alexander I to the throne, Ivan Arkharov settled in his house, which was still open to everyone.
Widespread hospitality made Arkharov's house one of the most pleasant in Moscow, which was especially facilitated by Ivan Petrovich's wife.

V.L. Borovikovsky. Portrait of E.A. Arkharova.1820
“Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Arkharova was majestic and knew how to behave in people properly, or, as you now say, with dignity. I will always say that if I know how to enter and sit down properly, then I owe it to her. ...
She had two daughters: the eldest, Sofya Ivanovna, was married to Count Alexander Ivanovich Sollogub and the youngest, Alexandra Ivanovna, was married to Alexei Vasilyevich Vasilchikov." (Yankova)
After the Patriotic War and the death of her husband, Ekaterina Alexandrovna lived in St. Petersburg in the family of her youngest daughter Vasilchikova, spending the summer in Pavlovsk. Arkharova enjoyed universal respect: on her birthday (July 12) and name day, everyone came to congratulate her; Every year on July 12, Empress Maria Feodorovna honored her with a visit. E.A.’s requests and petitions were not refused, and the honor of “old woman Arkharova” was accepted by her as something due, rightfully hers.

Prechistenka was heavily burned in the fire of 1812.
This horror of post-fire Prechistenka is well described by the same Yankova:
“For a long time I could not decide to visit Prechistenka and look at the place where our house was. ... I saw a completely empty burnt-out place. ...
Across the lane from us, down to the Prechistensky Gate, was the house of the Arkharovs, opposite them the house of Lopukhin and then another large stone house of the Vsevolozhskys; they all burned out. ... and many other houses along Prechistenka almost all the way to Zubov, where the boulevard is now. - it all burned down. Only N.I.’s house survived. Khitrova."

So this ashes were bought by Prince Ivan Alexandrovich Naryshkin in 1818.

As you know, the Naryshkins were modest nobles descended from the Crimean Tatars. They rose to prominence thanks to the marriage of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to Natalya Naryshkina, who became the mother of Peter the Great. This made them, the king's relatives, large landowners and nobles.
E.P. Yankova characterized her new neighbor this way: “Ivan Alexandrovich was over fifty years old; He was small in stature, a thin and pretty man, very polite in his manners and a big shuffler. His hair was very sparse, he cut it short and in a special manner that suited him very well; He was a big hunter of rings and wore very large diamonds. He was a chamberlain and chief master of ceremonies." He was married to Ekaterina Alexandrovna Stroganova.

Artist Jean Louis Veil, 1787
She was the daughter of the actual secret adviser to Baron Alexander Nikolaevich Stroganov (1740-1789) from his marriage to Elizaveta Alexandrovna Zagryazhskaya (1745-1831). By birth she belonged to the highest nobility of the capital. Since her mother was Zagryazhskaya, she was a cousin of Natalya Ivanovna Goncharova, mother-in-law of A.S. Pushkin.
“From her mother, Ekaterina Alexandrovna inherited the beauty and representative appearance that distinguished her. Tall, slightly plump, with blue, somewhat bulging, myopic eyes, with a bold and open expression on her face. “... prominent in herself, but in contrast to her husband, uncommunicative.”( Yankova)

Having the highest court positions, but flighty and frivolous by nature, I.A. Naryshkin loved to live well and in a short time upset his and his wife’s fortunes. Because of his carelessness and excessive gullibility, he also lost the favor of the Court. The Frenchwoman Mrs. Vertel, who owned a workshop of ladies' dresses and enjoyed the patronage of I.A. Naryshkin, was involved in smuggling, through the diplomatic bag of one of the foreign embassies, various fashionable goods for her store. This story caused a lot of trouble for Naryshkin and led to his resignation. The family had to move to Moscow.

The Naryshkins had three sons and two daughters. Elizaveta Ivanovna - maid of honor

Artist Tropinin.
She never got married. As Yankova wrote about her, “then she became very plump and remained an old maid, and for her portliness she earned the name “Fat Lisa.”
And Varvara Ivanovna

Artist E. Vigée-Lebrun.
married to Sergei Petrovich Neklyudov (cousin of the Rimsky-Korsakovs)

“The eldest of the sons, Alexander Ivanovich, was a prominent and handsome young officer who showed great promise to his parents, with a lively and hot-tempered character: he had a quarrel with Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy (American), who challenged him to a duel and killed him. This was a year after two or three before the age of 12...
The other two sons were both married: the eldest Grigory, to the widow of Alexei Ivanovich Mukhanov, Anna Vasilievna, who in herself was Princess Meshcherskaya. They had a son and several daughters...
The youngest son, Alexey Ivanovich, was married to the daughter of our neighbors the Khrushchovs, Elizaveta Alexandrovna; he was, they said, a great original; had no children."

Life in the Naryshkins’ house was close to what it was here under the Arkharovs. But the Naryshkins stood higher in rank than the Arkharovs: in addition to the fact that they were relatives of the tsar, Naryshkin’s wife boasted that she was a relative of the Golitsyns and their daughter was a maid of honor. Therefore, the style in the Naryshkins’ house was somewhat different from Arkharov’s - everything here was richer, more refined.

Ivan Alexandrovich was the uncle of Natalia Nikolaevna Goncharova (by his wife, as I wrote above) and was the father of the bride at the wedding with Pushkin, which took place on February 18, 1831 in the chapel of the still unfinished Great Ascension Church at the Nikitsky Gate. Naturally, the poet visited the Naryshkins more than once in their house on Prechistenka.

Naryshkin's nephew Mikhail Mikhailovich Naryshkin, colonel of the Tarutino regiment, was a participant in the Decembrist uprising and was sentenced to 8 years of hard labor. After serving hard labor and partly exile, Mikhail Mikhailovich settled in a village in the Tula province and illegally visited Prechistenka, with his relative Musin-Pushkin, to whom the house was transferred from the Naryshkins.

Here, in the house of Musin-Pushkin, Mikhail Mikhailovich Naryshkin was visited by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who was then working on the second volume of “Dead Souls” and was interested in the activities of the Decembrists in connection with the topic of Tentetnikov’s exile to Siberia and Ulinka’s move to him.

Later, the house passed to Princess Gagarina, then to the Trubetskoy princes.

In 1865, the estate was purchased from the Trubetskoys in the name of his wife Alexandra Ivanovna Konshina (née Ignatova, 1838-1914) by millionaire manufacturer Ivan Konshin, who belonged to an old family of Serpukhov townspeople who produced linen and canvas back in the 18th century. By the beginning of the 19th century, their manufactory included weaving (1,400 hand mills) and calico printing (200 printed tables) production. More than two thousand people were employed in the manufactory and in the villages where peasants were engaged in weaving.

In the 1840s, Nikolai Konshin significantly expanded production by building a dyehouse and equipping the spinning mill with a steam engine. In 1853, his brother Ivan Maksimovich inherited the spinning and weaving departments. And six years later, N.M. Konshin’s sons, Nikolai Nikolaevich and Maxim Nikolaevich, formed the Trading House “Nikolai Konshin’s Sons” to operate a calico printing establishment, which was converted to machine traction.

The Konshins and their guests on the porch of Alexandra Ivanovna Konshina’s dacha in Bor near Serpukhov. August 15, 1895
In 1882, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of textile enterprises, the Konshin family was elevated to hereditary nobility “in reward for their services in the field of domestic industry.” I.N. Konshin died in 1898, childless. He left his entire huge fortune, exceeding 10 million rubles, to his wife, Alexandra Ivanovna. She liquidated her husband's industrial enterprise, selling the factory to his brothers, and began to live alone in her house. “Konshina had no children. She was a lonely woman, uncommunicative, unsociable, distrustful of her relatives, even alienated from them. She lived surrounded by an incredible number of cats, the only person who was close to her was a nun-companion; The house was managed by a certain Alexander Vasilyevich, an Old Believer. All cases were in charge of lawyer Alexander Fedorovich Deryuzhinsky" (A.F. Rodin)

The Konshins and their guests on the porch of Alexandra Ivanovna Konshina’s dacha in Bor near Serpukhov
The Konshins rebuilt the mansion for the first time in 1867.

In 1910, the mansion was rebuilt by the architect Gunst, after which the house of 72-year-old Konshina turned into one of the most luxurious mansions in Moscow.
The choice fell on the talented Moscow architect and artist not by chance. Gunst, who graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1898, was in the prime of his creative powers and was already known for his major works: together with L.N. Benois, he erected the monumental building of the First Russian Insurance Company on the corner of Bolshaya Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most, designed fashionable mansions on Pogodinskaya and 1st Meshchanskaya streets. Gunst's reputation in the art world was strengthened by his founding of the Fine Arts Classes, which were taught by the architect Fyodor Shekhtel, artists Isaac Levitan, Nikolai Krymov, sculptor Sergei Volnukhin and other famous artists. Anatoly Osipovich was comprehensively gifted. He was interested not only in painting, but also in artistic photography (his works were awarded prizes at the World Exhibition in Paris), and was his own man in the theater world.

After perestroika, the cost of ownership was estimated at 193,193 rubles, including a two-story mansion - 92,802 rubles. There were 15 rooms on the first and second floors. On the second floor were the front rooms, as well as the hostess's rooms and 2 rooms for her servants. The total area of ​​each floor was about 800 square meters. meters.
Alexandra Ivanovna Konshina is liquidating an industrial enterprise, selling the factory to her husband’s brothers, but she lives here in her own house.

One of the involuntary questions that arises regarding the reconstruction of this building is: why Alexandra Ivanovna Konshina, being at such an old age (she was 77 years old), is rebuilding this luxurious building for herself.



The following assumption is very plausible; the house, built in 1867, could hardly have dilapidated in 40 years, although it had cracked on the side of Dead Lane, but Deryuzhinsky, her confidant, invites the famous Moscow architect Anatoly Ottovich Gunst and orders him to destroy the old house and build a new one, but the previous plan.



Gunst designed the mansion on a grand scale, without skimping on funds. Thanks to this, his creation rightfully took its place among the most luxurious buildings that marked the beginning of the 20th century in Moscow. The architect tactfully preserved the clear proportionality of the volume of the building - a successful example of neoclassicism.

The main façade is accented by six flat pilasters of the Ionic order and a pediment. However, in the small decorative stucco molding of the frieze and window frames, the influence of eclecticism can be traced. The house opens onto a garden with a gazebo, enclosed on the street side by a high stone fence with arched niches, balustrades and vases at the top. The pylons of the front gate are decorated with sculptures of lions.

On the side of the alley there is a bas-relief panel in the Art Nouveau style on the wall of the mansion.


The most impressive are the interiors of the house, in the creation of which the architect showed himself to be a great master.

Particularly luxurious is the Winter Garden (now the formal dining room) with a glazed bay window and a skylight, the impressively decorated volume of which was built in from the courtyard.

The marble was ordered from Italy, the bronze jewelry from Paris. The huge glass was also ordered from Italy. He was transported to Moscow in a specially equipped carriage. It was possible to insert this “unique” into the place prepared for it only during the construction process.

The marble sculptures were received from Paris - which is marked on the sculptures.

Realizing well that it is not easy to surprise the jaded Moscow public, Alexandra Ivanovna chose the style of classical luxury.

Rich stucco ceilings, fancy chandeliers, amazing parquet flooring (still preserved in some rooms) - all this gave the pious widow a feeling of celebration in the last four years of her life.

The ballroom was separated from the music salon by a colonnade, and in this way it was possible to organize real large concerts. For those who like to smoke, “men’s rooms” were set up with comfortable sofas and dim lighting.

Konshina's house was filled with all sorts of modern equipment - water supply and sewerage, and even a special system of exhaust vacuum cleaners through the ventilation holes. These new home furnishings were a draw for numerous guests. The bathroom was designed with style (plumbing, according to tradition, was brought from England) - like in other rich mansions, there was a special device for heating the sheets, which were wrapped in after water procedures.

Bronze jewelry was brought from Paris, glass and marble, sculptures from Italy, electrical equipment from Britain. The consecration of the mansion took place on the name day of the owner, April 23, 1910.

A.I. Konshina was an Old Believers; at her house they always kept an open table for wanderers, visiting Old Believers, and beggars. Treating directly in the dining room, Konshina, before the meal, invited everyone to the house prayer room, which was next to the dining room.

Photo by Ancora / fotki.yandex.ru

Prechistenka Street is one of the oldest Moscow streets. In addition, this is also one of the most beautiful and luxurious streets of the capital, keeping memories of famous aristocrats, richest businessmen and great writers and poets who inhabited it at different times. Perhaps, on no other street in Moscow can you find so many solemn and elegant mansions and luxurious apartment buildings as on Prechistenka. It’s not for nothing that this street and its surroundings are often compared to the fashionable suburb of Paris - Saint-Germain. Here, each house is the crown of creation, and the name of its owner is a separate page in the encyclopedia.

The history of Prechistenka is closely intertwined with the history of Russia, the history of Moscow. In the 16th century, on the site of modern Prechistenka Street, there was a road to the Novodevichy Convent. The monastery was built in 1524 in honor of the liberation of Smolensk from the Polish invasion. From the end of the 16th century, urban buildings began to appear along the road, and the resulting street began to be called Chertolskaya after a stream that flowed nearby, called Chertoroy by local residents. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich decided that such a name, associated with devils, was not appropriate for the street leading to the Novodevichy Convent, the monastery of the Most Pure Mother of God. In 1658, by order of the Tsar, the street was renamed Prechistenskaya, and the Chertolsky Gate of the city, which existed at its beginning, was renamed Prechistensky. Over time, the name of the street in colloquial speech was shortened to the pronunciation “Prechistenka”, and later the abbreviated name was established officially. At the end of the 17th century, Prechistenka Street became especially popular among Moscow nobles. Mansions appear on it that belonged to the aristocratic families of the Lopukhins, Golitsyns, Dolgorukys, Vsevolzhskys, Eropkins and many others. The best architects of that time worked on the construction of luxurious noble mansions, sometimes creating real palaces. From the second half of the 19th century, Prechistenka was chosen by Moscow merchants, and the merchant families of the Konshins, Morozovs, Rudakovs, and Pegovs appeared among the homeowners. The merchants, who had become rich in production and trade, did not want to lag behind the aristocracy in their desire to live beautifully, and the former manorial estates on Prechistenka are often rebuilt by new owners with even greater pomp and pomp. Luxurious apartment buildings were later built here, intended for rent to wealthy tenants.

Over the course of its history, the street changed its name several times; we have already mentioned some of these changes, but these are not all the transformations. In 1921, the street was renamed in honor of P.A. Kropotkin, a famous revolutionary anarchist, he was born in a house located in one of the Prechistensky lanes - Shtatny. Until 1994, Prechistenka was called Kropotkinskaya Street. In 1994, its historical name was returned to it.

Well, let's go for a walk along this most interesting street in Moscow.

White and Red Chambers (Prechistenka, 1, 1/2).

An idea of ​​the architecture of the earliest period of the existence of Prechistenka Street can be obtained thanks to the relatively recently restored White and Red Chambers, located at Prechistenka No. 1 and No. 1\2.

White Chambers of Prince B.I. Prozorovsky

The “White Chambers” belonged to Prince B.I. Prozorovsky, manager of the Armory Prikaz; they were built back in 1685 as the main house of his estate.

The three-story L-shaped house has a passage arch leading to its front yard. The type of house refers to buildings “on cellars”, that is, its lower floor is a basement partially buried in the ground, given over to household needs. The upper floors are the master's and dining rooms. It is interesting that the chambers were built not in the depths of the estate, but along the street; this location of the main house is rare for Moscow architecture of the late 17th - early 18th centuries.

The uniqueness of this building also lies in the fact that it has survived to this day. The fact is that at the end of the 19th century, when the walls of the White City were dismantled, many old buildings were also removed, most of the boyars’ towers did not survive to this day, but thanks to the miraculously surviving “White Chambers”, we have an idea about them.

The White Chambers were restored in 1995 and now house the Exhibition Complex of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage.

Red Chambers of Boyar B.G. Yushkova

Around the same time, at the end of the 17th century, the “Red Chambers” were built, which first belonged to the boyar B.G. Yushkov and the former main house of his estate, and later to the steward of the Imperial Court N.E. Golovin. Then this building came into the possession of Golovin’s son-in-law, M.M. Golitsyn, admiral general of the Russian fleet, later appointed to the post of governor of Astrakhan. Perhaps it was in this house that Golitsyn’s son, A.M. Golitsyn, the future vice-chancellor of Catherine II, was born. From the middle of the 18th century, the “Red Chambers” passed to the Lopukhin family; P. Lopukhin, one of the active members of the Decembrist movement, lived here. After the Patriotic War of 1812, the owners of the building were mainly representatives of the merchant class.

The “Red Chambers” were built in the Moscow Baroque style; the main façade of the building was exquisitely and richly decorated. The initially three-story building (the top floor was later lost during reconstruction) was located at the highest point of the relief, towered above the surrounding area and, together with the “White Chambers,” was for a long time the dominant feature of the architectural ensemble of Prechistenka. The building of the “Red Chambers” faced Ostozhenka with its end, and the main facade, richly decorated, was facing the Chertolsky Gate of the White City. According to the tradition of pre-Petrine architecture, the lower floor of the chambers was given over to household needs, and the upper two floors housed a large chamber for receiving guests and the master's chambers. It was possible to get to the second floor of the building both by internal stairs from the lower and upper floors, and directly from the street, from a separate red porch located at the northern end of the house (for some reason this porch was not restored during the restoration).

In the 1820s, on the spit of Ostozhenka and Prechistenka, a two-story stone building with benches on the lower floor was erected, which for a long time obscured the “Red Chambers”. In 1972, the building, already fairly dilapidated by that time, was demolished in connection with preparations for the official visit to Moscow of US President Richard Nixon, along with it the “Red Chambers” and “White Chambers” were almost demolished, modified almost beyond recognition by repeated cultural layers and looked like completely ordinary buildings by the 70s of the 20th century. Fortunately, the architects managed to identify the architectural and historical value of both buildings in time, and the chambers managed to avoid the deplorable fate of destruction.

Vorbricher Pharmacy (Prechistenka, 6).

Pharmacy of Andrei Fedorovich Forbricher

Opposite the White Chambers, at Prechistenka 6, there is a mansion built at the end of the 18th century. The building was rebuilt several times by its owners, so it is difficult to say what it looked like originally, but the current appearance of the decor dates back to the second half of the 19th century. The facade of the building is decorated with Corinthian pilasters, which seem to divide the building into five equal parts. The central arched window is decorated with stucco decoration depicting garlands of fruits and flowers. The first floor of the building has quite large display windows - the building project was developed taking into account the prospect of placing retail enterprises in the building. The building has now been renovated while maintaining the appearance it acquired in the 1870s.

In 1873, the building was bought and a pharmacy was installed on the second floor by Andrei Fedorovich Vorbricher, a pharmacist from the famous Vorbricher dynasty, ranked among the nobility in 1882. There is an opinion that Andrei Fedorovich Vorbricher is none other than Heinrich Vorbricher himself, the founder of the Vorbricher pharmacist dynasty, master of pharmacy, pharmacist at the Imperial Moscow theaters on his own pay, who changed his name in order to become more akin to Russian culture.

The pharmacy still operates in this building.

City estate of Surovshchikov (Prechistenka, 5).

Outbuilding of the city estate of V.V. Surovshchikova

From the 18th century wooden manor built for Princess Saltykova-Golovkina, only an outbuilding and a couple of service buildings remain. After the princess, the estate was owned by the merchant V.V. Severshchikov. The surviving manor outbuilding was rebuilt in 1857, it was expanded, a second floor was added, and the small outbuilding turned into a nice mansion with stucco decoration and a cast-iron balcony above the entrance. In the depths of the site, which was previously part of the property, two two-story houses have also been preserved, which previously served as the side parts of the rear building of the estate. Also, a small park remains from the city estate of the merchant Surovshchikov.

In the 1920s, among other residents, Emelyan Yaroslavsky, the first commissioner of the Kremlin, the chairman of the aggressive “Union of Militant Atheists,” who was engaged in the extermination of religion - the opium of the people, and who initiated the destruction of churches, lived in this house. Yaroslavsky is the author of the atheist book “The Bible for Believers and Non-Believers”, as well as “Essays on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)”

Rzhevsky-Orlov-Philip estate (Prechistenka, 10).

Estate of Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov

At the corner of Prechistenka Street and Chertolsky Lane there is a mansion built in the mid-18th century; it has at its base vaulted chambers with basements erected in the 17th century. This house has a very interesting history.

Built in the 18th century, the mansion belonged at different times to the Rzhevsky, Likhachev, and Odoevsky families. In 1839, the house was purchased by the famous general, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov; it was his signature that was on the act of surrender of Paris in 1814. The brave general was the descendants of Grigory Orlov, the favorite of Catherine II, he was one of the founders of the Order of Russian Knights, which gave rise to secret communities of future Decembrists, in the ranks of which Mikhail Orlov himself found himself. In 1823, he was removed from his post as head of the division in Chisinau for the political propaganda of the Decembrist V. Raevsky, which he allowed in the military units subordinate to him. Later, he was completely dismissed and investigated in the case of the Decembrists and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Orlov was saved from exile to Siberia only by the intercession of his brother A.F. Orlov, who conducted the investigation into the December uprising and petitioned the emperor about the fate of his brother. Thanks to this patronage, Mikhail Orlov was able to return from exile in the village to Moscow in 1831, although he was already deprived of any opportunity to conduct political activities. He lived in the mansion on Prechistenka, 10 from 1839 to 1842 with his wife Ekaterina Nikolaevna, daughter of General N.N. Raevsky.

The Orlovs were friends with A.S. Pushkin. Even in Chisinau, Mikhail Orlov had a friendly relationship with the poet; they saw him almost every day, and to this day, among literary critics, debate continues about which of the two women was Pushkin’s “southern love” - Maria Volkonskaya or Orlov’s wife Ekaterina . Be that as it may, Pushkin captured the features of Ekaterina Nikolaevna in the image of Marina Mnishek in the poem “Boris Godunov”, and the poet dedicated the poem “Alas! Why does she shine with momentary, tender beauty?”, and he spoke of her as “an extraordinary woman.”

In 1842, Mikhail Orlov died, he was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, and his house on Prechistenka passed to other owners.

In the 1880s, part of the former Oryol household was occupied by furnished rooms intended for rent to guests; one of them was hired by the artist Isaac Levitan, who had just graduated from the Moscow School of Painting. The room with a partition in which he was housed served as his home and workshop at the same time. There is evidence that A.P. Chekhov visited him in this house, with whom they were friends, having met back in the 1870s, as students.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the owner of the house was a Frenchman, a haberdasher merchant, and a famous collector of porcelain and paintings, M. Philip. In March 1915, Philip hired a home teacher for his son Walter, who became none other than the young Boris Pasternak.

After the 1917 revolution, the mansion housed various public organizations, in particular the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, many of whose members were killed as a result of Stalinist repressions. Today, the Rzhevsky-Likhachev-Philip house has been carefully restored and has been restored to its early 20th-century appearance.

Estate of the Khrushchev-Seleznevs / Museum of A.S. Pushkin (Prechistenka, 12).

Khrushchev-Seleznev Estate

The ancient noble estate at 12 Prechistenka, which is commonly called the Khrushchev-Seleznev estate, was formed in the second half of the 18th century, burned down during the fire of 1812 and was rebuilt. Since then, the manor house has almost completely retained its appearance acquired in the first third of the 19th century. Before the Napoleonic War of 1812, the house was owned by famous families of princes: the Zinovievs, the Meshcherskys, the Vasilchikovs.

Before the Patriotic War of 1812, this estate belonged to Prince Fyodor Sergeevich Baryatinsky, an active statesman during the reign of Catherine II, who, through his direct participation in the coup of 1762 and allegedly even the murder of Peter III, contributed to the accession of Catherine the Great to the throne. Having subsequently been close to the empress, he made a brilliant career at court, reaching the rank of chief marshal. Under Paul I, he was expelled from St. Petersburg and probably lived on his estates, including in Moscow, on Prechistenka, becoming one of the typical representatives of the wealthy non-servant nobility and nobles who left the court and lived out their lives, indulging in social life: trips , balls, visits.

Immediately after the death of Fyodor Sergeevich in 1814, his heir, for a not very significant sum, cedes the estate to a retired guard ensign, a wealthy landowner Alexander Petrovich Khrushchev, a close acquaintance of Fyodor Sergeevich. The amount of the transaction was small, since the estate was badly damaged in the fire of 1812, and all that remained of it was the stone basement of the main house and burnt outbuildings.

Alexander Petrovich Khrushchev belonged to an old noble family. During the Patriotic War of 1812 he fought as part of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, retired in 1814 and surprisingly quickly became rich, which caused a lot of gossip in society. They said that he made his fortune through farming, which was considered indecent for a nobleman. He was the owner of estates in the Tambov, Penza and Moscow provinces.

Immediately after purchasing the ashes of the Baryatin estate, Khrushchev began building a new house on the preserved basement of the old one, and in 1816 Muscovites were able to see an incredibly beautiful empire-style mansion on Prechistenka. The new house, also built in wood, is smaller in area than the previous one, so wide terraces were created on the stone base, which received beautiful wrought iron fences and became an original feature of the house. The house is small, but it is so elegant, picturesque and at the same time solemn that it looks like a miniature palace. The two facades of the house, facing Prechistenka and Khrushchevsky Lane, are decorated with porticoes that differ from each other in architecture. The one overlooking Prechistenka is especially good; it is made in monumental forms, decorated with six slender columns of the Ionic order, visually separating the high arched window openings from each other, an excellent stucco frieze of plant themes and medallions. The house from the front facade is built with a mezzanine with a balcony. The side façade, more intimate, is accented by a portico that includes 8 paired columns, behind which there is a relief panel on the wall. In general, the design of the house combines the uniqueness of the composition with typical Empire details honed to perfection; numerous decorative elements are maintained in strict stylistic unity.

The Khrushchev-Seleznev estate. Front facade

The authorship of the project of Khrushchev’s house has long been the subject of numerous disputes; it was assumed that the author of this magnificent mansion was the famous architect Domenico Gilardi; it later turned out that the project was worked on by a student of Giovanni Gilardi and Francesco Camporesi - Afanasy Grigoriev, a talented architect, a former serf, who received his freedom in 22 years old and worked on the reconstruction of many Moscow buildings after 1812 together with Domenico Gilardi.

After the death of A.P. Khrushchev in 1842, his heirs sold the estate to honorary citizen Alexei Fedorovich Rudakov, a Verkhovazh merchant, a wealthy tea merchant, who decided to move to Moscow for permanent residence and transfer his trading company to White Stone. Thus, this manor house did not remain aloof from the social changes that A.S. wrote about back in the 1830s. Pushkin: “The merchants are getting richer and are beginning to settle in the chambers abandoned by the nobility.”

In the 1860s, the estate came into the possession of retired captain Dmitry Stepanovich Seleznev, a nobleman. But such a return of the estate to noble hands was already an unusual phenomenon for that time. Another rare phenomenon in the fate of the Khrushchev-Seleznev estate is that, despite all its numerous owners, the house was preserved almost unchanged - in the same form in which it was restored by Khrushchev. Except that the Seleznevs placed an image of their coat of arms on the pediment, which still adorns the building. All other repairs carried out repeatedly did not affect the appearance of the house - a rare case, happy for this magnificent mansion. Apparently, the exceptional artistic value of the house was so undeniable that no one even thought of changing anything in such a harmonious ensemble. Well, the high culture of the home’s owners probably played a certain role.

D.S. Seleznev was a very rich man; before the reform of serfdom, he owned 9 thousand souls of serfs, and the Seleznev family coat of arms was included in the “General Arms of Interest of the Noble Families of the Russian Empire.”

In 1906, the daughter of the owner of the house decided to perpetuate the memory of her parents and donated the estate to the Moscow nobility to house a children's school-orphanage named after Anna Alexandrovna and Dmitry Stepanovich Seleznev, which was located here before the 1917 revolution. After the October Revolution, the estate building was transferred from one institution to another, and there was just so much here: the Toy Museum, the Literary Museum, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Institute of Oriental Studies, and many others. In 1957, the Moscow authorities decided to create a museum of A.S. Pushkin, and in 1961 the museum was placed here, in a manor house restored specially for this purpose on Prechistenka, 12. It should be noted that the place for the museum of the great Russian poet was chosen very successfully, because the Khrushchev-Seleznev manor complex in its architectural features best matches features of the construction of Pushkin's time, in addition, A.S. himself. Pushkin probably visited the mansions of his relatives and friends on Prechistenka; perhaps he also visited this house No. 12. In the museum halls today the atmosphere of Pushkin’s era is recreated, the exhibition tells about the life and work of the poet, there is an extensive collection of books, paintings, applied art of the 19th century, manuscripts, and furniture.

Apartment building E.A. Kostyakova / Central Energy Customs (Prechistenka, 9).

Central Energy Customs

Literary associations with Prechistenka arise not only in connection with the Khrushchev-Seleznev mansion. Many events in Mikhail Bulgakov’s famous story “The Heart of a Dog” are connected with this street. For example, Professor Preobrazhensky meets the dog Sharik for the first time and treats him to Krakow sausage near house No. 9. Now the Central Energy Customs House is located there. And during the events described in Bulgakov’s story, the Centrokhoz store was located, from which Professor Preobrazhensky came out before meeting the frozen and hungry dog ​​Sharik, who was watching him from the opposite side of the street.

The building in which the Central Energy Customs is now located is the apartment building of E.A. Kostyakova, built in 1910, presumably according to the design of the architect N.I. Zherikhov (in some sources the name of the architect G.A. Gelrikh appears). The neoclassical building on the second floor level is decorated with a number of sculptural panels on ancient themes. The artist Boris Shaposhnikov, a friend of Mikhail Bulgakov, once lived here, whom the writer often visited and thanks to whose person he probably decided to mention this house in his work.

Estate of A.I. Konshina / House of Scientists (Prechistenka, 16).

House of Scientists on the territory of the estate of A.I. Konshina. Entrance gate and modern building

The property on which the building with the address Prechistenka Street, 16 with the House of Scientists located in it is now located, at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries belonged to Ivan Petrovich Arkharov, who served as Moscow military governor in 1796-1797. In addition to his appointment to this position, Paul I granted him a thousand souls of peasants and this mansion on Prechistenka. Ivan Petrovich lived in the donated estate as a real master. Every day at least 40 people dined at the Arkharovs’ house, and on Sundays luxurious balls were given, which attracted the best Moscow society. Even Emperor Alexander I visited the estate, who had a feeling of great respect for Ivan Petrovich’s wife Ekaterina Alexandrovna, née Rimskaya-Korsakova.

In 1818, the Arkharovs' house, badly damaged in the Napoleonic fire, was bought by Prince Ivan Alexandrovich Naryshkin, chamberlain and chief ceremonial master at the court of Alexander I. Presumably, the Naryshkins restored the estate and moved to it in 1829 after the resignation of Ivan Alexandrovich. Under the Naryshkins, the life of the estate was organized in approximately the same way as under the previous owners: the same receptions, the same balls, well, except that the atmosphere became even more luxurious and sophisticated, because the Naryshkins were higher in rank than the Arkharovs.

Ivan Aleksandrovich Naryshkin was the uncle of Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova, and when A.S. Pushkin married Natalya on February 18, 1831, and was the bride's father. Of course, the acquired kinship obliged A.S. Pushkin to make visits to the houses of his wife’s relatives, so Pushkin and Goncharova sometimes visited the Naryshkins at the estate on Prechistenka.

From the Naryshkins, the house became the property of their relatives, the Musin-Pushkins. It is interesting that the nephew of Ivan Aleksandrovich Naryshkin, Mikhail Mikhailovich Naryshkin, a former Decembrist, sentenced to hard labor and exile for participating in the uprising, illegally visited here, in this house on Prechistenka, with the Musins-Pushkins. And on one of these visits M.M. Naryshkin was visited by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who at that time was working on the second volume of Dead Souls and was interested in the activities of the Decembrists in this regard.

Subsequently, the estate was replaced by two more noble owners - the Gagarins and Trubetskoys - before in 1865 it became the property of representatives of the merchant class - the Serpukhov merchants Konshins. In this sense, the estate on Prechistenka, 16 was no exception, and, like many estates in Moscow, after the abolition of serfdom, it passed from the impoverished nobles to the “new Russians” of the 19th century - rich industrialists and entrepreneurs.

Ivan Nikolaevich Konshin, who acquired the estate from the Trubetskoys, was a hereditary merchant, inherited from his parents the paper weaving and calico printing factory "Old Manor" and about a million rubles, which he, skillfully conducting commercial affairs, increased tenfold by the end of his life, and in 1882 even Together with his brothers, he received the title of nobility for the merits of their family “in the field of domestic industry for two hundred years.” The Konshina spouses had no children, so the entire ten-million dollar fortune and the factory after the death of Ivan Nikolaevich in 1898 remained in the hands of Konshin’s widow Alexandra Ivanovna, who at that time was already 65 years old. Realizing her inability to continue conducting commercial affairs, Alexandra Ivanovna liquidates her husband’s enterprise and sells the factory to his brothers. She herself continues to live secludedly in an estate on Prechistenka, surrounded by only a couple of people closest to her, and actively manifests herself only in charity. In 1908-1910, Alexandra Ivanovna, already at the rather advanced age of 77 years, suddenly started a large-scale reconstruction of the estate. It is difficult to say what prompted the lonely elderly woman to begin rebuilding the house of her estate, and even spending a huge amount of money on this project. According to contemporaries, the Konshin family lawyer A.F. Deryuzhinsky, Alexandra Ivanovna’s confidant, once during a walk noticed a dangerously large crack in the wall of the Konshins’ house on the side of Mertvy (Prechistensky) Lane, the appearance of which he did not hesitate to inform the owner of the house. Allegedly, this served as a decisive reason to demolish the old mansion and build a new house-palace in its place, which would be befitting the owner’s now noble status. Deryuzhinsky hires a familiar architect, Anatoly Ottovich Gunst, to rebuild the building.

Gunst took up construction on a large scale, without limiting his means. He designed and implemented the project of a real palace ensemble. Thanks to the vision of a talented architect and the almost unlimited financial capabilities of the customer, a building appeared in Moscow in 1910, which rightfully took one of the leading places among the most luxurious buildings of the early 20th century. The architect tactfully preserved the harmonious dimensions of the previous mansion, erecting a new house, as requested by the customer, according to the plan of the demolished one. He paid the closest attention to the decor of the building and especially its interiors. He placed accents in the building by placing a large attic above the cornice in the center and small ones on the sides, and evenly divided the extended façade with flat pilasters of the Ionic order, all of this was done in the best traditions of neoclassicism. And in the window frames, small fancy decorative stucco moldings, and a bas-relief panel on one of the walls of the house, features of eclecticism can be traced. The front facade of the house opens onto the garden, fenced on the Prechistenka side by a high stone fence with graceful arched niches, balustrades and flowerpots rising from above. The massive pylons of the entrance gate are decorated with sculptures of lions.

Estate of A.I. Konshina

The interiors of the building were truly luxurious, in the creation of which the architect showed himself to be a great master. Particularly beautiful were the Winter Garden with its skylight and glass bay window, the White and Blue Halls: there were Italian marble, stone sculptures, French bronze decorations, rich stucco ceilings, fancy chandeliers, and expensive parquet floors. The bathroom was also luxuriously furnished; all the plumbing fixtures were brought straight from England. The house did not lag behind in technical terms, it was literally “stuffed” with all kinds of modern equipment: water supply, sewerage, various devices, the house even had a special system of exhaust vacuum cleaners that worked through the ventilation holes. All this amazing beauty and technical innovations brought a sense of celebration to the last years of the pious widow’s life.

But, unfortunately, it didn’t take long to enjoy the magnificent Konshina Palace. 4 years after its construction was completed, she died. The palace was inherited by the relatives of Ivan Nikolaevich Konshin, who at the beginning of 1916 sold the Prechistensky estate for 400 thousand rubles to Alexey Ivanovich Putilov, a major entrepreneur and banker who was the chairman of the board of the Russian-Asian Bank and was also part of the management of fifty other reputable joint-stock enterprises and firms. But the new owner was not lucky enough to live in the magnificent estate for long - the October Revolution broke out, and all the banker’s property, including the palace on Prechistenka, was confiscated.

In 1922, the House of Scientists was located in the Konshina Palace. The initiative to create it belongs to Maxim Gorky. He allegedly explained to Lenin that the Moscow scientific community simply needed such a club. And the location for the House of Scientists was chosen on Prechistenka in connection with the large number of educational institutions, scientific institutes, libraries, and museums located nearby. The scientists were “sheltered” in no less than Konshina’s palace, here all the necessary conditions were created for them and an environment favorable for communication between workers of science, technology and art and for their relaxation. Needless to say, the communication and recreation of Soviet scientists did not have a positive impact on the condition of the once luxurious palace; of course, most of the magnificent interior decoration of the house was lost and damaged irrevocably and hopelessly. And it is impossible to talk about the addition of an additional building in the constructivist style to the palace building in 1932 except with regret - it simply disfigured the estate ensemble. Moreover, even if we ignore the issue of aesthetics, historical and architectural value, it is completely unclear why this new building was needed at all, even functionally, because the estate was large enough without it and was quite capable of satisfying any needs of the House of Scientists both at that time and now .

Estate of the Lopukhins-Stanitskys / Museum of L.N. Tolstoy (Prechistenka, 11).

Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate

As a striking architectural example of the Moscow Empire style, it is worth paying attention to the Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate, built in 1817-1822 by the architect A.G. Grigoriev. The estate consists of a plastered wooden main house built on a white stone base, stretching along the red line of the street, an outbuilding along Lopukhinsky Lane, service buildings inside the courtyard and a stone fence of the site with an entrance gate. The main building of the estate is very elegant, its monumental forms are harmoniously combined with the intimate scale of the building, everything in it is very proportional and natural. The street facade of the house is decorated with a light six-column Ionic portico; in the depths of it, behind the columns, on the facade one can see a relief multi-figure stucco frieze; the triangular tympanum of the pediment is decorated with a noble coat of arms. The estate building has almost completely preserved its original appearance and represents a unique example of post-fire Moscow development.

Estate of the Lopukhins-Stanitskys. Portico

Since 1920, the Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Museum has been located in the Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate. Here is the main literary exhibition telling about the work and life of the great writer. The museum houses the archives of the Russian educational publishing house “Posrednik”, founded on the initiative of Lev Nikolaevich, a collection of photographs taken by Sofia Andreevna, Tolstoy’s wife, and most importantly, Tolstoy’s manuscript fund, numbering more than two million pages of the writer’s manuscripts. Looking here, you can see with your own eyes Tolstoy’s personal belongings, his letters, original manuscripts of “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina” and many other works of the writer.

Monument to L.N. Tolstoy on Prechistenka

In 1972, a monument to L.N. was erected in the garden near the museum. Tolstoy, whose author is the famous sculptor S.D. Merkulov. This monument was moved here from the park on the Maiden Field. Granite Tolstoy stands among the trees, bowing his head thoughtfully and putting his hands behind his belt, supporting his wide, flowing shirt. His gaze, an old man wise with worldly experience, is deeply thoughtful and sad.

House of Isadora Duncan (Prechistenka, 20).

Isadora Duncan House

Among the buildings with which the fates of many famous people are connected, it is worth mentioning the mansion on Prechistenka, 20. It was built at the end of the 18th century, possibly according to the design of the famous architect Matvey Kazakov. In the middle of the 19th century, the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, the conqueror of the Caucasus, General Alexey Petrovich Ermolov, lived in it, and at the beginning of the 20th century, millionaire Alexey Konstantinovich Ushkov, who owned a large tea company “Gubkin and Kuznetsov”, which had representative offices not only in Russia, settled in the mansion. but also in all famous tea markets in the world: in London, India, China, on the islands of Ceylon and Java.

A.K. Ushkov, together with his relatives, patronized the Moscow Philharmonic and the Bolshoi Theater; the industrialist’s involvement in charitable activities helped him meet the Bolshoi Theater prima ballerina Alexandra Mikhailovna Balashova, who later became his wife. For his beautiful wife, Ushkov ordered the reconstruction of his mansion on Prechistenka and equipped it with a special rehearsal dance hall for her.

The year 1917 came as a surprise to the family of the businessman and ballerina, and the first 4 years after the revolution were not the easiest in their biography; only Balashova’s involvement in the world of high art and her close acquaintance with Boris Krasin, appointed to the post of manager of the Music Department of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. Alexandra Balashova continued to perform on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater and in 1922 even took part in the theater's Paris tour. Probably, it was precisely these tours that gave Ushkov and Balashova the understanding that it was not necessary to put up with the new state of affairs in Russia; they brought some confidence in their future in emigration and the necessary connections. And in the same 1922, under the guise of traveling along the Volga, the couple left Russia forever. In Paris they settled on Rue de la Pompe, and Alexandra Mikhailovna continued her ballet career on the stage of the Grand Opera.

Already in France, Balashova learned that her mansion on Prechistenka with a mirrored rehearsal hall was given over to the dance school of the famous “sandal girl” Isadora Duncan, who had arrived in Russia. Ironically, it so happened that the house on Rue de la Pompe, in which Ushkov and Balashova settled upon arriving in Paris, previously belonged to Isadora Duncan. So the two great dancers unwittingly exchanged mansions. Duncan, who later learned of the exchange, laughed and called it a "square dance."

Isadora Duncan's house. Decor elements

Isadora Duncan is an American innovative dancer, considered the founder of free dance. Being a professional ballerina, she created a radically new direction in dance, abandoning classical dance costumes, she danced barefoot, dressed in a Greek chiton, which pretty much shocked the audience. Traveling around the world and performing, she gradually gained fame and continued to search with inspiration and creative enthusiasm for that dance “that could become a divine reflection of the human spirit through the movements of the body.” Constant creative research and experimentation, a special gift for expressing her emotional state and spiritual freedom through movements, an amazing intuitive feeling for music, naturalness, beauty and plasticity of performance helped Isadora Duncan find her dance and make it the subject of delight in huge halls. She gave several concerts in Russia in 1904-1905 and 1913. And in 1921 she received an official invitation from the People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky to open his own dance school in Moscow. Lunacharsky, who lured the world-famous “divine sandal” to Russia, did not skimp on promises; one of the People’s Commissar’s promises was permission to dance in... the Cathedral of Christ the Savior! They say that Duncan passionately wanted to dance there, because ordinary theater spaces did not provide such space for the realization of her creative impulses and ideas. And in what other country, if not in Russia, where such dramatic changes are taking place, should we look for new forms in art and in life!? In addition, Duncan had really long dreamed of opening her own dance school for girls. And in Russia they promised to provide her with “a thousand children and a beautiful imperial palace in Livadia, in Crimea.” Believing the numerous promises of the Soviet authorities, Isadora came to the country of “vodka and black bread.” Some disappointment awaited her here: much of what was promised was never fulfilled, the great dancer did not have the chance to show her “pagan art” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, she had to perform “only” at the Bolshoi Theater, she was not destined to see the Livadia Palace of Nicholas II . Isadora was given a smaller “palace” to create a school and personal residence - a luxurious mansion on Prechistenka.

In Moscow, Isadora Duncan met the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, and their sudden love turned into the marriage of these two talented individuals. Duncan and Yesenin lived together in a mansion on Prechistenka. It was here that Yesenin created his “Confession of a Hooligan” and many other works. But the union of the eccentric dancer and the young poet did not last long; already in 1924, their marriage, which turned into a whirlwind of scandals, alcohol intoxication and misunderstanding, was dissolved. In the same year, Isadora leaves Russia and goes to France to escape from the emotional turmoil associated with parting with Yesenin and with her fading career, take care of her real estate and resolve issues of her shaky financial situation. Already in Europe, she receives news of Yesenin’s suicide. The life of Isadora herself ends tragically and absurdly. On September 14, 1927 in Nice, after having just created a new dance in the studio, inspired and in high spirits, she gets into the Bugatti 35 sports car, exclaiming “Farewell, friends! I’m going to glory!”, and within a minute she finds herself strangled with her own scarf, caught on the axle of the car.

At the Duncan school-studio, children, having learned about the death of their great mentor, danced Bach’s “Aria” on the day of her funeral, and it seemed that among the children’s figures Isadora Duncan herself was dancing in her flowing tunic, again telling people about her spiritual and tragic life ...

House of N.I. Mindovsky / Embassy of Austria (Prechistensky lane, 6).

House of N.I. Mindovsky

In 1905-1906, at the corner of Starokonyushenny and Prechistensky lanes, the architect Nikita Gerasimovich Lazarev built for Nikolai Ivanovich Mindovsky, one of the heirs of the famous dynasty of textile manufacturers Mindovsky, director of the board of the Volzhskaya Manufactory Partnership. This house can rightfully be called the best in the architect’s work. The mansion is the finest example of Moscow neoclassicism. The two wings of the building, stretching along the alleys, are united by a spectacular corner domed rotunda, surrounded by unusual squat and powerful paired columns of the Doric order. The street facades are decorated with large columned porticoes with enlarged entablatures, decorated with exquisite stucco friezes with mythological Greek scenes, corner palmettes on the roof and lion mascarons. The composition and style of the building clearly express the principles of neoclassicism, the restless silhouette of the mansion, and the somewhat exaggerated and even distorted proportions of the classic elements reveal the hand of a master who worked in the Art Nouveau era, when a certain denial of the harmony of the classics was already setting in. Some art critics, not entirely kindly, notice in the architecture of this house that the features of the Moscow Empire style are literally reduced to the grotesque. Be that as it may, it is simply pointless to deny the character of this mansion, its individuality and unique beauty; it is magnificent regardless of whether its individual features are perceived positively or negatively.

After the revolution of 1917, the Mindovsky mansion in Prechistensky Lane was transferred to the Red Army archive and the military-scientific archive, and in 1927 it was purchased by the Austrian embassy. After the annexation of Austria to Germany in 1938, the mansion began to be used as a guest house for the German Embassy. In August 1939, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop stayed in this house when he came to Moscow to discuss a non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. And there is information, although not confirmed, that if the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact itself was signed in the Kremlin, then in order to avoid publicity, the secret agreement to it was discussed and signed here, in the former Mindovsky mansion. Another equally famous guest visited this mansion in October 1944 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stayed here when he came to Moscow for negotiations with Stalin. In 1955, when the independence of Austria was restored, the Austrian embassy was again located in the Mindovsky mansion, which remains there to this day.

Mansion M.F. Yakunchikova (Prechistensky lane, 10).

Mansion M.F. Yakunchikova

The owner of the land on which houses No. 6, 8 and 10 on Prechistensky Lane are now located was Prince I.A. in the 18th century. Gagarin, however, his extensive estate, located on this site, like many houses of that time, was badly damaged in the fire of 1812 and has not survived to this day. In 1899, Gagarin's property was acquired by the newly formed Moscow Trade and Construction Society for the construction of three private houses on this site. The activities of this building society are extremely important and indicative of the nature of the development of Moscow at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The goal of the society was the construction, with the involvement of young talented architects, of luxurious turnkey mansions with their subsequent resale to wealthy people. The construction of the property acquired by the company in Prechistensky Lane was conceived by the organizers as a kind of exhibition of “exemplary” villas in the new style; the mansions built here were original exhibits demonstrating the possibilities of the Art Nouveau style, and they were made in completely different, dissimilar directions modern

The author of the project for the house at 10 Prechistensky (Dead) Lane was the architect William Walcott, a native of Odessa, who came from a Scottish-Russian family. This building by the architect is the first example of a Moscow villa in the “pure” Art Nouveau style. The house is designed in a rational, slightly prim Scottish Art Nouveau style. Walcott built this building, being inspired by the work of the famous Glasgow architect Charles Mackintosh. Mackintosh's works were distinguished by their simplicity of form, extensive glazing and almost complete absence of decoration, and in this house built by Walcott, the same features can be traced: rectangular strict outlines, trapezoidal, not very protruding bay windows, large windows with thin sashes, a flat roof. The only feature that was nevertheless introduced by the Russian character, the love of self-expression through external showiness, is a slightly more varied decoration: forged balconies and fences, brackets supporting the roof, miniature stucco rosettes, majolica panels of green and brown tones with floral patterns, successfully harmonizing with a soft yellow-orange color of the facing bricks of the walls, and Walcott’s calling card - a female head framed by luxurious, intricately curly curls - the nymph Lorelei. Also notable in the decor are the entrance gate pylons, lined with green ceramics and topped with sculptures of female heads.

Mansion M.F. Yakunchikova. Entrance gate

The first owner of the house built by Walcott, even before the completion of construction, was the niece of Savva Mamontov, Maria Fedorovna Yakunchikova, the wife of Vladimir Vasilyevich Yakunchikova, the owner of brick factories and a textile factory. Maria Feodorovna took an active part in the activities of Savva Mamontov’s Abramtsevo art workshops, and the memorable relief ceramic decor of the house in Prechistensky Lane was introduced into the design of the house at her suggestion and made according to her own sketches in the ceramic workshop in Abramtsevo.

After the revolution, when the property, factories and workshops of the Mamontovs and Yakunchikovs were nationalized, Maria Feodorovna emigrated to Europe, in her mansion on Prechistensky Lane, first the Khamovnichesky Komsomol District Committee was located, then the library named after. N.K. Krupskaya. In the second half of the twentieth century, the Zairean embassy was located in the mansion. The building is currently undergoing lengthy renovations.

House-workshop of V.I. Mukhina (Prechistensky, 5a).

House-workshop of sculptor Vera Mukhina

Hidden in a green courtyard on Prechistensky Lane is a two-story house with a glass roof and wall. This is the house-studio of the famous sculptor Vera Ignatievna Mukhina. This workshop with an apartment was provided to her in 1947. According to the descriptions, on the plank floor in the large hall, flooded with light, there was a turntable, reminiscent of a theater one, only smaller in size, and almost under the very ceiling there was a balcony, from where the master could conveniently view his creations. Now the building gives the impression of being abandoned, the glass wall is almost entirely hidden behind overgrown trees, and, unfortunately, the interior of the workshop cannot be seen from the street. But fantasy paints pictures of the past of this house, imbued with an atmosphere conducive to privacy and the creative process.

Mukhina did not always have such an excellent workshop. Until 1947, Vera Ignatievna lived and worked in Gagarinsky Lane, and then not far from the Red Gate, where she occupied a room on the second floor of the building, where she had to constantly lift stones and clay. It was there, in seemingly not very convenient conditions for sculpting, that the work that made Mukhina famous throughout the world was born - the sculpture “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” which has become so firmly entrenched in our consciousness as a symbol of communist ideology and the Soviet era. In fact, Vera Mukhina herself was not very “convenient” for such a project; her biography did not particularly fit into the generally accepted framework of the Soviet system, so the rise of her career and recognition was, if you think about it, an amazing fact.

Vera Mukhina was born in 1889 in Riga into a wealthy merchant family. After the death of her mother, she spent her childhood and teenage years in Feodosia. At the end of his life, Vera’s father began to be haunted by commercial failures, and he almost went bankrupt, however, the family, which had never boasted of wealth before and always led the most modest lifestyle for a merchant, hardly felt this. Vera began to draw early, and her father, who himself was slightly interested in painting, noticed the girl’s abilities in time and contributed to their development: he forced her to copy Aivazovsky’s paintings and constantly hired teachers. After the death of her father, Vera and her sister Maria came under the guardianship of wealthy uncles and moved first to Kursk and then to Moscow, where Vera began to study painting in the studios of famous landscape painters K. F. Yuon and I. I. Mashkov, and also visited the studio of the sculptor self-taught by Nina Sinitsina. The Mukhina sisters in Moscow led a lifestyle generally accepted among the industrial merchants, who were already closely related to the nobility: they went out, danced at balls, took care of their outfits, flirted with officers; the girls moved in the highest Moscow merchant society and were familiar with the Ryabushinskys and Morozovs. But neither outfits, nor coquetry, nor trips brought Vera such pleasure and did not occupy her thoughts as much as creativity, and she more and more distances herself from the pleasures of the world and immerses herself in art.

In 1912, Vera received a severe injury that left a scar on her face, and her relatives, in order for the girl to unwind and recover from this incident, sent her abroad, where she continued her studies. In Paris, she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and studied in a sculpture class with the famous French monumental sculptor E. A. Bourdelle. It was this experience that determined the main line in her work: she turned to monumental sculpture. In 1914, she traveled around Italy, studying Renaissance painting and sculpture. She returned to Moscow in the summer of 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War. Together with her cousin, after completing nursing courses, Vera got a job as a nurse in hospitals and did this until 1918. At the same time, she continued to work on her sculptural works in her own workshop on Gagarinsky Lane, and tried herself as a theater artist, graphic artist, and designer. While working at the hospital, Vera met her future husband, doctor Alexei Zubkov, and their wedding took place in 1918.

After the revolution, Vera Mukhina returned to her creativity, interrupted by changes in the country, and became interested in creating monument projects. In sculpture, she was attracted by powerful, plastically voluminous, constructive figures, expressing in their forms the power and strength of nature; her works were imbued with symbolism and romantic pathos. It is said that her work “Peasant Woman” at the international exhibition in Venice in 1934 so impressed Mussolini that he even purchased a copy of it and placed it on the terrace of his villa by the sea. Such recognition by a famous foreign leader did not stop the Soviet authorities from taking up arms against Vera’s husband Alexei Zubkov and exiling him in 1930 to Voronezh, where Vera Ignatievna followed him. They were able to return from exile only thanks to Maxim Gorky, who highly appreciated Vera’s talent and helped smooth out the conflict between her family and the authorities.

Of course, Mukhina’s main creation was the large-scale sculpture “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” - a 25-meter statue weighing 75 tons, intended for the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. The ideological concept of the statue belonged to the architect Boris Iofan, who designed the Soviet pavilion for the Paris exhibition. According to this plan, the exhibition pavilion was supposed to act as a kind of pedestal for the monumental statue “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” and Vera Mukhina won the competition for the design of this statue. And now - success, fame, money, a workshop-dacha in Abramtsevo provided for work! It is interesting that the prototype of the worker and collective farm woman depicted were the ancient “tyrant fighters” Nesiot and Critias with swords in their hands. At first, the statue of Mukhina depicted a naked girl and a young man, but then they decided to “dress” them and generally remade them several times, here the already always wary attitude towards Mukhina was fully reflected, endless complaints and denunciations flew “to the top”, in their absurdity sometimes reaching the point of curiosity. For example, once, when the statue was already being assembled at a factory in Moscow, the relevant authorities received information that the profile of enemy No. 1, Trotsky, was allegedly visible in the folds of the collective farmer’s skirt. Stalin himself came to the plant at night to make sure of this. The statue was illuminated with spotlights and headlights, but the enemy’s face did not appear, and the leader of all nations left in a couple of minutes without a sip. And after some time, the statue “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” went to Paris in giant boxes, where it created a real sensation, and its author, Vera Mukhina, became a world celebrity overnight. After the exhibition, France was literally inundated with various souvenirs depicting the sculpture - inkwells, powder compacts, postcards, handkerchiefs. The Europeans even considered buying the statue from the Soviets. But “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” was destined to return to their homeland and decorate the entrance to the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNKh), where it is still located.

Using the example of Vera Mukhina, we can see how thorny in the Soviet period was the path of a great artist who had his own convictions and knew how to defend them, how complex his relationship was with the authorities, who perceived art only as a tool for political agitation. Vera Mukhina was sincerely fascinated by the ideals of equality, labor, and health proposed by communism, but in her life and work it is impossible to find approval of the violence and despotism unleashed by the authorities under the pretext of achieving these ideals.

Apartment house of the heirs of N.P. Tsirkunov (Chisty lane, 10).

Apartment house of the heirs of N.P. Tsirkunov

In the apartment building of the heirs of N.P. Tsirkunov in the twenties of the twentieth century lived the writer Boris Zhitkov, the author of well-known stories for children, published in children's newspapers and magazines “Pioneer”, “New Robinson”, “Young Naturalist”, etc. But, in addition to this fact, the building is famous for its unique design facade, it was built in 1908-1909 according to the design of architect V.S. Maslennikova. The facade is asymmetrical and multi-layered, it is divided into three parts, each part of the facade has its own style, its own architectural theme. The left part of the facade is made in the style of northern modernism; it is stylized as a tower, on the walls of which there is imitation stone masonry, and the windows of the third floor have characteristic bevels in the upper part. The middle part, decorated with Corinthian pilasters and an ornamental stucco frieze and lined with snow-white ceramic tiles, is made rather in the style of classicism. The far right wing looks like the facade of a mansion in the Art Nouveau style with two towers, one of which is topped with an unusual dome in the shape of a helmet, like the ones worn by Russian heroes.

It is worth mentioning the biography of the architect of this building. Vitaly Semenovich Maslennikov was born in 1882 into a large family of a zemstvo teacher. From the age of 15, Vitaly gave lessons and worked part-time as a draftsman. Later he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and graduated in 1907 with a silver medal. Vitaly Semenovich was an active participant in the events of the 1905 revolution. Since 1908, after graduating from college, he worked as an assistant to a local architect; according to Maslennikov’s designs, several apartment buildings in the Art Nouveau style were erected in Moscow, including the one we see in front of us now. In 1909, Maslennikov went to Paris, where he studied architecture with Professor Cormonne; in 1913, he also visited several European countries, expanding his professional knowledge. After the revolution of 1917, in the 1920s, Maslennikova, together with his brother Boris Maslennikov, a famous Russian aviator who founded the first aviation school "Eagle" on Khodynka in 1911 and was recognized in 1923 as a "harmful social element", was exiled to Omsk. In 1932, the architect was transferred to Novosibirsk, to Sibmetallotrest, where he worked under supervision on the construction of the Sibcombine plant. In the same 1932, Vitaly Maslennikov became a teacher at the Siberian Construction Institute. The architect’s works include his collaboration on such famous buildings in Novosibirsk as the House of Science and Culture and the so-called hundred-apartment residential building on Krasny Prospekt, the project of which received the Grand Prix at the exhibition of arts and technology in Paris. The fate of Maslennikov’s brother Boris, an aviator, was even more tragic: after being expelled from Moscow, he first worked as an instructor at Sibaviakhim, then as the head of a special laboratory at Dalstroy, and in 1939 he was convicted “of espionage for Germany and anti-Soviet agitation” and sent to 8 years to Norilnag for forced labor. The life of the Maslennikov brothers is perhaps one of many examples of how talented people, passionate about their profession, often completely innocent, were subjected to repression during the Soviet period.

Manor A.D. Ofrosimova / Residence of the Patriarch (Chisty Lane, 5).

Manor A.D. Ofrosimova

The mansion, which has long been known in Moscow as the Ofrosimova estate, was built back in the 18th century for its first owner, Captain Artemy Alekseevich Obukhov, after whose last name Chisty Lane was called Obukhovsky or Obukhov before the revolution. This plot of land near Prechistenka passed to the noble family of Ofrosimov in 1796. In particular, since 1805, the owner of the estate was Major General, Chief Krieg Commissioner Pavel Afanasyevich Ofrosimov, and after his death in 1817, his widow Anastasia Dmitrievna Ofrosimova, a well-known person in Moscow secular society, was repeatedly mentioned in the memoirs of her contemporaries.

Anastasia Dmitrievna was famous in the capital's elite for her intelligence, frankness, determination, tough character and willfulness; she was extremely popular in the world. Ofrosimov was afraid not only of her own husband, whom, as she admitted not without pride, she had kidnapped from her father’s house and taken to the crown, but also of many high society persons - she could tell everyone everything she thought, they listened to her opinion, they craved her boss’s favor. According to P.A. Vyazemsky “Ofrosimova was a governor in Moscow for a long time in the old years, she had strength and power in Moscow society,” and M.I. Pylyaev described Nastasya Dmitrievna this way: “a tall old woman, of a masculine type, with even a decent mustache; her face was stern, dark, with black eyes; in a word, the type under which children usually imagine a witch.” There were many stories and anecdotes about Ofrosimova in Moscow and St. Petersburg. This colorful personality was immortalized in their works by two classics of Russian literature: in the comedy “Woe from Wit” Griboyedov brought her under the name of the old woman Khlestova, Famusov’s sister-in-law, and L.N. Tolstoy in the novel “War and Peace” - Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, boldly reprimanding Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Bolkonsky and foiling Natasha Rostova's plan to run away with Anatoly Kuragin. And although in these two works the authors present the heroines, whose prototypes were Ofrosimova, in completely different ways - one emphasizes her negative eccentricity, impudence and even ugliness, and the other evaluates her independence and soundness of thinking - in both heroines of these works of art, all of Moscow unmistakably recognized A.D. Ofrosimov.

After the fire of Moscow in 1812, the Ofrosimovs' manor house was rebuilt by the architect F.K. Sokolov, who completed the design of the estate according to a typical plan for Storomoskovsky noble dwellings: the main house located in the depths of the plot, and two outbuildings on either side of it. The estate was built in wood, all its buildings were built with mezzanines and decorated with porticoes on the street side - Ionic at the main house and Tuscan at the outbuildings. In 1847, the main house was expanded by adding side brick projections. After the reconstruction of the estate in 1878, the facade of the main building received the somewhat dry architectural design that exists today with eclectic elements, at the same time the internal redevelopment of the building was carried out and the interiors were changed, a glass lantern was installed above the internal staircase leading to the mezzanine. In 1897, a wrought-iron fence with massive pylons and two entrance gates stretched along the line of the lane.

Manor A.D. Ofrosimova

In 1899, Maria Ivanovna Protopopova became the owner of the estate. According to the tradition of merchant families of that time, the home ownership was registered in her name, although it was actually acquired by her husband, a major Moscow entrepreneur, banker and generous benefactor Stepan Alekseevich Protopopov.

When the Protopopovs were the owners of the estate, the left wing was rebuilt into a comfortable stone mansion, rented out to wealthy tenants. The Protopopovs themselves occupied the main manor house, and their daughter occupied the right wooden wing. On the pediment of the façade of the main house a magnificent monogram “MP” appeared, composed of the initials of the owner of the estate, Maria Protopopova.

In 1918, the estate was confiscated and used for housing and institutions. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviets and Germany in 1922, the estate in Obukhov Lane, which was then renamed Chisty, was given over to the residence of the German Ambassador in Moscow. It is interesting that the last German ambassador who lived here was Count Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, known for the fact that on May 5, 1941, he told representatives of the Soviet authorities the exact date of the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, and a few years later he joined the German anti-Hitler opposition and was executed by the Nazis in 1944.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the former estate of Ofrosimova and the former residence of the German ambassador was subjected to thorough searches, sealed and empty until 1943, until it was transferred to the disposal of the Moscow Patriarchate. Today, this estate houses the working residence of the patriarch, which, along with the residence in the Danilov Monastery and the Patriarchal Chambers in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, is the representative office of Patriarch Kirill in Moscow. Now the monogram “MP” on the façade of the estate can rightfully be read as “Moscow Patriarchate”.

Prechistenskoye fire station and police station (Chisty lane, 2/22).

Prechistenskoye fire station

Next to the house where Isadora Duncan lived, at 22 Prechistenka, there was a fire station since the 19th century. The building in which it was located was built in 1764 according to the design of the architect Matvey Kazakov and originally belonged to Princess Khovanskaya; after 1812 it became the property of the relatives of the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, General A.P. Ermolov, who lived in the neighboring 20th house. At the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, the house was built on and acquired a classicist style, the facade of the building in the center was decorated with a monumental risalit, decorated with slender Corinthian half-columns and pilasters, resting on a rusticated arched plinth, the loosened cornice of the risalit was in plastic harmony with alternating pairs of half-columns and pilasters.

In 1835, the mansion was purchased by the treasury to house the Moscow fire station, which was transferred from Volkhonka in connection with the start of construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior there. In addition to the fire department, a police detachment was also stationed in the building.

In the early 1840s, the fire station building was expanded with an addition, doubling the length of its façade. In the new attached part, the design used the technique of repeating the leading element of the old part of the building; here the same risalit was built, symmetrical to the existing one in the relatively new center of the building, this gave the house greater scale and representativeness. Also, a wooden fire tower was built above the center of the building (its construction was completed in 1843), which was a slender round tiered tower with a ring colonnade. Thanks to the high tower, the fire station house acquired a leading role in the city ensemble. The sentries surveyed the city from the tower and, if signs of fire were detected, they sounded an alarm signal, and immediately a team of firefighters rushed in convoys or on road to the scene of the incident.

Prechistenskoye fire station and police station. Photo from the 1900s

It is worth noting that Moscow fire departments have always had the best horses at their disposal. Moreover, each part kept horses of a certain color, for example, Tverskaya - yellow-piebald, Taganskaya - roan, and Arbatskaya - bay. To maintain an excellent “transport fund” of fire departments, there was even a custom to confiscate horses from street “reckless” drivers without a court order and give them for the use of firefighters. In addition, of course, the horses were carefully looked after. In the 60s of the 19th century, Moscow police chief Ogarev personally came to fire stations and, using his snow-white handkerchief, checked whether the horses were well cleaned. The first fire truck appeared at the Prechistensky fire station in 1908. It had a sliding staircase on top, however, it did not rise higher than the third floor, which by modern standards is not enough, but for that time such an innovation was simply a miracle. When leaving to extinguish the fire at the same time as horse-drawn convoys, the car almost immediately was seriously ahead of them and arrived at the scene first, so the fireman and the fireman, a paramedic and several of the most desperate daredevil firefighters always went out on an alarm in a fire truck.

In 1915, to expand the fire department, an additional building was built on Chisty Lane, the design repeating the main facade on Prechistenka. The fire tower was dismantled in 1930 “as unnecessary.”

Mosaic in the courtyard of the district building on Prechistenka

Today, in the building on Prechistenka, 22, the Main Fire Department for the city of Moscow is located, and all Moscow telephone calls to number 01 converge here, as they say.

The estate of Denis Davydov (Prechistenka, 17/10).

Prechistensky Palace of Denis Davydov

Initially, this luxurious manor house in Empire style belonged (since 1770) to the Bibikov nobles, one of whom - Chief General Alexander Ilyich Bibikov - was the commander-in-chief of the troops to suppress the peasant uprising of Emelyan Pugachev. A strong-willed and experienced military leader who strictly followed the instructions of Alexander Suvorov, he organized the matter in such a way that in a short time hordes of rebels were forced to flee from the Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg and Yekaterinburg they occupied. And later they managed to capture and execute Pugachev himself. By the way, the future owner of the Bibikovs’ estate on Prechistenka, chief police officer of the Moscow police Nikolai Petrovich Arkharov, also took part in the investigation of this exceptional case.

Nikolai Petrovich Arkharov was a very interesting person. He gained fame as a legendary detective, whose talent was heard even abroad; for example, the chief of the Parisian police was in such admiration for Arkharov’s abilities that he even once sent him a letter of praise, in which he expressed his sincere respect. The surname “Arkharov” awed the Russian criminal community. The expression “Arkharovites” is still in use among the people, applied today to hooligans, robbers and desperate people in general, but few people know that this expression came precisely from Nikolai Petrovich Arkharov with his rigid system of harsh and decisive measures to suppress crime and those subordinate to him a police regiment that kept the entire city in fear. Arkharov had exceptional analytical skills and powers of observation: with one glance at a suspect, he could accurately determine whether he was guilty or not. His amazing abilities for quickly and accurately solving crimes were also known in St. Petersburg; Catherine II herself turned to the Moscow chief of police for help when one day her beloved icon of the Tolga Mother of God disappeared from the house church of the Winter Palace. Arkharov found the icon the very next day. Another time, Nikolai Petrovich, without leaving Moscow, uncovered the theft of silver items committed in St. Petersburg; he figured out that the criminals hid the silver in the most unpredictable place - in the basement next to the house of the capital's chief police chief - where no one would have lost it. didn't bother looking.

Nikolai Arkharov made a brilliant career as an official, not stopping at the position of chief police chief of Moscow. Subsequently, he played the role of first the Moscow governor, and then the St. Petersburg governor.

By the way, next door to Nikolai Petrovich, on the same Prechistenka, lived his brother Ivan Petrovich, in whose former palace the House of Scientists, which we have already mentioned earlier, is now located.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the estate on Prechistenka again passed to the Bibikovs. It is acquired by General G.P. Bibikov, who was reputed to be a great lover of music and organized luxurious balls and concerts in it, which attracted all the Moscow nobility and the largest representatives of Russian bohemia. For example, Alexander Pushkin with Natalya Goncharova, Count Fyodor Tolstoy (an American, as he was called), Prince Peter Vyazemsky and many others were here. General Bibikov willingly introduced his serfs to art, for example, the famous Russian pianist, composer and conductor Daniil Nikitovich Kashin was none other than the serf musician Danilka from Bibikov’s estate.

During the Moscow fire of 1812, the estate was seriously damaged, and Nikolai Petrovich undertook to rebuild it. It was as a result of the restructuring he undertook that the mansion was built with a mezzanine, included in the complex composition of the main entrance, and stucco decorations appeared on the sides of the building's facade.

In 1835, Lieutenant General Denis Vasilyevich Davydov bought the house from Bibikov. This glorious hussar, partisan and poet was a native Muscovite; he was born in Moscow and spent his childhood and adolescence. His father, a wealthy landowner, foreman who served under the command of Alexander Suvorov, Vasily Denisovich Davydov, owned a large house with a garden here on Prechistenka (the house has not survived). Probably precisely because he spent his childhood here, Denis Davydov was drawn to Prechistenka; his own home was always located on this street or nearby. After acquiring the estate, Denis Davydov, as was then customary in high society, brought in a doorman, valet and other servants in the mansion. In a letter to his friend Alexander Pushkin, he proudly reported that he now had “a huge stone house in Moscow, window to window with a fire station.”

Everything seemed to be moving systematically towards the fact that the dashing warrior, who had retired, would finally begin to lead the measured life of a pensioner who had earned the peace. However, Davydov did not succeed in becoming an honorary homeowner, because it turned out that between the art of guerrilla warfare and the ability to competently manage real estate, “there are huge distances,” as Griboyedov’s Colonel Skalozub said. Just a year after purchasing the estate, Denis Davydov was literally exhausted by the endless problems of maintaining and maintaining a huge household. It became clear to Davydov that he was no longer able to maintain such a gigantic mansion. In addition, the proximity to the fire department and police was not at all a joy. From the watchtower of the fire station, the screams of the orderly and the ringing of the alarm bell were heard every now and then; along the cobblestones of the pavement, under the shouts and commands of the fire chiefs, fire convoys endlessly rumbled, hurrying on alarm or to training exercises; the police also did not lag behind in their zeal. What kind of peace is there!? It is not surprising that already in 1836 Davydov decides to sell the estate. Addressed to his friend Senator A.A. Bashilov, he composes a humorous petition with a request to buy his estate on Prechistenka for the residence of the chief police chief of the city (especially since one had already lived there before) for “only” 100 thousand rubles:

Nevertheless, in 1837, Davydov’s estate on Prechistenka found its new owner, was sold, and Denis Vasilyevich moved to his estate in the Simbirsk province and from then on visited Moscow only on short visits.

Later, the former estate of Denis Davydov changed owners several times. Here lived the famous Moscow doctor Illarion Ivanovich Dubrovo, a resident of a Moscow military hospital, who gave his life saving one of the patients. Anton Chekhov, admiring Dubrovo's act, made him the prototype of his character - Doctor Osip Dymov from the story "The Jumper".

Before the revolution, the famous women's gymnasium of Sofia Aleksandrovna Arsenyeva was located in the estate. At the same time, the no less famous men's gymnasium of Lev Ivanovich Polivanov was located in the Okhotnikovs' estate on Prechistenka, 32. Both educational institutions were respected and popular, and if parents sent their sons to the Polivanov gymnasium, their daughters almost always studied with Arsenyeva, and vice versa.

During Soviet times, the mansion of the Davydov estate was occupied by officials of the district committee of the Communist Party. Today the building houses a reputable commercial organization.

Apartment building S.F. Kulagina / House from “Heart of a Dog” (Prechistenka, 24).

House of Professor Preobrazhensky, or Kalabukhovsky House

Apartment building S.F. Kulagin is now better known as the house from the story “The Heart of a Dog”; it was in it that the main events of this wonderful work took place. The building was built in 1904. Architect - S.F. Kulagin. The owner of the house is Pavlovskaya Ekaterina Sergeevna. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the uncle of the writer M. Bulgakov, the famous gynecologist N.M. Pokrovsky, lived in this house; he served as the prototype for Professor Preobrazhensky. In the story “Heart of a Dog” this house appears as the house of Professor Preobrazhensky, or “Kalabukhov House”. Here, in this house, the newly minted citizen Sharikov laid claim to the legal “16 square arshins” of the professor’s apartment.

Apartment house of I.P. Isakov (Prechistenka, 28).

Apartment building I.P. Isakova

House No. 28 on Prechistenka Street was built in 1904-1906 in the Art Nouveau style by one of the largest architects of the new architectural movement, Lev Kekushev. The house was built as an income house, intended for wealthy tenants. Immediately after completion of construction, the building was purchased by the St. Petersburg merchant I.P. Isakov.

Isakov's apartment building on Prechistenka, along with Mindovsky's mansion on Povarskaya, can be considered the most striking examples of Moscow Art Nouveau. This house evokes a pleasant impression on many at first sight. It is very noticeable against the background of other mansions located on Prechistenka, and characterizes the transition from the world of “noble nests” built in the traditional classicism manner of that era to the world of mansions and apartment buildings of industrial and financial “oligarchs” of the late 19th - early 20th centuries , already being built in the new fashion trends of pampered, languid and whimsical modernity.

Apartment building I.P. Isakov. Decor elements

A distinctive feature of the architecture of the house can be called the asymmetry of the building plan, due to the configuration of the site: the rear part of the building, facing the courtyard, has 6 floors, and the front part, facing the street, has 5. Of course, the decor of the building, executed at a high artistic level, also stands out. There are a huge number of both small and large decorative elements: elegant patterns of frames of various shapes and sizes of windows, light and airy openwork forging of balcony grilles, bay windows protruding along the edges of the building, a large dormer window in the center, under the bend of a strongly protruding cornice, molded lace mesh frieze of the upper floor, sculptural images of two female figures with a torch and a book in their hands - allegories of knowledge and enlightenment. The decor of the house is distributed in such a way that it becomes richer with each floor, reaching its peak at the top. By the way, the initially wave-like shape of the cornice was emphasized by a statue that stood on the roof that has not survived to this day. In decorating the building, the architect used the basic techniques of Art Nouveau, combining them with neo-Baroque decor, which is characteristic of the French variety of Art Nouveau - Art Nouveau.

Dolgorukov Palace (Prechistenka, 19).

Dolgorukov Palace on Prechistenka

The Dolgorukov (Dolgoruky) Palace can be called one of the most beautiful buildings in Moscow of the Classical era. Its construction began in 1788, the construction was carried out by the famous architect Matvey Kazakov, who erected this luxurious mansion for the owner of the estate - a prominent military and political figure under Catherine II, general-in-chief and senator M.N. Krechetnikov. And in 1795, the Dolgorukov princes acquired the mansion and owned it for more than half a century.

In 1863, the Dolgoruky mansion was rented by the Alexander-Mariinsky School for Girls, founded with funds from the wife of General P.A. Chertov, commandant of Paris in 1814, cavalry lady V.E. Chertovaya and subsequently transformed into the Alexander-Mariinsky Institute of Noble Maidens.

In 1868, the estate was purchased by V.E. Chertovaya and became the full property of the institute.

After the 1917 revolution, the buildings of the former Dolgorukov estate were occupied by numerous institutions of the Military Department. By the period of perestroika, the Dolgorukov Palace, which had been given over to government organizations, had fallen into a fairly neglected state. Only in 1998, the architectural ensemble “Dolgorukov House” - “Alexandro-Mariinsky Institute” was finally restored under the leadership of the President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli. In 2001, the Exhibition Complex of the Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery was opened there.

House of I.A. Morozova / Russian Academy of Arts (Prechistenka, 21).

House-gallery I.A. Morozova

The famous philanthropist and collector, representative of the dynasty of Russian industrialists Ivan Morozov acquired the estate at Prechistenka, 21 at the end of the 19th century. Having moved from Tver, where he was engaged in family business, to Moscow, he bought an old noble estate on Prechistenka from the widow of his uncle David Abramovich Morozov and began to gradually become involved in social life and the world of fine art, which would soon become the main passion in life for Ivan Morozov. Meanwhile, he does not ignore both business and public work. Ivan Abramovich arose an interest in art, most likely under the influence of his brother Mikhail and his entourage, which consisted mainly of actors, writers, and artists. Following his brother, Ivan also became involved in collecting paintings. His passion for painting begins with paintings by Russian landscape painters and gradually, as his own taste develops, moves to Western European authors, in particular, to French artists. He decides to place the growing collection in his mansion on Prechistenka, for which purpose in 1905 he begins rebuilding the entire building, hiring for this work the then fashionable architect Lev Kekushev, who, at the request of the customer, turns the rooms of the mansion into spacious exhibition halls. From that time on, Ivan Morozov’s passion for collecting paintings acquired definiteness and direction, and with even greater passion he began to systematically replenish his collection. According to contemporaries, the flow of paintings sent from Europe to the mansion on Prechistenka was truly fantastic in its volume. After 1914, Morozov's collection of paintings consisted of more than 250 works of the latest French fine art. Morozov was the owner of a whole series of paintings by Van Gogh, the best works of Renoir, and about two dozen paintings by Cezanne. The work of Russian masters in Morozov's collection was represented by more than a hundred works by Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Vrubel, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Boris Kustodiev and other artists. Ivan Abramovich spends colossal sums on his hobby; he could afford such luxury and scope thanks to the income brought by the Morozov manufactory in Tver. The Western community of collectors, collectors and art connoisseurs remembered Morozov as “a Russian who does not bargain.”

Ivan Morozov planned to bequeath his enthusiastically expanding collection to the state. The revolution slightly adjusted these plans. The Tver manufactory of the Morozovs was nationalized, the mansion on Prechistenka and the collection of paintings from Ivan Abramovich were simply confiscated. The gallery he organized in his own home is renamed the “2nd Museum of New Western Painting,” and he himself, now the former owner of this treasury of fine art, is appointed, as if in mockery, as deputy custodian of his own collection. For several months he holds this position, guiding visitors around the museum, and lives with his family in three rooms allocated to them on the ground floor of their former manor house. In the spring of 1919, Morozov and his family emigrated from Russia to Europe. In 1921, Ivan Abramovich dies of acute heart failure.

His collection has survived, although it has undergone a number of changes, as a result of which some truly priceless paintings were sold to Western collectors, and some were almost destroyed. Now the paintings collected by Morozov are included in the collections of the Hermitage and the Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. Today the Russian Academy of Arts is located in his house on Prechistenka.

Estate P.Ya. Okhotnikova (Prechistenka, 32).

Estate P.Ya. Okhotnikova

The so-called Okhotnikov estate, built on the verge of the 18th-19th centuries, then, after the fire of 1812, reconstructed. Initially, the wooden estate of the Talyzins was located on this site. In 1808, the officer and nobleman Pavel Yakovlevich Okhotnikov, who wished to move to live in Moscow, purchased the estate from the wife of Lieutenant General Talyzin and even began rebuilding it, but, probably fortunately, he did not do much. Fortunately, because in 1812 there was a general Moscow fire, which did not spare the houses on Prechistenka, including the estate purchased by Okhotnikov.

In 1816, Okhotnikov decides to restore the burnt estate and rebuild it in stone. As a result of this decision, a large three-story house was built, the main facade of which stretched along the street for more than 70 meters. According to some information, the author of the project for the new manor house was the famous architect F.K. Sokolov, although this is not known for certain, because The documents that have survived to this day only say that the builder of the house was a certain peasant Leshkin, with whom Okhotnikov had a contract for construction work. Despite the considerable length of the house, it is successfully divided into parts from the point of view of composition, highlighting the central eight-columned portico of the Doric order, placed on the second floor of the building by placing its columns on the pylons of the first floor and ending with a beautiful pediment. The design of the columns of the portico stands out especially: the flutes - vertical grooves on the trunks of the columns - reach only half their height, while the top of the columns is left smooth. This interpretation of columns is unusual for Moscow architecture and has no analogues. And in general, the building, taking into account the excellent proportions of the facade and unusual interiors, can be classified as one of the most interesting buildings of late Moscow classicism.

After the death of Pavel Yakovlevich Okhotnikov in 1841, the estate became the property of his heirs. However, the abolition of serfdom in 1861 did not allow Okhotnikov’s relatives to live on the same scale; they were no longer able to maintain such a large house and were forced to rent it out and later sell it altogether.

In 1879, the estate came into the possession of the merchants Pegov. They owned it until 1915, when the rich timber merchant V.I. bought the estate from them. Firsanova. But it was not the owners who made this house famous, but the tenants. In 1868, a private men's gymnasium of the outstanding teacher L.I. Polivanov was located in a rented estate, whose graduates were many famous people. For example, it was completed by the sons of Tolstoy L.N. and Ostrovsky A.N., famous future poets Valery Bryusov, Konstantin Balmont and Andrei Bely, philosopher Vladimir Solovyov and many other famous people. Before the revolution, this gymnasium was considered the best men's gymnasium in Moscow. Nowadays, the building of the former gymnasium houses children's schools: art and music.

If you enter the courtyard of Okhotnikov’s estate, you may unexpectedly find yourself in an amazing, truly old-Moscow space that has nothing in common with the noisy life of a modern metropolis.

Estate P.Ya. Okhotnikova. Backyard

The courtyard is enclosed by two exceptionally picturesque semicircular two-story buildings, forming a so-called circumference, their upper floors are built in wood, and the lower ones are open arcades on white stone columns. These are the former stables of the estate. The wide openings of the arches in the lower floor are needed just for entry into the sleighs and carriages. Nestled between the stables is a nondescript two-story house, in which it is now almost impossible to recognize the former house church of the estate. Such small churches on the territory of their estates were often built for themselves by wealthy townspeople.

Samsonov-Golubev estate (Prechistenka, 35).

Samsonov-Golubev estate

The wooden house of the Samsonov-Golubev estate was built in 1813-1817. This is one of the few surviving wooden buildings of old Moscow. The house is built on a stone foundation - a semi-basement - and carefully plastered, so you can’t immediately tell that the mansion is made of wood. The mansion is decorated with magnificent stucco moldings and six slender Corinthian columns that support a stucco ornamental frieze under the pediment of the building. The ensemble of the manor house is complemented by a stone wing on the left, built in 1836, and the entrance gate; the right wing of the manor, unfortunately, has been lost.

Apartment building A.K. Giraud. (Prechistenka, 39/22).

Apartment building A.K. Giraud

An apartment building that belonged to A.K. Zhiro, built in 1892-1913. Andrei Klavdievich Giraud, the son of the famous merchant of French origin Claudius Osipovich Giraud throughout Moscow, the founder of one of the largest silk industries in Russia, followed in his father’s footsteps, like his other two brothers, and was also a textile manufacturer, co-owner of his father’s silk factory in Khamovniki, nationalized after the revolution and called the “Red Rose”.

The apartment building on Prechistenka was built in two stages. The first stage - along Prechistenka - was built according to the design of the architect A.A. Ostrogradsky in 1892, the second stage - along Zubovsky Boulevard - according to the project of I.S. Kuznetsov in 1913. The facade of the house, facing Prechistenka, is eclectically decorated with stucco and sculptures. The sculptural composition of the aedicule above the entrance to the building stands out especially: under its pediment, leaning on the arched vault, lie two warriors - Hercules and Odysseus.

Apartment building A.K. Giraud. Decorative element - aedicule above the entrance

Apartment building A.K. Giraud. Hercules and Odysseus

At the end of the 19th century, Mikhail Vrubel rented an apartment from Giraud, who worked here on his painting “The Swan Princess,” one of his most epic creations, as well as on the equally famous clear-eyed “Pan.” Rimsky-Korsakov, who worked on the Moscow productions of the operas “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” and “The Tsar’s Bride”, often visited Vrubel in this house, the main roles in which were intended for the singer Nadezhda Zabela, Vrubel’s wife.

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Attention! Slide previews are for informational purposes only and may not represent all the features of the presentation. If you are interested in this work, please download the full version.

1. The main idea and novelty of the project

Many historical places of the Moscow region near Zelenograd are widely known and are the objects of popular excursions (Shakhmatovo, Serednikovo, Boblovo). In this regard, the idea arose to introduce students to iconic places in the Moscow region, which still remain unknown to many. In the vicinity of Zelenograd (Zelenograd is one of the districts of Moscow, surrounded by the Solnechnogorsk district) there is a historical place associated with the name of the hero of the war of 1812, the poet Denis Davydov.

In the process of developing the route, having arrived in Myshetskoye and trying to find a historical place with the help of local residents, we were surprised to find that many knew nothing about the surviving oak trees and the former estate of Denis Davydov.

2. Goals and objectives

• awakening interest in the history of the native land;
• education of patriotic feelings (the heroism of Russian soldiers in 1812);
• implementation of interdisciplinary connections - history with geography and literature;
• involving students in search activities when preparing assignments on the topic of the excursion.

3. Project development and implementation methods

• information search (Internet, historical fiction, reference books);
• studying a map of the area according to which the route is laid;
• acquaintance with the creative heritage of D. Davydov;
• organization of excursions.

Project implementation

1. In anticipation of the trip, preparatory work was carried out. Students received assignments to choose from:

– find the coats of arms of the village of Myshetskoye and the village of Chernaya Gryaz and prepare a message;

– get acquainted with the poetry of Denis Davydov and choose poems dedicated to the Battle of Borodino.

2. The main historical material was prepared by the organizers and developers of the excursion.

3. Drawing up a route plan

Stages - stops

Stop one(at the entrance to the village near the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary):

• Acquaintance with the history of the village of Myshetskoye and the history of the purchase of the estate by Davydov - ( teacher's message);
• Historical information about Denis Vasilievich Davydov ( student message).
• Coat of arms of the village of Myshetskoye ( student message)

Stop two(walk 20 meters in the direction of the lake)

• Life in Myshetsky ( teacher's message);
• Poetry by D.V. Davydov ( students read);
• About “heroic” oaks ( teacher's message);
• Contemporaries about D.V. Davydov ( teacher's message);
• Denis Davydov - the darling of fate? ( teacher's message);

Stop three(Lake Krugloe)

• On the way to the lake;
• Lake of glacial origin ( teacher's message).

Stop four(Black Dirt Village)

• Built by Catherine II ( teacher's message);
• Davydov's role in the fight against the epidemic ( teacher's message);
• Coat of arms of the village of Black Mud ( student message);

4. Assessing the significance of the project

Description of the excursion route

1st stop

The ancient village of Myshetskoye (teacher's message) (slide 2)

The ancient village of Myshetskoye is located 15 kilometers from Zelenograd near the station. Gangway.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the village was called Novo-Ozeretskoye and was a palace estate. In 1630, from the order of the Grand Palace, it was sold to Prince Efimy Fedorovich Myshetsky. Since then, the village received the name Myshetskoye, which has survived to this day. The prince had three sons. One of the sons, Yakov, was a steward, and after the death of his father he became the owner of the village. Under Jacob, in 1684, a temple was erected in Myshetskoye in the name of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. The temple has not survived to this day; it was dismantled into bricks in 1941. But what it was like can be imagined from the drawings of students of the architectural institute who had an internship in Myshetskoye before the war. The temple was built in the early Baroque style and had the shape of a single-headed cube. Now, on the site of the destroyed temple, a new tented church in the neo-Russian style has been erected.

After the death of Prince Yakov Myshetsky in 1700, the village went to his daughter Nastasya, the wife of Kirill Naryshkin, a distant relative of Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, mother of Peter I. The village was sold several times, it had many owners.

Myshetskoye – Davydov’s estate(slide 3)

In 1822, it was bought by the poet and partisan, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Major General Denis Vasilyevich Davydov.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, Denis Davydov formed the first army partisan detachment. This detachment consisted of 50 Akhtyrsky hussars and 80 Don Cossacks, whom Davydov personally selected.

Davydov believed that the partisan movement was capable of turning a “military war into a people’s war.” Davydov's detachment operated in the rear of the French army. The Akhtyr partisans received their first baptism of fire on September 2 near the village of Tokarevo, Smolensk province, having destroyed a large detachment of marauders and captured about 100 people. The detachment inflicted significant damage on the enemy army, smashing and intercepting transports with forage and provisions.

This is how L.N. Tolstoy wrote about the actions of the partisans in the novel “War and Peace”:

“Denis Davydov, with his Russian instinct, was the first to understand the meaning of this terrible weapon, which, without asking the rules of military art, destroyed the French, and he has the glory of the first step to legitimize this method of war.”

Coat of arms of the village of Myshetskoye(slide 4)

Like many villages in the Solnechnogorsk region, Myshetskoye has its own coat of arms, which was approved on August 17, 1989. The authors of the coat of arms are Konstantin and Yuri Mochenov.

The coat of arms is presented in the form of a green shield with a blue disc. On the disk is a hussar's shako, indicating that in the 19th century there was an estate in the village of the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Denis Dadydov. The blue disk is bordered by a wreath of laurel leaves, signifying strength, glory and memory of the soldiers who fell during the defense of Moscow in November-December 1941. A blue disk means that the village is located on the shore of Lake Krugloe. The green color of the field indicates the surroundings of the village. In the free part of the shield is the tower of the Moscow Kremlin, meaning that the village is located in the Moscow region.

2nd stop

Life in Myshetsky(slide 5)

Not far from the church was the estate of Denis Davydov, where he lived with his family from 1825 to 1832, after retiring.

In Myshetskoye, Davydov was engaged in agriculture, went hunting, raised children, wrote poetry and memoirs. In his letters, Davydov invited friends to hunt: “From morning to evening I am on a horse and scouring the mosses and swamps. Come to my Myshetskoye. Now it’s autumn, you and I will go for a walk after hares and even bears, of which there are more around me than hares.” The master's house in Myshetskoye was small, wooden, with a façade facing Lake Krugloye.

In Myshetskoye, Denis Davydov wrote the poems "Borodinsky Field", "Partisan", "Modern Song"....

Poetry by D.V. Davydov(read by students)

Elegy

Silent hills, once bloody valley!
Give me your day, the day of eternal glory,
And the noise of weapons, and the battle, and the struggle!
My sword fell from my hands. my destiny
The strong trampled. Happy people are proud
They drag me to the fields like an involuntary plowman...
Oh, throw me into battle, you, experienced in battles,
You, with your voice giving birth to the shelves
The death of enemies is a foreboding cry,
Homeric leader, the great Bagration?
Extend your hand to me, Raevsky, my hero!
Ermolov! I'm flying - lead me, I'm yours:
Oh, doomed to be the beloved son of victory,
Cover me, cover your Peruns with smoke!

But where are you?.. I’m listening... No response! From the fields
The smoke of battle fled away, the sound of swords was not heard,
And I, your pet, bowing my head at the plow,
I envy the bones of a colleague or friend.

Partisan

Fragment from an unrealized (maybe lost) autobiographical poem about the war of 1812

The battle fell silent. Night Shadow
Moscow's surroundings cover;
In the distance is Kutuzov's kuren
One sparkles like a star.
A huge army of troops is seething in the darkness,
And over burning Moscow
The crimson glow lies
An endless strip.

And rushes along a secret path
Rising from the valley of battle
A cheerful swarm of riders
For remote fishing.
Like a pack of hungry wolves,
They soar through valleys:
Now they listen to the rustle, then again
They continue to scour silently.

The boss, wearing a burka on his shoulders,
In a shaggy Kabardian hat,
Burning in the forefront
Special military fury.
Son of white-stone Moscow,
But thrown into trouble early,
He thirsts for battle and rumors,
And what will happen there - the gods are free!

We haven’t known peace for them for a long time,
Hello relatives, the maiden's gentle gaze;
His love is a bloody battle
Relatives are Don people, a friend is a reliable horse.
He's through the rapids, through the hills
Bravely carries the rider,
Then he moves his ears sensitively,
Now he snorts, now he asks for the bit.

Their leap was also noticeable
On the heights beyond the barrier Nara,
Golden by the glow of the fire,
But soon the violent swarm rolled over the heights,
And soon his trace disappeared...
1826

About “heroic” oaks(slide 6)

After the Patriotic War of 1812, Davydov’s associates planted personalized oak trees in front of the façade of the house in a strict circle.

The modest house in Myshetskoye has not survived. But to this day, several oak trees planted by friends who took part in the War of 1812 and part of the manor park have survived. There is now a memorial plaque next to the oak trees.

On the site of the former estate there is a memorial plaque with the inscription:

Memorial place. Protected by Russian law.

Century-old oak trees planted by the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Russian poet Denis Vasilievich Davydov, in honor of the Victory

Contemporaries about D.V. Davydov(slide 7)

In Myshetsky, Davydov also wrote memoirs: “Military Notes”, “Diary of Partisan Actions of 1812”, “Meeting with the Great Suvorov”...

This is how Davydov wrote about himself and his meeting with the great commander in his biography: “Davydov, like all children, from his infancy had a passion for marching, throwing a gun and other military amusements. This passion received its highest direction in 1793 from the unexpected attention to him of Count Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov, who, while inspecting the Poltava Light Horse Regiment, which was then under the command of Davydov’s parent, noticed a playful child and, blessing him, said: “You will win three battles!” The little rake threw the psalter, waved his saber, gouged out the uncle’s eye and cut off the tail of the greyhound dog, thinking thereby to fulfill the great man’s prophecy. The rod turned him to peace...”

The poet Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazykov dedicated the following lines to Denis Davydov:

Glory, sonorous and beautiful
You deserve two wreaths!
Know that Suvorov is not in vain
I crossed your chest...

“Davydov is a happy darling”?

Some contemporaries often perceived Davydov as a successful, merry fellow. But was it all just fate? For his military exploits, he was promoted to the rank of general for the fierce battle of La Rotière, which took place before the eyes of the commander of the Silesian army. Davydov's merits in this matter were well known to his superiors. And the submission was signed personally by the Prussian General Blucher, to whom Alexander I always favored and interceded.

But at the end of 1814, a few days before Christmas, an order was sent from the military department to Davydov, which announced that he “received the rank of major general by mistake,” as a result of which he was again renamed colonel.

It was a heavy and blunt blow, like a blow to the head. Davydov, no matter how hard he tried, could not understand anything, what kind of mistake could we be talking about?

Friends supported me, as always. The poet P. Vyazemsky writes:

Let the general's epaulettes
I don’t see it on your shoulders,
From which often involuntarily
The shoulders of others rise;
Not everyone can have an equal share,
And lot is not like lot!
Another, fearless in the battlefield,
Shy at the doors of nobles;
Another, shy in the midst of battle,
With the steadfastness of a hero
The nobles are besieging the door!
But don’t worry about it now!

Davydov responded to these verses as follows: “The late Prince Bagration told me more than once that there is something in the world that is above titles and awards, meaning by this human dignity. To these fair words of the unforgettable Pyotr Ivanovich I can add something of which in my painful hours I was personally convinced: above all ranks and regalia, true friendship will forever remain. And you assured me of that, my friends!..

Denis Davydov as a poet and person was appreciated by many of his contemporaries, including Zhukovsky, Bagration, General Ermolov, Griboyedov, Pushkin... Davydov had a sincere friendship with Pushkin, despite the age difference of 15 years. Pushkin not only admired the hero of the famous battles, but was also grateful to Davydov for inspiring him to create his own style, “making him feel the opportunity to be original while still at the Lyceum.” “By praising my poems, he (Pushkin) began to write better,” Davydov boasted in a letter to Prince Vyazemsky.

Vissarion Belinsky wrote about Davydov: “Denis Davydov... is remarkable both as a poet, and as a military writer, and as a writer in general, and as a warrior - not only for his exemplary courage and some kind of knightly animation, but also for his talent as a military leader, and, finally, he is remarkable as a person, as a character. He is famous in all this, because in all this he rises above the level of mediocrity and ordinaryness.”

3rd stop (Lake Krugloye)

On the way to the lake

In the time of Denis Davydov, a spruce alley led from the oak trees towards the lake; you could go down a staircase of a hundred steps to the lake itself. This alley still exists, although the spruce trees have begun to die in recent years. There are no steps either. We go down a path without steps to Lake Krugloye.

Ice Age Lake

On the southern slopes of the Klinsko-Dmitrovskaya ridge there is one of the most interesting places in the Moscow region - three lakes: Krugloye, Dolgoye and beyond the Rogachevskoe highway - Nerskoye. They are of glacial origin.

Over the long period of the Ice Age, there were many individual cold snaps and warm spells. During cold weather, the ice sheet grew in thickness and moved south. When the climate warmed, the glacier began to melt. Not every glaciation reached these places. But even those glaciers that visited here left behind significant changes. They destroyed vegetation and soil, blocked rivers, smoothed out hills, giving them soft wavy outlines.

Along with the flowing ice, huge masses of sand, clay and stones moved, which remained in place after the glacier melted and filled the former ravines. As the glacier grew and spread, its leading edge shifted the soil ahead of it, and when it melted, ridges of hills remained at its former edge. Particularly large ridges formed in those places where the path of the glacier was blocked by elevations in the relief. One of these large ridges is Klinsko-Dmitrovskaya.

Lake Krugloye appeared in the post-glacial era, when a giant glacier retreating to the north, covering the territory of the present Moscow region, brought boulders, pebbles, sands and gravel from Scandinavia and Karelia, which formed hills and ridges, between which many lakes formed. The small river Alba flows into the lake, connecting it with Lake Dolgiy, and the Meshcherikha River (the left tributary of the Klyazma) flows out of it.

Lake Krugloye is about 1 km long and wide. Its depth is about 3 m. The water in it is cold. A Neolithic Bronze Age site belonging to the Fatyanovo culture was discovered on the eastern bank - one of the oldest in the Moscow region . Copper, bronze and stone objects, jewelry and ceramics were discovered.

If we were in this same place one million years ago, then perhaps what would surprise us most of all is the forests in which we found ourselves. A variety of deciduous trees, magnolias, lianas, palms, would remind us of the subtropics. Indeed, the climate in those days was much warmer than it is now. However, since those distant times everything has changed. The glaciers that came here after the cold snap changed the contours of the hills, river beds, and “pushed” heat-loving vegetation and animals far to the south.

4th stop (Black Dirt Village)

Built by Catherine II

In 1776, 32 kilometers from Moscow, the travel palace of Catherine II was built and a postal station was opened. It is mentioned in A.N. Radishchev’s book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” Many celebrities stayed here, including A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, A.I. Herzen.

Davydov's contribution to the fight against the epidemic

In 1830, cholera raged around Moscow. In order not to miss the epidemic, sanitary stations were created around Moscow, and barrier posts were created on the roads.

Denis Vasilyevich was one of the first to volunteer to help in the fight against cholera. He asked to be assigned to that point “that adjoins the St. Petersburg road, since here, seven miles from Black Mud, is my village of Myshetskoye, and my whole family is in it...”

Davydov, at site No. 20 under his jurisdiction, began setting up quarantine barracks, bathhouses, and guardhouses for soldiers. Moscow merchants allocated funds for this. Davydov coped with the task brilliantly: in his area the disease sharply declined, and his area was considered exemplary.

Coat of arms of the village of Black Mud

The blue color of the shield symbolizes the color of mail. The black tip is reminiscent of the name of the village. In the center of the shield there is an ancient milepost - the Moscow-Petersburg highway ran through the village, and now the Leningradskoye Highway passes through. On the sides of the post there are 2 postal horns, reminiscent of the fact that the village had the first postal station in Moscow. This is indicated by the inscription on the pillar - 32 (32 versts from Moscow). The Moscow Kremlin tower on the coat of arms means that the village is located in the Moscow region.

Significance of the project:

1. In creating a new excursion route.

2. Leads to the understanding of:

– you can find and discover the unknown very close by.

3. In realizing the connection of the historical process with the personal contribution of D. Davydov.

4. In tracing the interdisciplinary connections of history with geography and literature.

5. In the development of meta-subject skills in preparing and evaluating the information received.

6. In awakening creative activity (students prepare reports about the trip in the form of drawings, presentations, essays and speak to primary school students).

7. When students desire to learn more about the history of their native land.

Promising projects:

1. Andreevka. “Glass production - past and present” (100 m from Zelenograd).

2. Mendeleevo. “The site of primitive man. Lyalovo culture (5 km from Zelenograd).

3. Zelenograd. “Constructivism of the 60s” and “An Attempt to Create a Silicon Valley”

These excursion routes can be combined. You can additionally include the already known route to the Serednikovo estate.

Literature

1. Serebryakov G.V. Denis Davydov. Roman-newspaper No. 11-12, 1988.

2. Zadonsky N.A. Denis Davydov. Historical chronicle. M: Sovremennik, 1979.

3. Volkova N. Come to my Myshetskoye. Newspaper “Senezh” No. 23, 2010.

4 http://www.kulichki.com/gusary/istoriya/iskusstvo/poeziya/19vek/davpush.html

5. http://www.craneland.ru/?page_id=48

6. http://www.heraldicum.ru/russia/index.htm

7. http://hrammysheckoe.ru/istoriya

8. ttp://www.vidania.ru/literatura/pressa/denis_davydov_poet_geroy_vladelecl

9. http://cs622517.vk.me/v622517402/4c47f/5OH5zpt8ZAg.jpg