Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Moscow is a city with a rich architectural heritage. Among buildings of different eras and styles, one can notice a recurring motif — images of birds. Eagles, owls, seagulls, as well as the mythical sirens and gamayuns decorate mansions, train stations, and apartment buildings. Sculptures, bas-reliefs, mosaics, and stucco decorations with birds can be found on the facades of buildings throughout the capital. We tell you which Moscow buildings are home to birds.
Soaring Falcon and Console Owls
Animalistic motifs were often used by representatives of Moscow Art Nouveau in the early 20th century. Artists and architects working in this style were inspired by the beauty of nature, so they decorated buildings with sculptural and mosaic images of birds, plants and animals.
On Kuznetsky Most rises the apartment building of M.V. Sokol (house 3, building 2). The five-story building is decorated with a curving attic with a majolica panel. On it, the famous Russian artist Nikolai Sapunov depicted a falcon soaring over snow-capped mountain peaks, a river and fields with blooming edelweiss. The bird seems to be frozen in flight, tracking down its prey.
The M.V. Sokol apartment building is considered one of the best projects by the architect Ivan Mashkov, born Sokolov. The Art Nouveau monument was built at the beginning of the 20th century by order of Moscow homeowner Maria Sokol. Thus, the image of the bird encodes two names at once – the owner of the mansion and the architect himself. The facade of the building is highlighted by three rectangular bay windows with balconies and display windows, faced with sandstone, majolica slabs and relief tiles based on drawings by the famous artist Mikhail Vrubel. Before the October Revolution, there were apartments, shops, a hairdresser, a furniture salon and a restaurant here. During the Soviet era, the building was occupied by various institutions, and since 1961, it has housed the Mosproekt-3 urban development institute.
Another Art Nouveau monument decorated with birds is located at 21 Gogolevsky Boulevard, Building 1. The Bocharovs’ apartment building was built in 1903 by architect Lev Kekushev. The four-story building is popularly called the House of Owls: sculptures of these birds support the bay window ledges, replacing traditional consoles. The mansion is decorated with rich stucco decor: in addition to owls, Egyptian male masks are carved into the frieze and window panels.
The apartments in the Bocharovs’ tenement house were intended for wealthy residents: businessmen, lawyers, professors, engineers, doctors, and artists. Today, the building houses the Rostec corporation.
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Birds of Moscow railway stations
The clock tower of the Kievsky Railway Station (Kievsky Railway Station Square, Building 1) is decorated with four sculptures of eagles. The massive cast-iron birds with outstretched wings symbolize the power of the Russian Empire and the victory over Napoleon’s army. The connection with the Patriotic War of 1812 can also be seen in the architectural design of the station, which combines neoclassical style with elements of the Empire style.
The building of the Kievsky railway station (until 1934 it was called Bryansky) was built according to the design of the architects Ivan Rerberg and Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky. Due to the First World War and the revolution that followed, work on the main volume of the building dragged on for several years and was completed in 1918, and in 1940-1945 an additional volume was added to the station. The design of the landing stage and the hall ceilings was completed by the legendary engineer Vladimir Shukhov, the author of the sculptures was Sergei Aleshin, and the interior paintings were created by the artists Ignatiy Nivinsky and Fyodor Rerberg.
In 2016, the Kyiv railway station, recognized as a cultural heritage site of federal significance, was restored. Using archival documents and original samples, specialists restored the historical appearance of the building and elements of its interiors, including ceiling and wall paintings, architectural stucco decor, marble panels and stained glass. The renovated station became a laureate of several nominations of the Moscow Restoration competition.
And on the facade of the Yaroslavsky railway station (Komsomolskaya Square, Building 5) — a famous masterpiece of the neo-Russian style — you can see three-dimensional images of seagulls with fish in their beaks. The most interesting thing is that the bird bas-reliefs appeared only several decades after the construction of the station — during a large-scale reconstruction that was completed in 1947. At the same time, a swan, a black grouse, a wood pigeon, a white partridge and a wild goose “settled” on the columns inside the building.
Due to the expansion of the railway, the Yaroslavsky railway station was rebuilt several times. In 1902, the project for the main building in the style of fairy-tale chambers with semicircular arches and pointed towers was proposed by the outstanding architect Fyodor Shekhtel. Inspired by the northern nature, the artists of Savva Mamontov’s Abramtsevo circle decorated the station in the neo-Russian style with reliefs, openwork metal lace and majolica panels.
In 1947, the interiors of the Yaroslavsky railway station were completely changed according to the design of the Soviet architect Alexey Dushkin, and the sculptor Ivan Efimov decorated the façade, vestibule, interior columns and walls at the entrance to the building with reliefs of the fauna of the Russian North, motifs of fishing, moose and bear hunting. After that, the station, recognized as a cultural heritage site of federal significance, was reconstructed two more times, the last time in 2005.
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Herons and bats
Images of birds decorate the Zoological Museum of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, Building 2) — one of the largest natural science museums in the capital. It consists of two buildings built at right angles along Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street and Nikitsky Lane. Under the roof, a stucco frieze of plant garlands, birds, and animals stretches along the entire façade of the building. The sculptor depicted bats, squirrels, snakes, lizards, hares, wolves, bears, mountain goats, and other animals. The semicircular windows on the second floor are decorated with herons hunting snakes, waxwings and cockatoos hide under the cornice, and owls are in the capitals of the pilasters.
This architectural monument in the eclectic and neoclassical style was built in 1902. According to the idea of the architect Konstantin Bykovsky, the two-story building seems three-story due to the additional row of windows on the second level. The zoological museum exhibits almost 10 thousand exhibits – from single-celled animals to crocodiles, tigers and anthropoid apes.
Walking along Sretensky Boulevard, it is difficult to pass by one of the most remarkable local buildings, which is called Sretensky Castle. The house of the insurance company “Russia” (Sretensky Boulevard, house 6/1, buildings 1 and 2) is a monument of the Art Nouveau era. A real bird market is molded on its facades. There is a sea pelican, an exotic parrot, owls, and on the corner from Turgenevskaya Square, flocks of cast-iron bats are hiding under two semicircular bay windows.
Two buildings connected by openwork lattices form a whole block with inner courtyards. Their construction was completed in 1902. The architects were prominent representatives of Moscow Art Nouveau Nikolai Proskurnin and Viktor Velichkin. The rusticated ground floor is emphasized by patterned platbands, pointed arches and turrets. The house is decorated with balconies, bay windows, allegorical sculptures and friezes with complex ornamentation, and its main feature is a stylized Gothic tower with a clock and a bell.
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Birds of Paradise of the Ancient Slavs
At the corner of Soymonovsky Proezd and Prechistenskaya Embankment, in Kursovoy Lane, a red brick tower rises — the house of Z.A. Pertsova. The artist Sergei Malyutin designed the mansion in the Russian Empire style and decorated the facades with majolica panels. Fabulous animals look at passers-by: a roguish fox, toothy pikes, hares and snakes, on the ridge of the roof there is a lattice with golden lions, the drainpipes are made in the form of forest eagle owls, and the balconies are supported by dragon brackets. The house is decorated with mythical birds from Slavic folklore: the panels depict the heavenly sirens and gamayun, and an alkonost is embossed above the entrance door. Sculptures-weather vanes sit on the turrets and a brick ledge in the middle of the facade.
Architect Nikolai Zhukov and engineer Boris Shnaubert built the fairy-tale tower in just 11 months. The customer was the wealthy engineer and philanthropist Pyotr Pertsov, who bought a fabulously expensive plot of land on the bank of the Moscow River in the name of his wife. The project was selected on a competitive basis, the jury included Viktor Vasnetsov, Vasily Surikov, Fyodor Shekhtel and Vasily Polenov. The first prize went to Apollinary Vasnetsov, but Pertsov himself chose Malyutin’s project, which took second place. The majolica panels were created by the Murava artel of artists from the Stroganov School.
The building currently houses the Main Directorate for Servicing the Diplomatic Corps of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
On the left bank of the Yauza River at 56 Zemlyanoy Val Street, Building 3, a two-story mansion with a peach-colored façade, richly decorated with plaster moldings, attracts attention. At first, it belonged to the richest Moscow merchant Gerasim Khlodov, and in 1892 it became the property of a wealthy peasant from the Vladimir province, Filipp Panteleev. The name – the Khlodov-Panteleev house – retains the surnames of both owners.
Filipp Panteleev owned stucco workshops and turned the mansion into an advertising showcase. He commissioned the major renovation to architect Konstantin Duvanov. The central part of the main façade was highlighted with a risalit and richly decorated with sculptural decor. The building is decorated with female figures, cupids, lion masks, plant ornaments, pilasters, Corinthian capitals, rustication, architraves, a profiled cornice and a triangular pediment. The windows on the second floor are decorated with cornices-sandriks, under the three central ones plaster eagles spread their wings.
In 2023, the Khlodov-Panteleev house restored. The painstaking work of the specialists was recognized with a prize from the Moscow Government competition “Moscow Restoration”. Today, the building houses a boutique hotel.
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