The movement of multi-ton buildings in the history of Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

It's hard to imagine, but a century ago, Russian city planners managed to move houses. Moreover, the people living in them discovered the consequences of such "rearrangements" only in the morning, leaving the entrance at the other end of the street! Why did it take so drastically to change Moscow and how it was possible to do it - further in our material.

Image above: Sytin's office building in Moscow has been relocated using unique technology.

It's hard to imagine, but a century ago, Russian city planners managed to move houses. Moreover, the people living in them discovered the consequences of such "rearrangements" only in the morning, leaving the entrance at the other end of the street! Why did it take so drastically to change Moscow and how it was possible to do it - further in our material.

Any house can be moved without even disconnecting communications or evicting people.

Moving multi-ton buildings is a very problematic and difficult task, but at the same time it is quite common. For the first time such "crossings" were carried out in the distant 15th century. In Russia, such an experiment was carried out only in 1897.

Due to the fact that it was necessary to expand the Nikolaev (now October) railway, a new Eugenie McGil's mansion fell under demolition. But the owner was sorry for the new house, and when she was told about the possibilities of the unusual technology of moving buildings, she decided to finance this risky event. The plan of action was developed by engineer I. M. Fedorovich, who was in charge of the whole process. This adventure, unprecedented at that time, was complicated by the moment that the house had to "step over" over the ravine, which had to be completely filled up and tamped down.

Also, to move the building, it was necessary to free the entire house from furniture, doors, window frames and even stoves with fireplaces. After that, the mansion was reinforced with a steel frame and cut from the foundation with special cables. Using rollers, rails and horse-drawn traction, the workers managed to move the stone building a full hundred meters! Subsequently, the applied technology received the name - "the method of moving Fedorovich", and the author of the idea himself received a rather tangible advancement in the career ladder. You can learn more about such an interesting method of movement from the materials on the pages of Novate.ru.

But the most frequent "relocations" of old buildings in the capital began in the 30s of the last century. The general plan of Moscow, adopted in 1935, forced city planners to actively engage in precisely the transfer of buildings, since they had a special architectural value.

Several mansions fell under this program, but the most ambitious "walk" deep into Tverskaya was relocation of the famous Savvinsky courtyard … This task was not easy, because the entire building weighed over 23 thousand tons and was inhabited by residents.

Emmanuel Handel is the main "itinerant" of the country.

Since such work required special projects and careful calculations, in 1936 a special enterprise was created - "Trust for the Moving and Dismantling of Buildings", headed by the famous civil engineer, architect, and innovator E. M. Handel.

Preparatory work was carried out for about four months (Savvinskoe Podvorie, Moscow).

For four months, the building was actively prepared for moving to a new location. In order not to gather crowds of onlookers and not to attract too much attention to such a laborious process, all the main work was carried out at night and under the guise of reconstruction. During this time, it was possible to create a powerful, encircling the base of the building, a frame and lay the rails.

Thanks to new developments, it was not even necessary to evict the tenants and disconnect the house from communications. All utilities were pre-connected to the building using special flexible structures. When the preparatory work was completed, the frame, along with the house, was placed on special rollers using hydraulic jacks and moved into the interior of the street with winches.

Savvinskoe courtyard at the present time (Moscow).

The whole process took place at night, so the residents did not even notice the movement. Only in the morning, leaving the entrance, they saw that they were in a completely different place. And since then, building No. 24, which was supposed to be demolished, because it turned out to be in the middle of the expanded Tverskaya street, moved into the courtyards and became house No. 6 / b.

The movement of especially valuable buildings was carried out by the "Trust for the Moving and Dismantling of Buildings", under the leadership of E. M. Handel (Moscow).

After such an overwhelming success, all ancient and especially valuable buildings began to be moved (especially in Moscow), making room for the construction of new roads, for the expansion of avenues and for the reorganization of exits from bridges.

It turned out to be very difficult movement of the building of the Moscow City Council (the former residence of the Moscow Governor-General) on Tverskaya. The uniqueness of this project lay in the fact that it was necessary to move high-ranking nomenklatura workers with the most valuable archive, which was located in the basement. It was decided not to inform the party leaders about the movement and to move it during working hours, which caused the greatest concern among the employees of the trust. But Handel also took this desperate step. The builders had to dig a pit four meters deep and carry out all the same work as during ground movement.

After six months of preparation, the building was still relocated and not a single official noted any inconvenience. The only thing is that over time, when the new foundation sank, cracks began to appear in the building, and during the subsequent reconstruction, 24 metal columns had to be built in to strengthen the structure.

The building of the Mossovet after the movement (1955, Moscow).

But be that as it may, the building was preserved and at the moment, the Moscow City Hall is located on Tverskoy Street, 13.

In May 1940, completely the oldest Eye Hospital in Moscow has moved, which since 1830 was located in the Naryshkin mansion at the corner of Tverskaya and Mamonovskiy lane. The building weighing almost 13 thousand tons had to not only be moved from the main street, but also turned 97 degrees, with its obligatory installation on a new basement.

The hospital building was not only moved, but also turned 97 degrees and placed on a newly built basement (Tverskaya Street, Moscow).

No one informed either the doctors or the residents of the area about the date and time of such a radical change in location. Therefore, during the transfer, the surgeons continued to operate! Since this unique event took place in broad daylight, it caused an unimaginable shock among visitors and passers-by. Indeed, before their very eyes, the hospital, together with the patients, began to drive off the foundation and move towards the alley (such a sight, indeed, is not for the faint of heart!).

By the way, this old hospital is still operating, accepting patients and its current address - Mamonovsky lane, house number 7.

In just four years of the existence of such an extraordinary trust, its employees managed to move 22 capital stone buildings and several dozen wooden buildings, which were of particular value for the capital.

In the post-war years, such a noble impulse from the country's leadership disappeared, old buildings were bulldozed or simply burned. But all the same, and at that difficult time, Handel with his high-class team, which consisted mainly of builders and engineers of the subway, managed to save several unique buildings. In total, over the entire history of the trust, 70 houses of architectural and historical value have been removed!

One of these post-war lucky ones turned out to be "Sytin's office house", built back in 1904. It is still not clear for what reason it was moved from Pushkinskaya Square to the corner of Tverskaya and Nastasinsky pereulok. This time, the reporters of the Trud newspaper were "lucky", because in the 70s its editorial office was located in it.

“At five in the morning, when dawn was just about to begin over the city, the final preparations were completed and the command was given to turn on the compressors. The arrows on the devices showed an effort of 170 tons. The powerful shiny cylinders of four jacks rested against the steel beams on which the house, ready to move, rested, and it slowly rolled along the rails along the main street of Moscow. Thick steel rollers rotated at the speed of a second hand, and almost imperceptibly the colossus of the building floated towards Mayakovsky Square … ", - this is how the journalist of the newspaper" Trud "Viktor Tolstov described the process of movement, in his report" The house went on the road "on April 11, 1979 …

At the moment, "Sytin's Office House", after the stay in it of the editorial offices of the newspapers "Russian Word" (until 1918), "Izvestia" (1918-1927), "Pravda" (1927-1940) and "Trud" (1940-1980), occupied by shops and offices.

The capital's innovative engineers surprise not only with the fact that they make houses move, but also with the construction of the subway, most of which is the cultural heritage of the entire country. After all, its first project was proposed in pre-revolutionary Russia back in 1902, and for many decades the creators of the underground labyrinth accomplished a real feat, laying more and more new branches and transport junctions.