They collected 12,000 champagne bottles and built an incredible house as a heartfelt tribute

In the snowy western Urals, where winter hangs heavy and only white flakes tend to sparkle, Eldar Ilchibayev and his father built a house out of 12,000 empty champagne bottles. It wasn’t for attention, or eco-points, or even because they really like champagne. It was because Eldar’s younger brother died in 2007 – and this glass-walled tribute was his idea.

How did they collect 12,000 bottles of champagne?

Over two years, as reported by Afisha back in 2017, the pair drove across towns swapping beer and vodka bottles at recycling centers in exchange for the green-glass vessels they needed. Neighbors got involved too, donating their party leftovers to help finish what became the late brother’s vision.

The construction itself is deceptively solid. A timber frame forms the skeleton, anchored to a stone base. The bottles are packed around the beams, separated by foam plastic and filled with concrete and waste material to insulate and stabilize. From a distance, it glints like stained glass. Up close, it’s a wall of memory.

If they’d drunk the contents themselves, it would’ve meant knocking back more than 30 bottles a day for a year, something we’d not recommend.

Now a minor landmark, the house attracts a steady stream of visitors, who often show up with a camera and leave with a story. Some come for the novelty. Others stay quiet a moment longer, knowing this isn’t just a building. It’s a promise kept, one bottle at a time.

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