A three-storeyed hotel with bath-houses of the merchant Chelyshev was designed by the architect Osip Bowe on the site of the Metropol Hotel in the 1830s. In the 1890s Savva Mamontov acquired the hotel and adjacent grounds for implementing his innovative idea: he conceived to arrange a grand cultural and leisure center in Moscow. The project provided radical reconstruction but not demolition of the old hotel. An entire pleiad of famous and talented architects and artists worked on creation of the hotel complex. The interior decor was based on sketches by Vassily Vasnetsov and Konstantin Korovin. Unlike the facades designed in strict stylistic unity its interior design blends various styles, including the Russian Revival style and Neo Classicism.

 

It is located not far from the Teatralnaya metro station.

 

 

 

The guest house built at the corner of Podsosensky and Kazarmenny Lanes was based on the project by the architect G. I. Makayev in 1903-1904. (The second well-known building designed by this architect in Moscow is the northern wing of the Polytechnic Museum) The house is a typical example of the northern Art Nouveau style and is known as the house with poppies. Poppies made one of the favourite motives of Art Nouveau as a symbolical saying that life is a dream.

 

In the Soviet era the apartments in the Tarkhova’s Guest House were turned into communal flats, the dwellers of which were rehoused in the 1990s. In spite of the fact that the building is considered a cultural heritage site of regional value, its facades are in a critical condition.

 

Located at the address: 18/5, Podsosensky Lane, near the Kurskaya metro station. 

 

 

 

Two buildings of this elegant house in the Sretensky Boulevard were constructed by the architects N. M. Proskurin and A. I. von Goguen in 1899-1902. The house was initially meant for very well-grounded public. It had a cooling system, which did not just supply rooms with fresh air, but also filtered and moistened the air. The local power station in the house cellar ensured continuous electrical power supply. Heating was provided with eight boilers. A 50 meter deep artesian slit was drilled near the houses. The smart houses also had electrical elevators and a laundry for the residents. Lots of upper apartments had glass ceilings, which was especially appreciated by artists.

 

The houses are located at the address: 6/1Sretensky Boulevard, near the Turgenevskaya metro station 

 

 

 

The first entrance into the Krasnye Vorota metro station was opened together with the station on May 15, 1935 as part of the first starting section Sokolniki - Park Kultury of the Moscow Metro. 
 

The ground lobby is designed in the shape of four interfolded hemispheres according to the project of the architect N. A. Ladovsky. Lots of Muscovites nickname this entrance “a shell”. The entrance and the station project won the Grand Prix of the International World Fair in Paris in 1938. The year 1952 saw the first ever metro turnstile set in the Krasnye Vorota metro station. 

 

Next: The Most Beautiful Moscow Buildings, Part 3