Building Story
Ostozhenka
Situated in the very central part of the city this street is cultural, religious and historical centre in the same time. Cultural centre name is substantiated by writers and poets, who always liked this street. Someone has lived here, as Turgenev, someone has often visited this street, as Pushkin, but both wrote about it. Some of the real dwellers have even got their counterparts in literature. Situated here Conception Convent, Ilja Obydenny Churche, miraculously survived the Bolshevik regime, and located nearby Cathedral of Christ the Saviour show this street as the religious centre.
Neither battles which have taken place there, nor the first metro branch line, situated there, make Ostozhenka the historical centre of the city, but former inhabitants of manifold houses. Every ancient building keeps cautiously its stories and legends.
Ostozhenka appeared on the section of age-old path from Kievan Rus to Vladimir-Suzdal Principality, which directly joined the crossing over the Moskva, so-called Crimean Ford. This place is marked now by elegant Crimean Bridge. Ostozhenka took its name in XVII from Old East Slavic "Ostozhje" or "Stozhje" - meadows were situated there in olden days, and haystacks were situated on the meadows.
Later near Ostozhje located royal stables, and the vicinity was getting built by habitable houses. The left side of the street was generally occupied by small habitable mansions and river warehouses, the right side, close to luxurious Prechistenka with its royal trips to Novodevichij Convent to the Most-Pure Virgin icon, was filled with mansions of prosperous people. Close to the few nobility there lived mainly small traders, craftsmen and intelligentsia of modest means. Moscow aristocracy didn`t treat Ostozhenka very well and began settling there only in XVIII century and in the first years after the Moscow conflagration in the first quarter of XIX century. The modest look of the street fit the modesty of its dwellers' taste. Unpretentious rented tenement houses situated close to inns and public houses, which were absent both on Prechistenka and on Arbat. On Ostozhenka were kept dovecotes and were arranged cock fights.
In the middle of XVI century tzar Ivan the Terrible took this territory for oprichnina and gave it to large highborn families, who keep living in the names of adjacent side streets - Hilkov Lane, Vsevolozhskij Lane, Lopukhinskij Lane, Yeropkinskij Lane etc. The name of Ostozhenka reminds us that outskirts in the ancient times were much more rural. But the flowering of the street was short, Ostozhenka little by little it fell into decay and finally was occupied by clerks' houses, inns and hotels. Solid housing began since XVIII century. A lot of citizens craved for mansion house there, because nobles' gardens descended directly to the river.
At the beginning of XX century apartment houses and mansions of the merchants took to appear here. in 1933-35 on this street was being built the first metro branch. In honour of this event street was renamed for Metrostrojevskaja. But soon or, to be more precise in 1986 Ostozhenka became the first street, which got its historical name back.
Остоженка, д. № 1 Дом был выстроен в 1929 г архитектором Н. Поповым. Дом был построен в ранние советские времена, времена общей экономии, что и отражается на облике зданий той эпохи. Неказистый снаружи, дом всегда был богат внутренне. Здесь находились редакции Большой советской, медицинской и технической энциклопедий.
Ostozhenka 1. The house was built in 1929 by architect N. Popov. That fact that the house was built in the early years of Soviet State, years of general cost savings, is reflected in the buildings' image of that age. Not much to look at from the outside house was always rich inherently. Here was found the editorial office of Great Soviet Medical and Technical Encyclopedia.
Ostozhenka 3. This luxurious house looks high-contrasting in comparison with it`s neighbour, the firstling of the socialistic housing, house 1, as if richly dressed up bourgeois stood up next to proletarian in grey overalls. House was rebuilt by the merchant Philatov of old buildings in formidable 1905 and called "Philatov Apartment House". Over the house 3, on the corner of Ostozhenka and the 1st Obydenskij Gate sticks up the amazing dome, which looks like inverted cup. According the legend*, merchant Philatov gave up drinking and built this apartment house on collected means. He has taken the pledge not to drink - and knocked back glass of vodka, only a thimbleful, of course.
Legend. Jigger House.
Once, in the beginning of the century before last, there lived in Moscow one merchant by the name of Philatov. And everything was excelent in his life until he conceived a liking for drinking, and not as usually people do at that, but squandered the half of his fortune went downhill. Time lasted. Once merchant woke up having "the morning after the night before", took a look around, and suddenly understood that he is ought to drop this debauchery. And he did really drop and step-by-step set things going. In 1905 merchant built the apartment house, and it is called now "Phylatov Apartment House", and in honour of the victory over the demon drink the ordered to set on the top of this house the inverted cup for everyone who looks at it to understand and realize. From that time up this house occupies Ostozhenka, reminds up-to-date boyars and boyarynias about this event and calls them to temperance.
