|
 |
 |
NIKOLSKAYA STREET
This street, which arose on the site of the early road from the Kremlin to the settlements on the left bank of the Neglinnaya, is one of the oldest in Moscow.
By the beginning of the present century it had acquired many large buildings which housed trading booths, hostel ries, storehouses and offices. But the street was not known for trading. It has gone down in the history of Moscow mainly as a street of learning.
Nikolskaya Street
|
Here you will find a fine monument of Russian history and culture, the ensemble of Our Saviour Monastery Behind the Icon Row (courtyard No. 9) founded by Boris Godunov in 1600. The monastery was one of the centres of Russian scholarship. Shortly after its foundation a "school for the people" was set up in it, followed by the school of the well-known enlight-ener, poet and playwright Simeon of Polotsk. In 1687 Russia's first establishment of higher learning, the Slavonic-Graeco-Latin Theological Academy, was opened in the monastery (in 1814 it was turned into a religious academy and moved to the Trinity Monastery of St. Ser-gius). The great scholar Mikhail Lomonosov studied in it. Of the old ensemble the following buildings have survived: the Saviour Church (1660-61, rebuilt in 1717 and 1742), the three-storey Brethren's Building (17th century) and the building of Our Saviour Behind the Icon Row religious school (1822). The elegant, festive monastery church, one of the finest specimens of Moscow baroque, served as a church for the school and academy.
On the right, in a side passage, is the cathedral of the Epiphany Monastery, a splendid specimen of Moscow baroque. One of the oldest in Kitai Gorod, the monastery was founded in 1292 by Prince Daniel of Moscow, son of Alexander of the Neva. Its first stone cathedral was built in the fourteenth century.
Panoramic view of the Kremlin
|
Now it is time for us to walk back to Nikolskaya and take a look at one of Moscow's most interesting historical and architectural monuments, the Sovereign's Printing Yard, which played such an important role in the history of Russian learning. The territory which it occupied is hidden by the the unusual facade of No. 15, which was decorated in the style of "Russian Gothic" at the beginning of the last century, although its compositional structure is typical of classicism. The printing-house which stood on this spot surrounded by wooden workshops, was separated from the street by a wooden gate with carved heraldic representations of the lion and the unicorn, which were on the Printing Yard's coat of arms. It was here that the centre of Russian book-printing grew up. In this printing-house Ivan Fyodo-rov and Pyotr Mstislavets printed the first dated Russian book, the writings of the Apostle, in 1564. Here, too, in December 1702 (other sources give January 1703), the first Russian printed newspaper Vedomosti came out.
In 1814 a new building, which now houses the Moscow State Institute of Historical Archives, was erected from a design by the architect Ivan Mironovsky for the Synodal Printing-House which had premises in the Printing Yard.
In 1874 the architect and restorer Nikolai Artleben restored the dilapidated Correction (proofreading) Chamber in the courtyard and added a fine porch to it. The facades were painted different colours, of which the main one was green, and the steep roof was painted in a chequered pattern. An openwork ridge band and weather vanes with the carved dates of the restoration were placed on the roof.
A monumental decorative arch with paired columns and a broken pediment somewhat enliven the not very expressive facade of No. 19. The building deserves mention not so much because of its architecture, as because of its history. It houses the well-known Moscow restaurant called the Slavyansky Bazaar, famous for its Russian cuisine. At one time it was a hotel with the same name, in which such famous people as the artist llya Repin, the composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the writer Anton Chekhov stayed.
The street ended with the gateway in the wall that marked the boundary of Kitai Gorod.
|
|
