An old Moscow legend says that when in a camp church near Kazan at a lunch service the deacon proclaimed the Gospel verses: “Let there be one flock and one shepherd,” part of the fortress wall of the enemy city, under which a tunnel was made, flew into the air, and Russian troops entered to Kazan.
Then, apparently, Ivan the Terrible decided to build a temple in honor of the victory over Kazan. The city was taken in 1552, and in 1554 this great shrine was founded near the Frolovsky (Spassky) Gate on the site of the wooden Church of the Holy Trinity above the Kremlin moat. Since the conquest of Kazan took place on October 1, on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, the new cathedral was named Intercession Cathedral in honor of this day. Popular rumor spread the rumor that supposedly Ivan the Terrible built this temple in honor of his father, the Grand Duke Vasily III: “People will remember me even without churches for a thousand years, but I want my parent to be remembered.”
The temple was consecrated by Metropolitan Macarius on July 29, 1557 in the presence of the tsar, but construction was continued by the son of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, under whom the relics of St. Basil the Blessed, and subsequent sovereigns of the Romanov dynasty. Each new ruler added some detail to the temple, which made it so unique. However, the construction of the temple was officially completed on June 29, 1561.
Barma and Postnik. Alone or together?
Historians argue that this legend can be refuted by the fact that the name of Faster later appears in the chronicle in connection with the creation of other significant architectural structures.
Encrypted image of a lost mosque
There are many legends about the Intercession Cathedral. According to one of them, the temple is an inaccurate copy of the Kul-Sharif mosque in Kazan. When the army of Ivan the Terrible stormed the city, the tsar was angry with the resistance of the residents, he ordered the demolition of the beautiful mosque immediately after a successful assault. The gilded domes of the mosque, according to legend, were taken to Moscow on twelve carts. St. Basil's Cathedral, erected in honor of the conquest of Kazan, carries an encrypted image of the lost mosque. The eight chapters of the Moscow temple repeat the eight minarets of Kul-Sharif, and the ninth, as a symbol of victory, dominates them. Historians cannot completely deny this legend, because supposedly the architect was simultaneously working on Red Square and in Kazan, where he was erecting new walls of the Kremlin.
Researchers of the architecture of the Intercession Cathedral have repeatedly emphasized that it was not just a votive temple (that is, built according to a given vow), and its concept was not limited to thanksgiving for the Kazan victory.
The cathedral was supposed to become a temple for the glorification of the victory of Muscovite Rus', it was supposed to perpetuate the memory of those who died “for their friends” under the walls of Kazan, and, finally, the cathedral simultaneously marked the highest award “in the kingdom of heaven”, which they were supposed to receive, according to the teachings of the church , killed, and embodied the idea of Moscow as the “new Jerusalem” (the world center bringing salvation to the Orthodox world). That is, the Intercession Cathedral, on the one hand, was interpreted as a symbol of the heavenly city - the Mountainous Jerusalem, which was embodied in it through images of cheerful, festive, “paradise” architecture, and on the other hand, as an image of earthly Jerusalem, connected with the image and realities of the Temple Holy Sepulcher. It is Jerusalem that the cathedral is called by foreigners who visited in the 16th century. Muscovy and left notes about their travels.
Unique architecture of the Temple
Initially, the Intercession Cathedral was somewhat different from what we see now. First they built a wooden model, and then “translated” it into stone. This feature was also reflected in the architecture of the temple, which, with its tiered towers, tents and passages, resembles the northern wooden churches in the Karelian, Arkhangelsk, Vologda and Kostroma sides.
Not a single dome in this cathedral replicates another. One of them is densely dotted with golden cones, they are like stars in the sky on a dark night; on the other, scarlet belts run in zigzags across a bright field; the third resembles a peeled orange with yellow and green segments. Each dome is decorated with cornices, kokoshniks, windows, and niches. In general, the cathedral creates a feeling of festivity and elegance. Until the end of the 17th century, until the bell tower of Ivan the Great was built on the territory of the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral was the most tall building in Moscow. The height of the cathedral is 60 meters. The aisles are connected to each other by a system of transitions
Each church received consecration in connection with church holidays, on whose days there were important events Kazan campaign. The central pillar-shaped temple, crowned with a tent, is named in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Eight temple-altars surrounding the central pillar were consecrated in honor of the Holy Trinity, the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, St. Nicholas of Velikoretsky, St. Cyprian and Ustinya, Three Patriarchs of Alexandria, St. Gregory of Armenia, St. Varlaam of Khutyn and Alexander of Svir.
The temple acquired its present multi-colored appearance in the second half of the 18th century under Catherine II. Then it was reconstructed: 16 small domes around the towers were demolished, preserving the octal symbolism at the base, and the hipped bell tower was connected to the cathedral building. At the same time, the cathedral acquired a modern color and became a real miracle.
The temple is famous for its underground passages. A large-scale survey of the temple was carried out in 1924 by D. P. Sukhov and I. Ya. Stelletsky. Under the side-chapel of John the Merciful, they discovered a walled-up room, in the floor of which a deep hole could be seen (soon filled up).
The loophole windows of the found room were blocked with bricks. "In the lower tier of the church, instead of ordinary windows, there are embrasures, both from the side of the river and from the side of Red Square [...]. In the labyrinth of the cathedral basements, the approaches to the embrasures are the same as for the cannons in the towers of Kitay-Gorod and any of the monasteries,” wrote I. Ya. Stelletsky.
This discovery led Stelletsky to the idea that in the 16th century the lower part of St. Basil's Cathedral was intended for combat.
The tenth church - the Church of St. Basil - was added in 1588. So the temple became ten-domed and received its second, unofficial name - St. Basil's Cathedral.
Vasily for Christ's sake the holy fool
According to legend, Basil the Blessed, the most revered holy fool in Rus', himself collected money from the floor for the future Church of the Intercession, brought it to Red Square and threw it over his right shoulder, and no one, not even thieves, touched these coins. And before his death, in August 1552, he gave them to Ivan the Terrible, who soon ordered the construction of a temple on this site.
Vasily was born in 1469, in the Moscow suburban village of Elokhov. His parents, peasants, sent him to study shoemaking. A hardworking and God-fearing young man, his life tells us, Vasily was awarded the gift of insight, which was discovered by chance. A man came to Vasily’s owner to order boots and asked to make ones that would last for several years. Vasily smiled at this. When the owner asked what this smile meant, Vasily replied that the man who ordered boots for several years would die tomorrow. This is exactly what happened.
Vasily, sixteen years old, left his master and skill and began the feat of foolishness, which he performed for 72 years, without shelter and clothing, subjecting himself to great hardships, burdening his body with chains that still lie on his coffin. The life of the Blessed One describes how he taught the people moral life both by word and example.
Many legends, stories and miracles are associated with the name of St. Basil. For example, one day thieves, noticing that the saint was wearing a good fur coat given to him by a boyar, decided to deceive him out of it. One of them pretended to be dead, and the others asked Vasily for burial. Vasily covered the “dead” with his fur coat, but, seeing the deception, said at the same time: “Be you from now on dead for your wickedness; for it is written: let the wicked be consumed.” The deceiver really died.
They say that in the summer of 1547 the Blessed One came to the Ascension Monastery on Ostrog (now Vozdvizhenka) and prayed for a long time in front of the church with tears. So he foreshadowed the terrible Moscow fire, which began the next day precisely from the Vozdvizhensky Monastery. Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible honored and feared the Blessed One, “as a seer of human hearts and thoughts.” When, shortly before his death, Vasily fell into a serious illness, the Tsar himself visited him with Tsarina Anastasia. Vasily died on August 2, 1552.
The Tsar himself and the boyars carried his bed; Metropolitan Macarius performed the burial. The body of the Blessed One was buried in the cemetery of the Trinity Church, in the Moat, where the Intercession Cathedral was later built.
Since 1588 they began to talk about miracles occurring at the tomb Blessed Basil; As a result, Patriarch Job determined to celebrate the memory of the miracle worker on the day of his death, August 2. Tsar Theodore Ioannovich ordered a chapel to be built in the Intercession Cathedral in the name of St. Basil the Blessed, on the spot where he was buried, and built a silver reliquary for his relics. Since ancient times, the memory of the Blessed One in Moscow has been celebrated with great solemnity: the patriarch himself served and the tsar was present at the service.
Temple Treasures
The relics of St. Basil are not the only value of the Temple. Especially for him in the 18th century. three unique facade icons were painted, which are still kept in the cathedral to this day: “The Sign with the Saints in the Fields”, its replica and “The Intercession with the upcoming Basil and John the Blessed”.
The icon “The Sign with the Saints in the Fields” on the eastern side of the Trinity Church is the earliest, from the first quarter of the 18th century. According to the head of the cathedral, V.L. Belyankin, “oral tradition says that this icon was painted with special art using wet lime instead of oil paints made with water.” This icon has a supposed author - icon painter Timofey Arkhipov, buried in 1737 near the walls of the Church of the Miracle of St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Chudov Monastery.
The icon immediately became revered, and later was considered miraculous. This was the reason for the appearance of a replica of it on a wooden base, made in the 80s. XVIII century The icons are distinguished by the composition of the saints in the margins. The icon is striking in its size - 2.84 x 2.84 m. The third icon - "The Intercession with the upcoming Basil and John the Blessed" - has equally large dimensions (2.6 x 3.8 m) and is located on the southern wall of the bell tower of the Intercession Cathedral .
The appearance of the Mother of God icons “The Sign” and “The Intercession” on the walls of the cathedral is natural. The subjects of the Intercession and the Sign of the Mother of God carry the same symbolic load - the intercession of the Mother of God in the face of the enemy, as well as the affirmation of the patronage of the Mother of God to the Orthodox people.
In total, St. Basil's Cathedral has 9 iconostases, which contain about 400 icons from the 16th to 19th centuries, representing the best examples of the Novgorod and Moscow icon painting schools. The walls of the cathedral are decorated with oil paintings and frescoes of the 16th-19th centuries. In addition to icons, the cathedral displays portrait and landscape paintings of the 19th century, and church utensils from the 16th to 19th centuries. Among the particularly valuable exhibits is a 17th century chalice that belonged to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
Miraculous Rescues
The Temple of extraordinary beauty was repeatedly tried to be demolished, but each time the Temple miraculously remained standing in place. In 1812, Napoleon, leaving the devastated capital of Russia, ordered the bombing of the Intercession Cathedral along with the Kremlin. However, in their haste, the French did not have time to make the required number of tunnels, and the Kremlin was undermined only in five places - the churches remained undamaged. As for the Intercession Cathedral, it was not damaged, since the rain extinguished the lit wicks.
After the revolution, the Intercession Cathedral was once again miraculously saved. Its last rector, Archpriest John Vostorgov, especially hated by the Bolsheviks, was shot in 1919, and in 1929 the temple was finally closed, the bells were melted down. In the thirties, Lazar Kaganovich, who succeeded in destroying the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Kazan Cathedral of the Kremlin and other churches in Moscow, proposed demolishing the Intercession Cathedral to clear the place for parades and demonstrations.
There is a popular legend that he made a model of Red Square with a removable Intercession Cathedral and brought it to Stalin. Proving that the temple interfered with cars and demonstrations, he unexpectedly tore the temple from the square. The stunned Stalin allegedly uttered the historical phrase: “Lazarus, put him in his place!” The famous restorer P.D. Baranovsky sent telegrams to Stalin calling on him to save the temple. There were rumors that supposedly Baranovsky, invited to the Kremlin on this issue, knelt before the assembled Central Committee, begging not to destroy the temple, and this had an effect. True, Baranovsky subsequently received a considerable prison sentence.
The temple stands and remains a true symbol of Moscow and Russia. “This monument, known to the whole world,” says historian I.E. Zabelin, “due to its originality, has taken its place in the general history of architecture and at the same time serves as a typical feature of Moscow itself, a special feature of the originality and uniqueness that Moscow, as old Russian city, generally different from the cities of Western Europe. In its own way, it is the same, if not even greater, Moscow, and, moreover, a folk wonder, like Ivan the Great, the Tsar Bell, the Tsar Cannon. Western travelers and scientific researchers of the history of architecture are very sensitive to any originality and originality, they have long appreciated this wonderful monument of Russian art" ("Features of originality in ancient Russian architecture").
The material was prepared by the online editorswww.rian.ru based on information from RIA Novosti Agency and other sources
“If you have never been to Andronovka, a station on the Moscow Circular Railway, then this is not surprising: normal person It is unlikely that he will ever get there.
It is located in an industrial zone on the very outskirts of the Lefortovo district: a modest Andronovskoe highway, endless concrete fences, kilometers of barbed wire, blank iron gates, the building of the former Krypton plant, kilometers of almost lifeless railway tracks, warehouses, warehouses, warehouses and stray dogs, nearby is the Nishchenka River.
The photograph shows a complex of (once) residential buildings and a station building, built between 1905 and 1907, and it's as if Walt Disney had been allowed to paint a couple of his cartoon characters in the corner of The Last Day of Pompeii.
The station itself is now virtually idle, the beautiful Gothic water tower has been demolished, and the plastic pipes coming out of the station building - and these are pipes for pneumatic mail - are hardly used."
Openwork house on Leningradka
“On Leningradsky Prospekt, in the area of the Third Transport Ring, a house was built in 1940, which was supposed to become an exemplary standard residential building for an ordinary Soviet citizen. That is, it is built quickly and inexpensively from ready-made factory concrete blocks, but at the same time it is decorated and does not look like a standard project, but has its own, so to speak, face. It is designed and built in such a way that it gets its own name - Openwork House.
These carved grilles cover the balconies and loggias, so the house looks surprisingly solid, although residents complain that because of these ornaments, made, by the way, from concrete according to sketches by the famous Russian graphic artist Vladimir Favorsky, the apartments are a little dark.
In general, this clear example how, if desired, you can build inexpensively and very beautifully.”
House of Abrikosovs
“On Malaya Krasnoselskaya Street, not far from the Third Transport Ring, there is the Abrikosovs’ house, built in 1905, with factory premises. The Abrikosovs are those same hereditary Russian confectioners.
One of the Abrikosovs, Alexey, is the author of the “Duck Noses” sweets, which many know under the name “ Crow's feet", and he also came up with what is now called a kinder surprise - sweets with a gift inside (toy, mosaic, postcard); chocolate bunnies wrapped in foil are also his invention.
The Abrikosovs' confectionery products were so popular in pre-revolutionary Russia that the name of the brand can be found in the books of famous writers of that time.
“...Handing his aunt a small bag, tied with twine and attached to the top button of his coat, he said:
Let me present this to you for tea. From payday. “Cancer necks” by Abrikosov. I know you love." – V. Kataev, “A farmstead in the steppe.”
Gothic house on Baumanskaya
“Rare genre: “Moscow Gothic.” Anton Frolov's apartment building, built in 1914. Now no one can say for sure why Frolov decided to build his apartment building in this particular style. Most likely, due to the fact that historically this area was saturated with Lutheran churches, Dutch mansions and other buildings of cosmopolitan, so to speak, architecture, rare for Moscow. We are, of course, talking about the German Settlement, where foreigners have preferred to settle since ancient times. Now there is little left of those buildings, but the beautiful Frolov house has been preserved, and it is located on the former Nemetskaya, now Baumanskaya Street.
And we must say separately about the architect of the building - this is Viktor Aleksandrovich Mazyrin, a brilliant architect of his time, a man of broad views and, as they would say about him today, typical representative Global Russians.
Viktor Alexandrovich was born in a small Chuvash village, raised without parents, and eventually became one of the strongest Russian architects. He traveled a lot and seriously around the world: not only Europe, but also Japan and Egypt; He was fond of mystical teachings and “considered himself the reincarnation of the builder of the Egyptian pyramids.” Such a broad outlook and cultural experience apparently allowed him to think so broadly that he could equally well have designed Frolov’s neo-Gothic house, Orthodox Church in Kuntsevo, the Russian pavilion at an exhibition in Paris, and he was also the author of the design of one of the most outstanding and famous houses in Moscow - the famous Morozov mansion on Vozdvizhenka.
Based on all this, let’s hope that today Fabio Capello will also think more broadly and still release Dzagoev and Kerzhakov in the starting lineup.”
Not a Kremlin gas station
Former Metrostroy dormitory
“This building, built in 1906, on 1st Samotechny Lane was once used as an office building and a dormitory for Metrostroy. Some recent years it was abandoned and was preparing to quietly go into another world, but suddenly, during the reconstruction, it was quite decently restored.
But the main thing - yes, this is not an optical illusion - its ends and rear facade were sheathed with sheet copper, and now, when the rays of the sun fall on these walls, the area is immersed in a ringing orange haze, which, by the way, looks very strong.
And if someone thinks: “Yet another developer has poured billions into yet another business center,” then in fact this is the new building of the Gulag Museum.”
Mosenergo Tower
“This is the tower that can be seen at the back of the Embankment House; It is located on the territory of the Central Electric Station of the Moscow Railways (now Mosenergo-2), built before the revolution.
Once this tower was the most beautiful building of the station; it was built so that it resembled the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower: it had a high spire and a beautiful clock.
Then, as usual, everything was broken.”
Iraqi businessman club coat of arms
“On the gate of a residential building built in 1938, which stands near the Krasnopresnenskaya metro station, you can see two identical coats of arms of the now defunct Moscow football club Presnya.
Formed back in 1922, the club has changed many names; was both a club at a local manufactory, called “Trekhgorka” (late 1920s), and at the very beginning of the 1990s, the first private football club in Russia, receiving from its new owner - businessman of Iraqi origin Hussam Al-Khalidi - the name “Asmaral” "
In general, the history of this club, which has been based in Presnya since the 1920s, although it does not shine with great football achievements, is quite interesting. Here, in particular, many well-known football stars played and trained.
Now this club does not exist; Commercial tournaments are held at its historical small, cozy and very central stadium “Krasnaya Presnya”, and the memory of this club is preserved only by true football fans and these two coats of arms on the gates of the building on Konyushkovskaya Street.”
That Sailor Silence
“This is our Moscow Silent Hill - a huge abandoned house, beautifully painted with symbols of the runic alphabet, behind the broken windows of which unclear shadows sometimes flicker. Immediately behind the house is the Matrosskaya Tishina prison, to the left of it is a psychiatric hospital, and a 10-minute walk away is a tuberculosis hospital.
This area has been known since the time of Peter the Great - “Silence: a sanatorium-type settlement for the rehabilitation of retired sailors, many of whom had mental disorders. The street on which it is located is named after this “silence.”
In general, both the house and the surroundings are a real beauty for true connoisseurs of other beauty, besides, it was built in 1927 and is an architectural monument; macabre house."
Monstrous plant on Zolotoy
“The man-made beauties in the photo are part of the Salyut Research and Production Enterprise, which produces aircraft engines. Moreover, only small part of these buildings stretching along the street.
And these huge metal monsters are, as they say, a kind of exhaust pipes and mufflers for testing in the workshops of the plant of huge aircraft engines.
All this beauty, which is not clear to everyone, is enhanced by two factors.
1. The street on which this is located looks like this: on one side THIS stretches, on the other there is an endless string of metal garages and Railway right behind them.
2. And the name of this street is Golden.
With all my love for abandoned buildings and strange places, I recognize Zolotaya Street with these cute buildings as the most brutal (of publicly accessible) place in Moscow.”
House of merchant Lomakina
“On Gilyarovsky Street there is an excellent example of Moscow Art Nouveau - the apartment house of the merchant Lomakina, and it was built according to the design of the architect V.S. Maslennikov in 1909.
But even in Siberia, he found the opportunity to do what he loved: these, of course, were no longer buildings in the Art Nouveau style, but participation in the construction of factory buildings, teaching, as well as the design of multi-apartment residential buildings - for example, the Stock Building on Krasny Prospekt, well known to the residents of Novosibirsk .
But let’s return to this house itself, where quite recently there was the embassy of the Republic of Mozambique, but now, in my opinion, it is no longer there; however, you can all see for yourself how rich it is in details, the syncopated geometry of windows and shapes, in short - excellent, as if it had escaped from somewhere on Baumanskaya Street.”
Stables of oilman Mantashev
“In the residential areas near the intersection of Leningradsky Prospekt and the Third Transport Ring, there is an outstanding house in the Baroque style.
This is the building that the architects Izmirov and the Vesnin brothers built in 1912 for the wealthy oilman Leon Mantashev. And this is not Leon’s stately mansion or a theater there, this is an ensemble of stables - Leon was a passionate horse lover, owned horses that participated in the most prestigious competitions of that time. If you look closely, on the facade of the building, at the very top, you can see elegant L and M - after the first letters of the name of the owner of the house.
The street where this amazing house was built is called Skakovaya: horses, horse racing, the name Skakovaya - all this is more than logical, because just a couple of hundred meters away is the Moscow Hippodrome.
It’s time to move on to the traditional sad part of the post, “What’s there now?” Now it is complete darkness. On the sides there were once two more buildings of the ensemble - they were destroyed: a car service center and a car wash are adjacent to the side, in the courtyard of the building there is a strange structure reminiscent of an unfinished factory workshop or a giant hangar. In the courtyard of the stables ensemble, the building of the jockeys' residential building has been preserved, but it is problematic to see it behind the pile of scrap metal and various rubbish.
Tenants of the building range from a ballet studio to various offices. In general, another amazing, sometimes already, alas, typical Moscow story.
And if possible, visit the house: Viennese Baroque among typical five-story buildings - it looks very strong.”
Former tram power station
“On the gloomy, practically non-pedestrian Leninskaya Sloboda street, which is located in the Third Ring, there is such a beautiful building - this is the former Second City Tram Electric Station, built in 1916. Now there is an institute with an unpronounceable name.”
Melnikov's Garage
“Walking around the southwestern part of Moscow, you can come across this magical building - almost a castle. This is the Horse Yard - complex outbuildings ancient Russian estate Cheryomushki-Znamenskoye. It was built approximately in the last quarter of the 18th - early 19th centuries under one of the many owners of the estate, S.A. Menshikov.
The photo shows only the entrance group of the complex; the Horse Yard itself occupies a rather large territory and really looks like a fairy-tale castle, and it would be great to have some great child Center so that girls there imagine themselves as princesses, and boys as knights, but no.
If the main part of the Cheryomushki-Znamenskoye estate, which is located across the road, across Bolshaya Cheryomushkinskaya Street, is occupied by the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, then these buildings belong to the Institute of Helminthology.”
Flat house on Presnya
“An excellent architectural attraction - Flat House on Presnensky Val. The neighboring house is also, by the way, “flat”.
The two-entrance residential building, built in 1910, is in fact not flat, of course. Just land plot", which was allocated for its construction, was of such a shape that the architect had to make one of the sides of the house in the form of a beveled corner, hence - if you choose the right angle - the illusion arises that the house is flat, as if drawn on a sheet of plywood."
Prison parapet
“The inconspicuous gray parapet in Novospassky Lane does not seem like something significant or interesting, but that is unless you know that this is the remnant of the fence of the famous Taganka. The same one where “all the nights are full of fire.”
The Moscow provincial criminal prison (Taganskaya prison) was built in 1804 by decree of Emperor Alexander I. Personalities ranging from Savva Mamontov to the man who became the prototype of Ostap Bender visited here. Here Chaliapin sang in front of the prisoners.
The prison was demolished in 1958. Now all that remains of it is part of the fence - this parapet - and the former administrative building of the prison, in which the offices are located.
And where people languished in dungeons for a century and a half and, in particular, General Vlasov was hanged, there are now quiet courtyards, ordinary five-story buildings and a kindergarten.”
RoboCop from the "loaf"
“Beauty from the courtyard of the Moscow Institute of Arts and Industry - a new symbiosis of RoboCop and a fighter from the squad of “Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future,” about to go into the city on a raid against the demolition of historical buildings. Five meters high.
Check out the elegant solution chest This monster - with a slight movement of a student's hand, the front part of the body of the UAZ car, also known as the “loaf”, set off to defend the steel heart.
Savvinskoye Compound
“Relatively recently, until 1937, one of the most beautiful buildings in Moscow adorned the very beginning of Tverskaya Street. Then, however, it was moved and closed with a huge residential colossus - house number six on Tverskaya Street.
And this building - the Savvinskoye Compound, built in 1907 - is now located deep in the main street of the city. You can get acquainted with it freely by going into the arch of house number six. It is possible and necessary: Savvinskoye Compound is a house of magical beauty.”
Staircase in a mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya
This mansion on Malaya Nikitskaya is one of the most important Moscow architectural attractions: breathtakingly beautiful, preserved interior items and furniture, a secret chapel on the top floor. Moreover, you can get here absolutely freely and even free of charge.”
At the end of the 19th century, construction of the Church of the Holy Family began in the Eixample district of Barcelona, which was carried out with private donations. This temple has become one of the most famous long-term construction projects in the world, because the work has not yet been completed.
Construction work began in 1882. The first project was developed by the architect Francisco del Villar, but the very next year the famous Catalan specialist Antonio Gaudi was invited to adjust the project.
Gaudi significantly changed the architectural appearance of the site. Having retained the layout of the building in the form of a Latin cross from the original project, he significantly modernized its shape. According to the architect's plan, the temple should have towers pointing upward.
All decorative elements that adorned the building were supposed to carry a symbolic meaning associated with the foundations of the Catholic Church.
It is worth noting that all the facades of the building differ from each other not only in design, but also in shape.
In 1926, 73-year-old A. Gaudi was hit by a tram and died. The body of the famous architect was buried in the crypt (underground vaulted rooms located under the altar part of the temple) of the Church of the Holy Family, which he had not completed.
After the death of A. Gaudi, his closest associate Domenech Sugranes, who had worked on the construction of the Sagrada Familia since 1902, took over the management of the work.
Subsequently, the construction of the building stopped due to the loss of part of A. Gaudi’s drawings during a fire in his workshop in 1936 and the outbreak of the civil war in Spain.
Much attention of temple visitors is always attracted by the high arches of the building, their geometricity and upward direction, as well as the variety of decoration.
Particular attention in the temple building was paid to complex multi-color stained glass windows. IN sunny days light breaks through them and fills the temple with bright colors.
In one of the towers of the temple, a high spiral staircase is open for tourists to visit, along which you can climb to a small observation deck. From here you can enjoy views of the old city and the bay.
THIS IS WHAT THE FINAL VERSION OF THE TEMPLE SHOULD LOOK LIKE
"Culture.RF" together with the State Museum of Architecture named after A.V. Shchuseva recalls which iconic buildings of our country were designed by foreign masters. There are 10 in our selection architectural monuments: from the cathedral of the times of Ivan III to the ultra-modern building of Zaha Hadid.
Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin
Years of construction: 1479
Architect: Aristotle Fiorovanti
After the unsuccessful construction of the cathedral by the architects Krivtsov and Myshkin, Grand Duke Ivan III took control of the process into his own hands. On the advice of his second wife, Sophia Fominichna Paleolog, he decided to find a master of the appropriate level in Italy. It was probably in Rome that the ambassador met the architect and engineer Aristotle Fiorovanti.
Ridolfo Aristotle Fiorovanti was already an elderly man, quite famous in Italy, Venice and Hungary. He was the author of many architectural and engineering structures - bridges, fortress walls, buildings, etc. The Moscow treasury had to allocate a very significant amount for the salary of the foreign master. But not in vain: Fiorovanti managed to create an outstanding masterpiece of Russian architecture.
Compositionally, the Assumption Cathedral of Fiorovanti is a six-pillar, three-nave temple, crowned with five helmet-shaped domes. The plan of the structure, divided into 12 squares, no longer has a dedicated central space under the dome and, as a result, its layout departs from the cross-dome system traditional for ancient Russian architecture. Interesting feature The architecture of the Assumption Cathedral has steel and five apses of the eastern facade, which do not correspond to the three naves of the internal space. Fiorovanti cleverly disguises such a highly developed altar part on the facade with flat side projections that hide the apses from the Cathedral Square. The clear internal division of the cathedral into squares also determined the symmetry of the external division of the façade into semicircles and thin blades. The rather restrained external decor of the temple, powerful walls, cut through by narrow windows and decorated with a thin arcature belt, gave the building a special monumentality. The chronicler noted that the Assumption Cathedral was “like one stone.”
On August 12, 1479, the cathedral was consecrated. The new temple amazed contemporaries with its size and monumental proportions. The church, in the words of the chronicler, turned out to be “wonderful in its majesty and height, lightness and ringing and space.” The master managed to use Newest technologies, materials and even apply some decorative elements of the order system, while maintaining the general style of the traditional ancient Russian religious building.
Church of the Ascension in Kolomenskoye
Years of construction: 1532
Architect: Petrok Maloy
The large scale of the Exchange building in the form of an ancient temple (Doric peripterus) in combination with rostral columns and a granite embankment are designed for a wide panoramic view from the water surface of the Neva and its opposite banks. The very location of the ensemble is of great city-forming significance for St. Petersburg: the place where the Neva is divided by an island into two channels was originally supposed to become the center of the city, but the island received its design only at the beginning of the 19th century thanks to the project of Thomas de Thomon.
Saint Isaac's Cathedral
Architect: Auguste Montferrand
Henri Louis Auguste Ricard de Montferrand - architect and creator of the most important buildings in St. Petersburg - St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Alexandrian Column. In 1814, an event occurred in the fate of Montferrand that predetermined the whole later life architect: immediately after the Russian troops entered Paris, the young architect presented Alexander I with an album of architectural projects that attracted the attention of the tsar. After some time, Montferrand was invited to St. Petersburg, and in 1816 he moved to the capital of the Russian Empire, where he lived and worked until his death.
New Hermitage
Architect: Leo Von Klenze
In 1837, by order of Nicholas I, Klenze prepared a project according to which the building of the New Hermitage in St. Petersburg was built - the first building in Russia specifically erected to house an art museum. It is noteworthy that the project of the German architect was implemented by Russian architects - Vasily Stasov (author of the Transfiguration Cathedral in St. Petersburg) and Nikolai Efimov (author of the house of the Ministry of State Property on Bolshaya Morskaya Street). From Millionnaya Street, the building of the New Hermitage is decorated with a portico with ten figures of Atlanteans by Alexander Terebenev, which have become one of the symbols of St. Petersburg.
Centrosoyuz building
Years of construction: 1928–1935
Architect: Le Corbusier
In 1928, Le Corbusier took part in a competition to draw up a design for the Centrosoyuz building in Moscow. This building has become a completely new example of a modern business building, representing a complex of buildings facing simultaneously two streets - Myasnitskaya and Academician Sakharov Avenue. Distinctive feature Corbusier's architecture here includes huge surfaces of glass on the facades, open pillars supporting the blocks of interior spaces, free space at the ground floor level, flat roofs and bright, dark red wall cladding with pink Artican tuff. The Tsentrosoyuz building in Moscow became a vivid illustration of Le Corbusier's five principles of modern architecture.
Dominion Tower, architect Zaha Hadid
Years of construction: 2012
Architect: Zaha Hadid
The space building on Sharikopodshipnikovskaya Street in Moscow appeared thanks to one of the most famous and influential architects of the 20th–21st centuries, the first woman to receive the Pritzker Prize - Zaha Hadid. The building is designed in the architect's signature style - deconstructivism. The cubic volume of the building is distributed across the floors into unique layers protruding from the plane of the facade, which creates a more dynamic silhouette. Strip glazing and dominance white both inside and outside makes the building a luminous crystal filled with air and light. The interiors of this business center include a minimum of details, but fascinate with their smoothness and clarity of lines.
Invited foreign specialists have always been valued in Russia. This has been practiced since the time ancient Rus'. So, Uspensky and Arkhangelsk Cathedrals were built by Italian architects - Aristotle Fiorovanti and Aleviz Novy. Also, the Italians “had a hand” in the most key attractions of St. Petersburg, such as St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Winter Palace, and the Exchange Ensemble. What is it that attracts foreign architects to Russia? And does our country need help from abroad?
For for long years various rulers invited specialists from other countries to carry out various kinds of projects. Every year the number of foreign architects in Russia grew. When the first Romanovs came to power, life was practically remade in European manners. But under Peter I, foreign architects were brought to our country in large numbers. When he was growing up, he was always surrounded by sculptors, architects, and engineers “from foreign lands.” After he conquered Azov, he came up with the idea of making it a large coastal city. But he believed that his courtiers would not be able to cope with this task, so after his trip, Peter brought about 1,000 foreign architects from Amsterdam, London and Vienna to Russia. Thus, several dozen engineering structures, houses, as well as a monastery and a cathedral were built in Azov.
Time Russian Empire
As soon as St. Petersburg was founded, the same thing arrived in Russia every year a large number of foreign specialists. The first foreign architect in St. Petersburg was Domenico Trezzini. The following facilities were built according to his designs: Millionnaya embankment (now it is called Palace Embankment), Petersburg side embankment, Petrovsky Gate and Peter and Paul Bell Tower. This is what has survived to this day.
A famous German architect named Andreas Schlüter also worked in St. Petersburg. There is information that he designed the palace in which Peter lived. In particular, bas-reliefs between the windows, a sculpture at the entrance, some elements in the upper rooms. Historians say that Schlüter did a lot in a year, but over time everything was subject to changes.
At this time, Schwertfeger, Matarnovi, Förster and others were also invited from Germany. Schwertfeger is credited with the construction of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery; Matarnovi was the author of the projects for the second Winter Palace, the Church of St. Isaac of Dalmatia and the Kunstkamera, however, under Catherine II, some buildings were demolished. Förster worked in Tsarskoye Selo.
There were also architects from Amsterdam, Paris, and Rome in St. Petersburg. They built various palaces, gardens and estates. Foreign specialists also worked in Moscow, but very few mentions of them survive.
Foreign architects today
Currently, we can observe that managers of various projects invite foreigners to work in Russia. What now, what in the past is connected with a different idea of construction, with fresh ideas, good quality and functionality. It is worth noting that architects from other countries have better and greater experience. Now they are mainly involved in the construction of large complexes, luxury housing and premium projects. In addition, the quality level of facilities is rising every year. Foreigners are attracted by the work itself in our country, the openness of thought and earnings.
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