Palaces for Muscovites: social and cultural institutions housed in listed buildings

The Davydovsky City Clinical Hospital, the Public Services Palace at VDNKh and the Turgenev Library and Reading Room are grouped not only as social institutions, but because they are housed in colorful buildings erected in the late 18th – early 20th centuries. The past and the present are closely intertwined: new technologies harmoniously coexist with marble sculptures and unique stained-glass windows.

Modern hospital housed in the manor dating from the late 18th century

The former estate of merchant Ivan Batashev on Yauzskaya Street (11/6 Yauzskaya Street, Bldg 1) opened a hospital for laborers, also known as the Yauzskaya Hospital, more than 150 years ago. Since 2015, one of the oldest in-patient hospitals in Moscow has been named after autopsist Ippolit Davydovsky. Today, it is a modern multidisciplinary medical center with the latest equipment. The clinic specializes in treatment of cardiovascular diseases: it has a department for patients with acute cerebrovascular accident, a department for surgical treatment of complex cardiac arrhythmias and pacing, an anesthesiology and resuscitation department, and others.

The mansion housing the hospital resembles a splendid palace. The building with a six-column portico, elongated windows, a balustrade and rich internal decor built more than two centuries ago is thought to be designed by architect Rodion Kazakov, who participated in construction of the Kremlin Palace and the Prechistensky Palace. At one time, even French marshal Joachim Murat admired the beauty of the estate, who in 1812 set up a residence here having saved the building from fire.

The complex restoration of the hospital’s main building recognized as a cultural heritage site is being completed. The majestic white-stone columns, mascarons and sophisticated ornament of the central entrance have already been restored. The old Mettlach tiles in the lobby have been restored to their former glory. The passages along the edges of the central hall are decorated with renewed figures of mighty Atlanteans who hold huge sea shells above their heads. Specialists have also restored the main staircase and the marble figures of Venus and Susanna at its foot. The space above the stairs features a stained-glass window ‘Saint Jerome Extracting a Thorn from a Lion’s Paw’ by artist Maxim Kantor.

While working on the second floor, experts made an unexpected discovery: behind the walls of the studies they found an Empire portico dating from the 18th century with a colonnade made of artificial marble with plaster moldings.

Public Services Palace housed in VDNKh’s historical pavilion

The Atomic Energy Pavilion (No. 71), formerly RSFSR Pavilion, one of the most representative pavilions at VDNKh, has accommodated the My Documents Public Services Palace since 2018. The first thing residents visiting the center to apply for a driver’s license or to set up a business see is powerful columns, sculptures of a tractor driver and a collective farm woman, and a panoramic fresco ‘The Peoples of Russia Built Socialism’ in the portico of the building’s main façade.

Inside the pavilion, Moscow residents can admire plaster moldings and stained-glass windows almost five meters high. They were made in 1954 using a technology new for that time, when not plastic concrete but foam plastic was applied as partitions for colored broken glass parts, which made the structures lighter. In the course of restoration, the specialists have restored the missing glass elements and made a new frame.

They also worked on the skylight decorated with a star, which is located in one of the halls. Archival photographs allowed experts to find out that the star was made of red glass and not of transparent glass as it was previously thought.

In addition to historic decor, the pavilion boasts modern installations with red inscriptions ‘Benefit’, ‘Care’, ‘Kindness’, ‘Accessibility’ and others standing out on the walls.

It also houses a museum and exhibition complex devoted to the history of public service, where new technologies, along with ancient artifacts, are presented. Using VR glasses, one can take a virtual journey into the past and play the role of an accountant or assistant secretary.

School building as a monument of Moscow Art Nouveau

The gem of Starokonyushenny Pereulok is the Medvednikovskaya Gymnasium (Building 18). One of the oldest city educational institutions was built in the early 1900s at the expense of the Medvednikovs. The project was created by an apprentice of Fyodor Schechtel, artist and architect Ivan Kuznetsov. The school was one of the best public schools of that time: it had spacious classrooms, corridors and a gym equipped with a unique air duct system. Today, the building houses School No. 1529 named after A. S. Griboyedov.

In 2021, the restoration of the historic building was completed. Specialists have restored the original appearance of the Art Nouveau façade decorated with colored glazed tiles and the entrance interiors with baroque and rococo stylistic elements. The school has a lobby with a complex arched dome, plaster moldings and eight columns. Mettlach tiles have been preserved on the floor of the lobby’s front entrance. The specialists have also restored the main staircase with stone steps and decorative metal railings.

One of the most challenging work was the restoration of the ceiling painting in the teachers’ meeting room. For the first time, not a single element but a whole architectural and pictorial composition was removed and then installed back. When removing the false ceiling, experts also found a partially intact ceiling lamp, which was previously considered lost.

Today, the rooms of the restored historic complex fully meet school’s current needs. The school offers advanced curriculum in foreign languages and social science to 700 children.

Music school housed in Russian composer’s mansion

A children’s music school named after composer Sergei Taneyev has been opened in another well-known historic building at 7, 9 Chisty Pereulok. From 1866 to 1921, three generations of the Taneyev family lived there: the composer’s parents, himself and his elder brother with his wife and children. Many famous representatives of Russian culture visited it: Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Leo Tolstoy, Sergei Rachmaninov, Alexander Scriabin and Alexander Goldenweiser attended Sergei Taneyev’s lessons.

The restored old mansion has rooms for individual studies and Taneyev’s memorial study with the museum and the teacher’s room. In 2014, the construction of the new three-story school building with a concert and exhibition halls, a library, music classes, a coatroom and a buffet was completed. The specialists have restored the interiors of the century before last. Today, about 400 gifted children attend the school. They learn to play piano, string, wind and percussion instruments, and master the art of choral and solo singing.

Wedding Palace in an old mansion

The most popular site to register a marriage in the Russian capital is Wedding Palace No. 1, also known as the Griboedovsky Registry Office, in 10/1 Maly Kharitonevsky Pereulok. It is housed in the former mansion of iron and cement merchant Augustus Roerich. The Wedding Palace opened in the 1960s when Maly Kharitonevsky Pereulok was called Griboedov Street, hence the unofficial name.

The one-story mansion designed by architect Sergei Voskresensky was erected in 1909. Each of the rooms had a unique interior. The house was decorated with stucco rosettes, coffered ceilings and a wooden front staircase framed with inlaid natural wood.

In 2005, the mansion was renovated. In 2013, the interior with carved wooden panels, heavy velvet curtains, elegant furniture, chandeliers and numerous mirrors was recreated. The ceilings of the living rooms were decorated with restored plaster moldings and cut glass chandeliers.

Library and reading room housed in the former noble estate

Turgenev Library and Reading Room, one of the most popular libraries in the city, is housed in the estate once belonged to the noble Petrovo-Solovovo family at 6/1, 2 Bobrovy Pereulok. The Naryshkin Baroque coexists with elements of eclecticism and modern forms, for example, buildings are connected by a cone-shaped passage made of glass and metal.

Readers can admire exquisite interiors with parquet floors, beautiful wooden furniture, plaster moldings, muted walls and small windows typical of 18th-century Moscow architecture. All this has been carefully restored by specialists.

Large and small reading rooms, halls containing humanitarian, philological and educational literature and fiction, a rare book hall, where Ivan Turgenev’s lifetime editions are collected, as well as a media library and a winter garden are available to guests. The book stock includes more than 122,000 printed publications.

The first public city reading room was founded by well-known Moscow philanthropist Varvara Morozova in 1884. Until 1972, the library was located in a house on Turgenevskaya Square, and when the building was demolished following the square reconstruction, the Turgenev Library was transferred to the former noble mansion.