"HUT ON CHICKEN LEGS"Â
The pavilion that got the name "Hut on Chicken Legs" for its fairy-tale look was built under the project of Viktor Vasnetsov not far from the church in 1883. The hut has a thick-log frame that rests upon the stumps, and a gable roof crowned by an apex with a horse head at the northern fronton. At the northern side the frame extends to a lean-to standing on pillars covered with straw while the southern part has a "balcony" with a boarded roof. Stylized images of an owl and a bat adorning the hut's frontons became later popular decorative motifs in the Art Nouveau style in Russia. "From the orthodox church we directed to a 'pagan temple' or something that reminded the small hut on chicken legs... – Mikhail Nesterov wrote about his first visit to Abramtsevo. – All breathes of Russ, the Russ of old. Everything is gloomy, old spruces inclined their branches as if they are listening with deference to the jerky and plaintive squeals of dozens of owls that are sitting on the branches and flying from one tree to another. This is an odd construction that has nothing equal to its epic fantasy". Â
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