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Provision warehouses history. Provision warehouses

The ensemble of provision warehouses on Zubovsky Boulevard, an example of the beautiful architecture of Moscow mature classicism, was built in the 1830s for the needs of the military department.

The need to build new stone warehouses in Moscow for storing “government provisions” arose in the early 1820s, since the old wooden barns, then located at the Serpukhov outpost, had become dilapidated and required replacement. New warehouses were originally supposed to be built there, at the Serpukhov Gate.

As a model for future construction, the project of the Voskresensk provision warehouses in St. Petersburg, developed in 1821 by the famous architect V.P., was taken. Stasov. The task of implementing this project in Moscow was entrusted to the architect F.M. Shestakov. In the end, a new location was chosen for the construction of food warehouses - on the corner of Ostozhenka Street and Zubovsky Boulevard, in the property that previously belonged to the Konyushenny Department. This place turned out to be more convenient from the point of view of supplying food.

The new site was of an irregular trapezoidal shape, with an acute angle at the intersection of Ostozhenka and the Garden Ring, which created certain difficulties for Shestakov when trying to “fit” Stasov’s exemplary project here (which was created with the regular layout of St. Petersburg in mind). As a result, the architect simply placed the right building along Ostozhenka, so that it was at an angle to the main building, and the two front facades of this side wing were made at an acute angle to each other, which, however, is not at all noticeable due to the monumental architecture of the buildings. According to the design of Shestakov himself, a guardhouse building (a guard room) was built in the courtyard and a metal fence was created along the boulevard and Ostozhenka. The complex of provision warehouses (or stores, as they were called then) was built from 1829 to 1835.

The appearance of the ensemble is simple and monumental. All buildings are of the same architecture, two-story, with rather laconic facade design. The surface of the walls is smooth, only the central part of the facade is decorated with rustication. On the main and courtyard facades, three trapezoidal portals with semicircular windows above them alternate with narrow windows. Semicircular windows are placed in niches, and niches are also located above some windows. The stucco decoration of the facades is modest: triangular sandriks above the portals, wreaths with garlands above the windows (this element is characteristic of the Empire style, in this case such decor also emphasizes the military purpose of the buildings). The building is crowned by a powerful forward cornice with a triglyph-metope frieze. The internal partitions of the warehouse buildings are made in the form of arcades that divide the space into three naves. The three buildings are connected to each other by a fence of the original design. Metal fence posts, made in the form of fasces, are topped with tied battle axes (Roman military symbol), the fence lattice itself ends with peaks and was decorated with elegant cartouches with the imperial crown and the monogram of Nicholas I. The main entrance to the territory of the Provision warehouses is located from the Ostozhenka side, brick pylons the main gate is topped with metal antique armor- symbols of military triumph. The ensemble is complemented by the guardhouse building in the courtyard - a one-story building with a portico decorated with a frieze depicting antique military helmets.

Provision stores were used as food warehouses for the military department, where grain, flour and other products were stored. After the revolution of 1917 they came under the jurisdiction of the Red Army. In the 1930s, the buildings were given over to military garages, which entailed reconstruction and redevelopment of the buildings (in particular, ramps were installed to the second floor). The complex of former provisions warehouses belonged to the military until the mid-2000s. In 2007, the buildings were transferred to the Museum of Moscow.

Address: st. Novaya Square, 12, building 1
Entrance: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday – from 10:00 to 18:00; Wednesday and Friday: from 11:00 to 19:00.
Days off: last Friday of the month, Monday.

Provision warehouses are a complex of buildings made in the Empire style. One of the almost completely preserved large public buildings of the early 19th century.

Description of food warehouses

At first, the purpose of the complex was utilitarian, but it was necessary to create the correct artistic image for the unity of the architectural ensembles. It includes three buildings that are similar to each other - they form the front front of the development of Ostozhenka Street and the square, along with the guardhouse located in the courtyard.

The building itself is a rectangular building consisting of 2 floors, each of which is 6 meters high. Two internal walls - two-tier arcades - divide the structure into three equal parts.

Despite the fact that Stasov was the creator of the projects for the building cells of this complex, the architect Shestakov worked on the entire ensemble, who installed in this cramped area irregular shape large buildings, and placed a guardhouse building in the backyard, right next to the border, as well as cast-iron fences.

The entire complex is presented in the form of a chain of equivalent links, connected to each other, and also acting as the front front of the development of Ostozhenka and the square.

How are Provision Warehouses used?

The warehouses were created to store food supplies for the Khamovnichesky, Lefortovo, Spassky barracks and other military units stationed nearby. For about a century they were used for their intended purpose, and in revolutionary times they acted as a point of defense Russian army. On one of the walls there is a memorial plaque with an inscription.

The life of the building was disrupted in the 1930s, when the territory was given to the General Staff of the Red Army. Almost 20 years later, an inspection of the premises was carried out, which revealed gross violations in its operation, and this despite the fact that the warehouses were an architectural monument and were listed as protected by the state. The Committee for Architectural Affairs asked to remove the motor depot from here, but this was to no avail.

Already at the beginning of the 21st century, the owner of the building was the motor depot of special and trucks of the General Staff, and the restoration in last time was carried out in the 1980s.

Legal issues

For decades, the state protection authorities for Moscow monuments have many times raised the issue of removing the car depot from the warehouse territory and transferring the complex to the relevant departments. Since 1999, there has already been an agreement with the Ministry of Defense to build motor vehicles instead. Only in 2006 did food warehouses begin to be cultivated. Then Yuri Luzhkov, together with Germanov Gref, decided to transfer them to the capital, along with other architectural monuments, such as the Pushkin House on Arbat and the Kitai-Gorod Wall. Instead, the government built a new car depot located on Berezhkovskaya embankment and Rublevskoye highway. For all this we had to pay about 1 billion rubles. At that time, the owner of the land under the Provision Warehouses was APN.

Ultimately, the building was received by the Museum of the History of Moscow in 2010. Two years before that, it began to receive visitors, serving as an exhibition space. Before this, the area was cleared of flammable materials, 10 layers of asphalt soaked in fuel oil were removed.

Moscow City Museum

At the beginning of the summer of 2007, a sign “Museum Association “Museum of Moscow” was hung here. Finally, residents and guests of the city were able to look at the ensemble not only from the facade, but also its interiors, where exhibitions were placed for the first time.

Now here you can see the exhibitions “Moscow of the 18th-19th centuries”, “Ancient and Medieval Moscow”, recreated anew, as well as those created for the first time - “Battle of Moscow. Start Great Victory" and "Moscow. 20th century. Faces of the era."

Young residents of Moscow come to interactive programs - “Military Childhood”, “Roads of Ancestors”, “Sunny Capital”, and attend various excursions.

Construction of warehouses

Until construction began on the site of the future warehouses, there was an urban settlement, large estates of the Streshnev boyars, as well as empty garden plots.

The construction was ordered by the Provision Order, which was responsible for supplying our army with provisions. Work began in 1829 and ended in 1835. They were led by Fyodor Shestakov, who relied on the design of Vasily Stasov.

The first project of a “model” warehouse was originally created by Stasov 8 years before the start of construction; later he repeated it for the capital. At the same time, he had to prove authorship by turning to archival research.

The exact date of construction is unknown - sources give different information. This could be 1829-1831, or 1830-1835.

The Museum of Moscow is located in the ancient building "Provision Warehouses" in Moscow at the address - 2, st. , no. 48. The entrance to the museum is from the street. Ostozhenka, and from Zubovsky Boulevard.

Nearest metro: Park Kultury.

Entrance to the museum courtyard is free. Exhibitions and excursions are paid.

The Museum of Moscow talks about what Moscow was like in the past, how it is changing today, and what it can become in the future. The museum's rich and varied collection allows you to explore Moscow from different angles and look at your favorite city from unexpected angles.

There are sculptures in the museum's courtyard and open-air exhibitions are held.

Documentary Film Center

The museum building houses a cinema specializing in documentary films. If you like movies that are not for everyone, then this is the place for you.

Historical information about the building of the Provision Warehouses

Provision warehouses were built in 1832-1835 according to the design of the architect Vasily Stasov. In Moscow, Fyodor Shestakov built according to his design (sometimes he is considered the author of the Provision Warehouses, and Stasov is called the author of the “exemplary” project). The warehouses consist of three buildings approximately identical in shape (the differences are caused by the non-rectangular geometry of the site). As the name suggests, warehouses were used to store provisions.

After the 1917 revolution, the complex of buildings was transferred to the Ministry of Defense. For the past 30 years, the military has used the buildings as a garage. The idea to remove the Ministry of Defense garages from the buildings and create a kind of cultural center here dates back to the mid-1990s. Now the building is a museum complex.

Guide to Architectural Styles

The construction of the building was ordered by the Provisional Order, which was responsible for supplying the army. In 1821, the Engineering Department in St. Petersburg developed a model warehouse design for 35,000 bags and sent it to Moscow. The dates for the construction of the food warehouse complex vary in different sources: 1829-1831 or 1830-1835.

In any case, in the spring of 1835, the buildings were whitewashed, the fences, doors, shutters and grilles were painted black, and the roofs, gutters and drainpipes were covered with red paint.

The simplicity of the architectural solution here is unparalleled. The few details of the decoration are drawn with exceptional perfection. The three warehouse buildings, despite the trivial shape of the site, form an inextricable unity. We can safely say that this group of purely utilitarian buildings, painted in simple white, is one of the best in Moscow architecture.

The ensemble of provision stores includes 3 warehouse buildings of the same type. The “exemplary” building is a rectangular stone two-story building (30m X 80m) with a floor height of 6 m. The width of the building is divided into 3 almost equal parts by two internal longitudinal walls. The entrances are evenly spaced around the perimeter of the building (3 on the long sides and one on the short sides).

Stasov's town planning art was manifested in the fact that he, without deviating from the high architectural and artistic qualities of his project, arranged the buildings of the warehouses in such a way that they formed a complete and unified compositional construction architectural group. Planning difficulties lay in the fact that the street (Ostozhenka), on the corner of which one of the warehouse buildings was located, faced Krymskaya Square at an angle. At approximately the same angle was the opposite border of the irregularly shaped area. Consequently, it was impossible to place warehouse buildings on this territory without any changes. Nevertheless, Stasov, without changing the general architectural structure of the project, managed to get out of a difficult situation quite in a simple way. He gave the building standing on the corner of the street a trapezoidal shape in plan, and he “covered” the unpleasant juxtaposition of the buildings, as if they were on top of each other, especially noticeable in the depths of the site from the side of the square, with a relatively dense lattice consisting of round cross-sections. rods topped with spear tips.

For a century, food warehouses were used for their intended purpose - to store food.

This made it possible to preserve the original appearance of the building. During the revolutionary events of 1917, the buildings of the food warehouses became one of the points of defense of government troops. In the early 1930s, this territory was transferred to organize a General Staff motor depot.

In 1948, gross violations in the operation of buildings were discovered. Requests from the Committee for Architectural Affairs to use the premises of the Provision Stores for their intended purpose were unsuccessful. Moreover, for their own needs, the military surrounded the warehouses with “unsightly” extensions, and placed concrete ramps inside the building for the general’s vehicles.

Together we walk into the courtyard, in the center of which we are greeted by a striped booth of unclear purpose, behind it is a wide white pedestal in the form of a car lift, the right compartment of which is crowned by a black Volga, and the left by a black Chaika... With ours Guided by us, we slowly go inside the former warehouses, now garages. How strange there is here! There is an instruction carefully inserted into the frame: “Place for draining used oil.” Ancient “grooves” looking gloomily from the corners, near one of which I notice a banner broken in half. Part of it (“Seasonally served”) hangs on the wall, and the second (“nyi - high quality”) stands nearby in the corner.

An agreement with the Ministry of Defense on the transfer of food warehouses to the ownership of the city to house the museum existed since 1999, but only in 2006 the buildings were vacated. In exchange for this complex, the Moscow government built a new motor depot for the Ministry of Defense on Rublevskoye Highway and Berezhkovskaya Embankment.

First of all, flammable materials were removed from the territory of the complex and 10 layers of asphalt impregnated with fuel oil were removed.

At the same time, on Luzhkov’s initiative, Yuri Platonov developed a project for the construction of the fourth warehouse building, which closed the perimeter of the buildings. It was planned to cover the courtyard with a glass dome, and unite the buildings at the underground level. The project caused a mixed reaction: there were fears that the Provision Warehouses could turn into a dummy architectural monument.

Nowadays the Museum of Moscow operates here, telling about the history of the city. It opened as the Moscow Communal Museum. In 1940 it was renamed the Museum of History and Reconstruction of Moscow. And he moved to the Provision Warehouses from the building of the Church of St. John the Evangelist near Elm, which was returned to the Church.

Exhibition of the Museum of Moscow in photographs from different years:

I once adored the Moscow History Museum and visited there often. At that time it was located on New Square, in the former Church of St. John the Evangelist, near Elm. In 2009, the Museum received a new residence - in the former Provision Stores on Zubovsky Boulevard (Garden Ring). Now it is called the “Museum of Moscow”. Full of hope, I went there.

Buildings occupied by the Museum of Moscow

Complex of buildings of provision stores on Zubovsky Boulevard, where the Museum of Moscow is now located

Provision stores (Provision warehouses) belong to the best architectural monuments of Moscow. The majestic ensemble in the Empire style was built in 1830-1835 according to the “exemplary” design of a provisions warehouse for 35,000 bags, created by the architect V.P. Stasov at the Engineering Department in St. Petersburg. The construction was headed by Moscow architect F.M. Shestakov.

One of the buildings of the Provision Warehouses, now the Exhibition Building of the Museum of Moscow

Provision stores (warehouses) were intended to store food supplies for the Khamovnichesky, Spassky and Lefortovo barracks. The building is distinguished by the large scale of the main divisions, a powerful Doric entablature, sloping walls and door and window openings tapering upward in the “Egyptian” style. The central parts of the longitudinal facades are highlighted with rustication.

The buildings are connected by a strict metal fence decorated with military symbols.

In the early 1930s, the buildings of the Provision Stores and the surrounding area were transferred to organize the economy of the motor depot of the General Staff of the Red Army. This caused enormous damage to the buildings. Only in 2006 was it decided to transfer the complex to the Museum of Moscow.

Currently, renovations are ongoing in one of the buildings, while the rest house permanent and temporary exhibitions of the Museum of Moscow and host various events for children and adults. First we went to look historical exhibition. Tickets can be purchased for a single exhibition or for all. We bought enough for everything.

I expected to see an expanded version of the collection that was stored in the old building on New Square. But, alas, everything ended in the 17th century. However, this exhibition is very interesting.

Slavic jewelry and household items found in Moscow

Various models are also presented in the Museum.

The museum exhibition seemed somewhat incomplete: a huge layer of more than three centuries of history from the 18th to the 21st centuries was thrown away. The next exhibition was temporary - photographs of Moscow industry. Frankly speaking, I was bored here. Yes, beautiful, interesting photographs. But the glass with which they were covered glared. In my opinion, they would look much more impressive on a monitor screen.

Then we moved to another building. The ramps for cars have been preserved here, and the walls have firmly absorbed the smell of exhaust. It is still unclear whether the currently fashionable “industrial” style will remain here, or whether the interiors will be refined later.

There were three expositions here. One is dedicated to the history created in 1944 car depot No. 147 owned by General Staff Armed Forces of the USSR. Currently, she is located in the military town “Ekaterinovka” on Rublevskoye Highway in Moscow. Its fleet includes more than 2,000 vehicles of various classes. The car depot vehicles take part in many significant events: military parades on Red Square, Tank biathlon competitions and others.

Another exhibition was dedicated history of provision stores: various plans, drawings of buildings. It’s interesting, but personally, I find it more convenient to look at all this in a book or on a monitor screen. I don’t see any point in going to the museum specifically for this.

The third exposition was completely disappointing. It was dedicated to the World Cup and was called “And of course, football.”

Exhibition “And of course, football”

In my opinion, the Museum of Moscow is still very “raw”. But the provision stores are very interesting to look at. So decide for yourself whether it’s worth paying 450 rubles per person for all exhibitions.

Information for visitors:

Address: Moscow, Zubovsky Blvd., 2
Metro: Park of Culture, Kropotkinskaya
Telephone: +7 495 739‑00-08
Website: mosmuseum.ru
Open: Tuesday, Wednesday: 10:00-20:00; Thursday: 11:00-21:00; Friday - Sunday: 10:00-20:00; Monday is a day off.
Ticket prices: from 100 to 450 rubles.