Glazovsky Sidestreet

Building dated 1912-1913 and inspired by Venesian palaces in Italy. Strange, but the upper floor, which was added later and with no connection to the style below it, makes overall view rather special and interesting.
Posted by Irina.
www.irinapictures.blogspot.com

English Coaching Inn

Few photos from English Coaching Inn at Varvarka street.

English coaching inn area was presented in 1556 by Ivan IV The Terrible as fine gesture welcoming trade to the first English merchants arrived to Moscow.
As English trade was growing, later the merchants moved to other location and the complex of buildings kept serving to trade facilities.

Website and more info.

View from opposite bank of Moskva-river

Posted by Irina.
www.irinapictures.blogspot.com

Pimenov's "New Moscow"

View of Gosplan building inspired by the painting of Pimenov "New Moscow", made in 1937.

The building of Gosplan (State Planning Organisation, located near Kremlin and was in charge of 5year plans for the development of Soviet economy), these days is occupied by State Duma, Russian legislative power. 

Posted by Irina.
www.irinapictures.blogspot.com

Church of Christ's Resurrection in Kadashi

The church of Christ's Resurrection in Kadashi dated 1695 and survived the Bolshevicks with "minor losses" was again in danger in 2002 when the city government decided to allow the construction of office-apartment complex around this jem. Due to negative reaction of the community the project was set aside but not 100% revoked.
Details:

Interesting link to the paintings of this church here.

Posted by Irina.

Kolomenskoe

Kolomenskoe under the cloudy sky.

Posted by Irina

Moscow Conservatory

On 2nd October I was lucky to get tickets to concert of Nigel Kennedy, British violist. So here is my short report about gorgeous building and talented musician.
The building of conservatory at Nikitskaya street was opened on the 7 (20) April 1901. The building was designed by architect V. Zagorsky. Organ Cavaille-Coll (1899) was regarded as one of the best in the world during the Paris exhibition of 1900.

During the First World War (1915 – 1917) the Great Hall hosted a hospital, and from 1924 to 1933, during the daytimes the Hall was used as a popular movie theatre. At 1940 Conservatory was named after russian composer P. Tchaikovsky. International festivals and competitions take place in the Great Hall, and among them  is the famous Tchaikovsky Competition.

Great Hall  is considered  the most favorite music hall in Moscow due to its acoustics, location and decoration.
Site of the conservatory (in Enlish).
Nigel Kennedy performed Bach in the first part of the concert, his own compositions in the second one and popular melodies in the last part of the show. I wished the first part to last forever.

Nigel Kennedy performing J.S.Bach.
 

Nigel Kennedy (Wiki).

Posted by Irina.

Petrovsky Palace

The Palace was built between 1776-1780. It was planned to be a residence of regal persons, place where they could relax on their long trip from St.Petersberg to Moscow. Almost 3 centuries later the palace is located in the central part of the city, only 7 km (4,5 miles) from the Kremlin (bigest circle in the map shows the cities' border right now).

Click photo for the details

At present the official name of the Palace is the Guest House of the Mayor’s Office with elements of hotel facilities.
Here is the Tripadvisor about palace: in case you would like to step into Ekaterina II's, Russian poet Lermontov's or Napoleon's shoes)

Posted by Irina

Chairs

Chairs in the entrance way of Mayakovsky museum.
If you are in Moscow this museum is a "must-see". Avant-garde of early years of Soviet Union in futuristic architecture, decoration, works of art.

Info.
Map.

Babushkas, garde-robe staff, are sitting on normal chairs reading their papers, I checked.

Posted by Irina.

Village "Sokol"

The jem - village "Sokol" (falcon), 21 hectare, approx.52 acres) is located in busy and noisy surroundings near the center of the city. It was founded in 1923 and that time aimed to introduce the idea of town-garden, the place combining best features of both, town and garden.

Artists, economists, engineers bought city land and paid rather much to get shell-scheme apartment of their own, and these apartments survived with more or less changes the years till now. In 1936 the construction was stopped and the idea was critiqued - as the government recommended to pay more attention to the construction of workers' communal buildings vs individual apartments.

The names of the streets: Vrubel, Shishkin,  Kramskoy, Surikov, Levitan, etc.

While looking for details about "Sokol", I found the realty site where the selling price of the building amounted to 9,000,000 US dollars.

Map of the place from Wiki.

And the drawing of the apartment (source - Wiki).

Photos of the apartments, by streets, here.

Wiki in RUS about the village.

Google map.

If you are in Moscow, please walk, go by bike, drive there, as the place is the oasis, believe me. 

Posted by Irina.

Russian Avant-Garde

Building in avant-garde architectural style at Strominka street constructed in 20-30thies of 20th century.

Wiki.
Google map.

Posted by Irina.

In the Yards

Same yard which I showed you yesterday.
When you found Paraskeva, you start looking around, expecting more findings. And here they go: The amazing cupolas above the same old yard.
Posted by Irina.

English Yard

We are still in Moscow, do not worry. But the facade of this building resembles the architecture of English countryside, isn't it?

The St.Andrew's Anglican Church was constructed in 1883 and is one of 3 Anglican churches in Russia .
During the October Revolution 1917 the tower was the machine gun post for Bolsheviks.
In 1920 it was confiscated.
During Soviet rule it served as hostel and later to house diplomats from Finland and Estonia.
Since 1964 it was the recording studio for state music recording company "Melodia (Melody)".
Services returned in 1991 and during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1994 the Russian government agreed to return the church to religious use.
Well. But they did not blew it away as many other churches here, you know..

And song. Maybe recorded right here, who knows.

From Wiki.
Google map.

Posted by Irina

Lialina Square

It is the smallest square which I know in Moscow. I stood on the opposite side of Lyalina Square when did this photo. Isn't it nice?

In 1812 (Napoleon's intervention) the square was completely burnt out and later was slowly built on. Most of the buildings date to the end of 19th century.

And I like cars, too))

Google map.

Posted by Irina

Heads Up!

The chapel of Spaso-Andronikov monastery (built in 1890) is squeezed between the set of early 19th century buildings at S.Radonezhsky street.

About chapel (Eng).

Google map.

Posted by Irina.

Mansion of Merchant Tarasov

The mansion of merchant Tarasov at Spiridonovka was constructed in 1909-1912 by architect Zholtovsky and was inspired and copied the palatio Thiene in Vicenza, Italy by Andrea Paladdio.
It is bright and recognizable spot in city's mix of styles, times and colors.

These days the building is occupied by the Institute of Africa of Russian Academy of Science.

Here you can see the photos of the remarkable interior.

Google map.

Wiki about original building.
  
Posted by Irina.

Da Vinci in Moscow

Few days ago I went to the exhibition "Da Vinci Genius". The name of the show says it all.
The genius whose ideas were understood and realized 300 years after his death. The person of widest interests. And Mona Lisa.

City of Future

The show is very smartly organized, using audio, video, written info, possibility to touch and to experience the mecanisms invented by Da Vinci and realized in our days.

I highly recommend to visit and to take your children with you.

Exhibition site (in Russian).

Posted by Irina.

Empire Style in Stalin's Architecture

Empire Style in Stalin's Architecture aimed at demonstrating power and abundance of Soviet state and Soviet ecomony.

Posted by Irina.

Demidov's Mansion

 The mansion of merchant Demidov was constructed in 1777, renovated to the present appearance in 1820. The building hosts Scientific Library of Pedagogic.

Google map.

Headquaters of Moscow Military District

At the end of 18th century the building was constructed for the needs of military ministry. It includes offices and warehouses, architect Legrand (as member of city construction plan of 1775) introduced new ideas in the building architecture, corner towers connected the sides of the building, the main facade faced the river which was unusual for the city in 18th century.

 The bunker in the inside yard of the square building was the place where Lavrenty Beria was executed.
(The source of the info and map is www.wikimapia.org)

City of Contrasts

When I was a school girl and learned English, we had several topics to study in our English class. "London - city of contrasts" and "New York - city of contrasts" were among them. They were about rich cities where poor proletariat was suffering and struggling for the lives and piece of bread in luxury world of bourgeoisie.

I thought about my school time yesterday, when I took an excursion to GUM, our oldest and most famous shopping mall, located on the other side of Red square from Kremlin.

And then I saw it, in the middle of GUM passage. The Christmas tree decorated with the winter bird house made of milk carton from 70-ties (then it was the only milk opportunity we had in the shops) - in front of the luxury shop glass window.