Walking Tour / Art Stories of Lubyanka: From Maroseyka to Rozhdestvenka

Our route begins at the AZ/ART Center for Contemporary Art on Maroseyka and ends in the courtyard of the Moscow Architectural Institute on Rozhdestvenka. It follows Maly and Bolshoi Zlatoustinsky Lanes, Furkasovsky Lane, Malaya and Bolshaya Lubyanka Streets, Kuznetsky Most, and Rozhdestvenka.

During the tour, we will see, among other places:

• the estate where the renowned architect Matvey Kazakov lived and where his school of architecture was located;


• the residence of porcelain magnate Matvey Kuznetsov, designed by Fyodor Schechtel, where the “Blue Rose” exhibition was held, giving rise to the Symbolist artists’ group of the same name;


• the Chertkov Estate, which hosted meetings of the Moscow Architectural Society and the Literary and Artistic Club;


• the former almshouse of the Church of Saint Louis, later the home of the nonconformist artist Vasily Sitnikov and the venue for classes at his “home academy”;


• the house containing the apartment of sculptor Ivan Vitali, where he created busts of Karl Bryullov and Alexander Pushkin;


• the former Café Pittoresque, whose interior was designed by Georgy Yakulov, Vladimir Tatlin, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Alexander Osmerkin, Alexander Rodchenko, and other avant-garde artists;


• the street where, in 1914, Kazimir Malevich and Alexei Morgunov staged the Futurist action “A Spoon in the Buttonhole”;


• the building of the Stroganov School of Arts and Industry on Rozhdestvenka — home to VKhUTEMAS–VKhUTEIN from 1920 to 1932 and now the Moscow Architectural Institute.

Starting point: AZ/ART Center for Contemporary Art on Maroseyka
Finishing point: the courtyard of the Moscow Architectural Institute on Rozhdestvenka