QR-35 - An ensemble of buildings: a bank, an outbuilding of the bank

Object	An ensemble of buildings: a bank, an outbuilding of the bank
Dating	the middle of the 19th century.
Type	An ensemble.
Status	a cultural heritage site of federal importance.
Address	10, 12 Kremlin Sq., Vologda, Russia.
A brief description	A town mansion, built by A.V. Sorokin, a peasant from village Turundayevo, who was then a major Vologda contractor. The main two-storey building of the mansion is the largest civil construction in Kremlin square. In different times the building was occupied by various government agencies, for the longest period of time by the Vologda branch of the State Bank. Now it houses the Museum of Lace.
Condition	good.
Contemporary use	Now it is occupied by a branch of the Vologda State Museum-Reserve "Museum of Lace" (12 Kremlin Square), and offices of the Vologda Regional Art Gallery (10 Kremlin Square).
History The main building and the outbuilding of the town mansion were built in the middle of the 19^th century by Alexander Vasilyevich Sorokin (1817-1895), a peasant from village Turundayevo, who was then a major Vologda contractor. Sorokin was repeatedly elected a member of the Vologda Town’s Duma, and for two terms was the mayor of the town of Vologda. In 1859 he sold the mansion to Nikolai Petrovich Bryanchaninov (1810-1894), Marshal of the nobility of the Vologda County, resigned Guard Lieutenant Colonel. The house was rented by the Vologda Exchequer and Provincial Treasury. The archive of the Exchequer was kept in the unheated one-storey bank outbuilding. In 1886 N.P.Bryanchaninov sold both buildings to the Vologda branch of the State Bank. In 1886-1892 after renovations, besides the offices of the State Bank, apartments of the manager and some employees of the bank were accommodated there. The branch of the State Bank occupied the building till 1999. Later there were various agencies, including the Department of Culture of the Vologda region. Among others it carried out functions of the supervision over the preservation of the monuments of history and culture. In 2010 the main building housed a branch of the Vologda State Museum-Reserve -Museum of Lace - one of the largest of its kind in the world. The outbuilding is occupied by offices of Vologda Regional Art Gallery.
Architectural description A stone two-storey main building of the mansion is a model of a big detached house, decorated in the spirit of St. Petersburg classical architecture of the mid 19^th century. Its main facade with two highly prominent side risalits faces Kremlin square. The ground floor has deeper rust, than the first floor. The ground floor windows are framed with simple head-moldings - shelves. The windows of the first floor have semicircular tops, framed with elegant architraves of the Renaissance type in the form of a rectangular frame with a fascia, covering an arched doorway with a small keystone. The crowning cornice of the building is supported by volute brackets, between which stucco is placed. Along the edge of a gambrel roof there is an elegant stone balustrade with pillars topped by vases at the corners of the building. The main entrance is located in the center of the main facade, above which there is a balcony. The outbuilding is an elongated stone building under a gambrel roof, with an abutting end facing the square. The building has a first (mezzanine) floor, arranged in the twentieth century. The decor of the outbuilding follows the design of the main building in a simplified way. The walls with thin rust are dissected with sill molding of a simple profile, the facade is crowned with a simple frieze and a cornice without decor, framing of the windows of the north and west facades is a simplified copy of the first floor architraves of the main building.
Restoration When the main building of the mansion was occupied by the bank, one of its rooms was used as a vault, protected by a steel door. In the middle of the twentieth century, in front of the building on either side of the entrance there were painted concrete statues of V.I. Lenin and I.V.Stalin. During the restoration of the building in the late 2000s, later structures (including the vault) were dismantled; the entrance vestibule with a balcony over it, the balustrade around the roof, and the fencing of the mansion were restored. The outbuilding was originally one-storey. The entrance, decorated similarly to the windows, was in the middle of the north side facade. On either side of the entrance there were three windows. In 1886-1892 the outbuilding was rebuilt and used for accommodation by the Vologda branch of the State Bank: it was heated then, and chimneys appeared on the roof. In the twentieth century, they arranged the first (mezzanine) floor, made a door in the center of the main facade. Also they removed the architraves and halved the size of the windows of the north facade, punched windows of the mezzanine floor on both the north and south facades. From the east extensions were built to the building. At the end of the 20^th century the west and north courtyard facades got back their original design, but the building remained two-storey, and retained its additions. Text by Alexander Suvorov. Translated by Olga Leonidova, Dariya Solovtsova.
Information about the partner of the project In 2013, through the funding of our project partner, the communications and mobile operator Tele2, an information plate containing a QR-code was installed at the entrance to the ensemble.