In the times when shipbuilding was developing on the right bank of the Yauza, there was the Matroskaya Sloboda. It is from here that the names of Matroskaya Tishina Street and Matrosky Bridge originate. Peter I built a hospital for sailors next to a linen factory. Between 1805 and 1808, the Preobrazhensky 'dollhaus', or 'House of the Insane', was erected here. The date '1808' can still be seen on its facade. This was the first specialized psychiatric hospital in Moscow and one of the first in Russia. The funds for construction were allocated by Emperor Alexander I, who transferred money collected by the Moscow nobility for his coronation. The project was developed by provincial architect Ivan Selekhov, an assistant to M.F. Kazakov.

The hospital building is designed in the manor style: the main house with a pediment and pilaster portico in the center, with wings connecting it to the side pavilions. Initially, it was designed for 80 patients, each of whom had a separate room. Large halls were located in the center of both floors. The cast-iron balustrades of the staircases have survived to this day. On the extensive grounds of the hospital, there are several 19th-century buildings surrounded by an old park. Of particular interest is a wooden wing facing Matroskaya Tishina, of which few remain in Moscow.

Outstanding Russian psychiatrists worked at the Preobrazhenskaya Hospital: V.F. Sabler, N.N. Bazhenov, A.S. Kronfeld, V.A. Gilyarovsky (after whom the hospital is named today, not to be confused with the famous journalist). However, their fame pales in comparison to that of one of the patients, the holy fool, seer, and prophet Ivan Yakovlevich Koreysha (1783-1861), who lived here for over forty years. Koreysha was described by Leskov, Ostrovsky, and Dostoevsky. Crowds gathered at the walls of the 'dollhaus' wanting to know their future, mostly women, demanding meetings with Koreysha. It got to the point where tickets for his 'sessions' were sold for 20 kopecks, ensuring the institution's prosperity. Koreysha typically gave incoherent and associative answers that required a great imagination for interpretation. Visitors even studied the dried sheets from his bed (Ivan Yakovlevich never got up) and took pieces home. When Koreysha fell seriously ill, he was allowed free entry to say goodbye. Eight days before his death, he requested fish soup made from eight perch. After his death, a crowd of weeping women and men carried his coffin to the cemetery at the Church of Elijah the Prophet in Cherkizovo. Fresh flowers, gingerbread, and candies are still laid on his grave today by his admirers.

In the museum of the Preobrazhenskaya Hospital, a medical card of Koreysha has been preserved, which states: 'Causes of illness: frenzied engagement with religious books. The illness is completely incurable.' Perhaps it was Koreysha that Nikolai Gogol wanted to see a few days before his death, experiencing a spiritual crisis. There is a well-known story about how during Maslenitsa in 1852, he hired a cab and traveled across Moscow to the Preobrazhenskaya Hospital. Upon arriving at the gates, Gogol hesitated to enter, walked back and forth, then stepped away, standing in the snow and wind for a long time, contemplating something. Eventually, he got into the sleigh and ordered to return to Nikitsky Boulevard.