Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow

Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street (in 1920-1993 – Herzen Street) is a radial street in the Central Administrative District of Moscow. Passes from Manezhnaya Square to Kudrinskaya Square between Tverskaya Street and Vozdvizhenka parallel to them. The numbering of houses begins at Manezhnaya Square.

The name was given after the Nikitsky Convent, which was located on the site of the current square in front of the metro substation (house 7/10, corner of Bolshoy Kislovsky Lane). The monastery, in turn, is named after Nikita the Goth (who died in 372).

The oldest part of the street (from the modern Manezhnaya Square to the Nikitsky Gate Square) was formed at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries along the route of the ancient Volotskaya (Novgorod) road.

From the end of the 16th century, the street gradually began to be constructed with courtyards of the nobility. In 1582, the grandfather of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, the boyar Nikita Romanovich Zakharyev-Yuriev, founded the Nikitsky Convent at the church of the Great Martyr Nikita, which absorbed the former boyar court.

In 1920, in connection with the 50th anniversary of the death of the writer and revolutionary democrat A.I. Herzen, it was renamed Herzen Street. In 1994 the street regained its historical name. In 1997, the main part of the street buildings from the Nikitsky Gate Square to the Garden Ring was included in the Povarskaya – Bolshaya Nikitskaya protected area.

Main sights

On the odd side

No. 1 – University house church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana (the 1790s; 1833-1836, architect Evgraf Tyurin).

No. 3 – Jacobi House (beginning of the 19th century), now the Faculty of Arts of Moscow State University.

No. 5/7 – the house of Count V. G. Orlov (XVII century; 1782; 1799, architect Matvey Kazakov (presumably); 1810-1830 – interior decoration with the participation of architect Osip Bove and sculptor Santin Campioni).

No. 9/15, p. 1 – the apartment building of the Nikitsky Monastery (the house of Prince Razumovsky, based on the chambers of F. G. Kolychev – Princess Dolgoruky, 1772; 1890-1892, architect Viktor Mazyrin).

No. 11/4 – House of the Kolychevs (Synodal School of Singers) (late 18th century; late 19th century).

No. 13 – Moscow Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky (house of Ekaterina Dashkova) (second half of the 18th century, architect Vasily Bazhenov; 1790s; 1820s; 1894-1901, architects Vasily Zagorsky, Alexander Nisselson; 1933- 1934, architect Ilya Bondarenko; 1950s).

A monument to P. I. Tchaikovsky was erected in front of the building (1954, sculptors Vera Mukhina, Zinaida Ivanova and Nina Zelenskaya, architect Alexander Zavarzin; bronze, granite) and is now an object of cultural heritage andfederal significance. Composer and organist A.F. Gedike lived on the right side of the building (commemorative plaque, 1962, sculptor I.I. Antipov).

No. 15 – Shop of the Ascension Church with the apartment of the archpriest (1912, architect Vitold Dzevulsky). This house housed the bookstore “Imagist Shop”. Between1919 and 1921 the poet Sergei Yesenin worked here.

No. 17 – behind this place until 1996 there were chambers of the last quarter of the 17th century, which were part of the complex of the estate of the princes Meshchersky-Shcherbatov and Golovkin. The building was decorated in the style of unordered classicism.

No. 19 – George Paradise Theater “Paradise” (rebuilt from the Shakhovsky-Glebov-Streshnev mansion in 1884-1886 by architect Konstantin Tersky, the author of the facade is Fyodor Shekhtel; in 1910 rebuilt by architect Alexander Galetsky) building complex: Moscow Academic Theater named after Vladimir Mayakovsky, Helikon-Opera.

No. 19, p. 1, an architectural monument (a newly discovered object) – the main house of the estate of the Glebovs – Streshnevs – Shakhovskys (based on the chambers of Prince V. N. Repnin) (the 1730s; 1801-1802; 1838; 1882-1886, architect Konstantin Tersky – restructuring, changing interiors; 1884, architect Alexander Kaminsky – changing the facade; 1898, architect Nikolai Strukov, Fyodor Kolbe – partial change of the facade.

No. 21/18 – the house of the Durnovs (E. I. Markova – N. K. Golofteeva) (1823; 1832; 1875, architect Nikolai Vasiliev; 1898; 1914 – minor alterations to the facade).

No. 23/9 – the house of Ogarev – Lobanov-Rostovsky (mid-18th century; beginning of the 19th century; the 1840s; 1909-1911 – superstructure; 1913 – restructuring into a cinema), now – the theater “At the Nikitsky Gates” under the direction Mark Rozovsky.

No. 31/15, an architectural monument (federal) – tenement houses (1901-1903, architect Nikolai Strukov; after 1913, architect V.P. Zeidler). The complex of tenement houses was built in 1903 as part of the project of the architect N. D. Strukov for D. I. Elkind. It is guarded as “the house in which V. I. Lenin spoke in 1906.” Here, at a meeting of the lecture group at the Moscow Committee of the RSDLP, with Lenin’sparticipation, the results of the December uprising in Moscow were discussed.

No. 33 building 1 – residential building, XIX century.

No. 41 – the mansion of N. A. Simonov (E. K. Rukavishnikova) (1802; after 1812; 1876, architect Alexander Kaminsky), currently – the Myanmar embassy in Russia.

No. 43 C 1 – the mansion of Valentin Asigkritovich Balin (Residence of the Ambassador of Turkey. 1900, architect Nikita Zelenin, with the participation of S. M. Zharov).

No. 43A – 12-storey residential building (1974). Known as “Kalugina’s house” from the popular Soviet movie “Office Romance”.

No. 49 – cooperative house of the Ministry of Culture. Wolf Messing (in 1972-1974), actor Boris Tenin and his wife, actress Lidia Sukharevskaya (commemorative plaque, architect A.K. Tikhonov), and theater critic Boris Zingerman lived here.

No. 51, p. 1, an architectural monument (regional) – the city estate of N. I. Pozdnyakov – S. V. Volkova – V. N. Gribov. Since 2013, the Embassy of Tanzania in Russia.

No. 55 – Central House of Writers (1955, designed by architect Arkady Arkin. The building is attached to the mansion of Svyatopolk-Chetvertinsky, which overlooks Povarskaya Street.

On the even side

No. 2, 4, an architectural monument (regional) – the Zoological and Botanical Institutes of Moscow University (1896-1902, architect K. M. Bykovsky), now the laboratory building of the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University.

No. 6 – Zoological Museum of Moscow State University (1892-1902, architect K. M. Bykovsky, with the participation of Z. I. Ivanov).

No. 8/1 – profitable house of E. I. Kuznetsov (1810-1830; 1875; 1887, architect A. E. Rozhansky).

No. 10/2 – house of A. A. Muromtsev (late 18th century).

No. 12 – the house of S. A. Menshikov (1775 – the main house; 1778-1782 – outbuildings).

No. 12, p. 1 – a residential building (1925-1928, architect A. M. Gurzhienko.

No. 14/2, p. 1, an architectural monument (federal) – the city estate of A. R. Bruce – Y. V. Bruce (first half of the 18th century; middle of the 18th century).

No. 16/1, p. 1, an architectural monument (a newly discovered object) – a residential building of the 19th century.

No. 16, p. 2, trading shop of the peasant V. T. Koshelev (1897, architect K. K. Albrecht).

No. 18 – Church of the Ascension of the Lord on Nikitskaya (Small Ascension) (1584).

No. 20/1, p. 1 – clergy house, refectory, Sunday school of the Small Ascension Church (1997).

No. 22 – tenement house (1904-1905, architect K. V. Treiman). The left side of the house includes buildings from the middle of the 18th century.

No. 24, building 1 – apartment house Penkina (1905-1906, architects B. M. Nilus, A. F. Meisner). The art historian V. Ya. Adaryukov lived in the house.

No. 24, p. 6 – the house of A. P. Golitsyna – S. N. Batyushkov (1841; 1902, architect S. D. Kuchinsky) – one of the first tenement houses in Moscow.

No. 26 (/2 – along Leontievsky lane) – the house of G. N. Orlov – N. B. Yusupov, the so-called “Napoleonic Theater” (second half of the 19th century, architect M.I. Nikiforov, based on the city estate of P.A. Pozdnyakov-Yusupovs) is an identified object of cultural heritage.

No. 28/2-4 – TASS building (1970-1977, architects V. S. Egerev, A. A. Sheikhet, Z. F. Abramova, G. L. Sirota; engineers B. S. Gurvich, Yu. S. Manevich, A. Ya. Koganov).

No. 36 – Temple of the Ascension of the Lord in Watchmen, at the Nikitsky Gate (Great Ascension). On July 3, 1957, a monument to A. N. Tolstoy was unveiled in the temple courtyard (created by architect L. M. Polyakov and sculptor G. I. Motovilov).

No. 44/13, an architectural monument (regional) – the city estate of the Suvorovs (A. V. Suvorov) – N. I. Baranova – N. P. Gagman (XVIII century, architect A. S. Kaminsky).

No. 44 p. 2 – city estate of Cherkasskaya – Baskakov. A one-story mansion with a basement and a mezzanine, built-in 1812-1817.

No. 46, an architectural monument (federal) – the house of P. I. Bibikov – the Vasilchikovs’ estate (1781; turn of the 18th-19th centuries). Writer M. A. Bulgakov lived here.

No. 50/8 – mansion (1876, architect K. I. Andreev). From 1903-1938, the director V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko lived here. The Embassy of Spain occupies the building.

No. 54 – Lopatina’s Mansion is a building in the Byzantine style (1875, architect A. S. Kaminsky). The two-story building with a third attic floor was built in the Russian-Byzantine style, and the four-pitched roof was topped with a decorative metal ridge. Since 1963, the Brazilian Embassy has occupied the building.

No. 56 – the mansion of J. A. Rekka (S. D. Krasilshchikova) (1902-1903, architect G. A. Gelrikh, rebuilt by I. V. Rylsky in 1913). The economist B.S. Yastremsky lived in the house. Currently, the residence of the Ambassador of Egypt is located here.

No. 60 – the house of V. T. Ushakov (M. A. Shaposhnikova) (1820s; second half of the 19th century).

No. 62 – the mansion of N. S. Kan (1901, architect F. O. Shekhtel).

Nearest metro: Arbatskaya (Filyovskaya Line)Arbatskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line)Biblioteka imeni Lenina, Okhotny Ryad, BarrikadnayaKrasnopresnenskaya.

Nearest attractions: Arbat streetNew Arbat AvenueChurch of Simeon Stolpnik on Povarskaya, Russian State LibraryVozdvizhenka Street, Residential building on Kudrinskaya SquareMoscow ZooMoscow Planetarium, Moskva hotelRed SquareTverskaya streetKremlin.

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