Minus arena

The first messages that the arena is on was at about 9 pm. By 10 o’clock, half of the roof was already burning. By 11, the building was burned out from the inside. From the very beginning, the fire was assigned the highest - the fifth - the degree of complexity. About 100 fire engines participated in the extinguishing. Due to the lightning distribution of fire, two firefighters died - Gennady Zolotkov and Edward Fomin. Another is in the hospital. Civilians were not injured.

The Manege building was not insured, although it was a monument of federal significance. Not only the government will incur losses. Officials in the Broke announced that there was nothing valuable in the building. Obviously, they forgot about the large-scale exhibition "Results of the Year", which gathered under the unfortunate roof of the Manege of 92 Theater Artists. In addition, some graphics were stored in the storerooms, the exhibition of Tatyana Yang was held in the Manege gallery.

The arena was built in 1817 by the engineer of L.L. Karbonya according to the project of A.A. Butancur to the fifth anniversary of the Victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. The ceremonial functions of the building are reflected in its decor, performed by the architect O.I. Bow in 1824-1825. One of the innovative engineering solutions of the XIX century was the roof on wooden farms without supports. By the time of the beginning of work on the facade of the building, the original roof design began to settle, and it had to be improved. Additional reconstruction of the roof was carried out in 1930. Its essence was to strengthen wooden beams with metal sheets. And at the beginning of another war - a high -explosive bomb hit the Great Patriotic War. However, he withstood.

In 1957, the arena was transformed into an exhibition hall. From this moment, his "life in art" of the XX century begins. It was here, at the exhibition "30 years of Mosha", Nikita Khrushchev in December 1962 laid an end to hopes on the final warming in Soviet culture, calling the "fagots" rather moderate according to the current criteria. From this moment, the Manege became simply a prestigious exhibition site. He remembers the kilometer lines behind the "strawberry" at the exhibition of Ilya Glazunov in the 70s, and the kilometer queues "on the vanguard" during the Art-MIF fairs, which were held in the early 90s. In the mid-90s, art manage fairs began to be held in the arena, which collected a huge number of Moscow galleries. Although the art manage had a reputation as a more commercial and pop-up fair than the Central House of Arts, the Art-Moskva, it was here, in the irony of fate, the largest scandal of modern Russian art took place. In 1998, artist Avdey Ter-Oganyan chopped icons here . The aura of the building did not suffer such an intervention - Ter -Oganyan had to emigrate to Prague.

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The versions of the incident began to be advanced during the fire, and the next day they took shape in several publications and performances. The first interpretation of events was the first to propose Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who left for the disaster. In his opinion , neither terrorists nor attackers are guilty of what happened. Such a hasty judgment is based, presumably, not on analytical data. Just the father of the city should show composure and reassure the public. The reason was a short circuit in the wiring of the building. However, the terrorist version was not supported in independent media. Even despite the fact that the head of the Central Election Commission Alexander Veshnyakov said: "It cannot be ruled out that it was a provocation directed against Russia as a state."

Any conspiracy is suffering from dangerous meaningfulness and unprovenness. However, we cannot but mention another version. True, not political, but economic attackers appear in it. Yesterday, an article was published on the regional real estate server in Moscow and the Moscow Region, in which the fire in the arena was considered from the point of view of the aspirations of those who want to use expensive real estate in the center of Moscow. Among other things, the article said: “ The mayor mention as the reasons for the fire of“ economic moments ”is very similar to the truth, only these are the reasons for financial and economic. Over the past decade, due to mysterious fires and“ self-disclosure ”, dozens of history-monuments on Sofia embankment, on Novinsky, Nikitsky Bulvars, etc., instead of which already already, or already already. The buildings-"remakes" appeared, or they are going to build them . " The attackers, according to the authors of the articles who wished to remain unknown, decided to solve the problem by preserving the unique structure of the roof of engineer Betancer through arson.

Against this version is the fact that the work on the restructuring of the Manege should have begun this year. Recall that for the first time the idea of ​​the “reconstruction” of the Manege in line with the maximum commercial use of the square sounded from Luzhkov’s lips on October 4, 2000, at the ceremony of the builders of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in the Moscow City Hall. It is not surprising, therefore, that plans for the restoration of the arena were announced yesterday. The chief architect of Moscow, Alexander Kuzmin, reported that the meeting of the Public Town Planning Council will be held on Friday on March 19. Both projects provided for a very free deal with the roof of Betancer. In one case, 5 farms from the ends of the building would be left, in the other - they would be reinforced with metal structures. Without this roof and its innovative one for the first half of the 19th century, half the specifics of the arena as a monument of architecture is lost. It's like gum without a glass roof of engineer Shukhov. The fabric of the arena as a means of bypassing the veto of specialists on the complete restructuring of the roof is absurd. It would not have been preserved. Let us recall that the letters of the public and the protests (former) the Ministry of Culture did not help to save Voentorg and the Moscow Hotel . The mayor explained the demolition of Voentorg with the inconvenience of his location and operation. Imagine how inconvenient the Moscow government seems to be a wooden roof? It is difficult to make forecasts about the appearance of the future arena. Let us only make ourselves one thing: almost certainly the new roof of the arena will be exactly the same ugly as the glass web, overwhelmed by the Gostiny Dvor. And to advertise as a magnificent, convenient, modern architectural solution will be with the same perseverance.

Whatever version is correct, one thing is amazing in this story. The building near the Kremlin walls did not have a normal fire safety system. This is a consequence of the strange position of the Moscow government on the protection of monuments. If it is still sooner or later to rebuild, that is, turn historical places into a dock, then why guard?

Manezhnaya Square has now acquired a completely ancient species. The architectural decorations of Osip Ivanovich Bow in the absence of the interior make the arena look like parfenon. And on the contrary, the holey silhouette of the Moscow Hotel, whose empty arched windows on the upper floors give her a resemblance to the Coliseum. The romance of the ruins will remain for a short while. Very soon, at a member of the History and a profitable place for trading, a shopping center and a restaurant with 300 seats will appear. Perhaps to fight for the restoration in the arena of the exhibition hall, the most “glorious” years of which fell on the second half of the twentieth century, makes no sense. There is no question of a wooden roof. Experts could insist on creating in some, albeit small, part of the rebuilt arena of the museum of the history of the building. Let the roof of Betancer be exhibited even in the form of a layout. Photos from the Manezh exhibition with the aged Khrushchev, of course, should be in the escape. Let's hope that on the Square of the new arena, according to the project equal to 2,3500 square meters. m. instead of the former 9500, there is a place for such an exposition.