Shchudrovskaya tent

Shchudrovskaya tent

Shchudrovskaya tent is a rare example of pre-Petrine civil architecture preserved in the central part of the city of Ivanovo. The one-story brick building was erected at the end of the XVII century and today is the oldest civil building in the city. The architectural monument is very popular among tourists traveling along the routes of the Golden Ring of Russia.”

Highlights

Originally, the tent was intended for the village’s orderly hut and stood in the valley of the Kokuy River. Right in front of it was a ravine, but then it was filled in. Now the houses of Krasnogvardeyskaya Street rise here.

The inner wall divided the building into two different sized rooms. In the large one was the reception of villagers and stored documents, and in the small one lived the clerk, who served the owners of the surrounding lands – the Cherkassky princes. In the XIX century the stone building belonged to the merchant Osip Ivanovich Shchudrov. It was the period of growth of textile manufactories, so Shchudrov added two more floors over the tent, making it three-storied. The second floor was given to workers who printed patterns on chintz, and upstairs, on the hangers, they conducted drying of fabrics.

At the beginning of the last century the chintz production was closed, and in the Shchudrovskaya tent they began to make absorbent cotton and kept warehouses. With the advent of Soviet power, the building was declared an architectural monument and was planned to be restored, however, this did not happen right away.

Nowadays, the old building is of great historical value. Quite recently it housed a private collection of Konakovo porcelain, but today this museum is closed, so tourists coming to Ivanovo can admire the Shchudrovskaya tent only from the outside. Travelers inspect the building on their own or order excursions in the local history museum.

The ancient building has been assigned the status of an object of cultural heritage of federal significance, and it is a branch of the local museum of local lore. The Ivanovo region authorities announced that an information center for tourists will be organized here.

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History of restoration

The history of the restoration of the Shchudrovskaya tent stretched for decades, and the restorers started the main work only in 1964. It was decided that for several centuries the ancient monument had “grown” into the ground, so they first dug out the basement. The restorers were right, the brick building had settled down by almost 2 meters, however, after the excavation it turned out to be surrounded by an earthen pit. When the rains came, water filled the pit and washed away the old foundation. This caused one of the walls to collapse. To avoid collapse, the building was buried again.

Restoration work went on until 1988. Restorers dismantled the upper floors and gave the roof its original appearance. After that, the Shchudrovskaya Tent changed owners several times and underwent several major renovations. It housed a casino and a store selling fur coats and gold articles, the area around it was covered with garbage, and vandals broke doorways and windows several times. Then the Ivanovo Museum of Local Lore began to hold exhibitions inside the tent.

In 2010, Yuri Marishkin, a well-known collector in the city, created a private museum here, where visitors could get acquainted with the products of the porcelain factory from Konakovo. And next to the architectural monument, the city authorities arranged a neat Art Square.

Features of the architecture

The rectangular brick building resembles a chopped hut with haylofts, and on the side of Krasnogvardeyskaya Street a vestibule with a porch is attached to it. The Shchudrovskaya tent is covered by a four-pitched valvomaya roof.

Despite the fact that the building was built for utilitarian purposes and has a small size, the builders decorated it with brick “patterning”. The richest decoration has the facade on the southeastern side. The windows of the Shchudrov tent are framed by shaped platbands, and its corners are decorated with flat pilasters. At the top, a multi-stage cornice can be seen on the walls, and the boundary between the undercroft and the upper floor is marked by a neat ridge.

How to get there

The Shchudrovskaya tent stands on August 10, 36A Street, next to Revolution Square. Tourists who come to Ivanovo by car, from the southern outskirts should drive along Lezhnevskaya, Bubnov and 10 Augusta streets. Those travelers who use public transport get to the historic building by buses, trolleybuses and minibuses, making a stop at Revolution Square.