Solodovnya Center

Solodovnya is a new space for contemporary culture in the Khamovniki district. Its building (one of the few surviving structures of the former Experimental Beverage Plant in Khamovniki) was carefully restored while preserving its historical appearance and striking architectural dominants, including the oven’s ventilating pipe. Today, the center provides an opportunity for a lively dialogue between the classics and the modern without borders and museum showcases.

The Khamovniki Island guide is Solodovnya’s first book publication. It resulted from a year of fruitful work and is a continuation of the center's exhibition of the same name. The guide for adults and children invites you to stroll through the Moscow district of Khamovniki, get acquainted with its rich past, and walk the roads of history.

Quiet and green, the area is at the same time rich in symbolism and culture. Pieces of old Moscow, many museums, squares, and parks have been preserved here. Khamovniki is famous for its residents. Writers Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, Ilya Ehrenburg, Mikhail Bulgakov, poet Afanasy Fet, architects Roman Klein, Alexey Shchusev, Konstantin Melnikov left their mark here. The guide touches on the topics of industrial and architectural heritage and tells about the innovations of the 19th century in Russian medicine, enlightenment and education. At the same time, the district is revealed to the reader from a personal perspective, through the memories of its  residents over more than a century.