27 Pochainskaya St., Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russia, 603001
Peter's house is located on the northern slope of the ravine descending towards the Volga River. According to established opinion, it was in this house, which belonged at the end of the 17th century to the "merchant of the guest hundred" Yefim Chatygin, that Tsar Peter the First stayed in May 1695 during his Azov campaign.
The legend of the house near the Pochainsky ravine, as one of the possible residences of Peter I, was already circulating at least by the early 19th century. However, at that time, this version was met with skepticism. A characteristic entry in the diary of the Chernetsov brothers, artists who visited the city in 1838, reads: "Having paid homage to the tomb of the immortal Minin..., we went to the house where it is believed Peter the Great stayed during his time in Nizhny. It is clear that this house has existed for a long time: it has buttresses on two sides, but there is no evidence of Peter the Great's stay there except for tradition."
The distrust was simple to explain: it was believed that the "great reformer of Russia" visited Nizhny Novgorod only once (in the spring of 1722), choosing the Stroganov house at the Lower Bazaar as his residence, for which there was at least some evidence. But in February 1847, the "Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Gazette," edited by Melnikov, published an article about the tsar's stay in Nizhny "long before the Persian campaign." Referring to an article in the "St. Petersburg Gazette," readers were informed: "All these details were newly extracted by Academician Ustryalov from the State Archive." Of course, Ustryalov himself knew nothing about where Peter the First lived in Nizhny Novgorod in spring 1695. The local author immediately set things straight: "Now the legend about the house belonging to Polzets on Pochainskaya Street is explained. The legend says that Peter the Great stayed here. About two years ago, we spoke about this house, but not yet knowing about Peter's stay in Nizhny in 1695, we attributed this legend to 1722 and doubted its authenticity, because from the records it is clear that during the Persian campaign Peter stayed in the house of the Stroganov barons near the Nativity Church. Now we believe that in the stone house on Pochaine, which formerly belonged to Chatygin and now to Polzets, Peter lived during the Azov campaign."
Between 1857 and 1859, the work of Nizhny Novgorod's first historian Khramtsovsky was published, for whom everything was already obvious: "During this visit (in 1695), the sovereign stayed on Pochainskaya Street, in the stone house of Chatygin"; "At the upper end of it, to the right, not far from the church, the same stone two-story house still remains, in which in 1695 Peter the Great spent a whole week on his way to Azov." The initiator of the final transformation of the house into one of the highlights of local history was the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Scientific Archival Commission. Its first chairman, Gatsisky, emphasized: "For Nizhny Novgorod, which has long been proud of its patriotism, it is impossible to forget Peter the First. The people of Nizhny must forever preserve the memory of the great Russian genius, preserve it for themselves, their descendants, and for all Russian people who will visit Nizhny Novgorod. The people of Nizhny can do this by preserving for all time the house where Peter the First stayed during his first visit to Nizhny Novgorod."
Gatsisky was echoed by artist and local historian Melnikov: "Nizhny Novgorod, despite its somewhat more than six hundred years of existence, despite its once historical significance, cannot boast a large number of ancient monuments... Among these few monuments of Nizhny antiquity... should be counted two old houses, not so remarkable for their relatively shallow antiquity, but for the memories associated with Peter the Great's stay in Nizhny. These two houses belong to those rare monuments of civil architecture, the remnants of which have survived so little in Russia."
After the house was purchased in 1888 to house the "Peter" historical museum, the legend of the house finally turned into "reality," the "house of Peter" became one of the city's "brands," and was included in souvenir books and guides to Nizhny Novgorod.
The scientific supervisor of the restoration project of the "House of Peter," chief architect of the Gorky Special Scientific Restoration Production Workshop Agafonov, in 1959, while adhering to the widespread point of view, nevertheless pointed out that "it would be more correct to call it Chatygin's house, to whom the building belonged at that time." However, the building itself represented unquestionable value — "a rare type of Russian stone residential house," while in public perception the significance of the house was determined by the figure of the "tsar-reformer." But however much one might want to associate this particular house with the iconic figure in Russian history, the objective truth is: Peter the First may have stayed in the stone chambers near the Pochainsky ravine, but there is no evidence of this to date. Attention should primarily be paid to the rare architectural monument, erected at the end of the Old Russian era and now in far from the best condition.
The owners of the house changed repeatedly over three hundred years. Gradually, the "little house on Pochaine" fell into decline. "...At one time it belonged to a tax farmer and was used as a warehouse for wine and wine barrels; then by the end of the 1880s the house... fell into complete neglect: the plaster fell off, the floors almost rotted, etc. At that time it served as a lodging house and even in the very room where Peter lived, corners were rented out to the poorest class of the population," wrote a local 19th-century newspaper.
In the autumn of 1888, at the initiative of Governor Baranov, a decision was made to organize a historical museum in the house. Soon the house with the "estate site" was bought for 25,000 rubles from the last owner, Shprits. By that time, "except for the walls... nothing remained from Peter's time." But "based on some guesses and considerations," it was planned to "restore it to its former appearance." In May 1890, the commission for the arrangement of the Peter Museum appealed to the city architect Ivanov with a request for "immediate commencement of repair and restoration" of the old house. The work was carried out quickly and by October of the same year was "almost completed."
The merchant Chatygin's house is one of the few surviving stone residential buildings in Nizhny Novgorod, built at the end of the 17th – beginning of the 18th centuries. As architect Agafonov noted, unlike ordinary houses of that time, Chatygin's chambers had two auxiliary floors, covered, like the upper ceremonial living floor, with cylindrical and closed vaults. Each small tier-floor consisted of one living and one auxiliary room. The first tier, significantly sunken into the ground, was entirely intended for storage. The windows of the living quarters faced south and east, as was customary in Old Russian construction. On the northern side, along the wall of the second tier facing the river, there was a wooden gallery, apparently based on pillars. Wooden chambers adjoined from the west, and on this side was originally the entrance to the building.
Ivanov's project involved stylizing the appearance of the house as an Old Russian stone building. On the northern side, where the wooden gallery had been, an annex with an iron staircase was built. On the western side, in place of the wooden annex with stairs leading to the third tier, a stairwell with a stone porch was erected, imitating the forms of Russian ceremonial porches of the 17th century, which completely distorted the character of the Old Russian dwelling. The old brick-carved window frames, moldings, sandriks, and cornices were replaced by plaster and stucco details in new locations and with new patterns, not corresponding to the previous design; the walls were plastered with cement. Windows were widened and newly cut on the northern side. As a result of these alterations, the vault reveals above the windows were shifted relative to the axes of the newly cut windows. To correct this discrepancy, builders had to use an unjustifiably thick layer of plaster on the vaults, piers, and reveals. Since the wooden ties embedded inside the walls had rotted badly and the building developed cracks, the buttresses were reinforced for strengthening.
Tiles from the 18th century were inserted into the porch pillars and the cornice of the stairwell, the origin of which is not entirely clear. Some works indicate that the tiles were taken from dismantled stoves of the house itself. It is also possible that tiles from an old stove previously located in the building of the volost administration of the village of Novy Likeyev in the Nizhny Novgorod district were used for decoration.
In the room on the upper floor of the house, to give greater authenticity to the interiors, an old tile stove was installed, transported with the consent of the Balakhna Zemstvo Board from its building in the town of Balakhna.
Five thousand rubles were spent on the repair and equipment of the house, mostly "raised through the efforts... of His Excellency Baranov by means of private donations." The first Nizhny museum consisted of eight small departments (prehistoric archaeology, numismatics, weapons, clothing and jewelry, church archaeology, and household utensils), among which about 1,300 items were distributed. At one of the commission meetings in autumn 1893, shortcomings of the restoration were discussed: "Some individual parts... of the building are not entirely kept in the style of the era when the house was built." "It must be admitted... that the very premises for the collections do not represent the conveniences that would be desirable: the rooms are small, low, and some are damp, their walls have vaults, which prevents the possibility of hanging paintings and portraits on them." Therefore, even before the exhibition opened, there was a wish to move the collection to a more suitable location and to recreate in the "house of Peter" the environment in which the tsar "often lived."
The museum was originally planned to open in 1892 but was postponed due to a cholera epidemic. Then there was no money for the annual maintenance of the museum, followed by issues with establishing an art museum, among others. The opening, scheduled for January 3, 1895, also did not take place; the museum was "in the process of organization." In 1896, the exhibition was moved to the Dmitrovskaya Tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, where the first city art-historical museum was opened.
During the Great Patriotic War, an air defense shelter was arranged in the basement, and from 1945 to 1959 the basement was used as a warehouse. No serious work was carried out on the house in the postwar period; people lived on the first and second floors.
In autumn 1956, the city department for construction and architecture was tasked with developing a project to improve the courtyard area of the house. It was planned to create a flower garden on the "forecourt" side of Pochainskaya Street and to install a bust of Peter I with a memorial inscription on a granite pedestal. The work was not carried out.
By the late 1950s, the house, under the jurisdiction of the city cultural administration, made a depressing impression: "...When you look at this monument of deep antiquity, the question involuntarily arises: what exactly does the legally provided protection consist of? Who is responsible for it and who answers for the violation of the law? Obviously, no one answers. Only this can explain the current deplorable state of the little house. The stucco decorations of the facade are crumbling, the stone porch is collapsing, many windows are broken in the corridor..." wrote the newspaper "Gorky Worker." By this time, the internal wooden ties had completely rotted, and the buttresses had completely separated from the walls, and as S.L. Agafonov later noted, "the building was on the verge of catastrophe."
In 1960, as a result of a building inspection, its emergency condition was established. At the same time, architect Okishev developed a restoration project for the house. The first stage of restoration and repair work was carried out in 1960-1961: filling in places of rotted ties, removing later decor, dismantling buttresses, restoring the northern facade. Tiles removed from the house facades were transferred to the Gorky Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve. A memorial plaque was installed on the house facade.
In 1961, restoration work was suspended and resumed only in 1972. The second stage of restoration and repair was completed in 1974. Windows of the southern and eastern facades were restored, a shingle roof was installed, interior work was carried out, and more. During the 1973 work, the design of the kokoshniks of the third-tier windows, especially on the southern facade, was distorted.
The main later addition to the building—the western annex with a porch—was preserved during the restoration. In the restoration project justification, it was characterized as "not representing particular architectural value or historical significance," but it was noted that it had the right to exist for several reasons. The main reason was that restoring the original forms of the early wooden annex and staircase was extremely difficult, so "eliminating the existing annex and constructing in its place a wooden cage with a porch of doubtful authenticity could distort the appearance of the monument." Furthermore, it was noted that the late 19th-century annex "represents a milestone in the history of the architectural monument's existence, since at that time the Chatygin house was 'restored' precisely in this style." The premises of the restored house housed the Gorky regional branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, which funded the restoration. The intention to create a museum of Peter I was not realized.
In 1996, in memory of the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy and Peter the First's visit to Nizhny Novgorod, a bas-relief depicting him was installed on the facade.
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