Iron Houses and Their Famous Residents: A History of Strange "Iron-Like" Buildings in the Center of Moscow

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Perhaps, in any city you can find a building of this shape: narrow on one side and wide on the other. When looking at such a house, the word "iron" involuntarily comes to mind. There are several such houses in the center of the capital, therefore, when they say: "House-iron", everyone will remember his pointed house. It is interesting that such an unusual architecture seems to attract unusual residents. Therefore, each such iron can boast of its own unique history.

House-iron of the Armenians in Granatny Lane

This building faces Granatny Lane on one side, and Spiridonovka on the other. In pre-revolutionary times, this site was bought by the Armenian brothers - wealthy Moscow merchants.

When acquiring the land, they mistakenly thought that it had previously belonged to the Manukovs, the parents of A. V. Suvorov's mother, and wanted to open an Armenian Museum here. When it turned out that this was not the case, the brothers decided to build a large apartment building with a hostel for students of Armenian origin instead of the old buildings. The author of the project is the architect Viktor Velichkin.

The owners themselves decided to live in the same building and occupied an entire floor. Velichkin also lived here.

Other Moscow merchants-Armenians - for example, the Lianozovs, Saarbekovs, Mantashevs - settled next to the apartment building. They were actively involved in charity work: for example, they built a dormitory and a canteen for students nearby, cleared the Patriarch's Pond, and restored the Spiridonovskaya Church. Alas, their grandiose plans to sponsor socially significant institutions were cut short by the revolution.

The Armenian apartment building is a legendary building. At one time, an outstanding writer Boris Zaitsev rented an apartment here. His name is now partially forgotten, but his famous guests, who often visited this house, have remained in the memory of readers to this day: Bunin, Balmont, Sologub, Bely. By the way, at one of these "parties" in the iron house, Bunin met his future wife, Vera Muromtseva. The outstanding architect Zalessky, who designed, in particular, the famous Voentorg building, also lodged here. He rented out one of his rooms to the son of Savva Morozov (guests were allowed to engage in such sublease). Several rooms on the second floor were occupied by the Empress's maid of honor.

In the same house, in one of the apartments, the editorial office of the Voice of the Past magazine worked, and its editor lived with his family. The founder of the Moscow Chamber Theater, Alexander Tairov, also lived here with his wife, the famous actress of the first half of the last century, Alisa Koonen.

In the Soviet years, the building was handed over to the Housing Association. The lower part of the house was built on, artists and employees of the Meyerhold Theater settled on the upper floors. Actors Yevgeny Samoilov and Vladimir Etush, singer Ekaterina Shavrina also lived here. And this is only part of the list of famous people who at one time or another, by the will of fate, were residents of the iron house.

House-iron of Kulakov on Khitrovka

Once upon a time on the site of this house there was a Pigs' estate. It was an ancient and highly respected family. Pevchesky Lane, on which this house goes on one side, until 1929 was called by their last name - Svininsky. A particularly interesting person is the state councilor and publisher Pavel Petrovich Svinin. He was very famous in society, wrote well, dabbled in painting, was also famous as a collector of unique ancient relics - paintings, statuettes, books.

And in Russian history and literature, Svinin became famous as a "Russian Munchausen", because he loved to fantasize. And thanks to this funny trait, Pavel Svinin became the prototype of the heroes of many famous literary works. For Pushkin, this is Pavlusha's liar from the fairy tale "The Little Liar". Alexander Izmailov has the hero of the fable "The Liar" ("Pavlushka is a copper forehead …"). Moreover, even Gogol admitted that Svinin was the prototype of his Khlestakov. This is readily believed, given that once in Bessarabia, Pavel Svinin was just as mistaken for a capital official, and he, like Khlestakov, did not deny and gladly accepted the honors shown to him.

Legends have survived to this day that the Svinins were a little shy about their surname. For example, during dinner parties in the house, they tried not to cook pork dishes, so as not to cause guests to laugh. And the priests from the local church were asked by the family to warn them in advance about when the chapter of the Gospel about how Christ put demons into pigs would be read at the liturgy, and on that day the Pigs came to the service only at the end - with the same purpose not to be ridiculed.

After the death of Pavel Petrovich, his son did not live in the house, but rented it out for a gymnasium, and then as an employee of the Imperial Orphanage.

In 1869, this site was acquired by a military engineer who traded in porcelain and crystal, Ivan Romeiko. He dismantled the Pig's house with columns, and built and united the outbuildings at the junction of Svinin, Podkolokolny and Podkopayevsky lanes, which resulted in a building in the shape of an iron, in which a tenement house was opened.

At the end of the 19th century, the building belonged to Ivan Kulakov, and it was one of the darkest Moscow shelters. It was described in detail by Gilyarovsky in due time.

After the revolution, the iron house was altered and two floors were added to it. It has become an ordinary residential building.

House-iron on Kazakova

Another iron house is located on Kazakov Street. The details of the appearance of this house are unknown, but for sure it had an equally interesting story.

Now it does not look the same as in the Soviet years - the upper part was built on with one more floor. The building houses offices and shops.

If we talk about pre-revolutionary apartment buildings, then almost each of them has a unique history. And about some buildings even make up legends. For example, about House under the glass.