L’isba Magnifique

2017. Moscow, Russia

This is the story of two Russian terems or tower houses — one in Paris and another in Astashovo of the Chukhloma municipal district in the Kostroma Region. This is a story about the fate of two facilities built at the same time and in the same style, but located in different countries, a story about people and their attitude towards their cultural heritage. It is a rather small study, the purpose of which is not to assert something, but to identify problems and raise questions. In the course of studying the history of these buildings, the bureau compared events that affected their fate with events in the history of the two countries, France and Russia, and also tried to draw parallels between the development of restoration school s and legislation in the field of cultural heritage preservation in these countries during almost two centuries. The presentation of the study’s results was timed to the 300th anniversary of diplomatic and cultural relations between Russia and France, and was held within the framework of setting up the RE-SCHOOL Russian-French Restoration School.