Recently, a miracle happened to me, a real adventure. I RIDE THE PATERNOSTER!
I dreamed of it for a long time, but I didn’t think it was possible. There are not many of them left in the world. In Germany – 231, in the Czech Republic – about 70, in Hungary – 27. There are also several in Denmark, Sweden, Great Britain, Poland, Finland, Ukraine. In the USSR, there were paternosters in the house of the Tsentrosoyuz, Gostorg on Myasnitskaya and in the building “E” of the MPEI. I went to the building of the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture, which is now the Ministry of Agriculture.
The name comes from the Latin word paternoster , which means “rosary”, literally “Our Father”. The elevator does not stop for boarding and disembarking passengers and has no doors. It moves very slowly, passing a floor in about 15 seconds. In the cabin you can ride one or two, this is the maximum. Since I had the opportunity to ride such an elevator, I drove through all the floors, got out on each, observed, photographed. It was a real delight.
Only one paternoster remained in the building, the second was replaced with a modern electric elevator. However, most visitors prefer to use the old one. You don’t have to wait, the next booth drives up in just a few seconds, step in and go.
What if you don’t exit on the top floor and drive through the turning mechanism? The label says it’s safe. I checked, everything is ok. But the first time was dumb, the light goes out. Below is the video.
Behind the shaft with new elevators, another one was found, which stops between floors. It is not clear why it is needed, because in any case, you will have to use the stairs. At the same time I saw what the paternoster looks like from the back side. Nothing interesting, it was just sheathed during the last renovation.
To understand how a paternoster lift works, imagine a Ferris wheel, but not round, but oval, stretched upwards. Cabins ride exactly the same, only they are inside the mine. I was wondering how many there are in total. I counted 18. Actually, I didn’t count, they are just numbered 🙂
The building of the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture is located on the Garden Ring near the Krasnye Vorota metro station. The People’s Commissariat of Agriculture is the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture or the entire People’s Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR. Now the building is occupied by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. The interior decoration has not been preserved. They say that only the assembly hall remained Soviet, but I did not see it. In the process of repair, windows were replaced, the color of the facade also became different.
The world’s first continuous elevator appeared in the English city of Dartford, it was in 1884.
The building for the Narkomzem began to be built in 1928, the paternoster was installed in the early 1930s, earlier than in the famous Tsentrosoyuz . And, it should be noted, the elevator works to this day, and in the Central Union it is under repair. They might launch.
In Gostorg, as far as I know, the elevators have been replaced with modern ones. It remains to find out about MEI. I heard that the elevator seems to be operational, however, they turn it on extremely rarely, only for special occasions. It would be great to attend, now I have a new dream. How to get there?
It turns out that in the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture the last used paternoster. I got a unique experience 🙂
