Old English court
The Old English Court ( English Old English Court also Old English Yard , Russian Старый английский двор ) is a building of the early 16th century in the historic district Kitay-Gorod in Moscow . It is one of the oldest preserved secular buildings in Moscow. It was the seat of the English Muscovy Company in the 16th and 17th centuries . Later it served different purposes. Today it's a museum.
history
The building is the oldest secular building in Moscow , along with the Faceted Chamber in the Kremlin . It is a relatively small, solid-walled building near the Church of St. Varvara. The building included living and storage rooms as well as a large ballroom.
It originally belonged to the merchant Ivan Bobrishchev. After his death, the house fell to the Russian state. After Richard Chancellor had established direct economic ties between England and Russia and the Muscovy Company had been founded, the building was assigned to the English by Ivan IV as a branch and warehouse in 1556 . In addition to trade, the building also served diplomatic contacts between the two countries.
In the middle of the 17th century, after the execution of Charles I , the house came back into Russian ownership in the course of the temporary expulsion of the English merchants . It served a wide variety of purposes. Peter the Great had a school set up there in the 18th century. At times it was also privately owned and served for residential purposes. Structural changes have been made significantly over time.
In the 20th century the building was restored by the architect PD Baranowski. The condition from the first half of the 17th century was restored.
During the course of Elizabeth II's state visit to Russia, a museum on the history of the building and Anglo-Russian trade was opened in the building. Because of its excellent acoustic properties, the ballroom is used for performances of early music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods . The building is shown on a Russian postage stamp from 1995.
literature
- William Craft Brumfield: Landmarks of Russian Architecture: A Photographic Survey. Amsterdam, 1997 p. 117
- Darja Evdočuk: Moscow and St. Petersburg: Forays through the Russian metropolises. Berlin, 2007 p. 64
Web links
Coordinates: 55 ° 45 ′ 8.6 ″ N , 37 ° 37 ′ 36.7 ″ E