Month: August 2013

A day before, Kimry newsparer asked me what was my best memory of the place.

My reply was: severe Northern-style roofs and small windows under them.

They were surprised.

But could I give it any other name?

In 2007, when I was walking from Navashin to Murom, I fancied the place for sure would have posh, carved and certainly antique window frames. Because Murom is one of the oldest places of Russia.

And there, oh…But not! Everything was rather modest, though curious, of course.

Now, when I recall that walk around Murom and look at the town map, I suspect I hardly had seen anything. Just strolled, in fact…

Frankly speaking, it was the first time when I had seen such a high quality of restoration made by a private person.

This head-turning house, a manor built somewhere between late XIX and early XX centuries, was a kindergarten in the Soviet times. You can imagine what it was like when its owners bought it. Now the house has its original look.

The person who had bought the house was said to spend several years to restore it. Now the house looks like new!

And its owner lost his life…

When I happen to meet window frames with semi-columns, obviously turned by machine, they always seem to me to be some modern replica. They look like cut legs of a bed or a cabinet door, at the best:)))

Not by any means!

Turning machine has been known since XIII century, and since XVI century builders of Nizhny Novgorod used it very often to decorate church interiors.

Which means these window frames from Kimry may well be of 150 years of age or even older!

This house in Gavrilov Yam, Yaroslavl Oblast, is from top to toe in siding. Yet, its owners left carved decoration of the porch and window frames (behind the scenes)

Yet, this wooden grandeur was hardly visible behind the fence, so I had to ask to let me in:)))

In early XIX century, wooden houses stood very high in Ryazan, as not many people could afford houses made of stone.

Classicism was in trend, and even wooden houses had followed that pattern. This one, a mansion of the Kheraskov family, was totally made of oak, and I suspect this is why it has been standing for almost two hundred years.

Curious is that both before and after the October Revolution, till 1950s, the Kheraskovs owned their house, and only once in its lifetime it was repaired.

European Russia has much to offer in terms of wooden buildings, and the reason is simple: most of towns and cities are here. But this only adds value to those few wooden houses that have survived in the east. This one (probably it was a mansion of some family) stands in the very heart of Chita.

Alas, I couldn’t find any information about it. And I’m very dubious if there are any books about wooden architecture of Chita.

Window frames of this prominent house in Kostroma had already been a part of my show, but the house itself so far had not been here, though a floral pattern at its frames and an attic with a tiny balcony insist they are worth it.

There is one more window on the left, but I could not enjoy the general view because of the shrub and the tree.

In my archives, I found this attic window from Nizhny Novgorod.

Generally, I am against bad photos, but just could not resist the temptation of treating you with this exceptionally beautiful window. The photo was taken at dark night, and – what was worse – in a snowfall. It is by pure miracle that something can still be seen. When I look at it I feel Nizhny Novrorod Oblast attracts me like a magnet

In the town of Tutayev, I hit on a curious window frame decorated with a hammer and a sickle.  They were not those implements that had attracted me — they are of small surprise for us– but the way they had been presented.  Before I thought the proportions of hammer-and sickle composition were absolutely firm.

But here you can see this is not always the case.