Month: September 2013

Fingers of one hand will not be enough to count nice-looking wooden houses in Russia. But the ones like this, from the town of Kasimov,  probably make a majority. Almost neglected, almost forgotten…Boarded and somber…

This house was in the focus of heated discussion  on whether it is an art nouveau, provincial or not; or may be not art nouveau at all, but a neoclassicism; or it is a neoromanticism, and everything else is wrong…Whatever the style is, the house in Kimry is worth of closer look!

 

A small village called Korkodinovo lies between towns of Uglich and Rybinsk. There are hardly ten houses there. But each of them looks perfect, in spite of their venerable age. For example, this beautiful house painted in pink is one hundred and eight years old! If only each of us look that great in this age:))) By the way, I wish I could go the villages and not only to the towns and cities. Because villages are real Treasure Islands

I was surprised to notice that this window frame is almost the only one where colors just flow into each other. Most common practice is when separate elements are painted in different colors.

It’s even more curious because this is the way children paint window frames

It is a long time that I have noticed this symbol at the top of many window frames throughout the country; it is a circle crossed by three horizontal segments, the central one being a bit longer.

This window frame is from Omsk. But absolutely the same pattern occurs in Yaroslavl, Ryazan, Voronezh and Tambov Oblasts and is most common at art nouveau window frames.

But what does it mean? Where it came from? An enigma…

May be you have seen it in any other place?

To continue the topic of art nouveau in Russian architecture, I have found this photo taken in Yaroslavl which shows well-preserved wooden house built in this style, for sure. Certainly worth of tourists’ attention!

A dispute on the Facebook was about what could be called an art nouveaux and what could not. We were discussing the previous photo of — A the roof from Kimry.

I am trying to use a definition from Wikipedia —

explaining art nouveau was a trend of the last decade of XIX century – early XX century (before the WWI). Its main features are avoidance of straight line and angles in favor of more curved, natural lines. In art nouveau, rationality often gives way to ornamentality.

 

That is, I fail to notice any of these traits at the building at lower photo. But then, I do not have any architectural education, so I may be wrong in applying this definition to the phenomenon known as Russian provincial art nouveau or wooden art nouveau.

 

In my view, this most beautiful house from Rostov Veliky is a striking example of this kind of art nouveau. While the house from Kimry is whatever else but not this style!

What do you think?