Information about the building

The Complex of Income Houses of the Northern Insurance Society in Moscow, located at the corner of Ilyinka and Novaya Square, is one of the last and most impressive architectural projects built in the city before the start of World War I. The Northern Insurance Society, originally known as the "Northern Society for the Insurance and Storage of Goods and Issuance of Warrants," was founded in 1872. In 1880, it moved to Moscow and was initially located on Nikolskaya Street in the Orlov-Davydov house.

The early 20th century was marked by active construction in the Kitai-Gorod area using new building technologies. An example of such construction is the income complex "Boyarsky Dvor," created by architect F.O. Shekhtel in 1903.

In the early 20th century, the Northern Insurance Society acquired several plots at the corner of Ilyinka and Novaya Square to create a large income complex. The project competition was won by the group "Tsentr," consisting of architects from St. Petersburg and Moscow, such as I.I. Rerberg, M.M. Peretyatkovich, V.K. Oltarzhevsky, and I.A. Golosov. This competition became the first collaborative work of these masters, who later participated in major Moscow projects, including the construction of Kievsky Railway Station.

The Complex of Income Houses of the Northern Insurance Society became an important example of pre-constructivism in Moscow architecture of the early 20th century. It consists of two large buildings located parallel to Novaya Square on the site of the demolished wall of Kitai-Gorod. Building No. 23 runs along Novaya Square, while Building No. 21 is across the courtyard, which has become the internal alley of the complex. The building on Ilyinka was adjacent to the destroyed Church of Nikolai the Great Cross. Both buildings were constructed with minimal load on the outer walls and large windows for maximum natural lighting, as well as minimal decoration.

The stylistic solution of the complex is connected to the fate of I.I. Rerberg, a fourth-generation engineer who studied at the Nikolay Military Engineering Academy. Since 1898, he worked as a technical assistant to R.I. Klein, participating in the construction of the Museum of Fine Arts named after Emperor Alexander III (now the A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts) and the new trading building "Muir and Meriliz" on Petrovka (TSUM), which became the tallest in pre-revolutionary Moscow.

From the side of Ilyinka, the complex received two architectural accents. The building along Novaya Square is designed as a semi-rotunda with a dome, while the building from Ilyinka is topped with a round tower with a rotunda and clock. The tower of the building on Ilyinka is adorned with an Ionic colonnade.

Historically, the building on Novaya Square balanced the demolished Church of Nikolai the Great Cross, creating a symmetrical composition. The introduction of towers into the facades of the complex may be related to the proximity to the Kitai-Gorod fortress, which could have been conceived as an artistic echo of the towers of the 16th-century fortress.

The building is undergoing repairs and adaptation work for modern use.