Description of the attraction
About Moscow Arbat street even those who have never been to the capital know. A street in the center of Moscow has long become one of the city's main attractions. Poems and songs are written about the Arbat, guests from the provinces rush here to take a souvenir photo and buy souvenirs and gifts for friends, and Arbat artists offer passers-by their paintings depicting Moscow streets and architectural monuments.
Arbat starts at Arbat Gate square, stretches for 1, 2 km and ends at Smolenskaya Square.
The history of the Arbat
Researchers of the history of Moscow did not succeed in establishing where the toponym "Orbat" came from, but in the 16th-17th centuries this was the name of the area around Vozdvizhenka, which stretched from modern Znamenka to Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. The most plausible version is that the name Orbat, and later - Arbat, came from the word "arba". In the old days on Volkhonka there was a Kolymazhnaya settlement, the inhabitants of which made carts and carts, among which there were also carts. There is also an alternative opinion that “arbat” is a derivative of the word “humpback”, because the area in this part of old Moscow looked like a crooked line on the city plan.
Even earlier, the place where today the Arbat Gate Square is located was called Let's help … In the XV-XVI centuries, it was not inhabited and adjoined the Moscow suburbs. The road to Smolensk and Mozhaisk began from Vspol'e.
Urban development in the area of modern Arbat began to form at the end of the 15th century. Grand Duke Ivan III undertook reconstruction, as a result of which, on the open fields and outskirts of the suburbs, palace settlements were located, where artisans lived.
Arbat was first mentioned in documents and chronicles in 1565, when Ivan the Terrible ordered the founding of the first Streletskaya Sloboda in this part of Moscow and established an oprichnina inheritance there. In the 17th century, Konyushennaya and Plotnitskaya settlements were opened on the streets adjacent to today's Arbat. At the same time, rifle regiments were stationed on the Arbat.
During its existence, one of the most famous streets in Moscow has experienced many significant and interesting events. The Arbat was renamed, its churches were dismantled and closed, and the street itself burned to the ground in the Moscow fires. TO At the end of the 18th century, the Arbat turned into an aristocratic district and the Moscow nobility began to buy houses here. The families of the Dolgoruky and Gagarins, the Sheremetevs and the Kropotkins, and the families of the Dolgoruky and Gagarins, the Sheremetevs and the Kropotkins, often visited the mansions in the Empire style, and N. V. Gogol and A. S. Pushkin, A. P. Chekhov and A. Blok, L. N. Tolstoy and M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. In the Arbat lanes Vasily Polenov painted pictures, Sergei Yesenin read poetry and Sergei Rachmaninov composed music.
New era
The revolution brought a lot of new things to the whole country and the Arbat, and its image began to change rapidly already in the 1920s. When designing new houses, the aesthetics of constructivism prevailed, and the architects tried to unify the buildings themselves, painting the facades in a single neutral color. Aristocratic mansions were given over to communal housing. It was required by new Muscovites who came to build a bright future from all over the country.
During the war, the Arbat was repeatedly subjected to air strikes, but immediately after the Victory the street was restored one of the first. In 1952, a skyscraper appeared on Smolenskaya Square, where the Arbat ended, and in the 70s it was decided to make the street completely pedestrian … By that time, the main traffic flows were reoriented to Kalinin Avenue, often called Novy Arbat. The project was ready by 1978. It included not only a ban on the movement of vehicles, but also many types of work on the improvement of public space and the reconstruction of buildings. The specially made paving stones were laid by 1986, and retro lanterns and benches were installed along the street.
Interesting buildings and structures on the Arbat
Most of the houses that have survived on the Arbat to this day are of considerable architectural and historical value. Taking a tour of the famous Moscow street, pay attention to the mansions and monuments:
- In the 20s of the last century in house N9, building 1 there was a popular Bohemian café “Arbatskiy Podval”. Yesenin with Isadora Duncan, Mayakovsky and Lilya Brik, Blok and Pasternak often became its visitors. Before the revolution, the house housed the editorial office of the Sverchok magazine.
- On the facade houses N11 the attention of strollers is invariably attracted by the masks of lions, made by the sculptor in the Renaissance style. The apartment building of the Moscow Private Lombard Joint-Stock Company before the revolution was famous for issuing loans secured by jewelry, and in Soviet times - for the Bukinist store.
- "Haunted house" is called the building that appeared on the Arbat after the fire of 1812 on the site of the old mansion of General Chambers. This house N14 appears in the stories of Gilyarovsky, although the ghosts that frightened the neighbors then turned out to be beggars and vagabonds, who arbitrarily settled in the basement.
- In 1906 on the second floor mansion N15 / 43 the Grand Paris Theater cinematography was opened, which became the founder of the first chain of cinemas in the capital.
- Echkin's hotel and apartment building appeared on the Arbat at the beginning of the 19th century. In the 70s of the same century, the brother of the famous Russian traveler N. M. Przhevalsky became its owner. At the beginning of the twentieth century house N23 was rebuilt by the famous architect N. Lazarev, and today the mansion is called one of the most beautiful on the Arbat. Its facade is decorated with Art Nouveau elements and tiled with fine ceramic tiles. Famous Moscow shops were located on the first floor before the revolution. The building is also notable for the fact that in the attic it first housed the workshop of the sculptor Konenkov, and then the artist Korin, whose guest was often Maxim Gorky.
- "House with Knights", located at: Arbat, 35/5, was built at the beginning of the twentieth century by the architect Dubrovsky. The building was intended for wealthy tenants and looked like a skyscraper against the background of other mansions. The interiors were finished with oak panels, stained-glass windows and marble, the apartments had several rooms, and the corridors were decorated with huge mirrors. On the main facade of the house, you can see sculptures of knights.
- The Tsoi wall is called the fans of the "Kino" group, the wall overlooking Krivoarbatsky lane houses N37, built in the 18th century for Count Bobrinsky. The decoration of the mansion's facades has remained unchanged since 1834. In the 20-30s of the XIX century, the house was owned by the grandson of Catherine II and Count Orlov.
- In a communal apartment on the 4th floor houses N43 Bulat Okudzhava spent his childhood on the Arbat, and before the revolution, the office supplies store "Nadezhda", located in this house, was mentioned in his poems by Andrei Bely.
- The monument to Okudzhava is installed opposite one of the entrances houses N47 / 23 … This place used to be famous for its ice cream stand. Inside it, the air temperature was kept low all year round, and the sellers did not take off their sheepskin coats even in summer.
- The hero of the novel by A. Rybakov "Children of the Arbat" became house N51, where the writer lived in 1919-1933. In 1920, A. Blok stayed in the house, who came to the capital to visit the literary critic and historian P. Kogan.
- In the house with the Smolensky grocery store on Arbat, one of the scenes from Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita took place. In real life in house N50-52 the "Torgsin" store was opened, where goods were sold for foreign currency. After the abolition of this trade organization, the grocery store received serial number 2 and became the second after Eliseevsky.
In 1831 in house N53, building 1 brought after the wedding a young wife A. S. Pushkin. The poet and Natalya Nikolaevna lived on the Arbat for only three months, but the history of the house was also made by its other residents. Over the years, the artist S. Akimova and the brother of P. I. Tchaikovsky, relatives of S. Rachmaninov and Marina Tsvetaeva stayed and lived in it. Now the building houses the Museum "Pushkin's Memorial Apartment on the Arbat".
Several monuments and memorial plaques installed on Arbat Street are also worthy of tourist attention. The sculpture "Alexander Pushkin and Natalia Goncharova", cast from bronze and installed in 1999, was created by the Burganov sculptors, and the monument to Okudzhava - by the sculptor G. V. Frangulyan. In memory of those killed during the years of Stalinist repressions, memorial signs with the names of residents who were shot in the dungeons of the NKVD appeared on the facades of houses NN30 and 51. The memory of the famous residents of houses NN 45 and 51 M. Shaginyan, I. D. Papanin and A. N. Rybakov is also immortalized with memorial signs.
Restaurant "Prague"
The famous Moscow restaurant "Prague" appeared on the Arbat in 1872, when a tavern for cab drivers was opened in V. I. Firsanova's apartment building … A quarter of a century later, the owner of the tavern lost it to the merchant Tararykin at billiards. The enterprising merchant did not miss the opportunity to earn money and turned the middle-class establishment into a luxurious restaurant. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the building was rebuilt several times, and in 1914 a winter garden was even arranged on the roof.
Revolutionary sentiments also affected Prague, and in 1924 the restaurant was redesigned into the Mosselprom canteen, and a few months later a library was completely opened in one of the premises of the catering establishment. The canteen was liquidated in the 1930s, and Prague was reopened only in 1954 after a large-scale reconstruction. The renovated restaurant quickly became one of the best in the capital, and to get here, you either had to stand in line or have connections and acquaintances.
Many interesting facts and events are connected with "Prague":
- The premiere of The Seagull in 1898 was celebrated in Prague. The author of the play, A. P. Chekhov, was present at the banquet on the occasion of the performance together with the actors of the Moscow Art Theater.
- In 1913, after a painting spoiled by a fanatic Repin "Ivan the Terrible kills his son" was restored, the artist held a banquet in "Prague".
- A restaurant that used to be in the 1920s canteen of Mosselprom, dedicated his poem Mayakovsky.
- Hero of the novel Ilf and Petrova "Twelve Chairs" Vorobyaninov took Liza to the canteen in Prague.
By the way, the famous Cake pigeon's milk , which in Soviet times was a welcome decoration of any festive table, in the 70s of the last century was invented by the Prague confectioners.
