A Forgotten Tsarist Suburb

One of the most attractive districts in Moscow must surely be the peaceful lanes that branch south from Ulitsa Ostozhenka and meander down the steep incline to the Moskva River. Among these winding, hilly lanes is Savelovsky, the third street to the left when traveling from the center. Curiously, in the Soviet period the name was only slightly altered, to Savelevsky, as if the Bolsheviks were loath to change the nature of the street. Clustered at the top of the lane like supplicants appealing to busy Ostozhenka and the noisy life of the city are a group of tall, distinctive apartment blocks built between 1898 and 1914 as commercial ventures by well-known architects. Below them, the street drops away precipitously to fall almost to the river's edge. It is halted by the line of buildings on Kursovoi Pereulok. In the distance across the river you can see the President Hotel. Two classical houses perch here, one on each side of the street, unafraid of the steep descent, both with their sides to the lane and employing the steep slope as attractive gardens behind iron fencing.If you stand at the top of the hill between the two mansions you can see almost the entire street. The handsome apartment blocks on the left, all the same height, were built for the increasingly numerous middle class in the early years of this century. Originally large, comfortable flats complete with servant's quarters, they became communal apartments after 1917. The entrance ways and fine wrought iron staircases are still in place.Begin with No. 12, built in 1898 by Alexander V. Ivanov for the Varvarin Company. It is five generous rusticated stories with two bays and a large niche. Ivanov, a popular architect, also built the Novomoskovsky Hotel, now restored as the Kempinsky. The next apartment block, No. 10, by Nikita Faleyev, is the finest. Look for its square bays that rise three floors, and its unusual two-tone effect of green with red details. No. 8, designed by N.I. Zherikhov and completed in 1914 at the outbreak of the World War I, is not only the newest of the group, but has the least interesting facade.Look through the gap between the apartment blocks on the even-numbered (eastern) side of the street, and the mansion, No. 6, for a fine view of the tower and gold cupolas of a church on the next street, St. Ilya "Obydennykh." This title means the church was "built in one day," suggesting that the earlier wooden church on this site was built quickly, probably after a fire. The original 16th-century church was rebuilt of masonry in 1702, from funds donated by Gavriil Derevnin, a member of the tsar's council. The entrance way, or refectory, was added in 1819, and rebuilt by Alexander Kaminsky in 1868, at which time the towering belfry was also added. The church is unusual in that it was never closed in the Soviet period. As a result it has not lost its rich interior, and many of its icons are of great interest as they were brought for safekeeping from other, closed churches. St. Ilya had the reputation of the church of the Moscow intelligentsia, perhaps because it is not far from the Arbat lanes where so many writers, scientists and artists lived.To the right of the church, back on Savelovsky Pereulok, is a delightful classical mansion built after 1812 as a town house. Peek through the railings into the garden to admire the rotunda porch and to get a feel of Moscow past. The house is now the cultural center "na Ostozhe," where free concerts and recitals are held on Saturday and Wednesday evenings.Across from the mansion is a more impressive town estate with a Doric portico. The Savelovskys, nobility members who owned this property in the 17th century, gave their name to the street. Their estate covered nearly all the land on the west side of the street, and a long garden containing two ponds descended down to Kursovoi Pereulok. The estate buildings include the service wing with a 17th-century palata, or chamber, which abuts onto the lane just behind the main house. The main house probably dates from the first half of the 18th century. After the 1812 fire, the house was given a new facade and turned into a textile factory. In 1875, a charitable society opened a hospital there, and the building now serves as a children's clinic for neurological diseases. In the 20th century new buildings began to intrude into the garden space. The most objectionable of these, a large Soviet-style marble-faced block, sits surrounded by fencing in the center of the garden.?©Kathy Burton Murrell