How scooter excursions became a trend this year: routes, locations and life hacks from a guide on wheels
If you have visited all the museums that interest you, and you already know Moscow parks by heart, how can you entertain yourself on a fine Sunday afternoon or evening after work? Electric scooter rides are becoming more and more popular. This is a dynamic tour format with much more freedom. Acer electric scooters are best suited for city walks, which, due to their light weight and foldable design, are easy to lift, carry and place indoors if your route includes such stops. In addition, this device allows you to set a stable speed so that you can focus on your walk without worrying about your safety.
Arrange a small trip around your own city. Plan a ride on an electric scooter* through the very center of Moscow and use our mini-guide so you don’t miss out on the fun. An electric scooter will help you quickly move between locations, so you can spend more time on sights that you may not have noticed before.
Get ready to explore the surroundings of Prechistenka and Ostozhenka – this is part of the Khamovniki district. Once upon a time there were streltsy settlements, then this place was chosen by the nobility, so many architectural and local history treasures have been preserved in the local alleys.
“HOUSE WITH WRITERS”
Otto List Mansion
Yakunchikova’s mansion
“house with a glass”
Gutheil mansion
Mindovsky’s mansion
Pertsova’s house
“Labor Baker”
tenement house Recca
tenement house of Isakov
Kekusheva’s mansion
one
The first point of the walk mansion of Otto Listlocated at Glazovsky lane, building 8. Here, in 1898-1899, one of the sought-after architects of this period, Lev Kekushev, built a building that became one of the first in Russia and the first house in Moscow in the Art Nouveau style. Ott List became the owner of the mansion, and Kekushev immediately set about building his own house nearby, on Ostozhenka (later there will be an opportunity to compare them). Pay attention to the asymmetry of the building, rounded windows and mosaic panels decorating the facade.
Almost around the corner Plotnikov lane, 4/5located tenement house Broido, popularly known as the “house with writers”. The façade depicts Pushkin, Gogol and Tolstoy surrounded by Apollo and the Muses. It is said that the bas-relief was the first lifetime sculptural image of Tolstoy, which is curious, since the antique theme was supported by the corresponding clothes on the writers and the extremely frivolous poses of all the participants in the composition. The classicist yellow and white color scheme should not confuse you: this is an Art Nouveau building, which was built in 1907, which can be hinted at by the side bay window and window layout.
Another modern building is located at Prechistensky lane, 10, building 1. This Yakunchikova’s mansiondating back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The three-story building was conceived as a full-fledged work of art in the Macintosh style, the Scottish version of Art Nouveau. It was designed by William Walcot, a Russian architect with Scottish roots, known for his work on the Metropol Hotel. The house of his authorship in Prechistensky Lane was bought by Maria Yakunchikova, the niece of Savva Mamontov. She patronized the arts and crafts and added Belgian-inspired wrought iron gratings and ceramic panels made according to her own sketches to the restrained artistic composition of her dwelling.
Neighbor house – Gutheil mansionindicated by the address Prechistensky lane, 8, building 1. This is another project of William Walcot, like his neighbor, conceived on a turnkey basis. The building turned out to be symmetrical, which is not very typical for Art Nouveau, chamber and extremely elegant thanks to rococo stucco molding and delicate glazed façade tiles. The owner of the mansion, Karl Gutheil, was the heir to a music publishing house, and since the middle of the 20th century, the building has been occupied by the Moroccan embassy.
The next building at Prechistensky lane, 6, building 1, is also worth checking out. This Mindovsky’s mansion – the first retreat from the modern buildings on this route and one of the first Moscow buildings in the neoclassical style. Because of the rotunda, the portico and the characteristic classicist reliefs, the house built in 1906 can be easily confused with the buildings of the Empire era, but this is just a stylization. The owner of the mansion, Nikolai Mindovsky, was an industrialist and did not leave him until the revolution, and after that, a registry office was made from this solid building. In it, Sergei Yesenin married Isadora Duncan, and Mikhail Bulgakov married Lyubov Belozerskaya. The Austrian embassy is here now.
Worth leaving the alley for Prechistenkato appreciate a slightly more massive building from the same era. House number 13 combines signs of different styles, but is remembered primarily by a large corner bay window with dark sculptures at the top. Once the tower was crowned with a roof, but the building has undergone multiple changes. Initially tenement house was built in 1910-1911 by order Jacob Recca, who initiated the construction of the previous three mansions. During the period of communal apartments, members of the Jack of Diamonds Society of Artists lived in the house, and Mikhail Bulgakov was a frequent visitor, who obviously borrowed from here some of the interiors for the plot of the novels Heart of a Dog (Preobrazhensky’s apartment) and The Master and Margarita (the chandelier on which the Hippopotamus).
While you are looking around the former apartment building, pay attention to the detail that instantly takes you back to Bulgakov’s times. Enthusiasts have restored a sign from the NEP era at 15 Prechistenka Street. They say that Isadora Duncan, who lived opposite, bought bread from the Labor Baker artel (thanks to the sign, it is very easy to mentally travel back to this period).
Next, you can appreciate another high-rise building by the standards of the Art Nouveau era. This tenement house of Isakov on Prechistenka, 28. The project was carried out in 1906 by Lev Kekushev, already known to you. The building is considered the crowning achievement of the architect. Large windows with exquisite sashes, unusual balcony grilles, a embossed façade, and decor accentuated in yellow really set this house apart from other Moscow buildings and make it one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.
After that, it is worth taking a ride along Sechenovsky lane and drive up to house 21 on Ostozhenkato evaluate another creation of Kekushev. A mysterious house with a turret and a lion on the roof, reminiscent of a fairy tale castle,…