page_title: Devichye Pole
section_title: Medical Campus, 1884-1897
hierarchical_section_title: Devichye Pole / History / Medical Campus, 1884-1897
caption_attribution_description: Devichye Pole, Moscow, Medical Campus - Clinics
context_page_description: Devichye Pole is a historical medical campus, built between 1887 and 1897 in Khamovniki District of Moscow, Russia, to the master plan of Konstantin Bykovski. It is located between the Garden Ring and Novodevichy Convent. Originally the medical department of Moscow State University, it is now split between Moscow Medical Academy, Russian State Medical University and various state and private clinics. The territory also includes Russian State Archives and Devichye Pole park.
context_section_description: Need for new hospitals for the public and training facilities for Moscow State University was imminent since the 1870s. Proposals by professor Novatsky (1873) and Varvara Morozova (1882) were left unfulfilled, but in 1884 the initiative of professor Nikolay Sklifosovskiy was approved by the City Hall. City issued free land in Devichye Pole (originally, 18 hectares), national government set aside 2 million roubles, the rest came from private sponsors (notably, Morozov, Khludov and Shelaputin families). University board picked Konstantin Bykovsky by internal vote, instead of a public contest, saving time and ensuring architect's dependence. Professors Alexander Makeyev, Fyodor Erismann, Vladimir Snegirev and Nikolay Sklifosovskiy and Bykovsky formed the project management board. In 1884-1885, Bykovsky, Erismann and Snegirev travelled Europe, inspecting the best institutions of their time. Master plan was ready by the end of 1885, but the national government released its share 2.15 million roubles only in July 1887. Thus, state-funded construction lagged behind private-funded clinics.
  The campus was lined along Bolshaya Tsaritsynsksya (now Bolshaya Pirogovskaya) Street, with state-funded clinics on the right (north) side and privately funded clinics on the left. This explains the difference in architecture - right side is uniformly Neoclassical, left side varies from pure Palladian architecture to Beaux Arts and Russian Revival fantasies.
  Construction of the first stage, launched in 1887, was generally completed by 1892 under general management of architect Konstantin Bykovsky (1841–1906). Bykovsky personally designed most of state-funded buildings. Additions were being built continuously after this date, most notably Roman Klein-designed Gynecology Institute (1896) and Pirogov monument by Vladimir Sherwood (1897). The project was unique to Russia and widely praised overseas: for the first time in national history, a large medical institution was designed and built with virtually no limitation in funds and land, so Bykovsky provided a generous margin for future expansion.
  The first clinic to be opened was a psychiatric clinic funded by Varvara Morozova (1886), now  remembered partly by the Pyotr Gannushkin working there.  This was followed by professor Snegirev's Gynecology clinic in 1889, funded by Morozov and Nosov families. This clinic was later built out from two to four-story, Snegirev monument by Sergey Konenkov installed in 1967. Other privately owned clinics followed, some linked to personal tragedies in sponsors' family life (Khludov and Bazanova endowments, 1896). An orphanage, paid for by Nikolai Mazurin and designed by Illarion Ivanov-Schitz was completed in 1895 (now housing Embassy of Vietnam). The last building of the first stage was the University Outpatient Clinic, funded by Varvara Alekseyeva, now housing the main building of Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy.
caption: Right-side, city-funded clinics
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