Povarskaya Street
Encyclopedia
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, connecting Arbat Square
Arbat Square
Arbatskaya Square of Arbat Square is one of the oldest squares of Moscow, located on the junction of Gogolevsky Boulevard, Znamenka Street and Arbat Gates Square ....
on Boulevard Ring
Boulevard Ring
The Boulevard Ring is Moscow's second centremost ring road . Boulevards form a semicircular chain along the western, northern and eastern sides of the historical White City of Moscow; in the south the incomplete ring is terminated by the embankments of Moskva River...
with Kudrinskaya Square on the Garden Ring
Garden Ring
The Garden Ring, also known as the "B" Ring , is a circular avenue around the central Moscow, its course corresponding to what used to be the city ramparts surrounding Zemlyanoy Gorod in the 17th century....
. It is known informally as Moscow's Embassy Row
Embassy Row (disambiguation)
Embassy Row is an informal name for an area of a capital city with a number of foreign embassies or other diplomatic institutions, such as* most commonly, the Embassy Row section of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., USA...
, and is home to the finest mansions built in the 1890s and 1900s. Povarskaya also houses the Supreme Court of Russia
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law and criminal law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts. Its predecessor is the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union....
and Gnessin State Musical College
Gnessin State Musical College
The Gnessin State Musical College and Gnessin Russian Academy of Music is a prominent music school in Moscow, Russia...
.
Most of Povarskaya Street belongs to Arbat District; it's norhthern side near Kudrinskaya Square is administered by Presnensky District.
History
Povarskaya Street follows the track of an ancient road from Moscow to VolokolamskVolokolamsk
Volokolamsk is a town and the administrative center of Volokolamsky District of Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Gorodenka River, not far from its confluence with the Lama River, northwest of Moscow. Population: -History:...
. In 1570s Ivan Grozny
Ivan IV of Russia
Ivan IV Vasilyevich , known in English as Ivan the Terrible , was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state spanning almost one billion acres,...
allocated the street to oprichnina
Oprichnina
The oprichnina is the period of Russian history between Tsar Ivan the Terrible's 1565 initiation and his 1572 disbanding of a domestic policy of secret police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats...
(private royal domain) and the street was taken over by his associates. In the 17th century, however, its upper-class population was diluted by lower classes. The street owes its name to cooks (povara) of 17th century Muscovite court. Nearby lanes are also named after various court servants: bakers (Khlebny Lane), tablecloth weavers (Skatertny Lane), etc.
When Peter I
Peter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
established new capital city in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, this court sloboda
Sloboda
Sloboda was a kind of settlement in the history of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be vaguely translated as "free settlement"....
depopulated, and the street was re-settled by nobles again, housing families like Gagarin
Gagarin family
thumb|right|250px|The Gagarin Coat of ArmsGagarin is a Rurikid princely family descending from sovereign rulers of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma.-Origins:...
, Golitsyn
Golitsyn
-People:*Golitsyns noble family *Nicholas Galitzine, last Tsarist prime minister of Russia*Anatoliy Golitsyn, Soviet KGB defector*Georgy Golitsyn, Soviet physicist and writer on nuclear winter...
, Suvorov and the court of Peter's sister, princess Natalya Alexeevna (1673–1716). The street retained its upper-class, exclusive role ever since. It is unusually quiet for downtown Moscow - with the exception of music from the Gnesin Institute windows; there are no retail shops, no office blocks and no public transport.
In late 1890s, real estate developer Jacob Reck consolidated two blocks in the middle of Povarskaya and commissioned Moscow's most wanted architects, Lev Kekushev
Lev Kekushev
Lev Nikolayevich Kekushev was a Russian architect, notable for his Art Nouveau buildings in Moscow, built in the 1890s and early 1900s in the original, Franco-Belgian variety of this style...
and Roman Klein
Roman Klein
Roman Ivanovich Klein , born Robert Julius Klein, was a Russian architect and educator, best known for his Neoclassical Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Klein, an eclectic, was one of the most prolific architects of his period, second only to Fyodor Schechtel...
, to build exclusive single-family mansions. These buildings, occupied by foreign embassies, are a showcase of Moscow Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
style.
Notable buildings
- 5 - Church of Saint Simeon StylitesSimeon StylitesSaint Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite was a Christian ascetic saint who achieved fame because he lived for 39 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo in Syria. Several other stylites later followed his model...
- 7 - Embassy of NorwayEmbassy of Norway in MoscowThe Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Moscow is the chief diplomatic mission of Norway in the Russian Federation. It is located at 7 Povarskaya Street in the Arbat district of Moscow.- See also :* Norway–Russia relations* Diplomatic missions in Russia...
by Ivan Kuznetsov and Adolph Seligson - 9 - Embassy of CyprusEmbassy of Cyprus in MoscowThe Embassy of Cyprus in Moscow is the chief diplomatic mission of Cyprus in the Russian Federation. It is located at 9 Povarskaya Street in the Arbat district of Moscow- External links :...
by Ivan Kuznetsov - 13,15 - Supreme Court of RussiaSupreme Court of the Russian FederationThe Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law and criminal law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts. Its predecessor is the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union....
- 23,25 - Gagarin house by Domenico GiliardiDomenico GiliardiDomenico Gilardi , was a Swiss architect who worked primarily in Moscow, Russia in Neoclassicist style. He was one of key architects charged with rebuilding the city after the Fire of 1812...
(World Literature Museum) - 24 - Art Nouveau building that housed the first Embassy of LithuaniaLithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
(1920–1940) - 30 - ShuvalovShuvalovShuvalov is a Russian noble family which, although documented since the 16th century, rose to distinction during the reign of Empress Elizabeth and was elevated to counts on 5 September 1746.-Members of Shuvalov noble family:The notable Shuvalovs include:...
house by Alexander KaminskyAlexander KaminskyAlexander Stepanovich Kaminsky was a Russian architect working in Moscow and suburbs. One of the most successul and prolific architects of 1860s - 1880s, Kaminsky was a faithful eclecticist, equally skilled in Russian Revival, Neo-Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture... - 33 - Cinema Actors' Theater by Victor Vesnin and Alexander VesninAlexander VesninAlexander Aleksandrovic Vesnin , together with his brothers Leonid Aleksandrovic Vesnin and Viktor Aleksandrovic Vesnin he was a leading light of Constructivist architecture...
, 1931 - 32,34,36 - Gnessin State Musical CollegeGnessin State Musical CollegeThe Gnessin State Musical College and Gnessin Russian Academy of Music is a prominent music school in Moscow, Russia...
- 40 - Embassy of CameroonEmbassy of Cameroon in MoscowThe Embassy of Cameroon in Moscow is the diplomatic mission of Cameroon in the Russian Federation. It is located at 40 Povarskaya Street in the Arbat district of Moscow.-See also:*Diplomatic missions of Cameroon* Cameroon–Russia relations...
- 42 - Ponizovsky house by Lev Kekushev (Embassy of AfghanistanEmbassy of Afghanistan in MoscowThe Embassy of Afghanistan in Moscow is the diplomatic mission of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Russian Federation...
) - 44 - Mindovsky house by Lev Kekushev (Embassy of New ZealandEmbassy of New Zealand in MoscowThe Embassy of New Zealand in Moscow is the diplomatic mission of New Zealand in the Russian Federation. It is located at 44 Povarskaya Street in the Arbat district of Moscow....
) - 46 - Schlossberg house by Adolph Seligson
- 50 - Svyatopolk house by Pyotr Boytsov
- 52 - DolgorukovDolgorukovDolgoroukov is the name of a princely Russian family Dolgorukovs of Rurikid stock. Descendants of Mikhail of Chernigov, they took their name from one prince of Obolensk, whose sobriquet was Dolgorouky, or "Long-Armed" in Russian, alluding their lineage to the ancient Persian monarchy. Among its...
estate. It is the prototype of Rostov Estate in War and PeaceWar and PeaceWar and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...
by Leo TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
.
Public transport access
- Arbatskaya (Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line) - beginning
- BarrikadnayaBarrikadnayaBarrikadnaya is a station on the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line of the Moscow Metro. It is named after the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905 when it was a site for barricades on Krasnaya Presnya street...
- end