The building of the Great Manezh was erected by order of Alexander I in eight months in 1817 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the victory in the 1812 war. The project was developed by engineer Augustin Betancourt, and the construction was overseen by Major General Lev Carbonier, who was responsible for hydraulic and earthworks in Moscow. Initially, the building was called the 'exerciser house' and was intended for military exercises.

The construction faced difficulties. Betancourt and Carbonier proposed a unique technology: wooden trusses spanning 44.86 m without intermediate supports. However, in the summer of 1818, two truss frames cracked. They were repaired, but a year later the problem recurred. By order of Alexander I, from September 1823 to May 1824, the frames were rebuilt, and their number increased from 30 to 45. In August 1824, a ceiling was added to the roof. This engineering marvel of the Empire period was the result of the work of many architects, including Colonel R.R. Baus and engineer-lieutenant A.Ya. Kashperov. In 1825, Osip Bove decorated the Manezh with stucco and plaster.

Since 1831, concerts and public festivities were held in the Manezh. After the revolution, the building was used as a government garage, and since 1957, during the era of Nikita Khrushchev, the Central Exhibition Hall was opened here. Researcher Sergey Petrov, who studied the structure of the Manezh, reported that to preserve the wooden structures, the attic was filled with mahorka, which repelled rodents and insects. Although the mahorka was smoked out during the war, the structures remained in excellent condition even in the 1970s, and the smell of tobacco was still felt in the attic.

This case with mahorka evokes cultural associations related to the history of domestic architecture. Mahorka reminds us of the symbol of Moscow's transformations, the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure, where the first All-Union Agricultural Exhibition took place in 1923. Its symbol was the 'Mahorka' pavilion, created by architect Konstantin Melnikov, an example of avant-garde form creation.