The Salt Fish Yard was built in the 16th–17th centuries and served as a storage and trading space for salt, potash, and salted fish. The reconstructed and dilapidated buildings of the Salt Yard were dismantled in 1913. In their place, between 1913 and 1915, multi-story income houses in the neoclassical style were built. The architects behind the project were V.V. Sherwood, I.A. German, and A.E. Sergeev.

Beneath these buildings lie labyrinthine basements—possibly remnants of the old Salt Yard warehouses or storage spaces for the income houses. A series of long arches forms a network of enclosed courtyards, which have served as filming locations for numerous movies. Among the most notable are Brother 2 and the Soviet sci-fi classic Through the Thorns to the Stars. Today, this historic building houses the GROUND-Solyanka gallery-workshop.

The Salt Temple of Everyday Life

Salt is the mistress of this place. It sanctifies the old belongings of the house’s residents—their clothes, wardrobes—seeping through time, salting the entire space.

Salt preserves, protects.

Salt angels, the keepers of the Temple of Everyday Life, wander through the memories of the Salt House’s inhabitants, eavesdropping on their thoughts, performing rituals: carving salt symbols onto the doors of the wardrobe-temple, immersing objects in saline solutions.

From the house’s very depths—where the Salt Yard once stood—salt creeps upward, crystallizing on fabric. Household items, once merely possessions, become sacred relics. Some are no longer used in daily life but have transformed into cherished family heirlooms.

The relics of the Salt Temple come from the personal archive of Nina Grozdova, a third-generation resident of the House Beneath the Angels.

The exploration continues—artists learn more and more about the life of the Salt House from its residents, engraving their discoveries onto the wooden doors of the altar-wardrobe.