Gostinny Gvor

Gostinny Dvor (Guest Yard) was built in 1804 and reconstructed about ten years ago and now it  is one of the major exhibition grounds in the city. Honey exhibition was held during this photo.I remember this place before restoration. It almost collapsed and was dark and dangerous ruin in the center of the city (last restoration in 1923 and forgotten for almost all 20th century). Sseveral auditoriums belonged to the institute I studied in and we were terrified by shabby walls and stairs, broken windows around us.

The quote from the website:

Given the condition that the building was in the center of Moscow, with many underground lines of communication, it was very old and large in size, construction workers (often manually) had to clear out the half-collapsed rooms, thick stonework, staircases, and basements and perform works directed at preserving historic elements of the building for further restoration. Reconstruction works continued non-stop. Nearly 1000 people came to work there daily. Large-scale archeological excavations were performed during the entire period of reconstruction and restoration of the architectural complex. Nearly 1000 buildings erected in different epochs were discovered, there was gathered a unique collection of archeological finds which is now displayed in the Archeological museum of Gostiny Dvor. Discovery under one burnt merchant’s house of the XVII century a gigantic stockroom complex which contained 16 vessels made of precious metals, more than 95 thousand Russian silver coins and 335 thalers coined on mints of the Western Europe from Iberian Peninsula to Scandinavia became a real sensation.

Website.

Posted by Irina.
www.irinapictures.blogspot.com