A mansion for the millionaire Morozov and a dacha for Shalyapin: the extravagant architecture of the mystic Mazyrin, who was criticized by Leo Tolstoy

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It is believed that all geniuses are a little strange, and this rule also applies to architects. Moscow architect Viktor Mazyrin, fashionable at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, also had his own oddities. However, they allowed him to think wider and give birth to ideas that would hardly have occurred to an ordinary person. And let some of his creations 100 years ago caused bewilderment and indignation of the townspeople, but now we admire them.

Love for mysticism helped create

Victor Mazyrin Born in 1859 in the Simbirsk province. His parents died early and he was raised by his aunt. She didn't even bring up so much as she visited, because from the age of nine Viktor lived and studied at the Nizhny Novgorod gymnasium for boys. He grew up as a great dreamer and lover of secrets.

In 1876, Viktor Mazyrin easily entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he met and made friends with many artists who later received great fame.

Since his school years, the future architect was fond of mysticism, and at a more mature age, in the process of his visits to distant countries - for example, Japan and Egypt, this interest only intensified. Mazyrin more than once took part in the spiritualistic séances that were fashionable in Moscow at that time and, either jokingly or seriously, said that in his past life he was the builder of the Egyptian pyramids.

However, the young architect brought from his travels not only mystical impressions, but also a lot of professional knowledge. Examining the greatest creations of foreign architects, he constantly made sketches and photographs in order to later use the most interesting architectural elements in his work.

Great talent and breadth of creative ideas allowed Mazyrin to create in various directions and get a lot of customers. The architect, fashionable among the advanced wealthy youth, designed merchant tenement houses, estates, mansions, and exhibition pavilions. Mazyrin's friend, singer Fyodor Chaliapin entrusted him with the construction of his dacha in Pereslavl district.

Designed by a mystic architect and Orthodox churches. For example, he became the author of a new church in Kuntsevo (1905) and a wooden Trinity church in Losinka (1916). Alas, both of these temples have not survived.

House on Vozdvizhenka

With Arseny Morozov, a cousin of the famous merchant Savva Morozov, the architect met in Antwerp, where they both came to the exhibition. The young millionaire, like Viktor Mazyrin, was an extraordinary and even reckless person, so they immediately found a common language. Upon learning that Arseny was going to build a new house on Vozdvizhenka (the plot was given to him by his mother), the architect offered his services, promising that the building would be very unusual. The construction of the mansion was to be timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Morozov.

After consulting, the customer and the architect decided to take the famous Pena Palace in Portugal as a basis and sculpt something of their own on this "sketch".

The result is a Moorish-Spanish mixture of Art Nouveau and eclecticism of such a bizarre look that after the construction of the house, all of Moscow started talking about. The architect's act was considered very daring and shocking, because such a strange, albeit beautiful, building stood out strongly against the background of Moscow's architecture of those years. According to rumors, the mother of the young millionaire, domineering and straightforward Varvara Alekseevna Morozova, having seen the new house of her son, summed up: "Before, I alone knew that you were a fool, but now the whole city will know about it."

The house was often criticized in the press, and even Leo Tolstoy in his "Resurrection" did not refrain from caustic mention of this building, which, they say, is as stupid and unnecessary as its owner.

But the new owner really liked the light building with twisted columns and carved shells on the walls.

The young owner soon died. They said that the cause of the tragedy was his careless trick: once, being drunk, Arseny Morozov decided to demonstrate his willpower to his friends and shot himself in the leg. Subsequently, this led to gangrene, which the body could not cope with.

After the revolution, this unique mansion, like all other merchant houses, was nationalized. Over the years, anarchists met here, actors played, embassies of India, Japan, and Great Britain were located.

And 12 years ago, the building became the official Reception House of the Government of the Russian Federation. Thanks to such a high status, the mansion is now in very good condition - it has been restored, and not only the exterior, but also the interior interiors have been restored.

Modern connoisseurs of architecture, unlike Muscovites at the end of the century before last, consider this house not at all vulgar and not stupid, but, on the contrary, very beautiful.

House on Baumanka

On Baumanskaya Street, where this building stands, there used to be a German settlement. Since the 18th century, it was considered a separate place in Moscow - foreign Lutherans lived here, as well as rich merchants-Old Believers, who at that time were considered schismatic gentiles and therefore were not recognized in society.

Due to the abundance of Europeans, in the German Quarter there were many buildings built in the Gothic style, almost all of which, alas, are currently lost. Therefore, the apartment house of a rich merchant, a native of peasants, Anton Frolov, is of great interest as a memory of the pre-revolutionary German settlement.

Viktor Mazyrin had previously designed Gothic-style buildings, but this house became especially memorable, since it stood out from a number of more modest ones in its scale. Like the Morozov house, this building was also criticized by contemporaries for its "immodesty".

The mansion was built in 1914. The owner did not use it for long, because the revolution happened. The building was briefly given to various organizations, after which communal apartments for Soviet citizens were equipped in it. At the end of the last century, as happened with many apartments in the center of Moscow, communal apartments were resettled and bought by new owners. The building has four floors and now each of them has a separate apartment (there was a cafe on the ground for some time).

Although part of this house needs renovation, the overall appearance is very beautiful and picturesque. Often Moscow art students come to draw it. Sometimes the curious manages to get into the entrance, because there is something to see: chic stained-glass windows have been preserved since pre-revolutionary times.

It is very interesting to compare Mazyrin's works with the houses of another talented and very fashionable architect of pre-revolutionary Moscow, Fyodor Shekhtel.