The story of its opening and appearance

According to legend, Arseny, the younger son of Morozov, once visited his brother and decided to build the most unusual house in Moscow. He said: "You, Misha, collect things, and it is unknown what will happen to them. But my house will stand forever." Thus began the story of the house on Vozdvizhka.

Previously, there was a horse circus at the site of house No. 16, owned by Karl Markus Ginne. Until 1892, his only problem was the crowding in the gallery, where visitors often fainted. However, a fire that year destroyed the wooden building, and Ginne had no funds to restore it. The vacant lot was purchased by Varvara Alexeyevna Morozova, who decided to make a gift for her son Arseny. The architect Mazyrin was invited, who proposed a design in the Russian style, but Arseny rejected it. He could not decide what he wanted.

In search of inspiration, the client and the architect traveled through Europe. In the Portuguese Sintra, they were struck by the Palacio Nacional da Pena, and their search ended there. In 1897, Mazyrin's daughter Lida laid the first stone, and construction began.

Mazyrin incorporated elements of the castle into Moscow, replacing live vines with stone ornamentation. By 1899, construction was completed, and the house began to attract attention. Tolstoy described it in his novel "Resurrection" as huge and unusual.

The house received a negative reaction from Muscovites, who criticized it for its lack of taste. Varvara Alexeyevna allegedly told her son that now all of Moscow knows about his foolishness. But Arseny ignored the rumors, held parties in the house, and became fascinated with mysticism. A knot made of ropes, a symbol of prosperity, was carved on the house, but Arseny's fate turned tragic. He died after an unsuccessful argument, during which he shot himself in the leg.

After his death, it turned out that he bequeathed all his property to his mistress, not to his ex-wife and daughter. The widow sued, but the mistress won.

After the revolution, anarchists settled in the mansion, then Proletkult, where Eisenstein and Meyerhold staged performances. In 1932, Proletkult disbanded, and the theater moved earlier.

Since 1928, the house became the residence of the Japanese ambassador, during the war years it housed the editorial office of an English newspaper, and from 1952 to 1954, the embassy of India. In 1959, the mansion became the House of Friendship with the Peoples of Foreign Countries.

Modern Purpose

In 2003, it was decided to place the Government of the Russian Federation's Reception House in the former Morozov house, which occurred after restoration in 2006.