by Vyacheslav YANOVSKY, Cand. Sc. (Hist.), senior lecturer of the Stavropol State Pedagogical Institute Health resorts take a special place in public life of any country, as they should dispose people to rest and delight the eye. After all, an aesthetic pleasure which people enjoy through their visual, hearing, and tactile senses has a curative and revitalizing action. Therefore, it is of interest to note how different achievements of human civilization, including "the frozen music" of architecture, happen to be reflected in a fancy way in health resorts. In our country this was most manifest in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. "ALEXANDRIAN ECLECTICISM" Back in the second half of the 1870s the Caucasian Mineral Waters Region (CMWR -Ed.) saw a rampant growth of health resorts, which reached its peak in a period of 1900-1914. It was attributed to a railroad laid to and within Northern Caucasia, which made heath resorts more accessible to people of different regions of Russia. At that time such construction styles as Moderne (Art Nouveau)*, neoclassicism and what was called 'Alexandrian eclecticism"** dominated in Russian architecture. The modernist style, one of the visiting cards at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, came from Europe. It * See: T. Geidor, "Russian Architecture of the Silver Age", Science in Russia, No. 6, 2009.--Ed. ** See: T. Geidor, "Diversity of Styles in Russian Architecture", Science in Russia, No. 5, 2009-Ed. стр. 94 incorporated elements of all previous styles. Buildings thus put up remind palaces, castles and even factory buildings. Attention was paid both to the carefully elaborated exteriors and interiors. All structural components, such as staircases, doors, pillars and balconies were decorated. In addition, the builders used advanced technologies including such materials as metal, glass, and the like. However, the modernist style could not satisfy the need for imposing mo ... Читать далее