Alexander Tamanyan – The Architect of the House of Prince Shcherbatov

Outstanding Armenian architect Alexander Tamanyan, the author of the Yerevan reconstruction project, was the creator of one of the most interesting and unusual buildings in the neoclassical style in Moscow. Previously, church bell towers have been dominant in the huge city, spreading over the hills and valleys. But with the beginning of the 20th century, skyscrapers “lifted” Moscow high into the sky.

The massive house of Prince Sergei Shcherbatov on Novinsky Boulevard built in 1911-1913 and surrounded by majestic Stalinist buildings wonderfully fit in with the ensemble of the dynamic boulevard. The main five-story building, from which two three-story wings depart, at the same time resembles 19th-century Moscow mansions and buildings of the Soviet empire style.

On the last two floors of the central building were the apartments of the prince, while the rest has been rented.

The scale of the building and its classic rigor combined amazingly with the snow-white bas-reliefs and the feeling of airiness achieved through the solid colonnade of the last floor.