Chambers in Shubino

Истинное чудо московского краеведения — это древние палаты в Шубине, скрытые под фасадами сталинского здания на Тверской улице. Внутри современных сооружений сохранился дворец времён Алексея Михайловича Романова, построенный ещё в XVII веке. Эти палаты долгое время были известны только специалистам. Они составляли основу здания, которое в начале XIX века стало гостиницей «Север», где в марте 1830 года останавливался Александр Сергеевич Пушкин.

В XIX веке этот дом активно перестраивался и расширялся. С 1837 по 1917 год, здесь находилась знаменитая гостиница «Дрезден», которая пользовалась популярностью среди русской дворянской и творческой элиты. В её номерах проживали такие известные деятели культуры, как Иван Тургенев, Александр Островский, Антон Чехов и Лев Толстой.

После революции и в 1930-х годах здание было реконструировано и надстроено до пяти этажей. Его фасад получил оформление в стиле сталинского классицизма, и в 1939 году здесь открылся знаменитый ресторан «Арагви».

Первый этап реставрации состоялся в 2000-х годах и включал расчистку фасада и интерьеров от поздних наслоений, что позволило выявить и сохранить оригинальные элементы XVII века. Были обнаружены и отреставрированы белокаменные и кирпичные стены, своды, оконные откосы, арочные дверные проёмы и ниши-печуры. Особое внимание уделялось сохранению подлинных деталей и элементов, которые, несмотря на многочисленные перестройки, сохранились на протяжении веков.

В 2013-2016 годах были проведены масштабные реставрационные работы, направленные на восстановление первоначального облика здания и адаптацию его к современным условиям эксплуатации. В ходе работ были не только сохранены, но и восстановлены утраченные элементы декора, включая резьбу по камню, штукатурку и фрески. Особое внимание было уделено восстановлению фрагментов живописи, обнаруженных на порталах XVII века под слоями более поздней отделки.

Реставраторам удалось создать гармоничный баланс между сохранением исторических элементов и интеграцией современных инженерных систем, необходимых для приспособления здания к новым функциям. Было проведено укрепление конструкций здания, тщательно просушены и закреплены кирпичные стены, что обеспечило долговечность и устойчивость всего строения. Все работы проводились с соблюдением научно обоснованных методов реставрации, что позволило сохранить аутентичность и историческую значимость объекта.

Реставрация палат в Шубине была удостоена нескольких наград на конкурсе «Московская реставрация — 2016».

Сегодня в здании, сохранившем уникальные элементы XVII века размещены различные коммерческие и культурные организации, а также работает ресторан.

A true miracle of Moscow local lore is the ancient chambers in Shubin, while more known as the restaurant "Aragvi". A huge Stalin house, one of the ceremonial elements of the ruthless General Plan-35, concealed in its bowels a magnificent palace of the times of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov. In fact, experts know that the east wing of the house number 6 on Tverskaya Street was built using the walls of the hotel "Dresden" (in the depths Glavmosstroy that occupies the main part of the building old-regime lobby with Atlanteansis preserved). Hotel, in its turn,is based on the residential building of the XVIII century. That is all that was known until 2004. In 2004, the restaurant "Aragvi", located in the house,was closed for renovation. The architect, who was in charge of refitting the restaurant, drew attention to the apparent denseness of the white stone vaults of the cellar. You can find them in the following way: the entrance to the building with the Tverskaya square on the right of Yuri Dolgoruky statue. Almost square in plan chambers’ volume located inside this building (a few meters away from the façade facing the square). From the outside, it can be seen only by looking from Tverskaya Street in the first (from the square) gateway of the building number 6. Smooth,stucco covered wall with three simple windows - this is the Chambers in Shubin, its first floor.And below the ground level is a mighty cellar monument. Surprisingly solid walls, heavy white stone vaults, age-old antiquity, which is immediately felt not only by specialists, but also by people who have nothing to do with architecture. According to the background information, the chambers that make up the base of house No. 6 were built in the parish of the Kosmy and Damian Church in Shubin, the ancient patrimony of boyar Iakinf Shuba, commander of Prince Dmitry Donskoy. Who owned this site in the XVII century, is still unknown, but it's a man who built himself a real palace. In the process of full-scale exploration, the structure and the long construction history of the building gradually became clear. At the heart of the cunning chorus of the out-of-the-way add-ons is the so-called "complex triplet", that is, the canopy with three halls on both sides. Thus, the usual canopy here is transformed into a long corridor, divided into the front and rear halves. The most famous buildings of this type - the chambers of Simon Ushakov and Averky Kirillov - have only two rooms on each side. Soon after the building was built, this floor was deepened down, apparently to create glaciers, and a wide stone staircase was built (not preserved). The top, front floor is made of large bricks, branding eagles and unicorns (they allow us to date the monument to the middle of the XVII century). Half of the floor space has kept high arches with openers, found the remains of the rich brick window frames and portals, including in the interior chambers. In the tabs of the old apertures there was a lot of hewn figure brick left from the dismantled parts of the building. In the walls of the "throne room" there are a lot of niches-pechures (small niches on the inner surface of the wall that played the role of a built-in cupboard for storing small utensils), including one horizontal, richly decorated, as if arranged to hold a separate relic. Along the window slopes stretch platens of brick frames - for the XVII century a great luxury. In the center of the vault is a rosette lined with rows of concentric circles. On the eastern and northern walls of the chamber, two rich portals were discovered. One of them is formed by square flyers, inside there are carved inserts - crosses and eight-pointed star. Above the upper flyers passes a series of arched niches, in which there are picturesque daisies (it is not yet known what their original color was, but now they look black). In the rectangular field around the archway of the opening is also a painting: a floral ornament of simple drawing. Not Vasnetsov and not Bilibin, but a living history: yellow and green yard mugs. Such fragments of the picturesque decoration of the residential interior of the pre-Petrine time are in the Poteshny Palace, and among the suburban monuments of Moscow this is the first such find. Since the opening of the chambers, it has been almost thirteen years. And, unfortunately, most of the time, there was absolutely illegal reconstruction, which destroyed priceless fragments of medieval decor. First, the remains of the mural on the vault and window slopes were destroyed (a unique find not yet fully explored). The interior decor was damaged, carved consoles were destroyed, on which the vaults of the chamber rested, and much more. Since 2005, the Chambers seem to have been restored, but at the same time they steadily lost their authenticity. And only in recent years there were new representatives of the customer who did not argue with the restorers and trusted their decision: they agreed with the need for clearing the facade and realized that preserving the antiquity in its original form is the main task.