Each capital has unique recognizable sights, which instantly determine which city in question. In the main city of Russia, this is Pashkov’s house. In Moscow this is the name of the building immortalized in world literature by Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov, from whose belvedere at sunset, Woland and Azazello examined the beautiful Moscow and said goodbye to it forever.
Who was the man who gave the name to the architectural masterpiece
“It’s not in vain that Bulgakov Mikhail placed his heroes, well, no, not in the house, but on the roof (Then in Moscow he was all taller ...).” One of the most beautiful buildings was named by the brilliant author of “The Master and Margarita” Pashkov’s house in Moscow, built by order of the “first Russian vodka king”, Pashkov Pyotr Yegorovich, an ambitious and absurd (scandalous with neighbors) person.
Not every captain-lieutenant (now senior lieutenant), who served even in the elite Life Guards of the Semenovsky Regiment, could build for his joy "his personal Kremlin" directly opposite the Moscow Kremlin. The rich farmer wanted to keep his own memory, and he succeeded - few people know Pashkov’s house in Moscow. Many, admiring the architectural masterpiece, will want to know who was the owner, who is the author and executor of the project. And so the grandson of the batman Peter I will be famous for centuries as a person who contributed to the unique charm of our capital, spread over seven hills.
One of the cities on seven hills
In the world there are more than a dozen cities located on the same number of hills, including Rome, Constantinople and Washington. The names of the Moscow hills excite the imagination - Sparrow Hills, Lefortovo Hill, Zayauzie. Vagankovsky hill, which has been crowned since 1784 with one of the most striking sights of Moscow, is now combined with the Presnya district and is called “Three Mountains”.
The very center of the capital
If you look at the map of the Central Administrative District, you can see that despite the address (Vozdvizhenka street, 3 \ 5, building 1), the Pashkov house in Moscow stands at the intersection of Znamenka and Mokhovaya. The main exit leads to Starovagankovsky Lane, and the front facade of the building is turned to Mokhovaya Street, and then to Borodino Hill and the Kremlin. "The navel of the earth", and only that. In front of the palace, a terraced park with two stone pools, grottoes, sculptures, fountains, surrounded by a magnificent wrought-iron fence, a fragment of which has been preserved from the side of Znamenka to the present day, was originally laid out in front of a house that is not inferior to the beauty of the house. Of course, on the territory of the site was the Pashkov-owned house church of St. Nicholas the Ugodnik. The palace on Vagankovsky Hill was the first secular building in Moscow, and even in the country, from whose windows you could see Ivanovskaya and Sobornaya squares and the Kremlin. Nearby is the Stone Bridge.
The genius of architecture
Who in those days could be the author of such a masterpiece as the Pashkov house in Moscow? Architect Vasily Bazhenov (1738-1799), first vice-president of the Imperial Academy of Arts, a man whose merits before Russian architecture cannot be overestimated. It is enough to name the palace ensemble in Tsaritsyno, which he built for 10 years, and the Pashkov house in Moscow, to understand the scale of this genius of classicism.
Top of creativity
His Moscow masterpiece is especially good. The castle-fairy tale, according to experts, was created on Vagankovsky hill Bazhenov. Pashkov’s house in Moscow delights all connoisseurs of architecture not only with its unique beauty, but also with its “perfect, perfect ratio of all parts in a single building”. So wrote a connoisseur of architecture and connoisseur I. Grabar. And not only he believes that the academician of architecture Vasily Bazhenov created a handsome palace, looking up, resembling a monumental sculpture on a pedestal. Pashkov’s house in Moscow, whose style is classicism, has become a symbol of this trend in Russia. Located at an angle to the streets surrounding it, the house looks better at some distance, for example, from the point located at the very beginning of the odd side of Volkhonka.
The best angles
If you look at the house from afar, you can trace a single compositional solution - the columns of the fence are continued by a staircase and columns of the facade, a circular terrace wraps around the graceful silhouette of the walls above which stands a colonnade of a belvedere. Some sources say that the original color of the walls was orange. This architectural masterpiece of rather large dimensions gives the impression of an air castle tending to the sky.
National treasure
The house was so good, and so valuable for Moscow that after the fire of 1812, which did not pass the Pashkov Palace, funds for its restoration, despite the fabulous wealth of the owners, were allocated from the state treasury. The palace was a Moscow miracle - festive fireworks and illumination, arranged in honor of the frequent receptions given by the owners, were added to its beauty. Outlandish birds sitting in expensive cages or walking in the park increased the fabulous impression that Pashkov’s house in Moscow made. The photos in the article show the palace from various angles, and you can see how good it is.
From hand to hand
It’s a shame to read that some experts doubt Bazhenov’s authorship.
In 1839 he was bought from the last mistress of the house from the Pashkov clan by the state treasury for university needs. But in subsequent times, the handsome house continued to change owners. So, already in 1843, the University Noble Boarding House comfortably settled in it, which, in turn, was transformed into the Moscow Noble Institute, and later in 1852 into the city gymnasium No. 4. In 1861, Pashkov's house was transferred to the Rumyantsev Museum.
The Origin of Lenin
And in 1921, when more than 400 requisitioned personal libraries arrived here, all other departments of the museum were transferred to another building. The remaining books become the collections of the famous Leninka, which, again, in turn, became the Russian State Library. Who in Soviet Russia did not know this library? Even those who had no idea about the Pashkov house heard about it. The glory of this book depository was no less than Pashkov’s fame at home these days. She was the heroine of many feature films, poems were written about her - “... and from the nineteenth century a library drove into the house!” Well, the one that is called "Leninka" is always waiting for readers here ... ".
A place that favors the birth of legends
With so many owners changing, Pashkov’s house in Moscow, whose architecture provides for a lot of secret and mysterious corners, over the years of its existence has become overgrown with legends. Not only the palace, but the entire Vagankovsky hill is full of mysterious voids, grottoes, underground caves, and, most importantly, a huge well, 8 meters in diameter, lined with white stone, was discovered under the Pashkov House. It is impossible to say where he leads, since the studies were not completed to the end due to the collapsed walls of the well and the fear of collapse of the foundation of the building. And it is quite natural that an assumption arose (it was expressed, for example, by archaeologist I. Ya. Stelletsky) that it is here that the famous Liberia can be stored - the so-called Ivan the Terrible Library. Why not, because there are about 60 alleged places of storage of the legendary library, which was a dowry of the Byzantine princess Sophia Paleolog, who became the wife of Ivan III.
No worse than in English castles
One can not say more about one legend of the Pashkov house. She is cute, but absolutely incredible - in the mansion covered in myths lives the ghost of Rubakin Nikolai Alexandrovich (1862-1946), the author of the recommendation index “Among the Books” and “Psychology of the Reader and the Book”. This man, a book scholar and bibliographer, collected two large libraries (more than 200 thousand volumes) and donated them to the people. Who, no matter how this "book worm" (in the best sense of the word) does not wander through the halls of the country's main book depository! Fans of this man and legends claim that if you turn to him with a request to help in finding the right book, he will never refuse.
After the restoration, which ended in 2009, in the right wing of the mansion is a repository of ancient manuscripts, and in the left is a music library.
Excursions to the legendary house
They say that the entrance to “underground Moscow”, where the state treasury was kept in case of fires that so often devastated the medieval capital, was located on Vagankovsky hill. Well, where else would Woland have cast a farewell glance at Moscow? Unique in all respects is Pashkov’s house in Moscow. Excursions on it shed light on many questions of interest to tourists from all over the world, and give them the opportunity to enjoy the most beautiful view of the Kremlin. Excursions are very informative and are held daily. The gathering place, as a rule, is located opposite the Kutafia tower of the Kremlin or at the monument to F. Dostoevsky, or at the exit from the metro station “Library named after Lenin. " Excursions are conducted by professionals, with several orientations - from the internal structure and decoration of the palace to the Woland theme, that is, everything mystical that is associated with the most beautiful and mysterious building in Moscow - Pashkov’s house.