History of the Artist Colony
The project of building a church in the name of St. Andrei Rublev was developed in Moscow. The project is distinguished by the fact that the new church, in the name of the saint who is especially esteemed by people of art and first of all by artists, will be erected on a historical place, which is called the "Artist Colony".
Moscow "Artist Colony" is an architectural ensemble the foundation of which was initiated by writer M.Gorky and the artist and critic I.E.Grabar in the 1930-s in the suburbs of the city (at that time) in the Verkhnaya Maslovka Street and Petrovsko-Razumovskaya Avenue. The general development plan originally included a complex of buildings in the form of a "ship of arts" in extensive territory near the stadium "Dynamo".
 A.I.Morozov. "Maslovka". 1937 |
 N.Romadin. "Maslovka in Winter". |
This place was a waste ground on the site of fire of the Khanzhonkov's film studio. It was surrounded by the Petrovsky Park where artists could paint landscapes without leaving Moscow. Nearby there were old picturesque houses of the Verkhnaya Maslovka. In 1930, the first Moscow house of artists was built there. The decision was made to replace dilapidated wooden alleys with a new modern complex of buildings. In 1930-31, a 6-storey House of Artists was erected. The apartments were adjoined with ample and light studios. The house was often called a "commune". There was a club, a dining room, a kindergarten, a library, which was managed by a well-known artist A.N.Tikhomirov. Among inhabitants of the house were heads of the Union of Artists E.F.Balashova and B.V.Ioganson, artists P.Radimov, G.Ryazhsky, F.Bogorodsky, sculptors Valev, Iodka and many others.
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Later architects Rukhlyadev and Krinsky developed a project of building the Avenue of Artists in the territory between the Verkhnaya Maslovka St. and Petrovsko-Razumovskaya Avenue that should become the Moscow Montmartre. When on June 22nd, 1942, the Great Patriotic War began, only a building of studios and a block of flats looking at the "Dynamo" stadium (where S.V.Gerasimov, I.E.Grabar, U.I.Pimenov lived and worked) were constructed.
In the 1950-s the construction was continued. The house in Maslovka Street was built (later E.A.Kibrik lived there). Nowadays four houses in the "colony" are historical and cultural monuments, where a series of memorial boards devoted to the outstanding Russian artists I.Grabar, S.Gerasimov, A.Plastov, S.Chuikov, M.Baburin, U.Pimenov, E.Kibrik are placed.
The church of St. Andrei Rublev will enrich a unique architectural ensemble. His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II called Andrei Rublev's works "a guiding star for all artists and creators".