The Sytinsky mansion is one of those cozy one-story houses with columns, a mezzanine and plaster stucco over the windows, which determined the appearance of noble and merchant Moscow during the first half of the reign of Alexander I. healthy”material for housing. At the same time, the owners were ordered to plaster it like a stone or sheathe it with planks within three years from the date of construction - this is how the authorities took care of the "capital" of the architectural appearance of city estates. Houses were built with a front facade along the red line of the street, had wings and services, a courtyard and a garden, an entrance gate with a fence, front and back entrances. This is exactly the mansion that survived at number 5 in Sytinsky Lane - the house of Brigadier Andrei Petrovich Sytin, the construction of which dates back to 1804-1805.
It so happened that before us is the second “Sytin's house”, the restoration project of which was developed by the “Ginzburg Architects” workshop. However, neither the house nor the namesakes had anything to do with each other. The first house is
the building of the editorial office of the newspaper "Russkoe slovo", built by its publisher Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin, restored in 2008-2015, is located in the so-called "Izvestia" quarter. Sytin at one time bought it almost entirely, including the plot that belonged to the Lukutin merchant family, where he ordered to build a building that combined the functions of the editorial office and the owner's personal residence. It was designed by the fashionable architect of his time, Adolf Erichson, in a profitable Art Nouveau style. It was this house that was moved on skating rinks in 1979 during the construction of the new edition of Izvestia.
But the house, which will be discussed below, is located on the other side of Tverskaya Street, in Sytinsky Lane, Building 5, not far from the intersection with Bolshaya Bronnaya.
The history of ownership dates back to the 17th century and earlier. Suffice it to say that the described house was built on a non-residential stone plinth, which was a vaulted basement of the ancient choir or storerooms of the late 17th century. They were located somewhere in the depths of the property, since at that time Sytinsky lane did not yet exist. The Sytins owned this land for almost the entire 18th century, and at the turn of the 19th century, the ownership was divided between the heirs into three parts. Vostochnaya, along Sytinsky Lane, went to Major Alexander Petrovich and Brigadier Andrei Petrovich Sytin. In 1804-1805. a one-storey wooden house with a mezzanine was built here, and two stone (!) wings were erected on the sides, facing the side street and securing the corners of the property. One of them, on the left, has survived - now it is yellow. The carriage shed also survived - also part of the former estate. And on the site of the second wing at the beginning of the 20th century, a four-story apartment building was built according to the project of the architect Sokolov, for which the end wall of the log house was dismantled.
The brigadier's house was built according to his means - not the most luxurious, but also rather big: along the main facade it has nine windows, and the facade itself is 21.81 m long. The building is one-story - for reasons of fire safety, it was forbidden to build higher, and the lack of premises was made up by mezzanines from the yard side. In terms of composition, this manor is typical for its time - the overall dimensions of the house and the proportions of the facade were regulated by a special city commission. Outside, the log house was sheathed and painted, and the main facade was richly decorated with plaster stucco. The mezzanine is supported by a Corinthian portico, and the windows are decorated with four types of stucco decorations. The central element - the head of the Gorgon - during the last restoration was recreated according to historical drawings, since at the time of work it was lost. The rest of the stucco motifs: decorative garlands, cornucopia and the complete absence of victorious symbols - once again confirm the pre-fire origin. This is evidenced by their very abundance - in Empire Moscow of the era of Bove, Gilardi and Grigoriev, it was no longer in vogue.
The courtyard facade is much more modest - of the decorative details, there are only window frames. The entrances to the building are located in the courtyard "risalits", a porch is attached to the north-western one. The roof of the mansion is hip-shaped; over the side and courtyard facades one can see semicircular dormer windows under triangular pediments. The staircase vestibule was illuminated by a special skylight in the roof, arranged with a slight offset from the central axis.
Miraculously survived the fire of 1812, the house subsequently passed from one owner to another without significant rebuilding. And although to date, the ensemble of the city manor has not been completely preserved, the house itself has brought to us unique authentic elements. This was facilitated, of course, by the fact that in 1960 the property was accepted for state protection as an object of cultural heritage of federal significance.
The first restoration in the history of the house was carried out here only in the 1980s. Until that moment, the building had been abandoned for twenty years, due to leaks it began to rot and collapse. From photographs of those years, one can see that the restorers have completely restored the facade, including the lost pediment and all the decorative design. The study also revealed the original terracotta color of the paint. By the absence of layers of paint under the plaster stucco molding, it was found that, on the whole, it was modern to the construction of the house, although it was partially lost and supplemented.
The problem with the restoration of the 1980s, however, was that at that time the “stylistic approach” prevailed in the Soviet school - that is, to the detriment of the original texture, a certain image of the monument was restored at a certain historical moment. This led to the loss of some elements. For example, when restoring the facade at the earliest period, the restorers laid window openings at the level of the basement, but from the side of the courtyard the annexes were not dismantled.
“In the 1970s and 80s, the system created by I. E. Grabar, came to an absolutely stylized restoration - the architects did it to their taste the way they thought it could be. And this is a problem, since the restoration of the 1980s in Sytin's house involved a complete replacement of the interior decoration, including doors, stairs, that is, the interiors were actually destroyed. The most valuable from the historical point of view, the vaulted rooms in the basement did not stand out in any way."
Nevertheless, by the time of the last restoration, a number of original elements remained in the house, which were carefully studied and restored. The blockhouse itself, according to Alexei Ginzburg, did not have to be sorted out - the restorers made a cut, partially replaced and strengthened the damaged sections of the crowns. The wooden paneling of the walls and the white-stone plinth were restored, the bases of the columns were partially replaced and completed. All seven windows laid in the previous restoration of 1890 have been restored. Now they are covered with metal bars similar to their historical counterparts. The plaster decor of the facades was partially restored, some were made from casts.
Particular attention was paid to the most ancient part of the building - the vaulted chambers of the 17th century; restorers uncovered the white-stone floor in the basement and the vaults. Moreover, the floor level was lowered on the basis of field studies, and the removed slabs, treated with protective compounds, were laid at the historical mark. They did not paint the exposed brickwork and the modern design can be seen by its color.
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Image 
zooming 1/4 Project for the restoration of the A. P. Sytin. Basement floor plan © Ginsburg Architects
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zooming 2/4 Project for the restoration of the A. P. Sytin. Ground floor plan © Ginsburg Architects
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zooming 3/4 Project for the restoration of the A. P. Sytin. First floor mezzanine plan © Ginsburg Architects
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zooming 4/4 Project for the restoration of the A. P. Sytin. Section © Ginsburg Architects
At the time before the last restoration, the interior layout of the building remained within the main walls and partitions of the first third of the 19th century, with the addition of several partitions after the 1980s. It can be seen even now with some additions. The house was built with a clear division, characteristic of its time, into ceremonial, residential and utility rooms. The high rooms of the main suite were located along the front facade, and the lower living rooms were along the courtyard. The main staircase under the skylight leading to the second floor was initially slightly offset from the central axis. Two more staircases were located in the courtyard risalits.
Few of the original elements of the interiors have survived - these are mainly stoves, which in the 1980s were recreated from historical tiles in their original places, and sculptures of caryatids, presumably from the middle of the 19th century. “The interiors above the basement are, of course, newly-made,” says Aleksey Ginzburg, “We recreated them according to historical models: parquet flooring of that time, wall decor. According to our project, based on historical analogies, all the carpentry around the house has been recreated in detail - windows, paneled doors, which were made according to the original surviving drawings of the restoration archive of the 1980s. We worked with the details quite meticulously, which I always like very much."
In the course of restoration work, inlaid parquet was restored in the rooms on the first floor. The mezzanine floor was covered with planks according to historical counterparts. The location of the skylight above the stairs and skylights on the roof has slightly changed, which has been brought in line with the archival data. The destroyed wooden slopes of the openings and magnificent double and single-floor paneled doors were restored. The plastering of the interior timber walls and ceilings was also cleaned and restored.
“What has been accurately recreated based on historical data is the central staircase. In 1955 research, we found baluster measurements and a description of the color scheme. The internal structure was restored by us for the period 1805-1830s - the end of the formation of the current volume of the building, of course, taking into account the necessary adaptation work. We have restored the front suite along the main facade, in the part of the first floor from the side of the courtyard with low ceilings, there are already smaller rooms - as it was historically. All technical rooms were placed in the basement and under-roof space, so as not to change the historical structure."
As part of the adaptation project, the necessary engineering systems were arranged in the house, respectively, metal duct pipes were added, a heating system for the roof and pits was arranged, which will contribute to the better preservation of the monument. In general, the structural reliability of such houses can only be surprising - a wooden building with a two-hundred-year history continues to live well and be used. And although from an architectural point of view, the house for its time is the most ordinary, miraculous salvation and good preservation, of course, make it a unique monument of an almost disappeared layer of environmental architecture of pre-fire Moscow.
