The house of Zinaida Pertsova is one of the most beautiful mansions in Moscow, made in the neo-Russian style. Among the people, it is called “Pertsova’s Profitable House”, “Fairy Tale House”, “Terem”, and the history of Pertsova’s house in Moscow is the story of the realization of the dream of a creative person.

How to get to the Fairy Tale House in Moscow

The mansion is located at the intersection of Soymonovsky proezd, Kursovoy lane and Prechistenskaya embankment, the address of Pertsova’s house: Kursovoy lane, 1, coordinates: 55.74259173208123, 37.606026461591284.

History of the Pertsova House

Zinaida Pertsova, the official owner of the unique mansion, was married to the railway magnate Pyotr Pertsov. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​building a profitable house, in one half of which artists and artists will live and communicate, and in the second half the entrepreneur himself and his family will live.

The patron’s idea was realized with the help of the collector Ivan Tsvetkov. He helped find the right site, where it was planned to build the future House of the Pertsovs on Prechistenskaya Embankment, on the condition that the mansion be in the Russian style.

In 1905, the work of Apollinary Vasnetsov was chosen at the competition for the best design of the building, but Pyotr Pertsov liked the idea of ​​​​Sergey Malyutin more. The construction of the mansion was completed in the spring of 1907, and the first tenants moved into the House-Fairytale.

In 1922, the patron was detained. Since he kept the values ​​of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in the house, the mansion was nationalized. After the Great Patriotic War, the apartments were settled, in the fifties of the XX century there was a dormitory for the railway station post office of the October Railway in this place, young railway workers were trained here. Many citizens and metropolitan guides regret that now there is no museum, for example, of Art Nouveau in the Pepper House.

IT IS INTERESTING! Pertsov accidentally saw Malyutin’s sketch, which he did not send to the competition, as he considered it unsuitable. The railroad tycoon was delighted with him. In the future, the artist finalized the project, and it turned out a harmonious mixture of Russian style with Art Nouveau.

Who worked on the project

The painter Malyutin himself, the engineer Boris Schnauberg and Nikolai Zhukov, the architect of Pertsova’s house, began to bring the project to life, and the mosaic panel decorating the mansion was created by students from the Murava Stroganov School.

Architecture and interior

Features of Art Nouveau architecture, in which the House of Pertsova (Soimonovsky Proyezd) was built, are expressed in the asymmetrical arrangement of balconies, windows and tower-like ledges of the roof, in a gilded lattice with lions and sculptures of dragons.

Motifs of Slavic paganism can be traced in the architecture of the mansion; the facade is decorated with a panel depicting the sun and animals in an unusual form.

If you look at the “Fairy Tale House” from the outside, the question arises of what Pepper’s house looks like inside, what style is used to decorate the premises. Here’s how it was decorated on the inside:

• at the entrance to the master part of the mansion there was an image of a bird-of-paradise maiden on a wooden carving;
• owls perched on pillars in the form of small columns at the edges of the stairs, watching what was happening inside;
• the staircase itself in the profitable part of the building was decorated with leaves and berries made of wood;
• the dining room was decorated with oak panelling, mosaics and carvings.
• The interior decoration of the premises was striking in sophistication and beauty.

Apartment house residents

The house offered apartments for tenants from different walks of life. In total, there were 400 apartments in the mansion, different in design, size and comfort. In addition to private apartments, there was a confectionery store and several offices in Terem. The entrepreneur himself occupied 3 floors with a separate entrance. Also, until 1908, its author Malyutin lived in the house.

“Bat”

In the basement of the mansion there was a popular cafe and cabaret theater “The Bat”. Representatives of the capital’s bohemia gathered within its walls, especially often artists of the Moscow Art Theater visited here: V.I. Shverubovich (Kachalov), the wife of A.P. Chekhov actress O.L. Knipper-Chekhova and K.S. guests tricks.

After nationalization

After the Bolsheviks seized power, the house was nationalized. The creator of the mansion was evicted, and then placed in prison for 3 years. The mansion was unofficially occupied by the Russian revolutionary L. D. Trotsky, who received diplomats in it, as well as his associates (Ephraim Sklyansky, Konstantin Mekhonoshin, Nikolai Podvoisky) and members of the Jack of Diamonds avant-garde artist circle Alexander Kuprin and Vasily Rozhdestvensky.

Fairytale tower today

Having studied the history of the creation of this metropolitan attraction, you can ask what is in Pertsova’s house in Moscow now, is it possible to see it inside. From the 1970s to the present, the house has housed the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for servicing the diplomatic corps, so you can’t go inside.

Terem looks especially colorful in clear weather, then both the photo of Pertsova’s house and the photos of individual architectural elements of the building seem to be alive.

Excursions to the Pepper House

Although now there is no way to see with your own eyes what is in Pertsova’s house in Moscow, you can view it from the outside and listen to the history of its creation from the lips of an experienced guide or audio guide.

For this, walking tours around Moscow are organized. Many Moscow companies conduct excursions to Pertsova’s house.

Having found its way into the modern metropolis as if from a fairy tale, the Pertsov House in Moscow on Prechistenskaya is a house-history, every centimeter of which is of great value. This mansion is an architectural creation protected by the state.