The estate of the Golitsyn princes on Volkhonka has changed its appearance multiple times over its three-century existence. The original design was created by the famous St. Petersburg architect Savva Chevakinsky. In 1774, the estate was reconstructed and became the central part of the Prechisten Palace, which Matvey Kazakov designed for Catherine II.

This house has seen many famous people. A. S. Pushkin often attended the luxurious balls, where he even planned to marry Natalia Goncharova in the estate's chapel. However, the wedding took place at the Church of the Ascension near Nikitskiye Gates. In 1877, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky settled in the main house, where he completed the play "The Last Sacrifice" and wrote "The Dowryless Woman," "Heart is Not Stone," and "Talents and Admirers." In 1885, Ivan Sergeyevich Aksakov, one of the leaders of the Slavophile movement, occupied the neighboring apartment.

In 1865, a free museum based on family collections opened in five halls of the main house of the Golitsyn estate. The museum consisted of three sections: Western European painting, sculpture, and decorative applied art; antique monuments; and a library. The painting collection included works by masters such as Bruegel, Van Dyck, Veronese, Canaletto, Caravaggio, Perugino, Poussin, and Rembrandt. A year later, due to financial difficulties, the museum's collection was sold to the Hermitage. After the revolution, in the late 1920s, the main house of the estate became the Communist Academy and was raised by two floors, resulting in the loss of the pediment. The only thing that has remained in its original form is the impressive gates with the princely coat of arms of the Golitsyns.

After reconstruction, the former building of the central body of the Golitsyn estate will open the Gallery of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art. Here, works by outstanding masters of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries will be exhibited: Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse and the Fauves, Picasso and the Cubists. These works come from the collections of famous pre-revolutionary Moscow collectors S. I. Shchukin and I. A. Morozov.