Архитектура Одессы: заметки с тегом Marazlievskaya

6, Marazlievskaya Street. Dwelling house of PI-3 employees

Архитектура Одессы — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 12:29:47 +0200

Before a huge dwelling house «Patrician» on the corner of Bazarnaya and Marazlievskaya Streets was erected in the 2000-s years, a small house of employees of the city Project Institute by address 6, Marazlievskaya Street had been the newest house on the street. If to analyze this so-called «Stalin’s Empire style» in general, this building can hardly be named as a remarkable one, however it was quite smoothly inserted among other buildings on Marazlievskaya Street and therefore no obvious disharmony arises.

Type of building: multi-family house
Style: «Stalin’s Empire style»
Architect: L. М. Narkevich
Date of building: 1958-1959
Status: object of background housing
Previous building on the site: apartment house of R.Sonstein

Main facade

Before a building of the house existing today, the site number 6 was occupied by the building with the same size of the eclectic period which is easily visible in the pictures and post cards of prerevolutionary times which illustrate this part of the street. During the Great Patriotic War the building was heavily damaged and just before PI-3 house erecting its ruins had been finally removed. The replacement can hardly be considered equivalent, however the house which appeared here in the year 1959 is interesting in its own way.

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In the house there are four floors and a facade along the building line. The width of the facade is seven window axes. The facade is strictly symmetric, has two one-floor risalit on the ground floor, on which two half-columns are installed flanking the loggias above. The loggias occupy the first, second and the third floors.

Loggias of the main facade

Decorative elements of the main facade

Balcony corbel

Balconies of the first and second floors do not project further than the building walls planes; the balcony of the third floor slightly jutting out is supported by the half-columns mentioned above. Other plastic techniques are used for underlining the central axis. On the second and the third floors usual balconies on the corbels with stony balustrades, typical for «Stalin’s Empire style» are located. The house itself along this very axis is crowned with half-round pediment with semicircular window.

Pediment

Compositional union of all facade elements is achieved due to uninterrupted wide moulded frieze.

Fragments of the frieze

Facade is finished with the massive cornice and stone balustrade on the each side of the pediment.Moulded decor is concentrated on the balcony corbels and balustrades, half-columns, frieze, cornice and pediment. The surface of the walls has no decoration but there is a light tentative rustication. The rustication of the ground floor is only horizontally orientated. It is present both on the facial and the yard facades.

One can enter the yard of the house through the arch of the neighbor house of Ozmidov (number 4). A yard facade, as well as the facial one, is absolutely symmetric, but unlike the facial one — has no decoration at all.

Yard facade

Along the central axis an entrance to its single entrance hall and its windows are located. Just along this very axis a staircase is located. The decoration is ascetic and extremely functional. The railings are very simple and are made of the cross-sectioned wands. The landings are very spacious, on each of them doors of four apartments are situated.

Entrance hall

On the whole, despite the comparative restraint of the Stalin houses of the 50-s years, the house on 6, Marazlievskaya Street is noticeably more decorated than majority of them that is certainly due to the neighborhood of the sophisticated architectural masterpieces of the pre-revolutionary epoch. Owing to this, the building is nicely fit in a surrounding housing, and the height of it corresponds to the neighbor houses number 2 and 4 in order to avoid the rhythm disturbance.

References and archives

«Architects of Odessa». V. Pilyavskiy
«Architecture of Odessa. Style and time». V. Pilyavskiy
«Buildings, construction, monuments of Odessa and their architects». V. Pilyavskiy

Authors

DmitriyShamatazhy, photographer and author
AlexandrLevitsky, art director, photograph and colourist
Valeriia Arnaud, translator
Marina Tomenko, editor

16, Marazlievskaya Street. J. Morton’s mansion with apartments for rent

Архитектура Одессы — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 18:29:29 +0200

Julia Morton’s mansion is not considered as one of the most impressive buildings on Marazlievskaya Street, but its refinement and subtle blend of styles always attract attention. Moreover, it is one of the oldest buildings in the street

Type of building: mansion, apartment house
Style: eclecticism, blending of Baroque and Renaissance motifs
Architect: D. E. Mazirov
Date of construction: 1886
Status: local architectural monument

Main facade

In 1886 Marazlievskaya Street replenished another mansion. The building was constructed by an architect of Armenian origin D. E. Mazirov for Julia Stepanovna Morton (1858 -?), who was probably the daughter of Odessa wealthy entrepreneur and noble Stepan Ivanovich Rally.
S. I. Rally owned a plot nearby the Sabanskiy barracks on Kanatnaya Street. Julia Morton was 28 years old when she came into possession of the mansion in which, most likely, lived her entire family. Unlike S. I. Rally that had some apartment houses Morton owned only one house on Marazlievskaya Street. The architect Demosthenes Mazirov, at the time of the construction of the mansion, had to his credit, besides a number of reconstructed buildings , a small number of refined buildings designed for Vurgavt, Mavrokordato, Lipman-Wolf and Richter. The buildings were characterized by vivid performance, the use of Neo-Baroque elements and a good spatial composition. On the contrary, the mansion of Morton was executed in more restrained Renaissance motifs that, however, was compensated by a careful approach to the tectonics of the building.

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The house is distinguished by pronounced asymmetry in the plan and design. The mansion built with a space from an adjacent area that might have been empty at the time of its construction. However, between the buildings there was an insert with a passage arch at the ground floor level and with rooms on the first floor. An emphasis is made on a corner rounded part of the building and, owing to the fact, the decoration manner of the main facade is changing in the horizontal direction. There are two shallow risalits from the main facade side. Left one, with two window axis width is narrower, and creates stress on the left side edge of the facade plane. Along the edges of the risalit on the first floor there are Doric order pilasters. On the same floor, but in the center, in a window pier, there is a sculpture of a caryatid, which reproduces exactly the sculpture in a building designed by the architect V. Kabiolskiy on 36, Marazlievskaya Street and 16, Sadovaya Street. This sculpture is somewhat balances the facade, contrasting the left side, overloaded by elements, with the right side of the facade. Close to the round corner of the building there is a wider risalit, in width of three window axis. In piers between the windows of the first floor Corinthian order pilasters are located.

Decoration of the first floor facade

The main entrance is located asymmetrically in the risalit at its left edge. Decoration of the main entrance is fully preserved, including the original door (a simpler version of it can be seen in the house of M. Katsnelson on 26, Marazlievskaya Street) and ornate metal canopy on the thin cast columns.

Main entrance

The risalit is also emphasized by an arched attic ledge that runs around the perimeter of all facades facing the street, and is solid in the areas of risalits, in other parts it represents a balustrade. The storeys of the building contrasted with each other, only the second floor is richly decorated, where there is a large number of small stucco mouldings and ornaments, as well as mentioned above caryatid, pilasters and half-columns. The ground floor is decorated with only rusticated pilaster strips and balustrades in the panels of the windows.

Pilaster strips of the ground floor windows

Basement floor is also residential and decorated simply with linear rustic stone. Basement floor windows have bow-shaped apertures and are decorated by locks.

The facade of the building is equipped with a balcony only, which, however, is of considerable size. It begins at the edge of a large risalit, passes through it, the corner part and the insert to the firewall of the neighboring building. The fence is a patterned metal grate on stone props, but the authenticity of the existing balcony railings is questionable. To the right of the rounded corner at the end of XX — beginning of XXI century the terrace on the base with metal trusses that support part of the balcony was attached. Passage arch is adorned with decorative frame in Baroque style, on a compositional level its principle of indentation from the building line of the street has something in common with passage arches of the other two houses on Marazlievskaya Street — E. Petrova’s (1901) house at number 36 and the neighboring apartment building Vassal (1902-1912), which occupies plot number 38.

Passage arch

A courtyard facade has an expressed play of volumes and asymmetry: approximately in the center there is a trapezoidal risalit, hiding a service metal spiral staircase, perfectly preserved, and having access to both floors and the attic.

Courtyard facade

Bay window of the courtyard facade

Service staircase

A service staircase is lit by narrow windows located on all faces of the risalit, at the top these windows are arched. At the right from the mentioned risalit there is a less deep but wider trapezoidal bay window which has wide windows and corners decorated with Tuscan order columns. At the left on the roof of the building there is an authentic semi mansard, which is only accessible with the service staircase. The service staircase leads to the basement apartments as well.

The main entrance was gaily decorated originally, corresponding to the external appearance of the building, but the supposed building paintings were painted over, also two Ionic columns capitals flanking the aperture between the lobby and staircase were damaged — volutes at the outer sides of them were broken off. A lobby ceiling is shaped cross vaults; above the entrance to the staircase the ceiling is flat and decorated with panels. Between the walls and vaults there is a moulded cornice, supported by the mentioned columns and decorative consoles.

Staircase lobby

Ceiling of the ground floor landing

On the landing of the ground floor on both sides there are living quarters doors, most likely for rent, here is the entrance to the mansion lobby. Stairs leading to the first floor has in plan refined horseshoe bend and, despite the relatively small size, looks very impressive.

Main staircase and a lobby

Railings are artsy interlacement of simple geometric figures: the primary motif is a circle and a composition of circles and scrolls. Railings variety is very rare, and if reproduced anywhere, is not known.

Railings

A ceiling beam rests on two columns, crowned with Corinthian order capitals, made in free plastic interpretation.

Lobby columns

The first floor landing once represented a large gala room, part of which had to be sacrificed in the redevelopment of the mansion during the Soviet era and division into communal apartments. Hence, through a small narrow corridor, one can get on the service staircase, described earlier.

References and Archives

«Rally». An article in the newspaper Odessa World News number 74 (3.11.2009). S. G. Rechetov
*Directory and reference book «All Odessa», 1908, L. А. Lisyanskiy
«Architects of Odessa». V. Pilyavsky
«Architecture of Odessa. Style and time». V. Pilyavsky
«Buildings, structures, monuments of Odessa and architects». V. Pilyavsky
Статья о доме в блоге Antique

Authors

Alexander Levitsky, art director, photographer and colorist
Dmitry Shamatazhi, photographer and compiler
Oleg Kreposnyak, compiler
Marina Tomenko, translator

2, Marazlievskaya Street. Apartment house of М. Lutskiy

Архитектура Одессы — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 18:29:27 +0200

At the corner of Marazlievskaya Street and Nakhimova Lane a real masterpiece of early, as period concerns, and mature in Art Nouveau content rises. It was created by one of the best Art Nouveau architects of Odessa — Moisei Isakovich Linetskiy in co-authorship with Samuel Savelyevich Galperson. The apartment house of Lutskiy was not the only result of their cooperation, but became the peak.

Type of building: apartment house
Style: ornamental Art Nouveau
Architects: М. I. Linetskiy, S. S. Galperson
Date of construction: 1902-1903
Status: local architectural and historical monument

Facades

At the beginning of XX century a site on Marazlievskaya Street was not cheap, therefore the street was built up only by the wealthiest people. The vicinity of each of the newly constructed buildings on Marazlievskaya Street with exquisite neighboring mansions and apartment houses dictated somehow the scope and aesthetic level of a new building.

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In 1902-1903 on the site number 2 a real masterpiece of ornamental Art Nouveau, fashionable and expensive in design style in those days, raised. In the year of its construction beginning a new style just took first steps. The early Art Nouveau houses are dated to the same period. It is interesting that the house of Wolf on the corner of Kuznechnaya Street and Uspenskaya Street, built by architects V. Dombrovskisy and Y. M. Ponomarenko, is very similar to the house of Lutskoy in silhouette lines, proportions, shapes and style of decoration, as if the two houses were built by the same architect. There is no doubt that there was a certain exchange of experience between the architects.

Historical photographs of the house

Photograph from the guide of the beginning of the XX century

The author of the project M. I. Linetskiy got a site for development at the corner of Marazlievskaya Street and Nakhimova Lane. According to the reference book «All Odessa» of 1903, the house was built on the site of A. Falz-Fein and P. Mavrokordato. In the register of cultural heritage buildings the house on 2, Marazlievskaya Street was listed as an apartment house of M. D. Lutskiy. Subsequently the building changed owners at least twice. In 1908, the house was purchased by a certain O. von Besser, and, according to the reference book «All Commerce and Industry of Odessa» of 1914, the house was assigned to G. E. Fukelman. Lutskiy was mentioned in the reference book «All Odessa» of 1903 in the section «Architecture», but there were gathered people of different professions related to the design and construction, so to establish details using the reference book is not possible.

According to Tatyana Zayarnaya, the author of «Along the Marazlievskaya ...», «... it was occupied by the» department of Noble and Peasants Bank in the house of Marazli located in Baryatinsky Lane with a facade facing Marazlievskaya Street. Peasant Land Bank later moved to the purpose-built on 34a, Marazlievskaya Street, but Noble Bank had been working in this house until the Revolution».

Despite the fact that the concerned house was implemented in a «pure» Art Nouveau, traces of the eclectic architecture are still present, although to a small extent. Those include forms of window openings, stair railings, casings of the ground floor windows, vases (borrowed from the Baroque era, once crowned the attic of the house, and now — lost), carved window frames and courtyard facades finishing. However, the above listed details simply drown in the spectacular Art Nouveau decoration of house facades.

Besides vases, the house has lost some really important details over time. A corner part of the building once was crowned with a massive attic- pedestal, served as the basis for a sculpture of a lying lion. Flanking corner part pylons were exquisitely and richly decorated, ending with large sculptures of eagles. Mascarones of the top floor from Marazlievskaya Street were lost completely, but were preserved from Nakhimov Lane side. Most of the balconies lost stone fences posts, however, forged elements were preserved for the most part. At the corner, on the ground floor there was a trading space and the house had a proper decision of the facade in that place, but now it is closed by an annex or destroyed.

Balconies fencing

Lutskiy’s house has a rectangular in plan, elongated along the Nakhimov Lane shape, with a large courtyard and a cut corner at the intersection of the streets. Unlike the house on 54, Kuznechnaya Street the wings converge here at a classic right angle. In general both facades at the building lines of the streets are decorated identically, but there are differences. An entrance to the apartments in the wing on Marazlievskaya Street is directly from the street and properly decorated. The corners of the portal have a slight slope towards the central axis, and over the magnificent original door there is a spectacular cartouche with a monogram. The cartouche is skillfully drawn in details by Art Nouveau plastic lines and added on the top by symmetrical wings. The vertical axis of the portal is accentuated by an open bay window-balcony, flanking by common balconies on the second and third floors.

Entrance to the entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street

Entrance door

Bay window over the portal

The walls of the ground floor are processed by belt rustic stone consisting of two broad profiles.

Ground floor finishing

On the first floor the rustic stone is more classic and austere; window openings have rounded top corners and keystones with moulded ornaments of floral motifs.

First floor finishing

The second-floor windows are topped by large fasciae, the part of which is supplemented with mascarons.A vertical windows rhythm is emphasized by the pilasters of smooth curved shapes with the ornament of Obrist in the piers. The windows of the top, the third floor, are the most richly ornamented. Over each of them there are mascarones, performed partly in the «Egyptian» stylistics and depicting faces of various types and ages. As mentioned above, any of them were preserved from Marazlievskaya Street side.

Upper storeys finishing

Decorative details of the second floor

Mascarons of the third floor

Facade in Nakhimov Lane is more extensive than the facade on Marazlievskaya Street (14 to 9 window axes respectively). Symmetrically in the center (if ignore the extreme axis of the window adjacent to the corner of the building) there is a passage arch into the courtyard, and its axis is singled out by a risalit, gradually tapering upwards. The similar risalit is located from Marazlievskaya Street side (plays exclusively a composite role). Both risalits are decorated with plant crowning elements in niches over the windows of the third floor.

Risalits

Crowning details

It is worth mentioning one more interesting detail of the facade decoration on the third floor — ornamental belt, stretched out on piers over the entire facade, except for the corner part of it.

Ornament on the piers

The corner part of the facade is the most significant, the dominant element of the house that is emphasized by the pylons on each side and a huge mascaron in its central part above the windows of the third floor. The mascaron is interesting not only for its dimensions (probably it is the largest in the city) but for decoration. Twisted in fanciful design a rope around his neck has made Odessa local historians and art critics to puzzle over the meaning of its presence here for decades. An interesting fact is that the house of Lutskiy is not the only on Marazlievskaya Street where there is a mascaron with a rope around his neck on the facade. A similar sculpture image can be seen on the facades of apartment buildings of N. Kryzhanowskiy-Auderskiy on 54, Marazlievskaya Street (1900, architect. L. L. Vlodek) and N. Belikovich on 5, Marazlievskaya Street (1902, architect D. E. Mazirov). And on the facade of the latter there are two ones. No less interesting is another fact: in other streets of Odessa similar mascarones do not occur.

Corner part of the house

Mascaron

The passage arch to the courtyard is designed very simply and has flat vaults.

Passage arch to the courtyard

A forged gate of eclectic pattern, adorned by images of leaves and snakes was preserved.

Gate

In the arch there are opposite to each other entrances to the entrance hall of a wing in Nakhimov Lane and a habitable room of the ground floor. One of its rooms some time was illuminated by a small round window overlooking the arch, now boarded up and not exploited.

Door of the habitable room in the arch

Courtyard facades are made with the use of decorative shapes of the brick style and balconies fences are of an eclectic pattern that copies that of balconies fences in the courtyard of the next house of Ozmidov (number 4). The similarities do not end there.

Courtyard facades

Finishing of the windows piers

Balconies fencing

The angles of the wing on Marazlievskaya Street, when coupled with the wings perpendicular to it, are marked out by spectacular risalits having a quarter of a circle in the plan. A similar risalit was applied by the architect Y. Dimitrenko in the above-mentioned next house.

Corner risalit

Original window sashes

Despite the impressive dimensions, the house of Lutskiy has only two entrances and one back door, which can be reached from the courtyard. Facades finishing finds a logical continuation in the interior of the entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street. Even a framing of concrete mosaic landings is made in Art Nouveau style. (!) The most interesting of them is located at the foot of the stairs, in the lobby, and is reproduced in pattern nowhere.

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, concrete mosaics

On the left there is a nonfunctional door to the utility room covered by a subtle and refined carving. Over it there is a small fascia with a keystone and scrolls around the edges supported by corbels. Opposite it, in order to keep to the symmetry of the lobby a similar fascia is located, but there are no apertures under it. The walls of the lobby are finished with moulded frames in the best traditions of decorative Art Nouveau, supplemented by mascarons. The gap between the lobby and the staircase is decorated by a fanciful twist of narrow decorative bands.

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, the lobby

General view

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, the utility room door

Fascia over the door

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, decoration of the lobby

Here Art Nouveau in stone ends and begins in wood. A staircase has marble steps and concrete mosaic landings. Railings of widespread sample are eclectic. The walls are covered with classic frames, found in a number of buildings of the late eclecticism. Only magnificent carved doors, window frames and framing of concrete mosaic landings are in Art Nouveau style here.

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, the staircase

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, the doors

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, the windows

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, the handrails

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, a frieze of the staircase

Some of the apartments still carry traces of former magnificence in its design. On the third floor, for example, a niche with a statue of the ancient style and paired corbels with small mascarons supporting joists were preserved.

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, one of the apartments

Similar corbels-mascarones are located in the entrance hall of the wing in Nakhimov Lane and keep the aperture beam between the lobby and the staircase. The lobby ceiling is decorated with moulded coving and rosette; handrails are similar to the rails in the entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street.

Entrance hall of the wing in Nakhimov Lane, the lobby

Entrance hall in Nakhimov Lane

The doors of eclectic style are plain.

Entrance hall of the wing in Nakhimov Lane

Window frames remain the only element of Art Nouveau style of the staircase, and their performance is different from the window frames of the first entrance hall.

Entrance hall of the wing in Nakhimov Lane, the doors

Coving under the lap of the staircase

The staircase here is more cramped and less illuminated (indicating the location of simpler flats in the wing in Nakhimov Lane than the ones on Marazlievskaya Street). In the same entrance hall, on the landings, niches probably intended for floor vases or statues were preserved.

Niche

Entrance to the stairs of the back entrance is located at the corner of the courtyard, at the junction of courtyard wings. The stairs are made of concrete mosaic and have inexpensive handrails without any decorative frills.

Stairs of the back entrance

The apartment house of Lutskiy can be called one of the key works of the architect M. I. Linetskiy. Many elements of its design were subsequently used in other buildings. For example corbels with mascarons similar to those described, decorate the stair lobby of the house on 66, Nezhinskaya Street and Egyptian stylizations were continued in the house on 14a, Marazlievskaya Street. Despite, however, such self-citations in projects, Linetskiy was able to achieve uniqueness in each of built houses. And despite the large number of similarities and parallels with other buildings (not just Linetskiy authorship), Lutskiy’s apartment house lost part of the facades decoration and badly decayed is, however, one of the most significant examples of early Art Nouveau ornamentation in Odessa.

The most significant chapter in the history of the house is now imprinted on a memorial plaque on the corner part of the building facade:

«In this house, in 1910-1911, a Russian writer Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin lived».

A. I. Kuprin

Here it is also set a portrait bas-relief of the writer. His daughter, K. A. Kuprina in the essay «Kuprin — my father», writes:

«My father traveled almost all of Middle Russia, liked many of its cities, districts, landscapes, but a special place in his heart occupied Odessa ... At the end of August 1909 we moved to Odessa, where soon rented an apartment with a view of the sea.»

In those years A. I. Kuprin wrote some great novels and short stories that in some way reflected life in Odessa. These are «Gambrinus», «Garnet Bracelet», «Listrigony», «Lenochka» and some others. About the city Kuprin later wrote:

«... looked everywhere for life smells. Among dockers in Odessa port, thieves, magicians and street musicians there were people with unexpected biographies — visionaries and dreamers with a wide and tender soul.»

It can be said that Kuprin self-forgetfully lived a life of Odessa. With the fishermen he went to sea to catch mackerel and plaice, dressed in a diving suit sank into the water near Hlebnaya harbor, yielding to the magic of the circus, participated in the French wrestling. From the territory of the present racecourse flew in a balloon, and later with the pilot Ivan Zaikin — by plane. This flight ended in crash, but Kuprin and Zaikin got off, fortunately, only with injuries. In Odessa, the writer became close friends with I. Poddubny, S. Utochkin, an artist Nilus ... In Odessa, he began the second part of the story «The Pit» ...

The house of Lutskiy is connected with another outstanding name. In 1925-36 in this house a scientist in the field of hydraulics prof. V. N. Pinega lived. Later a ship was called by his name.

References and Archives

«Architects of Odessa». B. Pilyavsky
«Architecture of Odessa. Style and time». B. Pilyavsky
«Buildings, structures, monuments of Odessa and architects». B. Pilyavsky
An article on building in a blog Antique
An article on Marazlievskaya Street on the website about Odessa
Reference book «All Odessa» 1903.
Reference book «All commercial and industrial Odessa» 1914.
«Along Marazlievskaya…». Publication of Tatiana Zayarnaya
Old photographs from the website of Odessa photos. Archive of the user brassl

Authors

Dmitry Shamatazhi, photographer and compiler
Alexander Levitsky, art director, photographer and colorist
Oleg Kreposnyak, compiler
Marina Tomenko, translator

28, Marazlievskaya. Mansion of I. I. Mendelevich

Архитектура Одессы — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 18:28:59 +0200

The mansion of Mendelevich, masterly combining features of Art Nouveau and Renaissance, strikes with its decoration and design for over 100 years and remains one of the peaks of the creative work of V. I. Prohaska.

Type of building: mansion
Style: modernized Neo—Renaissance
Architect: V. I. Prohaska
Date of construction: 1909
Status: local architectural monument

General view of the facade

The land on Marazlievskaya Street was owned mostly by the aristocracy, that is why the major part of the street’s buildings is performed at the corresponding level and with highly refined interiors. Marazlievskaya Street started being lined with buildings at the turn of ХХ century, but buildings at several lots were erected quite late — this statement also concerns the area of 28.

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In 1890s the lot was obtained by M. Asvadurov, and in the period of 1902-1907 years was purchased by a corn trader, Iefim Iakovlevich Mendelevich, «a merchant of the first guild, delegate of the merchants, a member of the bread-controlling commission of Odessa exchange; the guardian of industrial students’ school, founded by I. M. Mendelevich and etc». It is also well known, that he was related to the owner of Passage at Deribasovskaya Street, — Moisei Iakovich Mendelevich (the patronymics of both Mendelevichs coinside and there is a great chance that they were brothers).

Facade from the side of the yard

In 1909 a mansion in simple, but monumental shapes of Florentine Renaissance was built after the project of architect Vikentiy Prohaska. This architect had constructed only several buildings after his projects by that moment, but from the very beginning of his creative activity his houses had been among the finest ones. He was well advertised by a competitive project of the New Exchange and the building of the main department of Odessa private pawnshop society. For the mansion of Mendelevich, the choice of Neo—Renaissance style was not accidental, — majority of own projects by Prohaska were carried out in this very style, with the help of which the architect reached unusual refinement and monumentality. At the same time, the architect approached each project with creativity, though, as it would seem, the houses should be very similar.

A ledge above the pediment of the main facade
The mansion of Mendelevich has two floors and a habitable semi-basement, according to the plan the mansion is almost rectangular, without marked yard wings. V. I. Prohaska didn’t adhere strictly to the canons of Florentine Renaissance, but boldly mixed it with other styles, particularly with Art Nouveau that reigned at that time. The fence of light pockets of the semi-basement, entrance doors, carved wooden banisters of the main staircase were done exactly in this style. The bas-reliefs above the windows of the first floor got the interpretation peculiar to Art Nouveau. The house is crowned with a classical three-cornered pediment with a mascoron of Athena in a tympanum.

Sculpture decoration of the facade

Fragments of the facade of the building at a photo by Vladimir G. Nikitenko, 70s.

The architect almost fully covered the building with rustic stone, although thanks to the skillful usage of projecting key stones, Art Nouveau panels and bas-reliefs, the facade looks rather diverse. The bas-reliefs with images of separate scenes, united by the common theme of upbringing of children are arranged above the windows of the second floor. The stylized images of trees on the edges of the facade surface, amplifying the sculpture scenes, also grab attention.

Fragment of a cornice

Cornices under the ground floor windows

Fencing of the semi-basement

Instead of traditional bas-reliefs that were arranged in panels, Prohaska placed the figures directly on the facade surface, not separating them from the house that appeals to the idea of synthesis of arts, which was one of the aims of Art Nouveau. In other words, bas-reliefs weren’t isolated from other decoration, and interacted with it (something similar was implemented in the building of Kosagonovskaya at Nezhinskaya Street, 66).

In present time, three balconies are disposed at the mansion of Mendelevich. They were installed in the soviet times instead of the removed because of the decrepitude stone ones (unfortunately there is too little documental evidence left about their external appearance). The railing of the central balcony wasn’t preserved, but, taking into account the character of the facade and taking into account other rusticated buildings of Prohaska, the fencing of the balcony represented a stone balustrade.

Arch of the passage

Communal flats were formed out of the rooms of Mendelevich’s flat, which occupied the whole first floor. Separate flats with semi-basement rooms were situated on the ground floor in the left and right wings.

Arch of the passage

The ceilings of the arch of the yard passage are decorated with moulded mascarons that are identical to the mascarons placed on the facade of Gavsevich house (arch. S. S. Galperson, 1903). Possibly, Mendelevich had liked the mascarons of Gavsevich mansion, situated on Lidserovskiy boulevard on the way to Langeron beach.

One of the original entrance doors in the arch

Monumentality isn’t inherent in the staircase and the corridor of the first floor. On the contrary, the decoration became fanciful and pretentious because of the fulfillment, synthesizing in itself Baroque and Art nouveau.
Art nouveau stairs made entirely of wood draws special attention. Its peculiarity is the fulfillment of railings not as separate balusters but as profiled planes, covered at the same time with deep but simple by composition carving.

Stairs

A view of the stairs and the window of the ground floor.

Railings

A view of the second flight of stairs from below.

Another interesting element is a diminutive wooden tambour that preserved an original door, badly damaged by times and alternations.

Ground floor

The space near the entrance is decorated with two caryatids that hold the landing of the first floor. Compositionally they are symmetrical to each other, but with a closer look the difference is revealed — the arm of the caryatid which is free from the holding, is relaxed, lowered and holds the cloth on the waist level; another caryatid’s arm is lifted, and the same cloth is thrown over it, hiding the nudity. With the lost wrist it, possibly, held a lantern or a candlestick. Both sculptures have naked breasts, which emphasizes their antique eroticism.

Also there, by the stairs, next to the right-side (if you look from downstairs) caryatid, a richly decorated niche is located, where a lamp, a vase with flowers or a sculpture could have been placed.

Two arch apertures lead to the first floor landing, and the space between them is decorated with two columns with slightly modernized capitals.

First floor

General view of the lobby from the first floor landing

Staircase

Capitals of pilasters between the staircase and the landing of the first floor

A pair of putti is located in sopraportas of the doors, like the sculptures on the facade

The ceiling of the staircase also strikes; it was performed in the form of an oval plafond of plastic shapes. It naturally repeats the planning shape of the staircase part. Its walls, therewith, are decorated with Art Nouveau flute and double pilasters.

General view of the cupola-shaped vault above the staircase

First floor landing, general view

Returning to the first floor landing, it’s worth mentioning the semicircular ledge overhanging directly above the caryatid. It reminds of a small balcony and is decorated with a spectacular asymmetrical sculpture.

At present the original fencing of the first floor is lost completely and substituted, for safety, with a simple wooden construction. Time and men’s negligence relentlessly destroy the decoration of the unique building, and this is seen by the condition of the preserved elements of decor and lobby design (the only one of its kind in the city, by the way).
A huge Art Nouveau staircase window, preserved the unique sash, lost, however, stained glasses.

A sad destiny reached the painting of a plafond and decoration of the walls with Venetian putty.

The parquet of the landing remained as a whole, but is in a very decrepit condition.

In the soviet times the former lobby of a luxurious mansion, which became the entrance hall of a dwelling house, was painted with an ordinary blue paint. Today it came off from the walls here and there and revealed the original decoration.

The door of the lobby was dismantled in 2011 and replaced with a simple metal monolithic door without decor; other doors of the arch were more or less preserved. However, none of the inner doors, unfortunately, has lived till the present days.

Among the historic episodes, connected with the building and worthy of a memorial plaque, it should be mentioned that the elder son of the founder of national literary school, writer Itshock (Isaac) Ioel Linetskiy, lived here in one of rented apartments, in 1910s. It was an outstanding architect, Moisei Isakovitch Liteskiy, and a lot of wonderful buildings were made after his projects (mostly in Art Nouveau style) in Odessa, including the ones at Marazlievskaya, № 2 and № 14a.

References and archives

«Architects of Odessa». V. Pilyavskiy
«Houses, buildings, monuments of Odessa and their Architects». V. Pilyavskiy
An article about the building from the blog Antique
The gallery of old photos of Odessa
The article «Along Marazlievskaya Street», T. Zayarnaya, Odessa literary miscellany, № 42 (1998)

Authors

Alexander Levitsky, art director, photographer and colourist
Dmitriy Shamatazhi, photographer and writer
Juriy Pavlov, photographer
Oleg Kreposniak, writer and editor
Maria Mandrikova, translator
Marina Tomenko, editor

34b, Marazlievskaya Street. Apartment house of I. Margulis

Архитектура Одессы — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 18:28:42 +0200

The apartment house of I. Margulis at the corner of Marazlievskaya Street and Sabanskiy Lane belonging to the typical multi-family residential buildings of the 1910s is a vivid example of prevailing at that time large-scale, mania for great-scale projects and cold rationality in architecture inherent in dominant that time Art Nouveau. In Odessa there are several other ones (apartment houses of Novikov, Rud’, Asvadurov, Shestopal, etc.), but this house singles out by the revolutionary approach to the design and the largest number of storeys.

Type of building: apartment house
Style: Art Nouveau, Neoclassicism
Architect: F. L. Pappe
Date of construction: 1912
Status: local historical and architectural monument

Facade general view

Since the mid-1890s to mid-1900s, the area between Marazlievskaya Street and Kanatnaya Street, on the odd-numbered side of Sabanskiy Lane belonged to S. Rally. It was later bought back by S. A. Kumbare, but approximately in 1911, the part of the site, which faced Marazlievskaya Street, was sold to I. Margulis. Ignatiy Antonovich Margulis was known as a technical engineer, who was also the managing director of the Odessa telephone exchange and the tenant of the city power station at the beginning of Staroportofrankovskaya Street. The office of I. A. Margulis was located on 12, Pushkinskaya Street.

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I. M. Margulis, who was engaged in grain operations, lived on 34, Remeslennaya Street in the 1910s as well, but in the reference book «All Odessa», 1914 edition, he was not mentioned. The Margulis’ with other names lived in the city, but also in other locations.  In 1912 (according to V. P. Netrebsky in 1913) on the site of Margulis a huge six-storey residential building was erected, which apartments were intended for very wealthy tenants. It is indicated, for example, by a high level of presentable appearance in the interiors that, in addition, served as a visual advertisement of the owner. The building was designed by a civil engineer Felix Lazarevic Pappe who was the author of a small number of buildings projects in 1910s. In general, these projects suggest that F. L. Pappe followed Jugendstil in the design of his buildings and the house of Margulis is not an exception. In the stylistics of decorative items neoclassical tendencies inherent in the architecture of the 1910s can also be traced, trends of Empire style are noticeable.

The ground floor from Marazlievskaya Street goes into a semi-basement due to the rough terrain, but the section in Sabanskiy Lane has six storeys, owing to this fact the house was the highest in Odessa for many decades. Asvadurov’s apartment house at the corner of Pushkinskaya Street and Troickaya Street, having shift from five to six storeys as well, was inferior to Margulis’ house only in terms of height.

The building is characterized by strict rectilinear forms; the construction is not hidden behind the decoration and leads out. With the general view on the facades, there is an obvious tendency to rationalize in the architecture of those years. The mass use of new building materials and techniques led to the conception of pre-constructivist architecture in Odessa sooner than in other cities of the Russian Empire. By 1912, when Margulis’ house was building, rational Art Nouveau had been almost formed in basic canons.

The engineer applied the block approach to the design of the building, which consists of two sections, the most massive of which is available from Marazlievskaya Street side, and more extended — along Sabanskiy Lane with a space from the building line. To improve the insolation and ventilation, in the section on Marazlievskay Street a light well was made, where the windows of the utility rooms and entrance hall look. Block layout of the building is emphasized from Sabanskiy Lane side by a composition of risalits varied in form. Facades decoration tension decreases with moving away from Marazlievskaya Street deep into the lane (part of the facade, which abuts to the next building has a risalit height of only two storeys).

Right-side risalit in Sabanskiy Lane

It serves as the basis for a smaller area risalit, two storey high, with three facets on the facade, culminating in an open terrace of one of the apartments.

Small right-side risalit in Sabanskiy Lane

Thus, there is a complex in shapes pyramidal composition, balancing the comparative coldness of the facade design in Sabanskiy Lane. In the lower risalit the passage to a small courtyard of the building, flanked by two tall obelisks, was made.

Passage to the courtyard

Courtyard passage gates

To the right of the passage there is a modestly decorated doorway to the entrance hall

Right-side entrance door

A stronger emphasis makes a central risalit in Sabanskiy Lane, with a loggia on the fifth floor.

Central risalit in Sabanskiy Lane

The risalit is decorated with moulded elements in the form of bas-reliefs, which are concentrated in the panels, pilasters and between the loggia openings. The bas-reliefs in panels are traditional for Neoclassicism and depict baskets of fruits, symbolizing abundance and rods, decorated with flowers. More interesting compositions with images of eagles are located under the pilaster capitals.

Central risalit decoration

Above, between the loggia openings, workers bas-reliefs are placed, intensifying the austere style of the building. The idea of the proletariat depicting in architecture refers to the trends that existed in the art of the early twentieth century in Odessa and also reflected in the design of the entrances to the Mendelevich’s passage.

Loggia decoration

In the central risalit the expressive doorway portal of the entrance is located. There are grotesque mascarones on the portal columns and two vases over the entablature. A similar portal leads to the entrance from Marazlievskaya Street.

Doorway portal to the central risalit entrance

A corner section represents a separate monolithic volume, but for compensation of the ruggedness, bay windows are arranged on sections of both street facades (facades facing Marazlievskaya Street and Sabanskiy Lane). However, the section is still less loaded with decorative elements from Sabanskiy Lane side and does not spoil accent of the central risalit (described earlier) in Sabanskiy Lane.

Corner section decoration in Sabanskiy Lane

The same pilasters with the eagles as on the central risalit are located on both bay windows however, small medallions with modest ornamentation are placed in the bay window from Sabanskiy Lane side as well, and a regular balcony on the bay windows of the corner section is in keeping with the central loggia on the central risalit.
A section facade on Marazlievskaya Street is smarter and dynamic; there are panels with rods in the bay window as on the central risalit from Sabanskiy Lane side and the bases of pilasters side are made in the baroque style. The windows of the two lower floors of the bay are aggregated in vertical groups by the decorative frame, and balconies lead to both sides of the bay window.

Facade decoration on Marazlievskaya Street

Basement level on Marazlievskaya Street

Under the bay window there is an entrance portal, decorated, as mentioned above, like the portal of the central risalit, but from Marazlievskaya Street it is equipped with three small oval windows, illuminating an additional flute in the sluice formed by the stairs.

Entrance portal on Marazlievskaya Street

From the second floor the building have balconies, which are varied in design. The second floor balconies have stone balustrade with metal edging on top; the third and fourth floors balconies also have completely metal fence, and the fifth floor balcony — metal fence on stone props. Balconies are placed in the space between the risalits, excepting balconies near to the end of a nearby building in Sabanskiy Lane.

Balconies

The first two floors of the building are identified as a basement level by means of large blocks of roughly hewn stone imitating rustication. In the space formed by the indent of an extended section from the building line of the street, a front garden, separated from the pavement by a low metal fence on a stone base, was placed.

Front garden fencing from Sabanskiy Lane side

The building is substantial in size and occupies a large part of its site, but the yard is well lit owing to the separate building of the former Peasants Bank at a nearby area on Marazlievskaya Street. Undoubtedly, F. L. Pappe was aware of the nature of the adjacent building, which in those days probably was already building (completed in 1914), and was at a comfortable distance from Margulis’ house, and took into account this point in the draft. Therefore, the firewall of the house, turned to the Peasants Bank, not being designed for an extension to buildings closely, was treated with vertical decorative textured ribbons.

Firewall

Perspective view from below, from Peasants Bank side

However, the limited size of the site forced the architect to bring the windows of the right entrance (facing Sabanskiy Lane) in the courtyard passage, and the windows of technical utility services rooms on Marazlievskaya Street — in a specially equipped light well. Some rooms overlook the same right-side passage. Left-side entrance, on the contrary, has a classic layout «lobby-staircase», and equipped with windows located on its axis, so that all the flights of stairs are well lit and landings are quite compact in size that also has a positive impact on insolation. Courtyard facades are made in rationalization design manner peculiar to Odessa.

Courtyard passage arch

Courtyard facade

Small risalits with faceted corners look in the courtyard, the facades are roughcast, and under the windows panels are arranged (similar design can be found in the buildings of the 1910s of such architects as A. I. Goltsvurm, M. S. Radbil, P. L . Slavkin). However, unlike most of the other architects buildings, courtyard facades, as well as outside, at the level of the first two floors are covered with rustic stone (but more primitive.) There is also a semi-circular risalit of the entrance staircase on Marazlievskaya Street, which led to the proper form of the staircase landings.

All three entrances of the building are decorated in a similar way; however, from the point of view of planning decisions and certain details, they are different. The most representative is the entrance from Marazlievskaya Street side leading to the apartments of a five-storey section only (starting with the first floor, which is accessible via a sluice stairs). The sluice is blocked by an arch vault with caissons and blades made of granite slabs are placed on the walls. Over the blades on the caisson vault there are six identical antique bas-reliefs; two more fragments of bas-reliefs are located near the doorway.

Entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street

Staircase

Stair landings with entrances to the apartments have a large size, but lighting is not enough. In addition to the entrances to two apartments on each floor there is a massive lift door, covered with metal strips and decorated with a simple oval medallion of a plain floral ornament. A similar medallion adorns the passage arch gate. The only surviving to the present day lift door is located on the first floor.

Lift door

Entrance doors in Margulis’ apartment house are two varieties in width. Their wide option is present only in the entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street; in Sabanskiy Lane entrances to the residential areas are equipped with doors of ordinary width. Unfortunately, not all doors were preserved: come to present times ones reveal similarities with the doors of rooms of Shestopal’s apartment building on Lev Tolstoy Street, but a similar design was common in the 1910s. On the whole, the doors are restrained in decoration, transom and five oval apertures are glazed, and one of the doors preserved the original (!) stained glass. The fine carving, decorating the door, was fulfilled with great skill.

Apartment doors

The walls of the entrance hall are covered with ceramic tile on a third of height, such move does not occur anywhere else in the city, as well as the type of tile. This design was common in Europe, but within the Russian Empire was not widespread, although it might be present in apartment houses of St. Petersburg and Moscow. The edges of the tile lining are flat on the landings, and stepped parallel to the stairs. Most of the tile imitates cold grey marble or granite, part of its wall is mounted with, arranged in a row, the tiles with floral patterns (on the stairs are placed stepwise).

Ceramic tile

The ceiling is completely covered by a broad raised moulded frieze on the fifth floor which is made more emphatic, due to the presence of caisson fascia as a junction of walls and ceiling.

Frieze and ceiling

The entrance hall railings reproduce partly fencing elements of some building balconies: the upper part of the railings is a frieze of scrolls identical to insert of the second floor balconies and the front garden fence (in the latter this motif is made on a larger scale), which is interrupted by a vertical composition, reminiscent of a flower or a rod.

Railings

The windows of all the entrance halls have small geometric inserts of yellow glass. In the entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street, on the top floor, on the entire area of the window there is a stained glass of geometric pattern that has been preserved almost completely. Large windows of the light well, looking at the entrance hall, have been preserved as well (now tightly boarded up as unnecessary).

Window between the first and the third floors

Stained glass on the top floor

Light well window

It is known as well that in the entrance on Marazlievskaya Street Margulis’ apartment was located, which layout was carried out in two levels. F. L. Pappe, applying such a move was the first of the city architects, who made the innovation come true.

In terms of design, entrances in Sabanskiy Lane are not different from the main one on Marazlievskaya Street. Left-side entrance in the lane is equipped with a long stair hall instead of a stairs lobby, similar to the lobby of the main entrance, vaults and bas-reliefs.

Left-side entrance in Sabanskiy Lane

The right-side entrance is decorated more interesting. The vaults are flat, but decorated in the same vein. Light windows overlook the passage arch (most of them are today boarded up or painted over, so it’s hard to judge how well the entrance lobby was illuminated).

Right-side entrance hall in Sabanskiy Lane

Staircase

The staircase is of a slightly oblong, almost square form. A beam between the staircase and the lobby is supported by a massive, square in cross-section, column with cut corners, crowned by the original form capital of geometric shapes. The lower part of the column is covered with metal bands with rough rivets (lift doors are decorated in the same style) that can also be attributed to unique elements of interior decoration. Here and there are remains of tiles, but otherwise the style of the entrance hall is similar to the previous two ones.

Railings

Tile

Windows

Doors

Cornices

Frieze of the staircase

In some areas of apartments broad friezes with bas-reliefs depicting putti in scenes of hunting, harvesting fruits and crops, fishing have been preserved in good condition. Ceilings are ornamented like ceilings in the entrance halls, the composition is complicated.

Frieze, ceiling and bas-reliefs in one of the apartments (the entrance hall on Marazlievskaya Street

In general, analyzing the number of artistic techniques, a variety of finishing materials, unusual engineering and planning decisions and the degree of preservation of the decoration, the apartment house of Margulis can be attributed to the most outstanding buildings of the 1910s in Odessa.

Centenary history of the house can not be called intense. However, there are interesting pages in it. For example, in 1920 it housed editorial office of the journal «National Economy» — «the monthly organ of the Odessa Province Economic Council.» Later, some of the apartments were transferred to the KGB to place various offices and housing some employees. Next door, in the former Peasant Bank, since the 1920s there was a club of MGB, NKVD and KGB.

References and Archives

«Architects of Odessa». V. Pilyavsky
«Architecture of Odessa. Style and time». V. Pilyavsky
«Buildings, structures, monuments of Odessa and architects». V. Pilyavsky
An article on building in a blog Antique
Reference book «All Odessa», 1914

Authors

Alexander Levitsky, art director, photographer and colorist
Dmitry Shamatazhi, photographer and compiler
Oleg Kreposnyak, compiler and editor
Valeriia Arnaud, translator
Marina Tomenko, translator & editor

14а, Marazlievskaya Street. Apartment house of М. О. Mendelevich

Архитектура Одессы — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 18:28:35 +0200

Marzalievskaya Street is one of architectural conservation areas of Odessa center. Variety of styles here is plethoric and fantasy of an architect creates a real spectacular sight in stone. A big apartment house of М. О. Mendelevich is not an exception and demonstrates creative genius of its author in real.

Type of building: mansion, apartment house
Style: Art Nouveau, Neo-Renaissance, «Egyptian Revival»
Architect: M. I. Linetskiy
Date of construction: 1905
Status: local historical and architectural monument

General view of the facade
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Magnificent two storied house, number 14a, is maybe the most ornate and imposing one among the creations of talented architect M. I. Linetskiy, whose creativity brightly and distinctively completed the list of Art Nouveau period houses. Moreover Linetskiy side by side with another great architect of those times — L. M. Chernigov boldly combined such styles like Art Nouveau (mainly decorative and ornamental ones) and Egyptian Revival (general stylization), having created truly expressive and recognizable idiom. From style point of view, house on 14a, Marazlievskaya Street is not an exception, though it is singled out among other buildings of the master.

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If we refer to archives sources and publications of those years, in a reference book All Odessa, year 1903 this place is marked as «vacant» and in the reference book, year 1910 the plot number 14 (present-day number 14a and 14b)had already belonged to M. O. Mendelevich. According to the reference book, year 1914 Mendelevich didn’t possess the plot, by that time divided into two parts and passed to two different proprietors. In the same reference book former house of Menedelevich belonged to Vinokurov, and on the plot 14b, a big apartment house of Z. Naum had appeared a year earlier. However, decisive role in defining of historical belonging played only name of the first proprietor of the house, building developer. That is why in the list of local architectural monuments the building is registered as apartment house of N. A. Mendelevich. The date of construction is known for sure — 1905.

After a number of buildings designed in a more or less «academic» Art Nouveau, the architect again refers to eclecticism and stylization, not forgetting however the stylistic fashion. A number of earlier houses of Linetskiy are known as built in eclectic style. Therefore he had already had experience in this direction before the construction of Mendelevich’s house. As for the style the building combines renaissance, Art Nouveau and Egyptian stylizations. However obvious mix of the styles is observed only on the front facade. As for the facade from yard side and decoration of the interior — they are much closer to pure Art Nouveau. Coming back to the front facade, it is worth mentioning, that trace of Egyptian Revival is visible there quite obviously, and not only in ornament, but in some sculptures themes as well. In general, Egyptian architecture motifs were rarely applied in Russian Empire; however a considerable amount of such buildings were quite successful. The buildings implemented in Egyptian reminiscences are characterized by expressive wide mass of central part, which as a rule dominates in height, and applying of trapezoid forms. Stucco mouldings and rustication have straight clear lines and are cut out of monolithic stone. They also have cut edges which are not expressed clearly. Last wave of interest to Egyptian Revival appeared during epoch of Art Nouveau and was developing together side by side, mixing sometimes. Strict canons of this style never existed so the final result always depended on the architect’s vision. Concerning Odessa, this style was expressed most of all in the works of Linetskiy. In the case of the describable house, the architect managed to combine naturally the monumentality of Egyptian Revival and the Renaissance. In addition to this, one can notice cold Scandinavian motifs in male mascarons and chimeras.

The house consists of the main wing and two side ones; the plan of the building is nearly symmetrical and represents by itself cyrillic «П» (Р). Probability that the main wing was planned as the mansion is very high. On its first floor there was only one apartment for the owner. Similar design decision is observed in the mansion of another Mendelevich (initials Е. Y.) on Маrazalievskaya, 28. The rooms of the ground floor could make the most splendid apartments in the house. A bit cheaper apartments could be found in three — storey yard wings.

The main facade has nine window axes on its width, seven of which are occupied by a wide, a bit prominent risalit. The ground floor of two storied house is decorated by rustication, which imitates the laying of sandstone and limestone (materials typical for Egypt).

Rustication finishing of the main facade on the ground floor
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Fragment of wall finishing of the ground floor
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The sections of balcony fences and semi-basement windows are different in measures, but made in the same compositional vein, and present a magnificent example of decorative Art Nouveau.

The fence of the balcony
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The fence of semi-basement window
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The axes of the passway arch is not marked with traditional risalit, but in order to add a shade of solemnity, a big sculptural composition is placed in the vaulted niche above the arch. It is symmetrical, consists of shield and male mascaron and two sphinxes on each side. Such order of the elements associates with heraldry incarnated in the sculpture.

The passway arch, general view
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Sculptural composition above the passway arch
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Fragments of facade
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Solemn rhythm of big windows with large fascia occupies the first floor. The window of central axes is a bit wider than the others and framed on each side with splendid Art Nouveau medallions.

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Medallion

The fascia lies on two columns (fascia of the other windows is supported by corbels), and lucarnes are decorated with grotesque lion heads in Egyptian style.

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Image of the lion’s head decorating the lucarne of the central window

On the rest of the windows the lions’ heads are replaced by the images of the rolled snakes.

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Image of the snake

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Mascaron above the window on the first floor

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General view of decoration composition of the first floor window.

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Small bass-reliefs between the first floor windows.

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In the motifs of the bass-reliefs two symmetrically located sphinxes are used that resonates with the compositional sculpture above the arch.

The strongest impact of Art Nouveau both on the ground and the first floors has the framing of the window aperture of two end window axes.

Windows of end axes
marazlievskaya-14a-49.jpg Window of the ground floor
marazlievskaya-14a-50.jpg Window of the first floor

Above each of risalit windows the small triplex windows of entresol are located, and their rhythm additionally underlines the central part of the building.

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Decorative filling of the space between entresol windows

A massive balcony, circled by the balustrade on the first floor, completes the compositional wholeness of the facade. The balcony occupies three window axes edgewise and is located in the center just above the passway arch. The stony balustrade balusters are decorated simply, but plastically and made in pure Art Nouveau vein.

Balcony of the first floor
marazlievskaya-14a-48.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-31.jpg Fragment of the balustrade
marazlievskaya-14a-33.jpg Corbels

Cornice
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Unfortunately no documental witness about the gates of the house was found, however the remaining fanlight restrained geometrical composition tells about their probable strictness in general. Afterwards, due to their dilapidation the leaves of the gates were disassembled and replaced by simple monolithic ones.

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Fanlight of the gates

The inside space of the arch consists of two bulks.

Passway arches
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Directly attached to the street bulk is correspondingly main. It is gorgeously decorated and has a floor laid with small pieces of tile. (The floor was almost completely preserved and after restoring was cleaned from remains of the soviet time asphalt covering.)

Tilework of the arch floor
marazlievskaya-14a-111.jpg General composition of the pattern
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marazlievskaya-14a-116.jpg Fragment

Opposite the gates there is a window which was used for watching people arriving or leaving the house or the yard.

Window in the arch
marazlievskaya-14a-43.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-21.jpg Keystone

The entrance is located on the left, in a small distance from the gates just enough for the opened leaf not to block the front door. Decoration is concentrated on the window and the walls on its level. Among the interesting elements it’s worth to highlight the keystone of the window which is the same as the medallions on facade and not very high doubled half-columns, that are also taken from the ancient Egyptian architecture, where such half-columns symbolized bundles of reed. With the difference, of course, that the half-column measures are brought to the strongest miniaturization in comparison with the prototype.

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Fake pillars

Fragments of the arch decoration
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General view of the arch from the window
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On the vaulting the decoration is represented by simple floral ornament. There is a probability that their big, free from decoration surfaces could be originally painted.

The vaulting of the arch
marazlievskaya-14a-14.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-23.jpg Ornamental decoration
marazlievskaya-14a-22.jpg Ornamental decoration

The second arch leads down to the yard, decorative finish is almost absent. Here the doors to semi-basements are located.

The arch leading to the yard
marazlievskaya-14a-63.jpg View from the street side
marazlievskaya-14a-117.jpg View from the yard side
marazlievskaya-14a-113.jpg Door to the semi-basement. Its authenticity is doubtful, however it is made in balance with the whole house decoration.

The door which leads to the entrance is the exact copy of the original one, which was in absolutely catastrophic condition before the last restoration. As the restoration or making the same door would be expensive, the repair organizers preferred just to replace the door with the simplest one instead of restoring it. It resulted in loosing of one more authentic element. And nevertheless from the compositional point of view it can be related to the best examples of carpenter furniture of the Art Nouveau epoch houses.

The entrance door
marazlievskaya-14a-107.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-106.jpg Upper part of leaf
marazlievskaya-14a-105.jpg Lower part of leaf

Inside the entrance hall there is the following order of space: stair sluices, the landing of the ground floor (here located a watching window for observing the gates), staircase. The decoration changes depending on the space.

Sluice
marazlievskaya-14a-10.jpg General view from the ground floor landing
marazlievskaya-14a-69.jpg Decorative niche
marazlievskaya-14a-70.jpg Keystone of the niche
marazlievskaya-14a-12.jpg General view of one of the walls decoration
marazlievskaya-14a-73.jpg Decoration of pilaster, ornament and Druid
marazlievskaya-14a-101.jpg Fragment of pilaster ornament
marazlievskaya-14a-67.jpg Fake balustrade
marazlievskaya-14a-72.jpg Fake balustrade
marazlievskaya-14a-68.jpg Detail
marazlievskaya-14a-71.jpg Detail

Under the lightening window of sluice there is a high decorative niche; walls are processed in relief with applying of pilasters and fake balustrade in between. In the space of each pilaster a “Druid” mascaron, which is located above the simple vertical floral ornament, is added,. The vaultings continue logically the compositional rhythm of walls decoration but in more strict geometrical style.

Vaulting of sluice
marazlievskaya-14a-11.jpg General view

Panels under the vaulting of sluice were originally painted. Painting presents picturesque paysages and even till the middle of 2000-s years it was in good condition, but in the second half of 2000-s years or later was completely destroyed (probably during the last repair).

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Lost picturesque panels (as of 2008)

The landing of the ground floor strongly contrasts with the sluice, the ceilings are simplified and look more schematic. From the sculpture one can find only doubled corbels, which support the girder. The corbels are decorated with floral ornament (similar can be found in other buildings of Linetskiy).

Corbels
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The last door from the original ones on the ground floor was demounted (supposedly in 2011) during the restoration and replaced by the new one with decorative metallic plates, which style can be named free mix of Secession and Jugendstil, however the door doesn’t fit with the stylistic of interiors.

Doors
marazlievskaya-14a-127.jpg Lost door
marazlievskaya-14a-65.jpg Door remake

The landing of the ground floor leads to the splendid vestibule staircase. Unlike the sluice, the vestibule is located along the central axes if the house and is a real culmination of architectural idea. Splendid wooden stairs with Art Nouveau handrails with simple geometrical pattern and ornamental panels used to lead to the owner’s room.

Staircase
marazlievskaya-14a-9.jpg Entrance stair flight
marazlievskaya-14a-76.jpg Ornamental panel
marazlievskaya-14a-100.jpg Ornamental panel
marazlievskaya-14a-75.jpg View of the staircase and entrance vestibule

Handrails
marazlievskaya-14a-97.jpg A variant of the stair flight
marazlievskaya-14a-91.jpg Horizontal variant

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Finishing of the vestibule walls on the ground floor at the places free from wooden panels.

On staircase landing a small glazed bulk facing the yard as the bay window ledge on the corbels is located. The window apertures of free plastic forms saved the original sashes in decorative Art Nouveau spirit. In the center of this small room a bass relief with another one «Druid» is located which used to be part of decorative fountain, which basin has not been saved till now. The balk of the aperture leading to the bay window area is supported by three half-column on each side with complicated in terms of configuration column caps, made on the meeting point of Art Nouveau and Egyptian Revival.

Interior of the bay window
marazlievskaya-14a-95.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-4.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-92.jpg Remains of decorative fountain
marazlievskaya-14a-94.jpg Windows
marazlievskaya-14a-93.jpg Element of window decoration
marazlievskaya-14a-87.jpg Column top
marazlievskaya-14a-88.jpg Column top
marazlievskaya-14a-89.jpg
marazlievskaya-14a-5.jpg A view from the bay window to the vestibule

Vestibule in the process of restoration
marazlievskaya-14a-17.jpg General view before the restoring
marazlievskaya-14a-56.jpg General view from the first floor platform in the process of restoring
marazlievskaya-14a-62.jpg General view from stairwell platform in the process of restoring

Vestibule after restoration (current condition)
marazlievskaya-14a-2.jpg General view from staircase landing
marazlievskaya-14a-3.jpg General view from staircase landing
marazlievskaya-14a-8.jpg General view from staircase landing
marazlievskaya-14a-7.jpg General view from staircase landing

Finishing of the walls in vestibule is much more splendid than the sluice’s one. Here panels with symmetrical floral compositions appear and doubled pilasters crowned with cameo medallions with women’s profile images. The turns of the profiles alternate, each cameo is put into the crown of stylized moulded «tree». The walls are separated from the vaulting by textured panels with floral ornament.

Floral ornament in vestibule
marazlievskaya-14a-60.jpg Floral ornament, wide variant
marazlievskaya-14a-59.jpg Floral ornament, narrow variant
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marazlievskaya-14a-85.jpg Floral ornament in the curve of the corner.

Pilasters
marazlievskaya-14a-98.jpg Pilasters and the wall surface in between
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marazlievskaya-14a-81.jpg Decoration of the lower part of pilaster
marazlievskaya-14a-55.jpg Decoration of the lower part of pilaster
marazlievskaya-14a-86.jpg Decoration of the lower part of pilaster, detail

Cameos
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Vaulting
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General view

The vaulting is alike the vaulting of sluice and arch in terms of composition. In the long axis of vestibule, in front of each other a big window with original sash is located (it is above the room described above in the bay window), and also there is a pompous richly decorated arch which marks the entrance to the apartment of Mendelevych, following a niche with three doors (one of the window aperture, central one, is closed).

Arch of the entrance in the first floor apartment
marazlievskaya-14a-6.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-96.jpg
marazlievskaya-14a-80.jpg Cupola of the encased door aperture
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marazlievskaya-14a-19.jpg Floral ornament in the niche behind the arch
marazlievskaya-14a-102.jpg Door in the niche (some probability of authenticity exists)

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The window of the vestibule

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Parquet on the landing of the first floor

In vestibule original parquet is preserved, the walls of the ground floor are covered with wooden panels; the decoration of the walls and handrails were well preserved, and sculptural finishing was cleared from a big amount of paint from different times due to restoring. However on the background of it, the fact of losing the mentioned above doors and the paintings supposedly completed the decoration in the entrance hall as well as picturesque panels remains quite sad.

In comparison with interior decoration of the main wing, the ones inside the yard are decorated with restraint. During the examination of the entrance hall of the left side wing simple eclectic handrails with ordinary ornament were found.

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Handrails of left side wing

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Left side wing, fragment of facade

From the side of yard the wall finishing of a main wing is quite restrained too, however richer than in side ones. Moreover the main wing is more complicated than the others the central part is singularized by risalit, and on the level of the first floor the mentioned above bay window is located, its corbels are decorated with the floral ornament.

Yard facade
marazlievskaya-14a-34.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-42.jpg A view from the wing window

Bay window
marazlievskaya-14a-36.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-37.jpg General view
marazlievskaya-14a-40.jpg Corbels

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Authentic balcony handrails from the yard side

The bay window overhangs just above the arch of the passway, in front of which in the yard a small sculpture is located. It shows a boy who hugs the pike. Probably it used to be a fountain or a spring.

Fountain-sculpture
marazlievskaya-14a-39.jpg General view
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Like in several previous buildings of Linetskiy, the corners between the wings are marked by the rounded risalit that makes impact on the shape of the rooms inside them. Both risalits are decorated on the level of the second floor with the classic streaming ornament, known as «Cyclamen» (Russian «Lash of the whip») Based on the well-known namesake embroidery of G. Obrist, this motif became in fact a calling card of Art Nouveau.

marazlievskaya-14a-119.jpg «Lash of the whip» between the windows of risalit

References and archives

«Architects of Odessa». V. Pilyavskiy
«Architecture of Odessa. Style and time». V. Pilyavskiy
«Buildings, construction, monuments of Odessa and their architects». V. Pilyavskiy
Article about the house in the blog Antique

Authors

Alexandr Levitsky, art director, photograph and colourist
Dmitriy Shamatazhy, photographer and editor
Oleg Krepostniak, editor
Valeriia Arnaud, translator
Marina Tomenko, editor

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