Yeliseyev's Emporium

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Art nouveau in Moscow

As a Belgian visitor you can't believe what you see when entering the store Gastronom nr. 1, formerly known as Yeliseyev's Emporium in Moscow. Just try to imagine: you're 2.500 km from home, in the boistering shopping street Tverskaya close to Pushkin's monument, and absolutely overwhelmed by the biggest and most authentic art nouveau interior you've ever seen - except if you ever saw Horta's Peoples' House in Brussels before it was destroyed, of course.

But my thoughts are wandering: you're looking at the left, seeing the beers. A wall of Belgium. More Belgian beers than you ever can find in any store at home. From Hoegaarden over Brugs Witbier, Kriek from Belle-Vue, Lambiek from Mort Subite, all six Belgian trappist beers, Grimbergen to the inevitable Stella Artois, of course. When recovered from your astonishment you turn to the right where you see two rows of chocolates and truffles of which three-quarter consists of...  Côte d'Or, Leonidas, Guylian, Godiva and Neuhaus. A little further there are the cookies of, oh yes, Jules de Strooper, the freezer is filled with mussels and prawns coming from Pieters Visbedrijf. Yes, Yeliseyev's Emporium is the place-to-be for when a Belgian gets homesickness.

Apparently, the Россельхознадзор [Rosselkhoznadzor] or the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of the Russian Federation still has got a lot of work to do because, despite the Presidential Decree No. 560 of 6 August 2014, which prohibits the import of fruit and vegetables from the European Union, the highly appreciated Бельгийские груши Конференц [Belgiskie grushi Konferents] or Belgian Conférence pears were still on the store shelves in April 2018.

The Yeliseyev's Emporium in Moscow was built between 1898 and 1901 on Tverskaya ulitsa by Gabriel Vasilevich Baranovsky (1860-1920), the house architect of the Yeliseyev family, who was assisted for this project by Marian Marianovich Peretyatkovich (1872-1916). Baranovsky was really part of the family at Yeliseyev’s, since he was married to the daughter of  Grigory Yeliseyev.

The Yeliseyevs operated from Saint-Petersburg where they built, between 1900 and 1903, an even bigger art nouveau store, also designed by Gebriel Baranovsky. Architect Marian Peretyatkovich participated to the realisation of other famous buildings in Moscow, like the Pushkin museum and the Hotel Metropol, which is mentioned a few times in The Master and Margarita.

Metro: Пушкинская (Pushkinskaya), Тверская (Tverskaya)



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