Vladimir Trade Rows are located on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street,
which is the main and one of the oldest. Previously, it was called
Bolshoy and at the beginning of the 17th century it was part of the
Vladimirka highway coming from Moscow, and the main street of the
city.
Vladimirsky trade in ancient times was located at the
place where the building of the House of Officers is located today.
In the 17th century, there was a white-stone Church of the
Exaltation at the Market, built in 1218. By the beginning of the
18th century, bargaining had shifted to the western part of the
city, behind a trading bridge thrown over a natural moat. Wooden
commercial buildings burned more than once. That is why the authors
of the first general plan of the city of Vladimir, which was
approved in 1781 by Catherine II, proposed to build a stone Gostiny
Dvor, which supposedly was supposed to decorate the main city street
and occupy an entire block.
The construction of the Trade
Rows has been carried out since 1787 at the expense and by order of
the merchants of Vladimir. In those days, the governor of Vladimir
was P.G. Lazarev is the father of the famous navigator M.P. Lazarev.
The location was commercially very profitable. Having gathered
together, the Vladimir merchants decided to build stone shops in
Vladimir, contrary to the general plan, going to the Trade Bridge
from the Golden Gate.
The trading rows had the shape of a
quadrangle with a wide open area inside, where the central market
was located until the 1960s. Trade shops were located in the arched
galleries from the facades of the building. The architectural and
stylistic unity of the building was lost after several
reconstructions. Only the southern part of the shopping arcade has
survived to this day.
Presumably, the project of the building
of the Trade Rows in the classical style was developed by the
architect Nikolai von Berk, who at that time was engaged in the
regular development plan of the city. The galleries of the St.
Petersburg Gostiny Dvor served as the prototype of the building.
In 1790, the construction of the first line was completed,
running along Tsaritsynskaya and Central streets. In 1791, there
were 51 shops in the Trading Rows, where they sold all kinds of
goods from shoes and clothes to food. Behind the Trade Rows was the
Market Square with shops and shops. One could get there through a
passage in the shopping galleries from the side of Bolshaya
Moskovskaya Street, which was popularly called the "Woman's Gate".
In 1792, the construction of the northern wing began, where
flour and butcher shops were to be located, the project of which was
carried out by the architect I.A. Chistyakov.
In 1913, a two-story rotunda was added to the eastern
wing according to the project of S.M. Zharov, who diversified the
architectural and stylistic character of the structure. The arcade of
the facade of the rows echoed the columns of the portico of the
Nikolo-Zlatovratskaya church (not preserved to our time), as well as the
house of the Noble Assembly (today the House of Officers), which stood
on the same side of the street.
In the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, the first provincial library was located above the "Woman's
Gate". It existed only on private donations. The library occupied two
rooms. There was also a reading room. In 1908 the library was
transferred to P. Ilyin's house.
In 1911, the owners of the trading
house "Boyarinov and Kuznetsov" decided to rebuild their shops located
in the front line of the Torgovye Ryad. The merchants settled on the
project of the architect S.M. Zharova. Thus, a two-story store appeared,
which the residents of Vladimir also call "bricks" - in appearance of
the building - glazed bricks were used in the decoration of the facade
of the store.
In 1914 V.A. Petrovsky, the owner of a corner
trading shop on Tsaritsynskaya Street, also decided to rebuild the
trading premises according to the project of the same architect.
Vladimirtsy and this store found its name. Because of the round tower,
which was decorated with bas-reliefs, this store was called the “round
GUM” (today it is the “Clothes House”).
During the expansion of
Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street, carried out in 1950-1952, most of the rows
lost their arcade design. The northern part of the Trading Rows was also
dismantled.
Currently, the Trading Rows continue to perform their
original functions. It is planned to restore the northern part of them.
Today, the Vladimir Trade Rows is the largest shopping complex in the
city and region, with an area of more than 30,000 sq.m., besides, it is
an architectural monument of local significance.