Bread House

Bread House is the largest building of Tsaritsyno, meant to serve as the kitchens of Catherine the Great. Officially it was designated as “the kitchens,” but imperial servants called it the “Bread House.”

During the construction of Tsaritsyno architect Vasily Bazhenov decided to disguise the kitchens as a medieval castle, so that the building was less conspicuous from the rest of the complex. Bazhenov built the kitchens in the form of an enormous cube with rounded corners. He preferred to use moisture-proof white stone from Khoroshevsky quarries rather than the local materials. The facades were decorated with images of bread and salt mill. Above them is a monogram of crossed Cyryllic letters “Х” (Kh) standing for “khleb” (bread) and “C”(S) for “sol” (salt).

Bazhenov didn’t manage to complete the Bread House because Catherine II criticized his work and fired him. In 1849 Emperor Nicholas I ordered architect Vasily Dregalov to rebuild the Bread House into a peasant hospital. Later it became a hotel for summer vacationers. From 1918 until the end of the 1970s, the palace with peeling monograms served as communal apartments.

Finally the Bread House opened its doors after a long reconstruction in 2006. Today it’s part of the historical exhibition, while regular concerts and theater performances are held in its courtyard.