Description of the attraction
The house of Ushkova (now the National Library of the Republic of Tatarstan) was commissioned by Alexei Ushkov, the architect-builder K. L. Myufke. The house was a wedding gift to Zinaida Nikolaevna Ushkova (nee Vysotskaya). Müfke performed the reconstruction of three buildings on the street. Voskresenskaya (now the Kremlin). The reconstruction took place from 1903 to 1907. The building is characterized by a mixture of styles. The predominant styles are Empire and Baroque.
Ushkova's house is a two-storey building, built of bricks and plastered on the outside. The interior layout is a suite system. The upper floor consisted of living ceremonial rooms. The lower floor consisted of retail space. The center of the façade was the main entrance. Outside, the building is richly decorated. The decoration outside and inside the building is made with great skill.
Each room of the building is decorated in its own style. The furniture in the rooms corresponded to the style of decoration. On the second floor there is an Empire-style hall. The ceilings are covered with luxurious ornamentation, which contains many details on the military theme. Lacquered doors in high reliefs depicting eagles. The former dining room is made in the Gothic style. The walls are bog oak, the ceilings are gothic-style caissons. There was a dark marble fireplace in the living room. The fireplace was decorated in the Empire style. The entire living room is designed in the Rococo style.
The main decoration of the mansion is a grotto garden: a ceiling made of stalactites, walls made of shell rock, natural material with crevices from which lush climbing plants grow, a huge aquarium filled with shells and stones. In the hall, which resembles a grotto, there is a fountain in the shape of a miracle fish. The main staircase is made in Chinese motives. The walls are made of wood-framed panels. Doors and fences are decorated with dragons. Stained-glass windows made in France, in the famous workshop of Charles Champignol, have survived and survived on the stairs.
This interesting monument is a landmark of the city and a cultural object of federal significance.
