Beautiful estates have been preserved in the Ryazan region. After visiting the estates in Stolptsy and Kolentsy we went to the village of Sokha and the district center of Starozhilovo, which were the estates of the famous and very rich von Derviz family.

In these settlements, pseudo-Gothic manor buildings, presumably by the famous architect F.O. Shekhtel, another metropolitan architect A.F. Krasovskiy. So many big names in the remote Ryazan outback could not leave us indifferent. Despite the fact that organized excursion groups bring here very rarely, lovers of picturesque historical ruins visit these places all the time. We were no exception, over the years of our independent travels we have learned to read literally every stone, and what for others is just ruins, for an interested person turns into a unique tourist site with a rich history.

Estates of von Dervizov Sokha and Starozhilovo in the Ryazan region

On the way to Sokha we pass a place with a funny name Suisk. Here you can still see the temple of Boris and Gleb, built in 1850.

Church of Boris and Gleb

It is in an extremely sad state, the bell tower of the church has long been dismantled. Inside, they say, several frescoes were preserved, but since the door was closed, we could not verify this.

Finally, we pass between artificial ponds and find ourselves in the former estate of the von Derviz Socha.

background Dervizov Sokha

Quite a few stone buildings of the former noble estate have been preserved here, but mostly they are in an abandoned state.

stone buildings

It is especially sad to look at the once chic palace, which stands without a roof and is barely visible behind the thickets.

once a splendid palace

It’s good that we arrived in the winter and foliage is not added to the trunks and branches.

Ruins

Local old-timers say that it was not a residential building at all, but a railway station, very similar to the old Paveletsky building in Moscow.

Train Station

Such a coincidence during the study turns out to be not at all accidental, and the assumption about the purpose of this building also has every reason. The fact is that in the 19th century, the property in Starozhilovo and Sokha was acquired by the millionaire Pavel Grigoryevich von Derviz, who was famous and became rich thanks to the construction of railways. At first, he wanted to arrange here vast estates with a horse yard, a park, an art gallery and many other necessary and not very entertainment and outbuildings. However, at the end of his life in 1874, he parted ways with his wife and she and her children, during her stay in the Ryazan province, lived in Starozhilovo. There was a manor house, a stud farm and many other buildings. From Starozhilovo to Sokha now it’s about twenty minutes by car, let’s say it was more on horseback, but still not much. Why was it necessary to build two residential buildings so close to each other? But in Sokh there was a wine factory, and it can be assumed that for its needs they could well have planned to build a railway. In addition, the architect of the Paveletsky railway station in Moscow, according to some sources, was A.F. Krasovsky, who built houses for the von Dervizovs in St. Petersburg, and is also the author of the church of Peter and Paul in Starozhilovo. It is said that he was buried near this church. Maybe it was he who built this amazing palace in Sokh, similar to his other creation. However, some signs more incline us to the version that after all it was a residential building. Firstly, next to it we still see a glacier - a prototype of a modern refrigerator.

House

I don't know if it was really necessary at the station. In addition, the railway did not appear here, but the house was still built. If it had been a railway station, the work would probably have been carried out in parallel. Well, as for the expediency of building two residential mansions in neighboring estates, the wealthy von Derviz could well afford it.

Now the building stands without a roof, and this is likely to accelerate its destruction.

On the one hand, there is a local administration, to which a spruce alley leads.

On the other front side, along the entire palace, there is a linden alley.

linden alley

The original window decor and stucco molding in some rooms have been preserved.

Estate details

We leave the fence and go to the former horse yard, which is best preserved.

horse yard

Judging by the fact that the gates are closed, it is possible that it is used as a warehouse or a garage, behind it is a dilapidated carriage house.

dilapidated carriage house

Inside we saw cute graffiti with horses. After all, it was the breeding of horses that became one of the main deeds in the life of the youngest son of Pavel Grigorievich von Derviz - Pavel Pavlovich.

horse graffiti

A brave hussar and a lover of women, during his military service he developed a passion for horses and mathematics. This is what he did all his life, so we can say that, despite all the blows of fate, he was a happy person. The famous architect F.O. was invited to Starozhilovo to build a stud farm. Shekhtel, who had already built a palace in Kiritsy for this family. Some buildings in Sokh may also have been built according to his design, there is no documentary evidence for this. Pavel Pavlovich von Derviz took up breeding horses on his estates. In Starozhilovo trotting and riding, in Sokh mostly heavy trucks. The horse yard in Sokh was designed for only thirty horses, in Starozhilovo the livestock was quite numerous, about three thousand horses. They were engaged in breeding work at the plant, improving the quality of breeds. Mathematics was another passion of the wealthy nobleman. He received an appropriate education in Moscow and began to teach this subject at the Pronskaya gymnasium. During the First World War, Pavel Pavlovich, out of patriotic feelings, changed his surname von Derviz to Lugovoi, which is how it was translated into Russian from German. Then the revolution happened. Despite the fact that Pavel Pavlovich Lugovoy accepted it and voluntarily gave away all his property, his origin haunted the new government. Residents of Starozhilovo warned him of the danger in time, and he left for St. Petersburg. After some time, Pavel Pavlovich was caught and sent to Moscow to the Butyrka prison, where he suffered from typhus. He was threatened with execution, but the intervention of former students saved Lugovoy from this fate. He returned to Starozhilovo, received a plot of land, and continued to teach mathematics. One of his students was the future great commander G. Zhukov. However, the authorities did not leave Pavel Pavlovich alone, after some time he decided to move to the Tver region, to the village of Maksatikha, to his wife's homeland. There they worked as teachers and died during the war with the Nazis. Pavel Pavlovich Lugovoy, a man with a difficult fate, who left behind a good memory and several architectural masterpieces, thanks to which we learn a little better about what Russia was like.

In Sokh, another Gothic building has been preserved, presumably this is the manager's house.

manager's house

In Soviet times, it housed a kindergarten, now the doors are boarded up, and the windows are bricked up. On the other side of the pond we see the ruins of a winery.

winery ruins

Let's go there. There are ruins almost everywhere.

Winery ruins

The tallest stone chimney is the best preserved.

winery ruins

The park around is heavily overgrown.

They say that somewhere in the thickets an underground storage has been preserved, where barrels of wine once stood. On the other side we see the carriage house, in which we have just been.

carriage house

We drive further towards Starozhilovo. The last time we entered this settlement from the other side, it was very cold and we quickly examined the stud farm and left. This time we got to see more. First, we drove up to the already mentioned church of Peter and Paul.

Church of Peter and Paul

It has recently been restored and looks very ornate, like a birthday cake.

Church of Peter and Paul

Didn't go inside. We drive past the square with the monument to Lenin and now we are already on the territory of the stud farm.

Lenin monument

It turns out that in addition to the main building, where horses are still kept, there are many more historical buildings.

Starozhilovsky stud farm

I hope it doesn't come to that.

The Starozhilovsky district is rich in sights, in one trip you can see the estates in Istya, Starozhilovo and Sokh, churches in Perevles and Kolentsy. And all this is located about fifty kilometers from Ryazan. I was very glad that I finally visited here and saw almost all the famous von Derviz estates in the Ryazan region.

The house on Novinsky Boulevard is associated with the life and work of the outstanding Russian singer, the famous bass Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin. This is Chaliapin's first own Moscow house, it is filled with a special "home" Chaliapin atmosphere. The museum is rich in authentic items of the Chaliapin family. Among them are pieces of furniture, a Bechstein piano, grandfather clocks, wedding candles of Fyodor and Iola, theatrical costumes, programs of performances, posters ... There are many paintings in the house donated to Chaliapin by artists: V. Serov, K. Korovin, V. Polenov, M. Nesterov, M. Vrubel. A large collection of his own works was donated to the Museum by the singer's son Boris Chaliapin. Currently, the Memorial Estate is open to visitors. They are waiting for exhibitions, thematic and sightseeing tours, concerts of famous and young performers, meetings of subscription cycles, children's holidays. The gallery of the Memorial Estate of F. I. Chaliapin forms a single complex with the House-Museum. In its premises, exhibitions are held dedicated to both history and topical issues of Russian vocal art; they acquaint visitors with the materials of specialized museums and private collections. The Gallery space hosts evenings and concert subscriptions on various topics - Musical Capitals of the World, Artistic Families, Meetings on Novinsky Street, Piano Evenings at the Chaliapin House, Choral Assemblies, Debut at the Chaliapin House, etc. Well-known domestic and foreign singers conduct master classes in the house of the great Russian performer. Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin bought a house on Novinsky Boulevard in 1910, at the age of 37. He lived here for twelve years, this is the heyday of his talent, the time of mature skill, deeply conscious creativity, world-wide fame. After the purchase of the building, Chaliapin's wife, the Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi, took care of its repair. The former house of the merchant K. Bazhenova, built at the end of the 18th century, was rebuilt in a new European way: gas, water supply, bathrooms, and a telephone appeared in it. Not only the house was improved, but also a vast garden, where they installed a gazebo with a view of the Moscow River and cozy benches, planted a linden alley, jasmine and lilac bushes, and laid out flower beds. For the Chaliapins, it was a real family home, where both adults and children lived comfortably - and Fyodor Ivanovich had five of them. The hospitable estate was often visited by many famous figures of Russian culture: S. Rachmaninov and L. Sobinov, M. Gorky and I. Bunin, K. Korovin and K. Stanislavsky. In 1918, the house was nationalized and became a communal apartment for 60 years. In 1978, the building was transferred to the State Central Museum of Musical Culture named after. M. I. Glinka for the creation of the Museum of F. I. Chaliapin. It took eight years of complex repair and restoration work in order to restore the house the way Chaliapin knew it. The interiors of the house were recreated from photographs and stories of the singer's children. The White Hall, the Green Living Room, the dining room, the office, the billiard room... Life in these rooms went according to routine, it was not disturbed by the busy tour schedule of the artist. In the White Hall, Chaliapin rehearsed with many of his guests, celebrated benefit performances in the dining room, and Fyodor Ivanovich liked to read in his office. Chaliapin adored billiards, a table for the game of the company "V. K. Schultz” was given to him by his wife. Now, as in the time of Chaliapin, the light-yellow facade of the house faces Novinsky Boulevard, figured chimneys flaunt on its green roof, and decorative vases on the pillars of carved cast-iron gates.

The Moscow authorities are planning to put up the legendary book houses on Novy Arbat for sale. For three houses and a tunnel, they are asking for 5.4 billion rubles.

Earlier, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that the Moscow authorities are considering the possibility of reconstructing these houses into hotels.

Currently, most of the space in them is leased for offices.

Construction of Kalinin Avenue. 1963–1964, today Novy Arbat

From the memoirs of Vladimir Potresoav (“Our Heritage” No. 67-68 2003): “In September 1962, our house literally shuddered from the roar. The fact that the lanes between the Arbat and Povarskaya were doomed had been talked about for a long time, some of the residents were even evicted, but somehow they couldn’t believe it. Father quickly loaded the camera with film and ran out into the street. I followed him. Through the entrance yard to the dog playground was within easy reach. The entire area was covered in dust. Creaking and trembling, the yellow crane tore off the cast-iron ball from the ground, slowly pulled it aside and, blowing a puff of gray smoke, hit the wall of the wooden mansion, just opposite the House of Composers. and, like a heavy exhalation, a whitish shaft of age-old dust fell out from under the remains of the house. Residents of the surrounding houses, gathered at the fence, involuntarily recoiled. There was silence, only the crane, lowering the stained ball, purred at idle. Father, climbing onto the porch of the House of Composers, was filming a panorama. And I looked at people's faces. Someone did not hide his joy, anticipating an apartment in the Cheryomushkinsky five-story building, but someone suddenly realized that there would never be that Old Arbat, the heart of which was the Dog Playground.

Although decades have passed, I seem to see this example of a harmonious urban space between the Arbat, the “diplomatic” Povarskaya and the busy Garden Ring now, because I crossed the site on the way to school, and in the evenings I walked with the rare white shepherd Taina. The author of the story “In the trenches of Stalingrad”, a Kyivian Viktor Nekrasov, being in exile, exclaimed bitterly: “The entire Kalinin Avenue (as Novy Arbat was called) is not worth the funeral on the Dog's playground!”

On Novy Arbat began to sell the famous "house-books". How will the new owners dispose of them?

One of the four famous “book houses” has been sold on Novy Arbat. Its owner was one of the structures of the group of companies " Capital group". The building was sold by the Moscow mayor's office on the condition that it be converted into an apart-hotel for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. It seems that a completely different story of Novy Arbat begins with this transaction - the story of commercialization and change of functionality. Let's remember what Novy Arbat was like and imagine what it can become in the future.

Gorgeous, like on the waterfront in Havana

The first attempts to re-plan the territory of Novy Arbat were made as early as 1920. Then everyone discussed the project of the Russian constructivist Konstantin Melnikov, who proposed his vision of the Arbat Square and the lanes located nearby. But the final fate of this iconic place for Moscow was decided in the General Plan for the Reconstruction of Moscow in 1935. A wide highway was designed in it, which from Vozdvizhenka, through Kutuzovsky Prospekt, led to the western outskirts of the capital.

True, it was not possible to realize the grandiose plan then. The fact is that just at that time the main street of the capital, Tverskaya, was expanding and being built up with pretentious Stalinist buildings. And the city would not have pulled a “double” load. In addition, the war intervened, which finally confused all urban planning plans.

They returned to the project in the early 60s. The then leader of the country, Nikita Khrushchev, traveled abroad a lot. He was very impressed by the architecture he saw in the west. He was especially struck by Cuba and the embankment in Havana, built up with snow-white high-rise hotels. The General Secretary got excited about the idea of ​​building something similar here. It was supposed to be a kind of embankment, reminding that Moscow, in fact, is a port of five seas. It was then that the project of a wide avenue connecting Arbatskaya Square and the Garden Ring - Novy Arbat was revived.

Experts in the field of urban planning note that there were also objective reasons for the obligatory appearance of a new highway. In the early 60s, it was necessary to unload the Old Arbat from the huge amount of traffic that went through it. And the new route, which was supposed to become part of Kalinin Avenue, turned out to be just in time.

"The false jaw of Moscow" has become its bright symbol

The project began in 1963. Prominent architects got down to business: a group of authors consisting of Mikhail Posokhin, Alexei Gutnov, Zoya Kharitonova, Tatyana Malyavkina, Oleg Baevsky. Over the years, A. Mdoyants, V. Makarevich, B. Thor, Sh. Airapetov, I. Pokrovsky, I. Popova, A. Zaitseva also worked on the project.

The main attraction of the new street was to be (actually, they were!) four 26-story "house-books", where Soviet ministries and departments were to settle. The houses really looked like open hardcover books.

The original architectural find was that all four buildings were "hoisted" on a single base - the stylobate. The stylobate, consisting of two underground and two ground floors, housed the lobbies of administrative buildings, shops, cafes, restaurants.

An 800-meter tunnel was laid inside the base so that freight vehicles could drive up to retail outlets and catering establishments without disturbing pedestrians on the second most important street in the capital.

On the opposite side of the avenue, five 24-storey frame-panel residential buildings were designed.

True, in order to “cut through” the highway inside residential areas, it was necessary to destroy part of the valuable historical buildings: Molchanovka Street, Dog Playground, and many Arbat lanes disappeared. And here, of course, it was not without criticism from the native Muscovites.

At that time, Novy Arbat was referred to in urban folklore as nothing more than "the false jaw of Moscow." So aptly christened four buildings on a single stylobate writer Yuri Nagibin. They really looked like a jaw with false teeth. The ironic nickname "Posokhinsky passbooks" also stuck to the buildings.

Meanwhile, now, decades later, “book houses” are perceived as one of the brightest symbols of Moscow, along with the Kremlin, Tverskaya and Stalin's skyscrapers.

The number of architectural delights went through the roof

It is unlikely that anyone will now argue with the fact that “book houses” have formed a unique urban ensemble.

... Novy Arbat and now I want to admire. The rapid scope of the two facades - "wings" creates a feeling of lightness of the entire structure, which, as it were, grows out of a massive stylobate.

The façades are decorated with expressive ribbons of solid horizontal windows, hinting at the glorious traditions of constructivism.

The two middle floors have a slightly different height and a different pattern of window frames. This was done intentionally in order to "break" some of the monotony of the facades. The lobby of the first and second floors is separated from numerous shops by vertical walls - diaphragms.

Eight high-speed elevators are capable of lifting a total of 130 people to the desired height.

The hall, where the escalators are located, has access to the roof of the stylobate, where the architects originally planned to place "green" zones and mini sports grounds for employees who will work in these buildings.

I must say that for that time, in terms of building technology, skyscrapers were innovative: they were prefabricated frame buildings with tiled panels that could be washed, which is important on a busy highway.

In book houses, new insulation technologies were used, which then migrated to mass construction.

How many st about it apart hotel build

Time, as you know, is unstoppable. The 2000s have arrived. And the question arose of modernizing the once super-modern, and now rapidly aging buildings. The Moscow authorities have actively taken up the search for an investor who could shoulder this burden.

In 2015, two “book houses” were put up for auction for the first time. It was assumed that new investors would undertake the conversion of "book houses" into apart-hotels. It would be nice, because the 2018 FIFA World Cup is coming up.

At the start, "home-books" were valued at 5.4 billion rubles. But there were no people who wanted to buy two buildings at once for such a price. Everything was complicated by the fact that houses were sold with a burden. As it turned out, only about two-thirds of the space in them belongs to the Moscow City Hall, the rest of the premises have other owners. And it was proposed to the investor himself to resolve the issue with the owners. In this regard, the costs of the buyer increased greatly.

As a result, by spring, a buyer was found for one of the "books" - this is the structure of the Capital Group company - "Apart Group". House-book at the address: st. New Arbat, house 15, was acquired for 2.4 billion rubles.

Now the owner will have to radically modernize the building, which is supposed to be an apart-hotel. According to experts, almost one more cost of the building will have to be invested in the reconstruction (even the figure of 6.5 billion rubles appeared in the press, taking into account the cost of the house at the auction). After all, it will be necessary to make central air conditioning, modern repairs, change communications, add all the necessary infrastructure.

"House-books" obsolete?

As the director for the development of construction projects at Capital Group told RIA Real Estate Pavel Kornilov, buildings will try to "renovate" so as to return them to Soviet chic.

According to him, initially the architectural solutions of the “book houses” were very interesting, but later the houses suffered greatly from the so-called “European-style renovations”.

The objective of the project is to return the building to its original appearance. Investors are planning, using BIM technologies, to correctly locate internal engineering communications and thereby increase the usable area of ​​the building.

Obviously, modern polyurethane foam insulation of the latest generation will also be used. The question of hinged facades is still open.

“Book houses” are so original and unique that there can be no question of any “obsolescence” of architecture,” the speaker sums up.

At the finish line, the “house-book” should turn into a multifunctional complex that will house housing, offices, hotels and all the necessary infrastructure.

Elena MATSEIKO

Photo: pastvu.com, kommersant.ru, kvar-dom.ru, moslenta.ru