Apraksinsky Palace is a baroque building, the authorship of which is attributed to two architects: Dmitry Ukhtomsky and one of the students of the Italian architect Bartolomelo Rastrelli.
Located on Pokrovka Street, the palace was built for Count Matvey Apraksin, who had recently married. This site before the Apraksins, who moved to Pokrovka in the 1860s, had several owners, including the merchant Morozov and the English mast timber merchant Thompson.
The palace was built in 1766, in its appearance, researchers of Moscow architecture see Rastrelli's handwriting and find common features with the Hermitage. The interior was decorated in the French Rococo style. But, despite the beauty of its appearance and interiors, the mansion was sold six years later to Prince Dmitry Trubetskoy, and the Trubetskoy remained the owners of the palace for almost nine decades.
Many people visited the Trubetskoy house famous people that time: young Alexander Pushkin and his sister Olga, Dmitry Mendeleev, in the walls of the palace, an agreement was held on the wedding of the future parents of Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Ilyich and Maria Volkonskaya.
former palace The Apraksins were also called the “chest of drawers”, and this name was assigned to him precisely during the time of the Trubetskoys. In 1783, they rebuilt the outbuildings of the mansion, after which the building acquired a resemblance to a chest of drawers.
In the early 60s of the XIX century, the widow of Prince Trubetskoy sold the mansion, and the 4th male gymnasium was placed in it - educational institution which gave Moscow and Russia many famous scientists, cultural figures and politicians. Professor Nikolai Zhukovsky, linguist Alexei Shakhmatov, philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, theater critic Konstantin Stanislavsky and philanthropist Savva Morozov, writer Alexei Remizov and others graduated from it. Almost immediately after the revolution, the gymnasium was closed, and various institutions were housed in the palace, including a hostel, a house of pioneers and a research institute.
The unique Church of the Annunciation was located before the revolution in the legendary house of the Apraksin-Trubetskoy on Pokrovka. The fates of many great people of Russia, who offered their prayers under the vaults of this temple, were connected with him.
royal road
Pokrovka, one of the oldest streets in Moscow, has existed for more than five centuries. Its history began at the end of the 15th century, when Grand Duke Ivan III chose these regions for his country residence. From the Spassky Gates of the Kremlin, he drove here to a wooden palace surrounded by luxurious gardens. The name of the street was left by the Church of the Intercession, which stood from 1488 until the 18th century opposite the Church of St. Nicholas in Blinniki. The street was longer: its segment from the Ilyinsky Gate to the Armenian Lane was named Maroseyka in the 17th century after the Little Russian Compound. At that time, Pokrovka became the main royal road of Moscow: Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich traveled along it to the palace residences of Rubtsovo and Izmailovo.
On the night of November 25, 1741, the guard elevated Elizabeth to the Russian throne. The legend says that already in the next year 1742, when the new empress arrived in Moscow, she secretly married Razumovsky in the Church of the Resurrection in Barashy, which still stands in ruins on Pokrovka. Allegedly in memory of this wedding, on the dome of the Resurrection Church, a carved from wood and gilded royal crown. And as if for the wedding, Elizabeth ordered the court architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to build a luxurious palace for her beloved on Pokrovka, next to the church, where they celebrated their wedding and even lived together for some time.
According to another legend, a secret wedding took place in the Church of the Sign in the village of Perovo near Moscow, which Elizabeth later presented to Razumovsky (that is why the illegitimate descendants of the count were given the name Perovsky). For a long time, the airs embroidered by the hands of the Empress, which she presented as if in memory of her wedding, were kept in this temple for a long time. They celebrated the marriage in the palace of Elizabeth Petrovna on the Yauza (Gastello street, 44). From there, the young returned to the Kremlin. The way back lay through Pokrovka, past the Church of the Resurrection, in which there was a chapel of Saints Zechariah and Elizabeth, the heavenly guardian of the Empress. The empress ordered to stop and defended a prayer of thanksgiving with her husband, then deigned to drink tea in the priest's house. In memory of this royal prayer service, the head of the Resurrection Church was decorated with a crown, and the empress ordered that a palace be built next to it for Count Razumovsky. Then, in the nearby Ivanovsky Monastery, the nun Dosithea, the daughter of Empress Elizabeth and Razumovsky, lived out her life.
But these are all Moscow legends, we are interested in history. True story Palace on Pokrovka begins in 1764.
"Winter Palace in miniature"
In 1764, the 18-year-old Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment, Lieutenant Count Matvey Fedorovich Apraksin, bought the land on Pokrovka.The new Pokrovsky landowner came from a very ancient and eminent family, which gave Russia many great people. Back in the XIV century, the noble Horde Solokhmir came to serve the Grand Duke Oleg of Ryazan and married his sister. The great-grandson of Solokhmir, Andrey Opraksa, became the ancestor of the Apraksins: his sons came to the service of the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, and from them came two branches of the Apraksin family. The famous Field Marshal S.F. belonged to one. Apraksin, commander-in-chief of the Russian army in Seven Years' War. Matvey Fedorovich, the owner of the palace on Pokrovka, belonged to another branch that rose under the sovereign Fyodor Alekseevich, when he, having become a widow, married Marfa Apraksina, the daughter of the royal steward Matvey Vasilyevich. His eldest son Pyotr Matveyevich was a member of the court of Tsarevich Alexei, another son, Andrei Matveyevich, was part of the Great Embassy of Peter I in 1697-1698, and the youngest, Fyodor Matveyevich, was Peter's steward, the legendary admiral, head of the Admiralty Department, who built the Azov Fleet .
After the death of Admiral Fyodor Matveyevich, his son Matvey got a large plot in St. Petersburg on the Fontanka - the famous Apraksin Yard. In 1764, Matvey Apraksin got married. It was then that he bought a spacious plot of land on Pokrovka, intending to build a luxurious nest for himself. And here comes the first mystery: why was Apraksin's house built in the Baroque style, while in the capital, and in Moscow, classicism, so beloved by Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, already reigned? Researcher A. Aliyev suggested that the architect was fulfilling the wishes of the eminent customer. And, perhaps, like many Moscow homeowners, the very style of his palace expressed a protest against the official authorities. (It is worth recalling the same Pashkov, who defiantly turned his house back to the Kremlin). Although, of course, Matvey Apraksin could be just an ordinary rich Moscow gentleman, accustomed to living his own way.
One way or another, but an architectural gem appeared in Moscow - the rarest example of the civil "Elizabethan baroque", with stucco, shells, Corinthian columns, and rich decor. The house was called the Moscow Winter Palace in miniature, although for its bizarre architecture and shape, it also received another nickname - "chest of drawers".
The second mystery of the house is its architect. Legends attributed the house to Rastrelli himself. Scholars were more careful: unknown master Rastrelli circle. Sometimes they timidly suggested the name of Argunov. And now, with a certain degree of certainty, Dmitry Ukhtomsky, the creator of the Moscow architectural school, a student of B.F. Rastrelli and the chief master of the Moscow "Elizabethan Baroque". He built the magnificent bell tower of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and in Moscow - the Church of Nikita the Martyr in Staraya Basmannaya. He was also credited with the authorship of the Church of St. Clement of Rome in Zamoskvorechye, although, according to I. Grabar, only in order to save the temple from demolition in the Soviet hard times with such authorship. The house on Pokrovka became a civilian creation of Ukhtomsky. It was built in accordance with the law of Peter the Great's time - along the "red line" of the street, with a front facade facing Pokrovka, and already, perhaps, with an oval hall in the center, where the Annunciation Church was later built.
Apraksin, however, did not begin to equip himself with a house church, but was assigned to the neighboring Church of the Resurrection - the very one crowned with a golden crown. Since 1769, the names of him and those of his household appear in the confession book of the temple. But something did not work out for the Apraksins on Pokrovka, and already in 1772 the house was sold to the Life Guards Lieutenant Prince Dmitry Yuryevich Trubetskoy.
"Trubetskoy chest of drawers"
This is how the owners of the house on Pokrovka were called in Moscow to distinguish them from the rest of the Trubetskoys. The new owners were somewhat like the old ones. They were also from an ancient family, and their ancestors also left a mark on history. The Trubetskoys descended from the famous Lithuanian prince Olgerd, the son of Gediminas, and served the Russian throne from the time of Dmitry Donskoy. The founder of the dynasty, Prince Dmitry Olgerdovich, who also fought in the Battle of Kulikovo, went to his service. He took possession of the Russian city of Trubchevsk, hence the origin of the surname.
From this clan - Ivan Betskoy, the founder of the Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg and the Orphanage in Moscow (the illegitimate son of Prince Ivan Trubetskoy, he, according to tradition, received a truncated father's surname), from this clan is the Decembrist Sergei Trubetskoy.One of the most well-known representatives kind, Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy, became famous in Time of Troubles. In 1611, together with Prokopy Lyapunov and Ivan Zarutsky, he collected the first civil uprising and participated in the battles for Moscow. And in 1612, after much persuasion, Trubetskoy and his troops joined the army of Prince Pozharsky, which sealed the victory. He even received the title of "Savior of the Fatherland." Trubetskoy called for the convocation Zemsky Cathedral and even he himself claimed the royal throne along with Romanov.
Having occupied the Moscow Kremlin in October 1612, Trubetskoy fell in love with former chambers Boris Godunov and settled in them. In his new possession, he arranged a small house church in honor of the Annunciation. For more than a century and a half, the Trubetskoys remained residents of the Kremlin. And only in the 1770s, by decree of Empress Catherine II, the treasury bought out their huge Kremlin property for the construction of the Senate building on that site. It was the last private courtyard in the Moscow Kremlin. According to Muscovite Rustam Rakhmatullin, "the last privacy left the Kremlin for Trubetskoy." With the ransom money in 1772, the last owner of the Kremlin court, Prince Dmitry Yuryevich Trubetskoy, acquired the luxurious Apraksin estate on Pokrovka. At the same time, he moved the house of the Annunciation Church there as well. Since then, the mansion on Pokrovka has had its own house church. He settled down in a small room on the top floor near the choirs of the oval hall. It is believed that the legend about Elizaveta Petrovna and Rastrelli kept the Trubetskoy from a serious alteration of the legendary house. They became its owners for almost 90 years: four generations of Trubetskoys owned the house.
A string of literary celebrities who have visited the walls of this mansion begins with the Trubetskoys. Pushkin knew this house from early childhood. Ivan Dmitrievich Trubetskoy, who inherited the house in the 1790s, was a second cousin of the poet's father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin. In 1808-1811 little Olga and Alexander were brought here for dancing lessons. Interestingly, on dance evenings Little Fyodor Tyutchev, who lived nearby, in Armenian Lane, also visited the Trubetskoys. Maybe future poets met here.
According to the memoirs, after dancing, Pushkin climbed into a corner and read to the still very young princesses - "cousins", as he called them - his funny epigrams. By the way, M.P. was the teacher of Trubetskoy's daughters. Pogodin, the future famous historian.
Pushkin, of course, visited the Trubetskoys upon his return from exile to Mikhailovskoye in 1826. By that time, an old acquaintance of M.P. had been serving as a manager here for a year. Pogodin Vasily Dmitrievich Korniliev. He was married to the daughter of Commodore Billings, an explorer of Siberia and the North, who participated in the third round-the-world expedition of James Cook. Despite his status as manager, Korniliev lived on Pokrovka in a big way and even gave dinner here on Tuesdays. Poets, writers, artists gathered at his table. Sergei Lvovich Pushkin also dropped by. Once, in the 1830s, he was asked about his son: would he come from St. Petersburg, and he doubted that they would see each other soon. When the news of Pushkin's death came to Moscow, his father was surrounded by Korniliev with all sorts of care.
Korniliev, by the way, was the uncle of D.I. Mendeleev, and the elder sister of the great chemist Ekaterina Ivanovna often visited this house.
The house on Pokrovka was connected with the fate of Leo Tolstoy. Prince Dmitry Yuryevich, the first owner of the Trubetskoy family, was the writer's maternal great-grandfather. Ivan Dmitrievich brought up a niece, Princess Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya. Her mother, the daughter of Dmitry Yuryevich Ekaterina, died in 1792, when Maria was not even two years old, her father was in the service, so she was brought up by her uncle. After retiring, Nikolai Volkonsky - the prototype of the old Prince Bolkonsky from the novel "War and Peace" - took his daughter and settled with her in Yasnaya Polyana, but after the death of her father, she again found herself in the care of her relatives. She was looked after by a suitable groom - the young Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy. And in May 1821, it was in the house on Pokrovka that an agreement was made about the wedding of Maria Volkonskaya and Nikolai Tolstoy. Already on July 9 of the same year, Leo Tolstoy's parents got married in the church of Peter and Paul in Yasenevo.
All tenants, like the owners, must visit the house church. Probably, D.I. himself was his temporary parishioner. Mendeleev, when he lived here with his uncle in 1849-1850. Although now there is a version that scientist lived in another house of Korniliev - in Ulansky Lane on Sretenka, where he moved after his resignation from the Trubetskoys.
The abolition of serfdom broke out. Even Trubetskoy was unable to maintain the landowners' farms and houses. And in the same 1861, the grandson of Ivan Dmitrievich, the Junker of the Life Guards Horse Regiment, Prince Ivan Yuryevich and his mother Olga Fedorovna sold the house on Pokrovka to Moscow University for the 4th male gymnasium.
Gymnasium
The Academic Gymnasium, where students were prepared to enter the university, was created together with Moscow University. And in 1779, the university Noble boarding house for noble offspring was founded, permanently residing in which the pupils also prepared for the entrance exams. The noble boarding house was located on Tverskaya, approximately at the place where the Central Telegraph stands.One day in 1830 Emperor Nicholas I visited the boarding house and fell into a great rage. Firstly, there was a change, and the naughty pupils did not notice the emperor. Secondly, he read on the memorial plaques among the best students the names of many Decembrists. The emperor ordered to turn the boarding school into an ordinary gymnasium, but he was hardly persuaded to give the educational institution the title of the Moscow Noble Institute. In 1839 the Institute was located in famous palace Pashkov on Mokhovaya. And ten years later, the 4th male gymnasium was formed from it, which still occupied the Pashkov house, and the neighboring St. Nicholas Church in Starye Vaganki remained its parish. When, in 1861, it was decided to transfer Pashkov's house to the Rumyantsev Museum, the university bought a “chest of drawers” house for the gymnasium, where the gymnasium was located until the 1917 revolution. The house church of the gymnasium became the former house church Trubetskoy, consecrated in honor of the Annunciation. True, there was one serious inconvenience: during the service, the disciples had to stand not in the church itself, which was very cramped, but in the oval hall below.
This gymnasium stood out among the state gymnasiums and even competed with the famous 1st male gymnasium on Volkhonka - the oldest in Moscow, founded in 1804. However, by the time the gymnasium moved to Pokrovka, the situation had changed, because by the highest order of 1857 it was allowed to open private gymnasiums, equated to state ones. Now it was necessary to withstand intense competition, and only very strong gymnasiums could “save face”.
The 4th gymnasium was a classical gymnasium of the highest category - with two ancient languages, Latin and Greek, which gave the right to enter Moscow University after graduation. There were excellent teachers who contributed to the flourishing of the gymnasium. Many of them wrote textbooks in their subjects. Physics was taught by K.D. Kraevich, author of the textbook, literature - L. Polivanov, mathematics - A. Malinin and K. Burenin. Teachers distinguished creativity to the learning process. For example, Malinin instilled independence and a critical attitude in students, conducting lessons in such a way that they turned into a competition between students and the teacher and with each other.
In terms of the number of future celebrities who studied, the 4th gymnasium also competed with the 1st. In 1864, the “father of Russian aviation” N.E. graduated from the gymnasium on Pokrovka with a silver medal. Zhukovsky, who began to study there while still within the walls of the Pashkovsky house. By the third grade, Nikolai Zhukovsky became the best student of the gymnasium, and acquaintance with his beloved teacher Malinin did not play a role. last role in the development of his brilliant data. But Kostya Alekseev, the future reformer of the Russian theater K.S. Stanislavsky did not like it here. He recalled how his mother did not want to send him to any gymnasium at all, fearing that he would be put in a punishment cell by teachers, offended by rude and evil classmates, who, in addition, could infect him with dangerous diseases. Only the need to receive benefits for military service and the corresponding educational qualification forced the mother to agree. A 12-year-old boy passed the exam in the first grade, and he really had a hard time under the hail of ridicule of "kids" classmates. In addition, he could not stand Latin. Having barely endured three years, Kostya flatly refused to study here further. The father heeded his prayers and transferred his son to the Lazarevsky Institute of Oriental Languages. But it was in the 4th gymnasium that K. S. Stanislavsky met Savva Morozov, the future patron of his theater.
But Academician Aleksey Shakhmatov remembered his gymnasium with gratitude all his life. The fact is that the future researcher of Russian chronicles was first sent to the private Kreyman gymnasium on Petrovka. The Kreyman Gymnasium had a reputation as a strict educational institution, where they knew how to achieve their goal - to educate highly moral citizens, useful to society and accustomed to work. Among other things, those expelled from other gymnasiums were accepted there - "for correction." They did not at all dream of getting to Kreyman: Ilya Ehrenburg, for example, was frightened by his father by the fact that with such a "bad ball" as his, he would have to go only to Kreyman's gymnasium.
Alyosha Shakhmatov, a brilliant boy who was seriously engaged in science, studied ancient languages and dreamed of becoming a historian, was unbearable with Kreiman. His character there began to deteriorate: in protest, the boy began to fight. His uncle took him abroad with him, and the twelve-year-old Alyosha Shakhmatov studied in the university libraries of Leipzig and Munich, reading in the original ancient foreign sources containing information about early Russian history - the very ones that Karamzin and Solovyov quoted. But it so happened that he had to return to Russia and again find himself in the hated Kreyman gymnasium. Fate took pity on the genius. After the exam in the gymnasium on Pokrovka, he was immediately admitted to the fifth grade. Filled with happiness, he wrote to his relatives that their gymnasium had advantages not only over private gymnasium Kreyman, but also before all the others, since they have the best building, the best content and, most importantly, the best teachers.
Shakhmatov himself was the "best", amazing schoolboy. He was called "the boy-legend". While still young, he entered the circle of famous scientists such as F.E. Korsh, F.F. Fortunatov, V.F. Miller. Corresponded with A.I. Sobolevsky, who at first did not suspect his age and called him a gracious sovereign. A year before graduating from the gymnasium, Shakhmatov acted as an opponent at the defense of A.I. Sobolevsky.
Aleksey Alexandrovich Shakhmatov graduated from the gymnasium in 1883 with a silver medal, entered Moscow University and ten years later received a doctorate and the title of academician. His method of comparative historical analysis revolutionized the study of Russian chronicles. He studied ancient chronicles, identifying their sources, fragments of different times and dating them. So the composition of the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years" was studied.
Let us mention that another world-famous scientist, P.G., also graduated from this gymnasium with a gold medal. Vinogradov, who studied the Western European Middle Ages and wrote famous textbooks on world history.
Another celebrity was Lev Polivanov. He studied at the 4th gymnasium, when it was still located in the Pashkov house, and in 1864 a graduate of Moscow University returned to the new walls of his native gymnasium as a teacher of Russian language and literature. Polivanov tried to develop in his pupils logical thinking And literary speech. His extraordinary lessons, according to the recollections of students, infected with love for the subject and the teacher. However, he taught here for only four years, and then founded his private “Polivanovskaya” gymnasium on Prechistenka, where the sons of Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, A.N. Ostrovsky.
The Remizov brothers studied at the gymnasium on Pokrovka, among them future writer Alexei Remizov, whose work Marina Tsvetaeva called "a living treasury of the Russian soul and speech." He also showed up very early. Creative skills. At first, he himself invented various fables and told them to adults, very annoying them, and in the year he entered the gymnasium, when he was only seven years old, he wrote his first story, recorded from the words of a nurse. He did not have a chance to graduate from this gymnasium. His brother Victor had difficulty with ancient languages, but mathematics was good, and his parents decided to transfer him to the Commercial School. And so that he would not be bored, at the same time Alexei was transferred there too. The fate of the brothers diverged over time. Victor fought in the Red Army, was captured by Kolchak and was shot. Alexei emigrated in 1921. By the way, he was still very fond of drawing, and although it was a purely amateurish work, Picasso himself appreciated his drawings.
The list of celebrities of the gymnasium can be continued for a long time. This is N.A. Skryabin, the father of the composer, and P.A. Khokhlov, opera artist Bolshoi Theater. And the anthropologist N.Yu. Zograf, researcher of the population of the tundra and Siberian burial mounds. And the zoologist S.A. Zernov, the founder of hydrobiology and the creator of the first institute of fisheries in the USSR. And the famous doctor Fyodor Getye - the first chief physician of the Soldatenkovskaya (Botkinskaya) hospital, the personal doctor of all the Kremlin leaders.
Another doctor was also a graduate of the gymnasium - Alexander Sergeevich Puchkov, the creator and first head of the Moscow Ambulance Station, founded in 1923. It was he who developed the basic principles of emergency medical care: ambulance, urgent Care at home, transportation of patients and emergency psychiatric care. Puchkov is compared with Dr. Haaz: Haaz gave his heart to the poor to alleviate their suffering, Puchkov did everything to prevent a person from dying in sudden illnesses and in disasters. (By the way, his father was the chief physician of the Gaaz Police Hospital in Maly Kazenny Lane, and it was on his initiative that a monument to Dr. Gaaz with the famous motto “Hurry to do good” was erected in the yard). Under the leadership of Alexander Puchkov, the ambulance brigades traveled around Moscow after the bombings during the Great Patriotic War picking up the wounded. And it was Puchkov who invented metal combs on the escalators in the Moscow metro to avoid unnecessary injuries, and three-sided bottles for vinegar, so that they could always be identified, even at night, and not sip from them by mistake.
All of them during the years of study attended their house church in the days of the great Orthodox holidays and gymnasium celebrations. By the 50th anniversary of the gymnasium, the director ordered to renovate the Church of the Annunciation. The temple premises were expanded by adding adjacent rooms. From now on, high school students could stand at the service in the church, and not in the hall below. The new, comfortable and beautiful church existed until Soviet times.
"Peace to the huts, war to the palaces!"
After the revolution, the gymnasium was closed, and the house church was also closed. Already in 1921, church utensils were transferred to the rural church of the Kolomna district. The house was occupied by trivial communal apartments. In the years civil war were heated by elements of decoration: parquet, stair railings, doors, furniture, etc. burned down in potbelly stoves. Various institutions were adjacent to the communal apartments. Since 1924, there was a hostel for students of the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. 15-20 people huddled in one room until a new, own hostel was built in the 1930s. Communal apartments began to gradually settle only after the war, and the House of Pioneers and Schoolchildren of the Krasnogvardeisky District was located on the second floor. Among his students was the poetess Bella Akhmadulina.
In the mid-1960s, the communal apartments were finally completely settled, institutions (except for the House of Pioneers) were removed, and the research institute of the All-Russian Research Institute of Geophysics moved into the palace. Then the first scientific restoration of the monument was carried out: its facades were returned to the original appearance of the middle XVIII century. Now this house is still occupied by various institutions, but, unfortunately, there is no memory of the church in it.
100 great sights of Moscow Myasnikov senior Alexander Leonidovich
The Apraksin-Trubetskoy House ("chest of drawers")
This house is called the pearl of the Elizabethan Baroque. And, like any jewel, it has its own legends, secrets and mysteries.
The story began in 1764, when Count Matvey Fyodorovich Apraksin, Lieutenant of the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment, bought the land on Pokrovka. The new Pokrovsky landowner came from a very ancient and eminent family, which gave Russia many wonderful people. His father Fyodor Matveyevich is Peter's steward, the legendary admiral, the head of the Admiralty Department, who built the Azov Fleet. After the death of the admiral, his son Matvey got a large plot in St. Petersburg on the Fontanka. This is the famous Apraksin Yard.
In 1764, Matvey Apraksin married the maid of honor Ekaterina Ivanovna Gendrikova. It was then that he bought a spacious plot of land on Pokrovka, where he decided to build a house. The one that still stands today.
The first mystery is connected with the construction of this house. The fact is that by this time classicism had already come into fashion. He came to replace the baroque, fashionable during the time of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. And by the time the house was being built, both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, preference was given to classicism, so beloved by the new Empress Catherine II Alekseevna.
The reasons for such an unexpected decision to return back to the Elizabethan baroque are called different. But most likely, Matvey Apraksin could simply act arbitrarily, like a gentleman, as was customary among many wealthy Moscow nobles.
But be that as it may, an architectural gem has appeared in Moscow - the rarest example of civil Elizabethan baroque. Stucco, shells, Corinthian columns, rich decor could not leave anyone indifferent. The house was immediately called the Moscow Winter Palace. True, in miniature. And then, for the bizarre architecture and shape, he received another nickname - "commode house".
The Apraksin-Trubetskoy House ("chest of drawers")
The name of the architect is the second mystery of the house. Legends attributed the house to Bartholomew Varfolomeevich Rastrelli himself. The researchers expressed themselves more cautiously: the unknown master of the Rastrelli circle. Some suggested the name of the serf count P.B. Sheremetev Ivan Petrovich Argunov. After all, Ivan Petrovich was not only talented artist, but also an architect, took part in the construction of the famous palace-theater in Ostankino.
Then, with a certain degree of confidence, they began to call Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky. He was the chief architect of Moscow during the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna and is considered one of the founders of the Moscow architectural school. And what is important - a student of Bartholomew Varfolomeevich Rastrelli. It is he, chief master Moscow Elizabethan Baroque, built a magnificent bell tower in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and in Moscow - the Church of Nikita the Martyr in Staraya Basmannaya.
And if we accept the version that Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky was the architect of Apraksin's house, then it is clear that this is his main civil creation. It was built in accordance with the law of the time of Peter the Great - along the "red line" of the street, with a front facade facing Pokrovka. Perhaps already with an oval hall in the center. Later, a house Annunciation Church was built there.
Under Apraksin, there was no house church. Matvey Fedorovich was assigned to the neighboring Church of the Resurrection. Since 1769, the names of him and those of his household appear in the confession book of the temple.
In 1772, the Apraksins, for some obscure circumstances, parted ways with the house on Pokrovka. The building was acquired by the Life Guards Captain-Lieutenant Prince Dmitry Yuryevich Trubetskoy.
Dmitry Yuryevich Trubetskoy purchased the luxurious Apraksin estate on Pokrovka with the proceeds from the sale of the Kremlin property. This Trubetskoy property in the center of the Kremlin has existed since 1612. Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy became famous in the Time of Troubles. In 1611, together with Prokopy Lyapunov and Ivan Zarutsky, he gathered the first people's militia and took part in the battles for Moscow. In 1612, together with the second militia, he freed the capital from mercenaries, for which he received the title "Savior of the Fatherland." Trubetskoy stood up for the convocation of the Zemsky Sobor and even was a contender for the royal throne. Having occupied the Moscow Kremlin in October 1612, Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy took a fancy to the former chambers of Boris Godunov and settled in them. In his new possession, he arranged a small house Church of the Annunciation. Only in 1771, by decree of Empress Catherine II, the treasury bought this last private property in the Moscow Kremlin. The building of the Senate was to be erected on this site.
Dmitry Yuryevich Trubetskoy moved the Annunciation Church to Pokrovka. So the mansion had its own temple.
The city estate passed to new owners for 89 years. The house was owned by four generations of princes Trubetskoy.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, the names of many people have been associated with the house on Pokrovka. prominent writers and cultural figures. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin knew this house from early childhood. I visited the Trubetskoys little Fedor Tyutchev. The future famous historian Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin taught Trubetskoy's daughters. The house on Pokrovka was connected with the fate of Leo Tolstoy. Prince Dmitry Yuryevich, the first owner of the Trubetskoy family, was the writer's maternal great-grandfather.
In 1861, the cadet of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, Prince Ivan Yuryevich Trubetskoy and his mother Olga Fedorovna sold the house on Pokrovka to Moscow University. The 4th male gymnasium was opened in the house. This gymnasium stood out among the state gymnasiums and even competed with the famous 1st male gymnasium on Volkhonka, the oldest in Moscow, founded in 1804. The 4th gymnasium was a classical gymnasium of the highest category - with two ancient languages, Latin and Greek, which gave the right to enter Moscow University after graduation. She was famous for her excellent teaching staff. Among the graduates of the gymnasium are Nikolai Zhukovsky, the "father of Russian aviation", and academician Alexei Shakhmatov. Within these walls, the high school student Konstantin Stanislavsky, then Alekseev, met Savva Morozov, the future patron of his theater. The Remizov brothers studied at the gymnasium on Pokrovka, including the future writer Alexei Remizov, whose work Marina Tsvetaeva called "a living treasury of the Russian soul and speech."
After the revolution, the gymnasium was closed, and the house church was also closed. The house was occupied by ordinary communal apartments. Various institutions were adjacent to the communal apartments. Since 1924, there was a hostel for students of the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. Communal apartments began to gradually settle only after the war, and the House of Pioneers was located on the second floor.
In the 1960s, the residents of communal apartments were finally evicted. The palace has new owner, All-Union Research Institute of Geophysics. Then the first restoration of the monument was carried out: its facades were returned to their original appearance mid-eighteenth centuries. The interiors have also begun to be restored.
And the amazing house, which once received the ironic nickname chest of drawers, again began to be perceived as a true pearl of the Elizabethan Baroque. After all, it is known that real pearl dies without human warmth.
Walking along Pokrovka, it is impossible not to pay attention to the blue house, which stands near the monument to Chernyshevsky. Festive, ornate. For its rectangular shape, it was nicknamed the "Chest of Drawers". This mansion has an incredibly rich history!
One of the most famous legends associated with the construction of the house says that the building was wedding gift Empress Elizabeth secret husband- Count Alexei Razumovsky. The palace was supposedly a "rehearsal" of the Winter Palace. And that in fact the empress was married not in Perovo, but on Pokrovka - in the Baroque Church of the Resurrection in Barashy. The church was decorated with a special sign - a crown and had a chapel in honor of Zechariah and Elizabeth. The legend is beautiful, if not for the dates. The mansion was built in the 60s of the XVIII century for Count Apraksin - at a time when the Empress was living last days. Ironically, the author of the project is unknown. The most likely version is as follows: the house was built for the twenty-year-old count Matvey Apraksin for his wedding with his second cousin Peter III. But the owner almost did not have time to live in the new house: they did not have time to complete the palace, as in 1772 Apraksin resells it to Count Trubetskoy, whose family owned the house for 90 years.
An interesting detail: the house was built after the Decree on the Liberty of the Nobility of 1762. Now the nobles could not serve. They left the capital for Moscow or villages and built family nests. The house was built in the Rastrelli baroque style, which was more popular in St. Petersburg. The palace has a sky-blue color and is lavishly decorated with pilasters, bas-reliefs, columns, platbands, porticos, and stucco. Large offices, huge ballrooms, bedrooms and boudoirs - unfortunately, we cannot see the original appearance of the interiors due to the fire. But now the situation has been restored. Trubetskoy added wings and connected them to the main house, and also moved the front staircase. The reason for the extensions was large numbers servants who did not fit in the house. New owner creates a rectangular courtyard and a lush courtyard facade with round windows. The layout of the house consisted of six round rooms on each floor. Trubetskoy wanted more, but due to the high cost of materials, he did not do everything he wanted. In 1783, a stone stable was built, and a service building was built over the third floor.
Before we could finish, two years later the roof leaked. After the death of Dmitry Yurievich, the farm went to his son Ivan Trubetskoy, who married Ekaterina Mansurova. noble families spent autumn, winter and spring in the house, and went to the estate for the summer. The house was rented out. Trubetskoy was a chamberlain, and therefore was more often on the road or at court than at home. In 1812, there was a terrible fire in Moscow, the "House-chest" was badly damaged - all ceilings and partitions on the second and third floors burned down. In 1825 the building was listed as still unfinished. Despite this, both relatives and friends visited the prince and his family. One of the most famous guests is Mikhail Pogodin, historian, professor at Moscow University, collector and journalist. Once he came to get a job with Trubetskoy - to teach younger children. For several years he teaches children, and soon becomes a friend of the family.
The Decembrist uprising will remotely affect the family: a distant relative of Sergei Trubetskoy will be sentenced to death penalty and then sent to prison. The poet also visited Pokrovka, literary critic Dmitry Venevitinov. He was unrequitedly in love with Zinaida Volkonskaya, and towards the end of his life he became interested in Alexandra Trubetskoy. Another famous guests of the house are the Pushkin family. Alexander Sergeevich was close friends with a distant relative of the family, who lived on Znamenka. The poet's father was Ivan Trubetskoy's second cousin (son of Dmitry Yurievich). Therefore, the family very often visited Pokrovka. Yes, and adults, Pushkin went to visit. A well-known fact: he was with the hosts after the Mikhailovsky exile, after the coronation of Nicholas I, and certainly looked in on a visit in the winter of 1827, which he spent in Moscow.
It was within the walls of the blue house that the father and mother of Leo Tolstoy colluded. Marya Volkonskaya was brought up by her father-general. When he left, he left his daughter in the care of relatives. After he retired, he took her to Yasnaya Polyana. To understand the relationship between a daughter and a father, remember the old Prince Bolkonsky from War and Peace, who tormented his loved ones more than he loved. By the age of 30, Marya was called an old maid behind her eyes. After the death of the general, she became the heir to a large fortune. Nikolai Tolstoy was 4 years younger than his wife. In 8 years they had five children. Six months after birth youngest daughter Marya died of a nervous fever.
In 1861, after the publication of the Manifesto on the freedom of the peasants and financial difficulties, the Trubetskoys sold the house of the 4th male gymnasium for 125,000 rubles, which was there until 1917. Among the famous graduates of the gymnasium are Konstantin Stanislavsky, Nikolai Zhukovsky, Savva Morozov, Alexei Remizov, Alexander Shakhmatov, Nikolai Astrov. Red October closed the educational institution, the home church and settled the house for his needs. It became a multi-apartment communal apartment, where 10-20 people lived in one room. In the 1930s, there was even a hostel for students of the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. During the war years - the Research Institute of Geophysical Methods of Exploration and the House of Pioneers of the Bauman District. In the 60s of the XX century, the communal apartments were finally settled, the institutions were taken out, and the building was restored for the first time. In the early 2000s, part of the premises was rented Russian fund mercy and health.
The house, which received such an unusual nickname - a chest of drawers, was built in 1766 by order of Count Matvey Apraksin. The architect is unknown, but since the plan with the buildings applied to it was signed by Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky, the authorship is attributed to him. One thing is certain: the house was built by a student of Rastrelli, so it is made in a baroque style uncharacteristic for the capital: concave-convex shapes, magnificent stucco molding, columns. To date, the chest of drawers is the only architectural representative of the Rastrelli baroque in all of Moscow. All other buildings of this style were destroyed by fire in 1812.
In the capital at the time of the construction of the house, classicism already dominated, so the Muscovites, who at first compared it with the Winter Palace, nevertheless called it a chest of drawers. Count Apraksin in 1772 sold it to the princes Trubetskoy, the youngest branch of the famous family, who owned the house for almost 90 years. These Trubetskoys in the city were nicknamed Trubetskoy-Komod, so as not to be confused with relatives. It is said that the Trubetskoys did not want to part with the palace because of the legend that it was here that Aleksey Grigorievich Razumovsky allegedly celebrated his secret marriage to Empress Elizaveta Petrovna.
Do not be lazy and go around the palace around. It will amaze you with the complexity of the volumes and the dynamics of the architecture. Curvilinear rooms form the basis of the layout different shapes and size. The rectangular rooms between them are somewhat recessed, the curves of their walls are directly expressed in the volume of the building. These ledges are accentuated by columns and torn pediments. Columns and pilasters of the Corinthian order unite the front second and third floors. Large architraves and magnificent stucco almost completely fill the walls, especially from the side of the courtyard. An unusual detail for a residential building is the stucco shells in the semi-domes of the niches on the ground floor. Pay attention to the corners of the chest of drawers: they are deployed along the street and are porticos with broken gables facing the prospects of the street. With these corners, the house holds the prospects of the street in one direction and the other, as it stands on a hill in the place where Pokrovka smoothly bends on a slope.
big names
Inside the building, only the main layout has been preserved, since in early XIX century, the house was damaged in a fire and the interiors were redone. The interior space of the house is determined not only by the variety of rooms, but also by their location around a large oval hall. High doors were combined with later low ones. Straight and concave corner stoves were lined with tiles. Wooden stairs in the second half of the 19th century were replaced with cast iron ones. In the southwestern round room, a spiral staircase was preserved until the end of the 20th century. By the way, until the 1950s, the house had only stove heating.
Many legendary personalities have visited the walls of the “chest of drawers”. As a child, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and his sister Olga used to come here for dance lessons. Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, who lived nearby, also visited here. Pushkin came here later - in 1826, visiting Vasily Korniliev, manager of the Trubetskoy affairs.
In 1861, the Trubetskoys sold the estate for 125,000 rubles to Moscow University. It housed the 4th Men's Gymnasium, where many famous people: the famous aviator Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky, the honored worker of arts Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky, the scientist Pavel Gavrilovich Vinogradov, academician Alexei Alexandrovich Shakhmatov, the industrialist and philanthropist Savva Timofeevich Morozov and many others.
After the revolution of 1917, communal apartments were arranged in the house. Various institutions were adjacent to the communal apartments. From 1924 until the 1930s, there was a hostel for students of the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. Up to 20 people could live in one room. And communal apartments were settled only after the war. The Research Institute of Geophysical Exploration Methods moved into the building. On the second floor was the House of Pioneers of the Krasnogvardeisky (later Baumansky) district. Among its visitors were the poetess Bella Akhmadulina and theater artist Valery Leventhal. In the 1960s, the first restoration of the house was carried out: its facades were restored to their original appearance of the middle of the 18th century. Now the house is occupied by various institutions.
Dome and bell tower of the temple Life-Giving Trinity on Gryazeh has not yet been restored. Photo: Russian Look
Next door
There are several other interesting places near the Apraksin-Trubetskoy estate. To the left of the chest of drawers is the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Barashy, built back in 1688, a monument of the Moscow Baroque. In 1932, the temple was closed and a factory was placed in it, and only in 1983 the church began to be restored. In 2013, nine ceramic icons-reliefs by the artist Sergei Leonidovich Shikhachevsky were installed on the church fence. Here you can see the icons of the prophet Elijah, St. Longin the Centurion, Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helena, the great martyr and healer Panteleimon and others.
Address: st. Pokrovka, 13, there is a temple of the Life-Giving Trinity on Gryazeh. It was built in 1861 by the famous Moscow architect Mikhail Dorimedontovich Bykovsky following the examples of Renaissance architecture. In the mid-1950s, the temple building was converted into a House of Culture. The dome and bell tower were demolished. In 1992 the building was returned to the church. Restoration of the dome and bell tower is still to be done.
Not far from the church, Chistoprudny Boulevard, 14, there is a profitable house that once belonged to her. Its main decoration is a belt of terracotta bas-reliefs on the third and fourth floors, which depicts fabulous animals, birds and plants. The author of the sketches was a student of Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov - artist Sergei Ivanovich Vashkov. The art artel "Murava" completed the work, in which they worked famous artists Alexey Filippov, Ivan Averintsev, Peter Galkin and others.
Terracotta bas-reliefs tenement house performed artel "Murava", which worked well-known artists of the early XX century. Photo: Elena Shishkova/www.milochka.tourister.ru
