Gardarika

3-12

Authors: Olga Yu. Larionova

Every year in Votkinsk (Udmurt Republic) there are less and less pre-revolutionary wooden houses decorated with carvings, which either collapse or lose their original appearance due to free reconstruction of the owners. Without state support with targeted funding to preserve the historical and cultural environment of Votkinsk, which is a world-famous center of tourism, it will not be possible to rectify the situation. Over the past decade, the number of houses decorated with wooden carvings has declined significantly. Modern reconstructions turn unique historic houses into impersonal ones with siding and with plastic windows. From the once long Gospodskaya street, stretching from the pond to the Votka River (modern Tchaikovsky Street) on both sides of the house of P.I. Tchaikovsky left only 3 wooden buildings of pre-revolutionary construction. Over the past 10 years, to the right and left of the museum-estate of P.I. Tchaikovsky demolished 11 wooden houses with carved decor (two of them last year), 9 stone cottages were rebuilt, leaving only 5 wooden houses decorated with carvings, and 2 of them were built in the middle of the 20th century, and 1 the wooden house was reconstructed (siding without decor), there were also 2 half-stone houses, one of which (Tchaikovsky st., 139) is no longer in use and began to collapse, despite the fact that the ensemble of the Gospodskaya street was recognized as an object of historical and cultural value. Wooden houses of the late XIX – early XX centuries, which are still an adornment of the city and its cultural heritage, are still preserved in the city, and a program for their preservation is necessary.