The myth of the Sukharev tower Automatic translate

On January 22, on the opening day of Moscow museums, the exhibition "The Myth of the Sukharev Tower" began work at the Gilyarovsky Center. The famous building stood in the area of ​​the present Garden Ring for more than two centuries and has become an important symbol of Moscow. A new exhibition at the branch of the Museum of Moscow is dedicated to the 165th anniversary of the birth of the famous everyday painter Vladimir Gilyarovsky.

The construction of the Sukharev Tower began in 1692 by order of Peter I in the area of ​​the modern Garden Ring. The red brick building in the spirit of the Moscow Baroque was decorated with a double-headed eagle and an unusual clock with a fixed hand and a rotating dial. Many urban legends circulated about the tower similar to the Dutch town hall, and the most incredible ones are associated with the personality of an associate of Peter I, Jacob Bruce, who had an astronomical observatory in the tower until 1725. The townspeople called him a sorcerer and astrologer, and believed that to meet the king he flew on an iron bird with a human head.

At various times, there was also a school of mathematical and navigational sciences, the office of the Admiralty Collegium, a water pumping station and the Moscow Communal Museum - the founder of the modern Museum of Moscow. Around the tower at the end of the 18th century, the famous Sukharev market was also spread, where they sold dishes, books, bicycles, paintings, sculptures, and stolen antiques. A whole chapter of Vladimir Gilyarovsky’s book "Moscow and Muscovites" is devoted to this place of turbulent city life. However, in 1934, by order of the Soviet government, the tower was destroyed, despite strong public opposition. A special attitude towards this building was also manifested in how often the question of restoring the tower was raised over the decades. Few of the lost buildings Muscovites dream of returning so eagerly.The latest proposal from the architectural bureau Megabudka in 2018 was published on his blog by journalist Ilya Varlamov. However, not a single project was implemented.

The exhibition has three parts: "The body of the tower", "The image of the tower" and "Utopia". They tell about the history of the construction and destruction of the tower, about the influence of the building and the surrounding area on the life of the city, as well as about dreams and specific projects for the possible restoration of the legendary building. The curators of the project sought not only to tell the story of the tower, but also to show various manifestations of its intangible presence in the city. The exhibition turned out to be in tune with what Vladimir Gilyarovsky was doing: preserving the image of the city in the memory of Muscovites.

Exhibition architecture:

Design Bureau "B&K": Eric Belousov, Maria Kornilova, Galina Titova

Project partners:

Moscow State United Art Historical-Architectural and Natural-Landscape Museum-Reserve

State Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchuseva

Russian State Archive of Social and Political History

State Public Historical Library of Russia

Central State Archives

The exhibition also used materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents; State Museum of the History of Russian Literature named after V. I. Dahl.