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      Sivtsev Vrazhek: Herzen, Tsvetaeva and Spaso House

      ⏱ 1 h 45 min🚶 2.3 km🍽 1📍 5 stops
      🐢 A little — under 3 km

      An hour and a half in the quiet lanes between Prechistenka and the Arbat: the house where Herzen wrote “Who Is to Blame?”, pie at a pastry shop and the mansion where, according to one version, Bulgakov got the idea for Satan’s ball.

      🏛 History and architecture🎨 Art⏱ An hour or so
      🗺 Open in Yandex Maps
      1. 1
        🚶 Sivtsev Vrazhek Lane
        Сивцев Вражек пер., от Гоголевского бульвара до Денежного пер.
        A quiet Arbat lane following the bed of the vanished Sivka river: Art Nouveau apartment buildings, Empire mansions and 1930s Constructivist housing.
        From Kropotkinskaya along Gogolevsky Boulevard it’s 5 minutes to the start of the lane. Take your time: at No. 19 is Tsvetaeva’s plaque, No. 15/25 is 1930s constructivism, and in No. 9A marshals lived.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Sivtsev Vrazhek Lane
        © Shakko · CC BY-SA 4.0
        Sivtsev Vrazhek Lane
        © Svetlov Artem · CC BY-SA 4.0
        • The 17th-century name comes from the ravine ("vrazhek") along whose bottom the Sivka (Sivets) river flowed, piped underground in the early 19th century.
        • The lane was renamed more than once: it has been Troitsky, Protasyevsky and Podyachesky.
        • Marina Tsvetaeva lived at No. 19 in 1911–1912, and Maximilian Voloshin stayed with her.
        • In winter 1890–1891 Sergei Rachmaninoff lived in the no longer surviving No. 15.
        • Marshals and generals lived at No. 9A, as did the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich.
      2. 🚶 on foot
      3. 2
        🖼 Herzen House Museum
        Сивцев Вражек пер., 27
        🎟 ticket
        A wooden Empire-style mansion where Herzen spent his last Moscow years with his family: memorial rooms, manuscripts, portraits, period objects.
        A visit takes about 40 minutes. On Wednesdays and Thursdays the museum is open until 21:00 — handy after work; closed Mondays. See the drawing room where Westernizers and Slavophiles argued.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Herzen House Museum
        © Ivengo(RUS) · Public domain
        • Herzen rented this house in 1843–1847 — from here in 1847 he left abroad and never returned to Russia.
        • Here he wrote the novel Who Is to Blame? and the stories Doctor Krupov and The Thieving Magpie.
        • Belinsky, Granovsky, Shchepkin and the Aksakovs visited the house — in the drawing room, Westernisers and Slavophiles argued.
        • The museum opened in 1976 and is part of the State Literary Museum.
      4. 🚶 on foot
      5. 3
        ☕️ Tirolskiye Pirogi café-patisserie in Kaloshin Lane
        Калошин пер., 6, стр. 1
        ▮▮▯▯▯
        Via Kaloshin Lane, 2 minutes from the museum. A slice of pie with coffee makes a fine light dinner. The room is small and can be crowded in the evening; you can take it to go.
        🍴 A tiny patisserie between Sivtsev Vrazhek and the Arbat: Tyrolean pies with berries and curd cheese, strudel, quiche and coffee. What to order: a slice of berry pie and a cappuccino.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        • "Tirolskiye Pirogi" is a brand of the Moscow confectionery factory Krug.
        • The patisserie in Kaloshin is the first of the chain's branded cafés.
        • The lane leads out to the Vakhtangov Theatre, so people often drop in for coffee before a performance.
        • Pastries and bread are baked right on the spot; besides pies the menu has strudels, éclairs, soups and sandwiches.
      6. 🚶 on foot
      7. 4
        🏛 Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on Peski
        Спасопесковский пер., 4А
        An 18th-century church in a quiet side street off the Arbat, the very one Polenov painted in "Moscow Courtyard".
        Cross the Arbat and enter Spasopeskovsky Lane. Stand in the square facing the church — this is the view from Polenov’s painting “Moscow Courtyard”.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on Peski
        © Дмитрий Мозжухин · CC BY 3.0
        • The stone church was built in 1711 on the site of a wooden church of the streltsy settlement, known since 1642.
        • In the early 20th century the virtuoso bell-ringer Konstantin Saradzhev rang the bells in the bell tower.
        • The church was closed in 1932 and in the 1960s adapted as the puppet workshop of Soyuzmultfilm.
        • Ten bells were given to the church by the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater; they come from the demolished Strastnoy Monastery.
        • In 1891 a pseudo-Gothic gate was joined to the bell tower and became the main portal.
      8. 🚶 on foot
      9. 5
        🏛 Spaso House (Vtorov mansion)
        Спасопесковская пл., 10
        A neoclassical mansion of the 1910s with a semi-rotunda and columns — the US ambassador's residence since 1933; we look from outside, from Spasopeskovsky Square garden.
        The mansion opposite the church, across the square. It is the residence of the US ambassador: you can photograph from the square, but don’t approach the fence. It’s 5 minutes along the lane to Smolenskaya.
        📖 More about the placeCollapse
        Spaso House (Vtorov mansion)
        © Valeriy Yevseyev (U.S. Embassy Moscow) · Public domain
        Spaso House (Vtorov mansion)
        © shakko · Public domain
        • The mansion was built in 1913–1915 for the industrialist Nikolai Vtorov to a design by Vladimir Adamovich and Vladimir Mayat.
        • The name comes from Spasopeskovskaya Square and the Church of the Saviour on the Sands opposite.
        • In 1918–1933 it housed offices and flats, and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin lived here.
        • The US has leased the house since 1933: Ambassador William Bullitt was the first to settle here.
        • The Spring Festival of April 1935, with live animals and two orchestras, is by one account reflected in Bulgakov's "Satan's Great Ball".

      ↩️ Getting back: From Spaso House 5 minutes on foot to Smolenskaya metro (blue or light-blue line)

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