Description of the attraction
The market building was built in 1916 by the architect V. A. Lyukshin. The market square, together with the building and shopping malls, occupies almost an entire block and is located at the intersection of Chapaeva, Sacco and Vanzetti Streets, Kirov Avenue and Mirny Lane, in the very center of Saratov.
The place where the Covered Market was built until 1914 was called Mitrofanievskaya Square with the Ascension-Sennovskaya Church, consecrated in the name of St. Mitrofaniy (hence the name of the square) and erected in 1838. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Mitrofanievsky was considered the largest bazaar in Saratov. Rows of trade shops were located throughout the square and brought a lot of profits to the city treasury. Since 1900, the city government has been considering projects for the buildings of the new market, but it was not until 1907 that the architect Lyukshin received an order for construction. After spending three years inspecting the best markets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Riga and Odessa, he set about designing the building.
As the newspapers of that time wrote, on June 7, 1914, a solemn laying of the foundation of the market took place, in which rich and eminent townspeople took part, donating jewelry and money in favor of the "temple of trade". The sentimental wife of the governor lowered a ring with diamonds into the niche of the foundation, after which a policeman was on duty at this place for three days (until the solution hardened). So the legend about the treasure buried under the building of the Covered Market has official confirmation.
In 1916, the building, measuring 21 by 82 sazhens and surpassing all existing markets in Russia, opened the doors to the world of civilized trade. The covered market is divided into two parts isolated from each other: the first is the outer pavilions of the department store, located along the entire perimeter of the building and having 8 front entrances, the second is a covered courtyard with four main entrances. The facade of the building is decorated with the coat of arms of Saratov (three sterlets), enclosed in a laurel wreath, a molded image of a bull, Mercury (god of trade), a cornucopia, and all this is held by courageous Atlanteans above each front entrance to the Covered Market. In the middle of the courtyard there is a fountain with bronze statues of peasant girls.
The building of the Covered Market is considered unique in the commercial architecture of the early twentieth century, which does not know a crane and has only two winches from construction equipment. With a construction time of two years, the work was done thoroughly; for several decades, even repair work was not carried out in the market building, remaining an object of constant operation.
The building of the city Covered Market is a federal historical and architectural monument.
