Cloud Factory (2024) Photographie par Ekaterina Kastalskaya

This photo was taken by photographer Ekaterina Kastalskaya on February 10, 2024 in the center of Moscow.
View of the high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment from the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge.
Winter navigation on the Moscow River.
Saturday, a lot of sun and freeze - 15 degrees.

Photo taken on color Kodak ColorPlus 200 film.

The residential building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment is one of seven completed Stalinist high-rise buildings in Moscow. The building is located near the confluence of the Yauza and the Moscow River in such a way that two side buildings stand along the Kotelnicheskaya and Podgorskaya embankments.

The high-rise was built as a “city within a city” in 1938-1940 and 1948-1952. The authors of the project are architects Dmitry Chechulin and Andrey Rostkovsky, and the chief engineer is L. M. Gokhman.

The central high-rise building has 32 floors, its height together with the spire is 176 m, the number of floors of the side buildings is from 8 to 10. Initially, the building had 540 apartments.

The high-rise, L-shaped in plan, consists of three buildings: a central one, which has 32 floors, and two side buildings 8-10 floors high. A special feature of the central building is its layout in the form of a three-rayed star, one ray of which is directed towards the courtyard. The coat of arms crowning the spire of the building is located at an altitude of 176 m.

The design is typical of the Stalinist Empire style. A park with flower beds and fountains was created in the area adjacent to the house. The lower five floors are faced with pink granite, the rest of the building is covered with ceramic blocks. The high-rise building is decorated with sculptural groups.

Since the mid-1950s, a cinema operated in the building, initially bearing the name “Znamya”. In 1966, it was renamed “Illusion”, and then it was adapted to show films from the State Film Fund.

Actresses Faina Ranevskaya, Klara Luchko, Lidiya Smirnova, Nonna Mordyukova, Mikhail Zharov, Roman Carmen, Alexander Shirvindt, ballerina Galina Ulanova, animal trainer Irina Bugrimova, singer Lyudmila Zykina, poets Alexander Tvardovsky, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Andrei Voznesensky, Evgeny Yevtushenko, writer Vasily Aksenov, writer Konstantin Paustovsky, director Natalya Sats, ballerina Raisa Struchkova, artist Arkady Plastov, composer Nikita Bogoslovsky lived here.

Thèmes connexes

Historical BuildingMoscow CenterWinter CityscapeSun WeekendBridge Over The River