"House-chest of drawers" or the Apraksin-Trubetskoy Palace on Pokrovka

The Apraksin-Trubetskoy House (Apraksin Palace, “Dom-Chest of Drawers”) is a palace building in the Rastrelli baroque style, rare for Moscow, built in 1766 for Count Matvey Fedorovich Apraksin (perhaps on the occasion of his marriage to Peter III’s second cousin). Located in the center of Moscow, at the address: st. Pokrovka, 22.

The site on which the modern building stands, in the early 1740s, consisted of two adjacent properties: one belonged to the merchant Pyotr Ivanovich Morozov, the other to the widow Sofya Kutaznikova and her son Gavrila Antonovich Makarov. At the turn of 1743-1733, the plots with wooden and stone buildings were bought and united into one property by the co-owner of the drinking enterprise, merchant Mikhail Andreevich Turcheninov.

In 1748, the property was acquired by the English merchant John Thomson, known in Moscow as Ivan Ivanovich Thomson. In 1752, Thomson applied to the Moscow police chief's office for permission to dismantle some of the dilapidated buildings and build new stone chambers. The plan of the courtyard with the buildings applied to it was made by the architectural student Pyotr Yakovlevich Plyuskov, and signed by the architect Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky Count Matvey Fedorovich Apraksin (1744-1803) was the customer for the construction of the palace. The author of the project is not known. Historians of architecture attributed it to the students of Rastrelli, the name of D. V. Ukhtomsky was also called.

View from the northwest

The main house is a remarkable and at the same time completely unusual monument of late Baroque architecture. The dynamic order composition, the drawing of details, the richness of the scenery, unique for Moscow, resemble the most famous palace buildings of that time, which in the past even made it possible to associate this house with the name of Rastrelli. However, the Russian baroque does not know such three-dimensional solutions in the architecture of residential buildings.

Petersburg palaces of the 1750s and 1760s are built on rectangular plans; only occasionally do rounded projections correspond to the softened contours of the central or end halls in the volume of the building. Here, curvilinear rooms of various shapes and sizes form the very basis of the layout, and since the rectangular rooms between them are somewhat recessed, the curves of their walls are directly expressed in the volume of the building. These protrusions are emphasized by columns with a complex rhythm characteristic of the era and deep crepe of the basement, entablature and pediments. On the corner ledges, the columns and pediments are oriented diagonally, which enhances the plastic richness of the building. Large architraves and magnificent stucco almost completely fill the walls, especially from the side of the courtyard.

The architraves of the house are equipped with a baroque ear-shaped cartouche.

On the second floor, the cartouches are additionally equipped with mascarons in the shape of women's heads.

Composite analogues with large manor buildings of the middle of the 18th century are complemented by an unusual detail for a residential building - stucco shells in the conchs of niches on the first floor. Lowered outbuildings give the ensemble deployed along the street the necessary splendor. The longitudinal facades of the outbuildings, more restrained, are already processed in the forms of early classicism.
The closing building retained only the vaulted central passage and a large horizontal rustication; the side buildings in the narrow backyard have been completely rebuilt.

The first floor, which is simpler in design, is separated from the two upper ones by a draft.
The risalits protruding from the facade on the second and third floors turn into columns or colonnades, depending on the width of the protruding part.

Numerous decorative elements give the building a lush and rich look.

The appearance of the internal space of the house is determined not only by the variety of premises, but also by their complex, whimsical combinations: the enfilade connection plays a secondary role. These features also bring the building closer to the entertainment pavilions, while at the same time reminiscent of some Rococo techniques. However, it must be remembered that only the basic layout has been preserved, since at the beginning of the 19th century the house was damaged during a fire and the interiors were redone. The design of the oval hall dates back to this time, and possibly also its layout: its inner wall with openings and symmetrical windows rests on the ground floor not on the same curvilinear wall, but only on stepped corner tromps (now they are built up).

North facade
Elegant decorative columns, possibly from different times, have been preserved in some other rooms. The high doors of the Empire pattern are combined with the later ones. Straight and concave corner ovens are lined with tiles from the second half of the 19th century; at the same time, the early wooden stairs were replaced by the existing cast iron ones. Until recently, a spiral staircase was preserved in the southwestern round room. In the era of classicism, the unusual appearance of the building secured the ironic nickname “chest of drawers” ​​for it and for its owners, the Trubetskoys.

The baroque style in which the palace was built was rapidly going out of fashion. Perhaps for this reason, just 6 years after the construction of the new residence, Apraksin sold the estate to Prince D. Yu. Trubetskoy. For the next 89 years, the site belongs to his descendants - the younger branch of the Trubetskoy family.

Dmitry Yurievich Trubetskoy

O. S. Pavlishcheva recalled that in childhood she and her brother Sasha Pushkin were taken to study dancing at Trubetskoy on Pokrovka. It is believed that it was here, in the "commode house" of Prince I. D. Trubetskoy, that an agreement was made about the wedding of his niece M. N. Volkonskaya with Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy; Leo Tolstoy was born in this marriage. For the summer, the owners went to their "Moscow region" Znamenskoye-Sadki and rented out the palace. In 1849-50 Dmitry Mendeleev lodged in the Trubetskoy house.

Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy and Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev

Over the next 89 years, the site belonged to his descendants - the younger branch of the Trubetskoy family. There is a legend that in connection with the nickname of the Trubetskoy Palace the House-chest of drawers, the entire younger branch of the extended family was called the Trubetskoy-Chest of Drawers.

In 1861, the widow of Prince Yuri Ivanovich Trubetskoy sold the house for 125 thousand rubles to accommodate the 4th male gymnasium, where the founder of aerodynamics Nikolai Zhukovsky, philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, theater director and critic Konstantin Stanislavsky, philologist Alexei Shakhmatov, writer Alexei Remizov and politician Nikolai Astrov.

During the functioning of the gymnasium, some of the internal premises of the house were redesigned for its needs as a public institution. At the same time, a cast-iron staircase appeared here, which has survived to this day.

The gymnasium existed in the palace building until the 1917 revolution. The house church for the gymnasium students was the former Trubetskoy house church, consecrated in honor of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located on the second floor. By the 50th anniversary of the gymnasium, by order of its director, the Annunciation Church was renovated, the premises of the temple were significantly increased by adding adjacent rooms to it.

After the October Revolution, the gymnasium was closed, the home church was abolished, and the church utensils and decorations that were in it were transferred to the rural church of the Kolomna district. The premises of the house, by decision of the revolutionary authorities, were turned into communal apartments and inhabited by workers and employees.

Plan of the first and second floors

During the difficult years of the civil war, all the wooden elements of the house decoration - decor, parquet, stairs, railings, doors, furniture were completely destroyed or used for heating and space heating in winter. In addition to communal apartments, the building also housed, replacing each other, various institutions and organizations. From 1924 until the 1930s, the premises of the palace housed a hostel for students of the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers.

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, communal apartments began to gradually settle. The House of Pioneers and Schoolchildren of the Krasnogvardeisky District of Moscow is located on the second floor of the building. And only in the 1960s, the residents living in communal apartments were finally evicted, and institutions and organizations were withdrawn (except for the Palace of Pioneers), the All-Union Research Institute of Geophysics (State Federal Unitary Enterprise All-Russian Research Institute of Geophysical Methods intelligence). At the same time, the first restoration of the monument was carried out - its facades were restored to their original appearance of the middle of the 18th century.

Since 2005, part of the premises of the palace has been rented by the Russian Foundation for Mercy and Health (in 2009, the security and lease agreement for the premises of the cultural heritage site was terminated due to non-fulfillment of its conditions).

The Apraksin House is a unique monument of the Elizabethan Baroque. Curvilinear in plan, with a semicircular ledge in the center and rounded corners, the house is distinguished by the lush decorative plasticity of the main and courtyard facades - window trims and pediments decorated with elegant stucco molding, columns of the Corinthian order, niches of the ground floor, decorated with finely drawn stucco shells, original round windows on the courtyard facade - all this creates a unique look of one of the most beautiful Moscow mansions.

On both sides, the main house is flanked by outbuildings, which were originally one-story, they are connected to the house by arches and passages. Unfortunately, the name of the creator of this architectural masterpiece is still unknown - some researchers attribute this house to Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli himself or to someone from the architects of his circle, some associate the construction of the house with the name of the architect Dmitry Ukhtomsky.

Most of the original interiors of the main house, including the front rooms on the second floor, have survived to this day. However, the house itself is in need of serious restoration.

Murzin-Gundorov V. V. Dmitry Ukhtomsky. - M .: Rudentsov Publishing House, 2012. - S. 201-211. — 334 p. — (Architectural heritage of Russia)
Danilov L. I., Dudina T. A. Pokrovka, 22 // At the Pokrovsky Gate: Collection. - M., 1997. - (Biography of the Moscow House).

http://artclassic.edu.ru/catalog.asp?ob_no=18203

There are many interesting buildings on Pokrovka Street in Moscow, but one mansion stands out among them for its uniqueness, architectural features and history. We are talking about the famous chest of drawers, which is the only building in the Russian capital in the Baroque-Rastrelli style, more familiar to St. Petersburg.

The building was completed in 1766. Unfortunately, history has not preserved the name of the architect, according to some sources, he is D. Ukhtomsky. Obviously, the creator of the chest of drawers was a fan of the architectural school of B. Rastrelli. Baroque features are clearly discernible in the appearance of the building: an abundance of stucco, decor, columns, the desire to give the building a more rounded look.

The first owner of the chest of drawers was General S. Apraksin. In 1772 he sold the building to the princely Trubetskoy family. The aristocratic family owned the building for 90 years. The people even added the prefix "Chest of drawers" to the names of the princes.

Tourists should take a closer look at the walls of the house. The architectural complexity of the palace is amazing. With the help of a system of columns and ledges, the architect managed to achieve a unified composition: it seems that the building consists of one endless wall, without corner breaks.

The chest of drawers is decorated with numerous columns, pilasters, bas-reliefs, architraves and porticos. The builders did not stint on stucco molding: in some places the walls are almost completely covered with decor.

The internal interiors of the building, unfortunately, have not come down to us in their original form: the situation was destroyed by a strong fire. Nevertheless, it will be interesting for tourists to see the recreated decoration of the magnificent premises of the palace, the variety of which is amazing: these are spacious offices, huge ballrooms, beautiful bedchambers and boudoirs. In the central hall, the situation may well compete with the interiors of the Winter Palace.

People who became the color and pride of Russian culture stayed in the chest of drawers. Suffice it to say that A. S. Pushkin repeatedly visited here, visited the princes Trubetskoy and another great Russian poet - F.I. Tyutchev.

In 1861, financial difficulties forced the princely family to sell their beloved home. The building was acquired by Moscow University, which placed the 4th male gymnasium here, which became one of the most famous educational institutions in the country. Graduates of the gymnasium are K. Stanislavsky, P. Vinogradov, S. Morozov, A. Shakhmatov.

In the post-revolutionary years, the chest of drawers became a multi-apartment communal apartment, an office center and a student dormitory. In accordance with the "compacting" policy, 10 or even 20 people could live in one room. After the war, the residents of the communal apartments moved to other areas, and the historic building was transferred to the Research Institute of Geophysical Methods of Exploration and the House of Pioneers of the Bauman District, which the future poetess B. Akhmadullina once visited.

In 1960, the house was completely restored according to the drawings of the 18th century. The building is an object of cultural heritage of Russia.

His images are on stamps, postcards, envelopes, albums telling about the city, in guidebooks.

house-palace

The house on the former Grafo-Kutaisovskaya street (and in the first half of the 19th century, Arsenalskaya street) has been very reluctant to part with its secrets and mysteries throughout its more than a century and a half history. Indeed, until now, researchers do not know the exact date of construction of the Trubetskoy house, it also remains a question: who owned the house at different times and how did it look in different historical periods?

It is assumed that the Trubetskoys purchased a plot with a small residential wooden house, which was soon demolished. Houses similar in size and location were located in adjacent areas, and in the entire district. On the site of the demolished house, a new one was built, strikingly different from the previous one, and from the whole environment. This new house, almost a palace, was a curiosity for the provincial, a phenomenon of another world, just like its owner himself - Prince Trubetskoy, a former resident of St. Petersburg, a representative of the highest nobility, although reduced to the rank of a state criminal.

The building stood out against the backdrop of urban development both in appearance and in internal organization. It looked more like a small palace than an ordinary city house. Even the situation on the plot - in the depths of the estate with a vast front yard, as in Moscow - was different from how it was accepted. At present, in addition to the main house, the manor houses a stable, a cellar, and a people's hut, which appeared much later. The presence of the front yard creates the impression of a vast open space in front of the house, which was extremely appreciated in the conditions of crowded city.

Who is the owner?

According to local historians, the Trubetskoy built a house on Arsenalskaya after the death of the princess (1854), where the prince himself, Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy, lived from 1854 until his departure from Irkutsk after the amnesty in December 1856. There is also a version that the surviving house of the Trubetskoy Dzerzhinsky Street, 64, is the latest acquisition of the family for one of the married daughters.

Researcher V.P. Pavlova from St. Petersburg, a prominent specialist in the history of the Trubetskoy family, an expert on almost the entire archival complex of documents on this family, clarifies:

« The house preserved in Irkutsk (now the Museum of the Decembrists on Dzerzhinsky St., 64), which, according to legend, belonged to S.P. Trubetskoy, was apparently built for his daughter A.S. Rebinder, whose husband in 1854-1855 . intended to move from Kyakhta to Irkutsk».

The historian Yevgeny Yachmenev put forward a version that originally a Decembrist lived in this house since 1847, who was taken to Irkutsk from the Shlisselburg fortress on August 11, 1834, then left in the city for treatment and only on September 5, 1834 was placed in a settlement in the village. Ust-Kuda.

In official correspondence after the death of January 8, 1848, I.V. Poggio noted that “ there was no property left after Joseph Poggio". According to the level of his financial situation, Poggio could not build a house on Arsenalskaya, but he could temporarily rent.

It is quite possible, Yevgeny Yachmenev believes, that the house on Arsenalskaya was built for I.V. Poggio - in compensation for the fact that he had to give way to the Volkonskys who looked after the city plot opposite the Church of the Transfiguration. There is a version that the house on Arsenalskaya was given to A.P. Trubetskoy, brother of Sergei Trubetskoy.

Everything would be much easier if the documents of the Trubetskoy family archive survived to this day. But in 1912, in Simferopol, the second daughter of the Decembrist, E.S. Davydova, destroyed an important part of the archive she kept with valuable manuscripts, correspondence, personal and family materials. E.S. Davydova believed that by her act she prevented a situation where idle minds, as she said, “ again begin to wag the name of my father...»

The matter was completed by the October Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War - then other documents about the houses of the Trubetskoy family in Irkutsk, which are so necessary now, were lost. In any case, the house as a historical and architectural monument is unique. Maybe that's why fate spared him for history during the terrible Irkutsk fire on June 22-24, 1879, when the sea of ​​​​fire reached Myasnoryadskaya and Arsenalskaya streets.

underground passage

Another mystery of the Trubetskoy house is still called the mention of the discovery of an underground passage. They are connected with the appearance in the press of a note without a signature - "Irkutsk Dungeons". In particular, the author of the note stated:

« In the estate of the Decembrist Volkonsky (Volkonsky Lane), more than forty years ago, a descent into the dungeon was also found.

Local old-timers claim that the underground passage from the Volkonsky courtyard goes to the house on Dzerzhinsky Street (formerly Arsenalskaya), where in 1830-1840. lived another Decembrist, I.V. Poggio».

Thus, we are talking about the discovery of an underground passage at the beginning of the 20th century. In the autumn of 1920, the chronicler N.S. Romanov was interested in the Irkutsk dungeons:

« While visiting the excavations (in the center of the city), I had to talk about dungeons, and I found out that in the vocational school (near the Church of the Transfiguration) in the house of the former Decembrist Volkonsky there is an underground passage through which school employees walked, and as if one goes out of the gate, goes diagonally across the street and touches the railing that encloses the square.

As if the underground passage goes to the house of the Decembrist Trubetskoy, that is, at a distance of a whole block. In the school yard, the entrance to the dungeon is littered with rubbish, it is possible to find it, those who live in that house know it well. And historians, Irkutsk people did not know».

Stories about the underground passage are passed from mouth to mouth in Irkutsk even now. During earthworks during the restoration of the Trubetskoy and Volkonsky houses, the territory adjacent to the buildings was excavated to a considerable depth, up to three meters, from three sides for laying communications. Underground passage was not found. True, the section of Volkonsky Lane directly in front of the house was not affected by deep excavations.

Evgeny Yachmenev, director of the Museum of the Decembrists, does not exclude the existence of an underground passage, but stipulates that the tunnel could go not to Dzerzhinsky Street, but to the Church of the Transfiguration, since underground passages from churches to residential buildings were traditional in Irkutsk.

Long term treatment ahead

The first restoration of the Trubetskoy House was carried out in 1965-1970 according to the design of the Moscow architect Galina Oranskaya. Since then, the house has fallen into disrepair, the outer corners have sagged. In 2003, it was decided to close the building for renovation once again.

The project was undertaken by the architect of TPO Irkutskarkhproekt Lidia Klais and an employee of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of the Administration of the Irkutsk Region Elena Ladeyshchikova. Initially, the task seemed extremely simple, but then a photograph of the beginning of the 20th century fell into the hands of specialists. It turned out that the restoration was carried out according to a simplified version, and initially the Trubetskoy house had a slightly different look.

- The house had a very interesting decor - a bay window of a different shape, the bottom of the basket was decorated with decorative leaves. The central windows were arched, in the early version the building had a central risalit (more precisely, a false ledge), from which the upper part is currently preserved, and a stone plinth with semicircular windows, as well as brackets and kokoshniks on both sides of the bay window, - says Lydia Klais. - Modern Irkutsk residents could see a completely different building: the windows are rectangular, the architraves are simple.

The time of communal apartments turned a chic building, most likely created by a very fashionable architect in the 19th century, into five cells with different entrances and stairs. The work has been great. Lydia Klais and Elena Ladeyshchikova, trying to recreate the true appearance of the house, were looking for similar buildings of the same type. But it turned out that the Trubetskoy house is unique not only for Irkutsk, but also for other cities of Siberia. A similar house with arched windows was found only in Vologda.

Recreating the internal layout, the architects relied on the laws of classicism, according to which the building was built. According to the old canons, after entering the hallway, there was a reception room, then a living room with three windows, followed by a sofa, study or boudoir of the hostess. The house had two stoves downstairs and another upstairs, and the missing fireplace was moved from the Grand Hotel in 1904 during restoration.

The unplastered wooden ceiling raised many questions, but Elena Ladeyshchikova and Lydia Klais came to the conclusion that it was most likely made in the style of real Venetian ceilings. There is no information about where the main entrance was located. Studies have shown that the side entrance to the current canopy was too narrow for ladies in crinolines, so the central entrance was left in the same place.

Initially, the house stood on a wooden basement, which was later replaced with stone. This was the beginning of the "illness of the patient." Raising the building, the builders placed wooden chairs under it - pillars, which subsequently began to actively collapse. Many parts of the building were rotting.

- When we conducted research, we came across not very damaged areas, but when the restoration process itself began, it turned out that the situation was much worse, - restorers say.

As it turned out, in the 1970s, the restorers had already opened the wall sheathing and made the same disappointing diagnosis, but they were afraid to touch anything and covered the sore spot with boards. Inside, the house was covered with modern plaster, which rigidly held it like a corset. And when everything was opened, it became clear that the house needed to be sorted out. Because rotten sections of logs are randomly found throughout the building.

100 great sights of Moscow Myasnikov senior Alexander Leonidovich

The Apraksin-Trubetskoy House ("chest of drawers")

This house is called the pearl of the Elizabethan Baroque. And, like any jewel, it has its own legends, secrets and mysteries.

The story began in 1764, when Count Matvey Fyodorovich Apraksin, Lieutenant of the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment, bought the land on Pokrovka. The new Pokrovsky landowner came from a very ancient and eminent family, which gave Russia many remarkable people. His father Fyodor Matveyevich is Peter's steward, the legendary admiral, the head of the Admiralty Department, who built the Azov Fleet. After the death of the admiral, his son Matvey got a large plot in St. Petersburg on the Fontanka. This is the famous Apraksin Yard.

In 1764, Matvey Apraksin married the maid of honor Ekaterina Ivanovna Gendrikova. It was then that he bought a spacious plot of land on Pokrovka, where he decided to build a house. The one that still stands today.

The first mystery is connected with the construction of this house. The fact is that by this time classicism had already come into fashion. He came to replace the baroque, fashionable during the time of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. And by the time the house was being built, both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, preference was given to classicism, so beloved by the new Empress Catherine II Alekseevna.

The reasons for such an unexpected decision to return back to the Elizabethan baroque are called different. But most likely, Matvey Apraksin could simply act arbitrarily, like a gentleman, as was customary among many wealthy Moscow nobles.

But be that as it may, an architectural gem has appeared in Moscow - the rarest example of civil Elizabethan baroque. Stucco, shells, Corinthian columns, rich decor could not leave anyone indifferent. The house was immediately called the Moscow Winter Palace. True, in miniature. And then, for the bizarre architecture and shape, he received another nickname - "commode house".

The Apraksin-Trubetskoy House ("chest of drawers")

The name of the architect is the second mystery of the house. Legends attributed the house to Bartholomew Varfolomeevich Rastrelli himself. The researchers expressed themselves more cautiously: the unknown master of the Rastrelli circle. Some suggested the name of the serf count P.B. Sheremetev Ivan Petrovich Argunov. After all, Ivan Petrovich was not only a talented artist, but also an architect, he took part in the construction of the famous palace-theater in Ostankino.

Then, with a certain degree of confidence, they began to call Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky. He was the chief architect of Moscow during the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna and is considered one of the founders of the Moscow architectural school. And what is important - a student of Bartholomew Varfolomeevich Rastrelli. It was he, the chief master of the Moscow Elizabethan Baroque, who built the magnificent bell tower in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and in Moscow - the Church of St. Nikita the Martyr in Staraya Basmannaya.

And if we accept the version that Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky was the architect of Apraksin's house, then it is clear that this is his main civil creation. It was built in accordance with the law of the time of Peter the Great - along the "red line" of the street, with a front facade facing Pokrovka. Perhaps already with an oval hall in the center. Later, a house Annunciation Church was built there.

Under Apraksin, there was no house church. Matvey Fedorovich was assigned to the neighboring Church of the Resurrection. Since 1769, the names of him and those of his household appear in the confession book of the church.

In 1772, the Apraksins, for some obscure circumstances, parted ways with the house on Pokrovka. The building was acquired by the Life Guards Captain-Lieutenant Prince Dmitry Yuryevich Trubetskoy.

Dmitry Yuryevich Trubetskoy purchased the luxurious Apraksin estate on Pokrovka with the proceeds from the sale of the Kremlin property. This Trubetskoy property in the center of the Kremlin has existed since 1612. Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy became famous in the Time of Troubles. In 1611, together with Prokopy Lyapunov and Ivan Zarutsky, he gathered the first people's militia and took part in the battles for Moscow. In 1612, together with the second militia, he freed the capital from mercenaries, for which he received the title "Savior of the Fatherland." Trubetskoy stood up for the convening of the Zemsky Sobor and was even a contender for the royal throne. Having occupied the Moscow Kremlin in October 1612, Dmitry Timofeevich Trubetskoy took a fancy to the former chambers of Boris Godunov and settled in them. In his new possession, he arranged a small house Church of the Annunciation. Only in 1771, by decree of Empress Catherine II, the treasury bought this last private property in the Moscow Kremlin. The building of the Senate was to be erected on this site.

Dmitry Yuryevich Trubetskoy moved the Annunciation Church to Pokrovka. So the mansion had its own temple.

The city estate passed to new owners for 89 years. The house was owned by four generations of princes Trubetskoy.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, the names of many prominent writers and cultural figures have been associated with the house on Pokrovka. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin knew this house from early childhood. Little Fyodor Tyutchev also visited the Trubetskoys. The future famous historian Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin taught Trubetskoy's daughters. The house on Pokrovka was connected with the fate of Leo Tolstoy. Prince Dmitry Yuryevich, the first owner of the Trubetskoy family, was the writer's maternal great-grandfather.

In 1861, the cadet of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment, Prince Ivan Yuryevich Trubetskoy and his mother Olga Fedorovna sold the house on Pokrovka to Moscow University. The 4th male gymnasium was opened in the house. This gymnasium stood out among the state gymnasiums and even competed with the famous 1st male gymnasium on Volkhonka, the oldest in Moscow, founded in 1804. The 4th gymnasium was a classical gymnasium of the highest category - with two ancient languages, Latin and Greek, which gave the right to enter Moscow University after graduation. She was famous for her excellent teaching staff. Among the graduates of the gymnasium are Nikolai Zhukovsky, the "father of Russian aviation", and academician Alexei Shakhmatov. Within these walls, the high school student Konstantin Stanislavsky, then Alekseev, met Savva Morozov, the future patron of his theater. The Remizov brothers studied at the gymnasium on Pokrovka, including the future writer Alexei Remizov, whose work Marina Tsvetaeva called "a living treasury of the Russian soul and speech."

After the revolution, the gymnasium was closed, and the house church was also closed. The house was occupied by ordinary communal apartments. Various institutions were adjacent to the communal apartments. Since 1924, there was a hostel for students of the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. Communal apartments began to gradually settle only after the war, and the House of Pioneers was located on the second floor.

In the 1960s, the residents of communal apartments were finally evicted. The palace has a new owner, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Geophysics. Then the first restoration of the monument was carried out: its facades were restored to their original appearance of the middle of the 18th century. The interiors have also begun to be restored.

And the amazing house, which once received the ironic nickname chest of drawers, again began to be perceived as a true pearl of the Elizabethan Baroque. After all, it is known that real pearls die without human warmth.

Pokrovka, 22- the famous House-chest of drawers. It is also the house of Apraksin and the Trubetskoy estate. The house, built by order of Count Apraksin in 1766-1769, according to the project of D.V. Ukhtomsky, is the only monument of the Elizabethan Baroque in the city. His style earned him his "nickname". The smoothly curved facade of the main house, which passes into the side facades of the outbuildings and the abundance of decor, reminded contemporaries of a chest of drawers made in the Baroque style. So there is nothing "judgmental" in the title.

In 1772-1861. Trubetskoy owned the estate, for which they were nicknamed "Trubetskoy-Komod". Although, for some, the house resembled the Winter Palace.

Since 1861, the 4th men's gymnasium was located in the Pokrovka house, 22. In fact, as the possession of the 4th male gymnasium, the house has been mentioned since 1845. N.E. Zhukovsky, K.S. Stanislavsky, S.T. Morozov, A.M. Remizov.

After 1917 the house became public property. At first it was turned into a communal apartment, then it was given to students as a hostel. Since 1958, it housed the House of Komsomol members and schoolchildren of the Bauman district.

Church of Sergius of Radonezh

Pokrovka, 22 A С2- house church of Sergius of Radonezh at the maternity hospital of S.V. Lepekhina was built in the second half of the 19th century. (1890?)

It goes to the Lepekhinsky dead end, according to which it is listed at number 29 A.

Pokrovka, 22 A С1- a residential building of the Andronov merchants of the end of the 18th-19th centuries.

Since 1929, the Moscow Regional Scientific Research Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology (MONIIAG) has been located in the building.