A horseshoe-shaped apartment building has long been one of the recognizable symbols of the city of Ivanovo. The house was built in 1933 for employees of the OGPU - the political police and the party elite.
The semicircular house is an example of constructivist architecture. Its facade is decorated with risalits - vertical projections running the full height of the building. Triangular open balconies were made on the projecting columns, emphasizing the shape of the building. The apartments in Dom-podkova vary - from two to six rooms; both ordinary employees and senior management lived here. The ground floor was intended for shops; in Soviet times there was a large Voentorg store here.
The house of party employees is surrounded by legends, some of which resemble carefully concealed truth. They say that Dom-podkova has this design not just for beauty. Thanks to its shape, this house could turn into a fortress that could hold the line for a long time in the event of an enemy attack.
The stair flights and landings here are unusually wide, suitable for forming small detachments. Guides for iron shutters were built into the window reveals, which were lowered in case of shelling.
And the main myth concerns the underground passages beneath the house, through which one could retreat to the KGB building, and where there were bomb shelters, torture chambers, and large baths of sulfuric acid in which the bodies of executed criminals were dissolved.
