When it was decided to imprison the Romanov family in Ekaterinburg, the Bolsheviks chose a house located in the historical center of the city on Voznessenski Street to be used as a jail : Ipatiev house, after its owner's name, Nicholas Ipatiev. This man lived here with his family on the first floor of the house and used the ground floor rooms of his house as offices to his metallurgy business. It was a spacious (18 by 31 square meters), modern, and comfortable house with electricity, a telephone, and even a bathroom and lavatory. The house also had a terrace and a little garden with some trees and bushes like poplar, birch, and lime.

     The house was built on ground with a double slope and part of the ground floor rooms on Voznessenski Street were almost in the basement.

     The house was built in 1897 by a man named Andrei Redikortsev, who was an engineer in the iron mines. But Andrei Redikortsev was involved in corruption cases and was forced to sell his house to another man, IG Charaviev. This man also worked in platinum mines in the west of the Urals. Later, in 1908, IG Charaviev sold the house to Nicholas Ipatiev for 6000 rubles.

     Ten years later, on Saturday, the 27th of April, the Bolsheviks asked Nicholas Ipatiev to leave his house with two days notice after having stored his belongings in a closed, small room on the ground floor. On the map, it's the little room next to the cellar room.

     After Nicholas Ipatiev's departure, the Bolsheviks built a high wooden fence all round the Ipatiev house, transforming the house into a fortress. The house had become "the house of special purpose," ready to welcome the Romanov family...

Ipatiev house View #01

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Ipatiev house View #07