Pashkov House: Moscow's Jewel Now Restored

Paskov House one of architectural jewels of Russia was under restoration for 19 years, was closed down due to its dilapidated state. Pashkov House is named after its first owner Petr Yegorovich Pashkov, the lieutenant commander of the Life Guards of Semenovsky Regiment and the son of Peter the Great’s batman.

Pashkov House

Designed by Vasily Bazhenov (1737-1799), one of Russia’s greatest architects, this mansion was erected between 1784 and 1786 for the wealthy Pashkov family. The central building is topped by a round belvedere and flanked by two service wings. The current building is a reconstruction of a private mansion that was badly damaged in the disastrous fire of 1812, which swept through the city as the first of Napoleon’s troops were arriving.

In the 19th century it housed the Rumyantsev collection of art and rare manuscripts and a library, and from 1925it has been a part of the Lenin Library, the second largest in the world, after the Library of Congress, and a magnet for international scholars, even during the Soviet era. Following the 1917 revolution, the museum was closed and the art collection was transferred to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art. The manuscripts were donated to the Russian State Library which now owns this building. Pashkov House is off-limits to the general public, but after years of neglect, the government finally pledged funds for restoration work, which began in 2003. Money for the state-financed restoration finally started to flow after the visit from Vladimir V. Putin, the former president.

In a city where architectural monuments are readily torn down or gaudily renovated beyond recognition, Pashkov House, which reopened in October after an $80 million renovation, is one of the few restoration projects lauded by preservationists.

The building is Classical in style, with columns, urns, and terraces reminiscent of Rome. It stands on the high Vagankovsky hill, as if continuing the line of its ascent, on an open corner of two descending streets. There is a story that Bazhenov was offended with Catherine the Great, and planned the house to make it standing with its back to the Kremlin, as the entrance from Starovaganovsky Lane was intended to be the main entrance. And the façade looks on to Mokhovaya Street – i.e. on to the Kremlin.

The grand hall features elaborate plasterwork depicting mythical figures, candelabra that had been salvaged from the ruins and a retractable chandelier.

The magnificient house can be rented for special events for $100,000 or more. Christie’s held a pre-auction showing for rich Russian art collectors at Pashkov House last fall, and Boucheron, the French jewelry house, held an exhibition and soirée there in March.

There are no more secret collections here that were once off-limits in soviet times. However, two rare busts of Socrates and Homer, from Pashkov House’s final 19th-century iteration as the Rumyantsev Museum are still there and preserved.

The gleaming white Pashkov edifice rose three stories and was crowned with a belvedere. The combination of rocco and Palladian splendor of Pashkov House was expressed strikingly in its Kremlin facade dominated by majestic four Corinthian column portico where the architect placed a statue next to the first and the fourth columns.

Read more: The Architecture and Planning of Classical Moscow: A Cultural History

About these ads