Ulitsa Znamenka 6
Closed: to public
Subway: Borovitskaya, Biblioteka imeni Lenina
Pashkov house (Дом Пашкова) is a neoclassical mansion that stands on a hill
overlooking the Western wall of the Moscow Kremlin, near the
intersection of Mokhovaya and Vozdvizhenka streets. Its overall
design was attributed to the famous architect Vasily Ivanovich
Bazhenov. It used to be the building of the Rumyantsev Museum -
Moscow's first public Museum-in the 19th century. The current owner
of the Palace is the Russian state library. On the Vagankovsky hill
under the Pashkov house is considered one of several possible
locations of the legendary Library of Ivan the terrible.
The
Pashkov house was built in 1784-1786 by the Muscovite nobleman Pyotr
Pashkov, hence the name. He was a retired Lieutenant captain of the
Semyonovsky guards regiment and the son of Peter the Great's
orderly. It is believed that the building was designed by Vasily
Bazhenov as part of the reconstruction of the Kremlin. In theory,
the Pashkov House was supposed to build the lines of the new Palace
of the Moscow Palace. Fortunately Bazhenov was not allowed to
rebuild the Kremlin and the poet Pashkov house clearly stands out
against the background of medieval walls. Throughout the 20th
century, Bazhenov's authorship was disputed, as no written evidence
has survived for centuries, and the only thing that serves as proof
is the oral tradition and similarity to other buildings of Bazhenov,
and drawings of his project for the reconstruction of the Kremlin.
As soon as it was completed, the Pashkov House became a
prominent landmark in Moscow. For many years, the magnificent white
stone Palace that stands on Vagankovsky hill has amazed people and
was considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the Russian
capital. This is one of the key places described by Mikhail Bulgakov
in his novel "the Master and Margarita". Here, as you know, Levi
Matvey met Woland and Azazello, asking him to take the Master and
Margarita to him, since he deserved peace, but not light.
The impressive appearance of the building is caused in part by the
place where it was built. Pashkov house stands on a high Vagankovsky
hill, as if continuing the line of its ascent, at the open corner of
two descending streets. The main facade is oriented to the Sunny
side. In relation to the street, as well as to the entrance from the
lane, the mansion is placed not on a straight street, but somewhat
sloped. Because of this, it is better perceived from side, more
distant foreshortened points of view. The place of the building is
important and symbolic: Pashkov house stands on a hill opposite
Borovitsky hill, crowned by the Kremlin. It is important to note
that the Pashkov house was the first secular building in Moscow,
from the Windows of which you could look at the towers and buildings
of the Kremlin not from the bottom up, as well as observe
Ivanovskaya and Sobornaya squares.
At sunset high above the
city on the stone terrace of one of the most beautiful buildings in
Moscow there were two people: Woland and Azazello. No one could see
them from below, but they could see most of the city themselves.
("Master and Margarita", M. A. Bulgakov).
The first owner of the house was
P. E. Pashkov, after whose name the mansion got its name. His heir
A. I. Pashkov and the latter's son Vasily preferred the old estate
"second house of Pashkov" on Mokhovaya street (now the building of
the Moscow state University journalism faculty). At the beginning of
the XIX century, Bazhenov's masterpiece was in disrepair.
In
1839, the house was purchased from Pashkov's heirs by the Treasury
for Moscow University. In 1843, it housed the Moscow noble
Institute, transformed from A University Noble boarding school,
later the Institute was transformed into the 4th city gymnasium
(since 1852).
In 1861, the building was transferred for storing
the collections and library of the Rumyantsev Museum.
In 1921,
due to the arrival of more than four hundred abandoned, ownerless
and nationalized book collections in the Museum after the
revolution, all departments of the Museum were removed from Pashkov
house. Only the Museum's library remained, renamed and transformed
into the famous state library of the USSR named after V. I. Lenin.
the building was assigned to the Department of rare manuscripts.
Currently, Pashkov house is part of the library building complex,
but it was not used for many years, as it was constantly renovated,
which began in 1988 and ended in 2007.
Currently, the right wing
of the Pashkov house houses the Department of manuscripts, while the
left wing houses the music and music Department and the Department
of cartographic publications, which opened to readers in April 2009.
of two descending streets. The main facade is oriented
to the sunny side. In relation to the street, as well as to the entrance
from the alley, the mansion is not placed along a straight street, but
somewhat obliquely. Due to this, it is better perceived from lateral,
more distant foreshortening points of view.
The place of the
building is important and symbolic: Pashkov House stands on a hill
opposite Borovitsky Hill, crowned by the Kremlin. Pashkov House was the
first secular building in Moscow, from the windows of which one could
look at the towers and buildings of the Kremlin not from the bottom up,
but also observe Ivanovskaya and Sobornaya Squares.
The building has a diverse and interesting silhouette,
due to the fact that it is composed of three compact architectural
volumes: the central building and the side wings-wings. Simply put, the
mansion, being at the same time an urban estate, has a U-shaped layout
with a front yard open towards the entrance. The originality of the
solution is that the entrance is located not from the side of the main
facade, but in an alley, the traditional layout turns out to be
inverted. A high hill creates the foot of the building.
The
layout of the garden, once laid out in front of the house, was striking
in its splendor:
Below there are two stone pools with fountains
in the middle. The house is separated from the street by a lattice of a
wonderful pattern. The garden, like the pond, is teeming with rare
foreign birds. Chinese geese, parrots of various breeds, white and
variegated peacocks are free here or hanging in expensive cages. These
rarities, together with the general beauty of this house, attract
numerous crowds of people here on Sundays and holidays.
Johann
Richter, "Moskwa. Eine Skizze", 1799
With the expansion of
Mokhovaya Street, the area adjacent to the house was reduced to one
slope.
The only entrance to the Pashkov house, accessible for
carriages, is located on the side of Starovagankovsky Lane. It is placed
on the same axis with the main volume of the building, which is
emphasized by the entire building system of the palace. The principle of
contrast is widely used — large and small are opposed:
the
central volume of the building — office premises, fences,
an expanded
front yard in front of the main entrance — a narrow trapezoidal funnel
connecting the entrance to the front yard,
the funnel bell
corresponds to a ledge on the facade of the main building,
The
rectilinear outlines of the courtyard and the funnel are connected by
curved walls.
This construction of the master plan using contrasts
bears the imprint of the previous Baroque period with its love of a
complexly interpreted space. A spatial system is being created, full of
contrasting effects and contributing to a stronger perception of the
architectural dominant of the entire complex — the central volume of the
main building.
The former house church of St. Nicholas the Saint
adjoins the site.
Pashkov's house has two main facades — one facing the
roadway and has a palatial, solemn character, the other is oriented to
the courtyard and has a more cozy, manor-like appearance.
The
facade facing Mokhovaya is characterized by its length. The composition
unfolds centrifugally in all directions. Two one-story galleries extend
to the right and left of the central cubic array, ending in two-story
wings. And in the central building, columned porticos are pushed out on
both sides. The building is topped by a round belvedere. These are the
favorite techniques of classical architecture.
In contrast to the rusticated ground floor, the
porticos use a large order combining two floors. Due to the low but
extended basement, this combination of two floors by a colonnade
increases the scale of the building.
The three porticos of the
facade are located frontally. Pashkov House is a rare example in world
architecture, where three porticos are used in such a facade
composition, which are completely identical in their basic dimensions
and the number of columns. Only the order used is different.
The
columns and pilasters of the central building use a composite Corinthian
order, painted in its details with greater freedom and originality
compared to the usual canons. On the sides of the four-column portico
there are statues placed on the bases of the columns.
The columns
and pilasters of the wings use a complex Ionic order with diagonal
capitals. They emphasize the artistic independence and the role of wings
in the composition of the facade.
The balustrade framing the roof
of the central building carries magnificent vases on pillars, softening
the transition from the frieze and cornice to the belvedere completing
the central volume. The belvedere is not such a static form as the
pediment, and emphasizes the upward orientation of the entire
composition, crowning the building of the Pashkov house.
The main, most ceremonial rooms of the palace were located in its central building, the entrance to which was arranged along the axis of the building, from the side of the main courtyard. The main lobby was also located along the axis of the main building, where the main staircase is now. To the right of the lobby, away from the central axis, there was a grand staircase to the second floor, leading to the anteroom and the main hall. The side wings were allocated for residential and office premises.
The original color of the walls of the building, according to some sources, was orange. The beginning of the changes in the Bazhenov appearance of the building was laid by Emperor Paul: on his orders, the statue of Minerva (or Mars) crowning it, which served as a symbol of the victories of his mother's reign, was removed from the dome.
During the Napoleonic invasion, the building was
severely damaged: the wooden belvedere with a bypass colonnade of the
Corinthian order, which completed the building, and a huge sculptural
group and the Pashkov coat of arms erected on the entablature of the
central portico of the building were destroyed.
Later, the
building was restored with the features of Moscow post-fire classicism:
in 1815-1818, one of the architects of the "Commission for the
Construction of Moscow" (apparently, Osip Bove) restored the belvedere,
replacing the former Corinthian round columns with three-quarter Ionic
ones, thereby weighing down the house by placing a heavier order over a
lighter one. In addition, the lateral longitudinal galleries were
modified. Originally they were open transitional balconies and they were
crowned only by balustrades that showed through against the sky, but now
they are covered with a gable roof. The lost sculptural decoration has
not been restored. In 1841, architect A.V. Nikitin drew up a project to
rebuild the house to accommodate the Noble Institute. He also supervised
the reconstruction work together with architect I. I. Sviyazev.
The building, which functioned as the Rumyantsev Museum, was also
rebuilt in connection with functionality: when Alexander II presented
the museum with Alexander Ivanov's painting "The Appearance of Christ to
the People", which has a huge size, especially for it in 1914, architect
N. L. Shevyakov built the two—light Ivanovo Hall, which has survived to
this day - a special building next to the Pashkov House, planned in such
a way that, with its relatively small size, the most successful view of
it opens — at the end of the suite, the hall of the second floor.
In accordance with the General Plan for the
Reconstruction of Moscow adopted in 1935, a new wide front street,
Ilyich Alley, was to pass next to the Pashkov House, connecting
Dzerzhinsky Square with the new architectural dominant of Moscow — the
Palace of Soviets, which is being built on the site of the destroyed
Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The same General Plan provided for the
construction of a new Large Stone Bridge, the exit from which was
supposed to smoothly merge into Ilyich Alley. The realization of these
ideas in the late 1930s became possible due to the absorption of part of
the Pashkov house garden and the demolition of the fence, which was an
important part of the building's appearance. The white columns of the
Tuscan order fence emphasized the desire to rise from the foot of the
hill, at the top the movement was picked up by the columns of the
portico. Now, the viewer's perception has changed: the movement begins
not from the foot of the hill, from the columns of the fence, but from
the basement of the building on top of the hill. In addition, the
architect V. I. In 1934, Dolganov built a monumental white stone
staircase with a terrace-tribune descending to Mokhovaya on the slope,
and a hammer and sickle was placed on the main facade of the building,
in the place where the Pashkov coat of arms was previously located. The
interior layout of Pashkov's house changed more radically, and almost
nothing remained of Bazhenov's interior walls and stairs.
The
last change in the appearance of the Pashkov house occurred during one
of the repairs in the 1980s, when the coat of arms of the USSR was
removed from the facade.
During the twenty-year reconstruction,
the house has not been used since 1988, and after its completion, three
departments of the Russian State Library were located here: rare
manuscripts, cartography and music publications.
The depths of the Vagankovsky Hill under the Pashkov
House are considered one of several possible locations for the legendary
Ivan the Terrible library.
Russian journalist Andrey Karaulov said
that in 1993, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the Yukos oil
company, almost bought Pashkov's house. The deal was prevented by State
Duma deputy Gennady Raikov, who told then-Russian President Boris
Yeltsin about the deal.
Here, Boris Nikolaevich, when you enter the
Kremlin, Khodorkovsky will wave at you from the balcony.
According to this story, Yeltsin intervened and the deal was canceled.
Pashkov's house is described in the novel "The Master and Margarita" as
a meeting place for Woland, Azazello and Levi Matvey.
Other Pashkov
houses
"Pashkov House" is the name of the publishing house of the
Russian State Library.
Pashkov House is a novel by Nikolai Shmelev.
Pashkov House (The Second Pashkov House, Classroom Building, Pharmacy
House) — in ancient documents, this is sometimes the name of the
building of the Moscow State University Journalism Faculty, also located
at 9 Mokhovaya Street. These possessions also belonged to Pashkov —
Alexander Ilyich, a relative of the previous one. Another house
belonging to the Pashkovs was located at 12 Chistoprudny Boulevard.
Pashkov's mansion in St. Petersburg, at 39 Liteyny Street (architect G.
Bosse), praised by Nekrasov in "Reflections at the front door"