Tourism in Arkhangelsk
About our Arkhangelsk land
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The Architectural biography of Arkhangelsk Other routes
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The most ancient architectural monument in Arkhangelsk is the stone building in the Merchant Yard. Its construction dates back to the 17th century (1668-84). Once upon a time, this huge construction was the administrative and trade center for the city. Building with stone continued its development in the 18th century. It can be traced by way of example by buildings of public worship – they have always towered above the two-floor wooden construction.

There are the two churches preserved from that time: Trinity Church and the Saint Ekaterina Lutheran Church. The fact that the Lutheran Church was built in the coastal part of the city was not by mere chance. This part of the city was called Nemetskaya (German) sloboda because many German, English, French and Dutch merchants lived here. “Nemtsy”, meaning dumb, not Russian-speaking –was a name for foreigners in the North and all over Russia. Foreign merchants have played a meaningful role in trade development and forming the economic image of the city on Northern Dvina. Several residential houses (the Sharvin’s, Whitehead’s and Surkov’s) have been preserved, as well as a building that belonged to the former Brandt sugar plant. Arkhangelsk wooden sites are now represented mostly by residential houses that have been uprooted and transplanted to Chumbarov-Luchinsky prospect; in fact, all jokes aside, the entire prospect itself can be considered an architectural monument too. Here there are also some buildings still standing on their historical places – the Ovchinnikov House and the  Kunitsyna Manor. The Kemsky Settlement in Solombala still preserves the layout and authentic character of its marine settlement dating back to the the 19th century. In the second half of the 19th century in all of  Russia and later in the beginning of the 20th century in Arkhangelsk brick building became extremely popular. Moreover, it was used not only for wall construction, but also for facades and decoration. This architectural trend was named “brick style”. There are many constructions done in “brick style” in Arkhangelsk that have survived. These are former urban residences, religious, industrial and trade buildings: the Nikolskaya Church and the Sursky Monastery Residences, the house of the former merchant Belyaevsky and the Makarov trading house in Solombala. But the “brick style” is represented especially brightly in industrial buildings. Of those to be preserved are the A. Surkov beer factory building, and a complex of liqueur and vodka factory buildings. However, your architectural picture of  early 20th century Arkhangelsk would not be complete without seeing the  model of “Old Arkhangelsk” made by Z. Kalashnikov in the beginning of 1980-s.

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