The Melkonov-Yezekov House () was a building in the centre of

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The house was located at 71 Bolshaya Sadovaya Street, at its intersection with Bolshoy Stolypinsky Avenue (now ). Constructed in the late 19th century, it was a

revenue house A revenue house is a type of multi-family residential house with specific architecture which evolved in Europe during 18th–19th centuries and became a precursor of what is now known as a rental apartment house and a tenement. In various Europe ...

, housing commercial premises and apartments. It was destroyed in 1942, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

History

The Melkonov-Yezekov House was built in the late 19th century. Its owner was famous Rostov and Nakhichevan woollen merchant Gavriil Melkonov-Yezekov. An

urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...

originated from the construction of the building. Two merchants, the horse breeder Karapet Chernov and the woollen trader Melkonov-Yezekov, allegedly made a bet over which one of them was richer. They each decided to build as luxurious a revenue house as possible, facing each other on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street. Rostov-on-Don 1919 Bolshaya Sadovaya street 69 71 anrc 05344

Rostov-on-Don 1919 Bolshaya Sadovaya street 69 71 anrc 05344

The Melkonov-Yezekov House was originally designed with three floors, but when a construction boom began in Rostov at the beginning of the 20th century, both merchants decided to build their houses up to five floors. The Beaux-Arts Melkonov-Yezekov House was crowned with a round tower, which in turn was topped by a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

. The building was redesigned in the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

style in the early 20th century. It was recognized as a historical landmark, second only in its decorative detail to the Rostov-on-Don City Hall. The building housed the Rostov-on-Don social club during the early 20th century. During the Soviet era, the cinema "Kolizey" was located on the ground floor. The poet

Sergei Yesenin Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (, ; 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century. One of his narratives was "lyrical evocations ...

performed in the cinema hall in the early 1920s. In the 1930s, the building was occupied by the Rostov Azov-Black Sea Committee for Radio Broadcasting and Radiocommunication of the Rostoblispolkom, and the "Udarnik" cinema. There were also shops on the ground floor, and residential apartments on the upper floors. Cinema Burevestnik

In 1942, during the

, an aerial bomb hit the Melkonov-Yezekov house, partially destroying the building. The resulting fire led to its complete destruction. After the war, the remains of the building were dismantled, the remaining brick was used for the construction of a residential building in the

Stalinist Empire style Stalinist architecture (), mostly known in the former Eastern Bloc as Stalinist style or socialist classicism, is the architecture of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, between 1933 (when Boris Iofan's draft for the Palace o ...

on the same site.

References

{{coord, 47, 13, 22, N, 39, 43, 08, E, source:kolossus-ruwiki, display=title Tourist attractions in Rostov-on-Don Buildings and structures in Rostov-on-Don Cultural heritage monuments in Rostov-on-Don Art Nouveau architecture in Rostov-on-Don Beaux-Arts architecture in Russia Eclectic architecture Residential buildings completed in the 19th century Demolished buildings and structures in Russia Buildings and structures demolished in 1942 Art Nouveau apartment buildings