7 MOST extravagant houses of 19th century Moscow

1. The Levenson House, Trekhprudnyi Lane, 9

This house, designed by architect Fyodor Shekhtel, was built for Alexander Levenson, the proprietor of a famous Moscow typography, in 1900. The house had space for printing machines, as well as living premises. The highlight of the house is a fascinating roof lantern. Recently, the house was scientifically restored and is now for sale. The 1,000-sq.m. building’s price tag is 1.1 billion rubles (approx. $14.4 mln).

2. The Zimins House, Degtyarny Lane, 8/3

What seems an ordinary house from the outside is really one of the poshest mansions of 19th century Moscow, built for Nikolay Zimin, a major Russian tobacco trader. Built in 1896 according to the project by Edmund Yuditsky, it still houses the original interior decoration. Russian cinema buffs might recognize it from the movie ‘Brat-2’, directed by Alexey Balabanov.

Currently, the building houses the Agency for the Management and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Ministry of Culture of Russia – some of the foremost specialists in heritage preservation in the country.

3. The Igumnov House, Bolshaya Yakimanka Street, 43

This house looks like a palace right out of a Russian fairytale, but it was actually built in 1895 (designed by architect Nikolay Pozdneev), at the order of Nikolay Igumnov, a textile tycoon from Yaroslavl.

The bricks were shipped in from the Netherlands, the fascinating porcelain facade tiles made following a special order at the Kuznetsov porcelain factory, the most famous in Russia at the time. The cost of the house was allegedly around 1 million rubles (when 150 rubles was a solid year’s salary). Inside, the 40 rooms of the house were decorated in a variety of styles – from traditional Russian to art nouveau.

Currently, the Igumnov House is the residence of the French ambassador to Russia.

4. The Morozova House, Spiridonovka Street, 17

Another house by Fyodor Shekhtel, a star of Moscow art nouveau, was commissioned by Zinaida Morozova, the wife of Savva Morozov, a textile tycoon.

The interior design was made by a famous painter Mikhail Vrubel, who made several murals inspired by chivalry aesthetics of Medieval Europe, resonating with the neo-gothic style of the house.

In 1938, the Morozova House became the House of Receptions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which it stays to this day.

5. The Vtorov Mansion (Spaso House), Spasopeskovskaya Square

This mansion, commissioned by textile industrialist Nikolay Vtorov, was built in 1913. It takes its English name, Spaso House, from Spasopeskovskaya Square, where it is located. It’s a neo-classical recreation of a classic upper-class city mansion of the 1820s, with palladian windows and a perfectly symmetrical interior plan.

Vtorov’s family lived in the house for just 4 years before the Revolution, after which the house was expropriated by the new Soviet government to serve as a reception house for the All-Russia Central Executive Committee.

In 1933, the house became the residence of William C. Bullitt, the first U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, and has stayed the residence of the U.S. ambassadors ever since. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan all stayed there when they visited Moscow.

6. The Ryabushinsky Mansion, Malaya Nikitskaya Street, 6/2

This mansion, again built by Fyodor Shekhtel, this time for millionaire Stepan Ryabushinsky in 1900-1902, is probably the architect’s most famous work in Moscow. Apart from all the fascinating art nouveau interior decoration and the famous stairwell with a jellyfish lamp, the mansion also housed a secret chapel – the Ryabushinskis were Old Believers, outlawed in Russia until 1905. “I believe that in the whole of Europe there is no house like this,” Ryabushinski said when examining the newly-built mansion.

After 1917, when the Ryabushinsky family fled Russia, the house became the state’s property and, in 1931, writer Maxim Gorky and his family started living there. Gorky didn’t like the mansion at all, calling it “awkward, but fit for working at least”. After Gorky’s death, the mansion became Maxim Gorky’s personal museum, which helped preserve the unique interiors of the house to the present day.

7. The Berg City Mansion, Denezhny Lane, 5/1

Constructed in 1897 by Pyotr Boytsov, the house was commissioned by a businessman named Sergey Berg. It comprises different styles – gothic, baroque and art nouveau. Berg’s mansion was one of the first Moscow homes to have electricity installed – lighting and an electric doorbell. It was here that the first “electric ball” was held.

The house, which had preserved all its original interior decoration, was renovated in 2016. It currently houses the Italian Embassy in Russia.