Pertsova apartment house on Prechistenskaya Embankment, its present condition and fate
A fairy-tale terem on the Prechistenskaya Embankment, the Pertsova tenement house for gifted artists, is now in the use of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As you can see, one of the landmark buildings of early twentieth-century Moscow is not in the best of states: tiles keep dropping off the magical beasts perched along the roof. What we see today is merely a shadow of the original beauty of this house, with its golden gazebo, openwork railings, cockerels, and the loveliest carving and painted decoration within, yet it is still a great stroke of luck that the terem has survived to our day. It was slated for demolition, together with the whole quarter, soon after the destruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, but fortune smiled. Incidentally, Trotsky once lived here, in the three-storey apartment of the owner.
Incidentally, through one of the windows one can make out hideous modern light fittings, and I should not be surprised if there are also repulsive suspended ceilings in the Euro-renovation style. Under the Commies the stucco and frescoes were either destroyed or plastered over entirely. And now contemporary embellishment has arrived on the scene.
