Table of contents:
- Austrian embassy building
- Embassy of New Zealand
- Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco
- Embassy of Denmark
- Gabon embassy building
- Chilean embassy building
- Italian embassy building
Video: Whose houses were foreign embassies placed in after the revolution: Special purpose mansions
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Many Moscow mansions, built shortly before the revolution, were subsequently transferred to the embassies of foreign states. Each such "small palace" is a separate story and a separate destiny. Alas, the former owners had a chance to live in their mansions for a very short time, and for more than a decade they have been occupied by completely different “owners” - foreigners. However, the buildings of the embassies are still called by historians, architects and old-timers after the names of their former owners - wealthy Moscow entrepreneurs.
Austrian embassy building
The building of the Austrian embassy, built in 1906 in Prechistensky lane, before the revolution belonged to the textile industrialist Nikolai Mindovsky. This house, located at the corner of Starokonyushenny and Prechistensky lanes, was built by the Moscow Trade and Construction Joint Stock Company for sale.
The mansion was built according to the project of the architect Nikita Lazarev in the neoclassical style. Admire the thick and squat columns. To the left of the beautiful rotunda is a portico with a high pediment.
Interestingly, after the revolution, the building housed a registry office for some time. It combined such famous couples as Sergei Yesenin and Isadora Duncan, Mikhail Bulgakov and Lyubov Belozerskaya. In 1927, the building was given to the Austrian Embassy, since 1938 it housed the German Embassy (during the war, in 1944, Churchill stayed there for one night). In 1950, the Austrian embassy again began to be located in the mansion.
Embassy of New Zealand
The house was built in 1903-1904. The author of the project is the architect Lev Kekushev. He created a mansion in the Moscow Art Nouveau style combined with Franco-Belgian Art Nouveau. The building was erected for the purpose of subsequent sale, and the buyer was found only in 1908 - it was the Moscow merchant Ivan Mindovsky. He wrote a will for his four children, but they did not manage to divide the mansion after his death - the revolution broke out and the building was nationalized.
Ivan Mindovsky's mansion is considered one of the best projects of Lev Kekushev. The sculptures on the facades are especially fascinating. However, he has others mansions-masterpieces.
The interior interiors, made in different styles, were also very expensively and talentedly decorated. All rooms were decorated with paintings, stucco molding, stained-glass windows. The decoration used marble, Karelian birch and other expensive materials.
Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco
The embassy of this African state is located in the Gutheil mansion, built in the Moscow Art Nouveau style in 1903 and designed by the architect William Walcott. Initially, the building was built on a turnkey basis - not for a specific owner-customer, but for sale. As a result, the house was bought by Karl Gutheil, the son and successor of a successful music publisher, director of the Moscow Philharmonic Society.
From an architectural point of view, this mansion is unique: unlike other buildings built in the Art Nouveau style, it is symmetrical. The main entrance goes through the central projection; the head of the Lorelei girl is depicted on the arch of the entrance door portal. Similar decorations can be seen above the windows of the side projections. The façade cladding is pink; the glazed tiles feature stucco panels depicting putto babies, a popular architectural element of the Renaissance.
The building is decorated in the Rococo style, which, along with an abundance of rounded elements, gives the building grace.
The second floor of the courtyard part of the building was added already in 1960, when the embassy was located in the mansion.
Embassy of Denmark
The diplomatic mission of Denmark in Russia is located in a building that at the beginning of the last century belonged to the famous merchant-patron of art Margarita Morozova.
The city manor was built in 1818 in the Empire style (the right side belonged to the guard-captain Voeikov); over the decades, the mansion was repeatedly modified - for example, in 1905, a ceremonial lobby was added to it. In 1913 the architect Zholtovsky completed it in the neoclassical style.
After the revolution, when the building was nationalized, the new authorities assigned Margarita Morozova a room in the basement. The building belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark since 1946. Legend has it that the king's ambassador offered the former owner of the mansion Danish citizenship, but she refused.
More about the fate of Margarita Kirillovna can be read here.
Gabon embassy building
The mansion of Natalia Urusova in Denezhny Lane, which now houses the Embassy of the Republic of Gabon, was built in 1899.
The author of the project is the architect and military engineer Karl Treiman. A stone two-story mansion with a mezzanine, made in the Art Nouveau style, the owner built on the site of the old buildings of the early 19th century. The new building turned out to be very unusual: the facades were replete with columns, pilasters, and stucco moldings. The sculptural image of a woman's head in a niche-medallion, presumably, is a portrait of the owner of the house.
For some time, the merchant and benefactor Aleksey Bakhrushin, a relative of Urusova, lived in the house. After the revolution, the building was nationalized, and the mistress herself emigrated to France.
Chilean embassy building
The lucrative estate of Broido-Burdakov, which now houses the Chilean embassy, was built in 1912. The author of the project was Adolf Seligson. The building was built in the Art Nouveau style, has a basement and a mezzanine. The semicircular window is decorated with a stucco frieze with an ornament.
The first owner, Herman Broido, specialized in the sale of detached houses and apartment buildings on a turnkey basis. In 1911, a year before the completion of construction, the property was acquired by the Ural gold miner and philanthropist Viktorin Burdakov.
There were several buildings on the territory. The owner lived in the apartment of the main building, which had a total of twenty rooms.
Italian embassy building
Before the revolution, the last owner of this mansion in Denezhny Lane was a nobleman and owner of factories, gold mines and manufactories Sergei Berg. He bought this house in 1897 from the writer Mikhail Zagoskin. Prior to this, the building has repeatedly changed owners and rebuilt.
The mansion has embodied several architectural styles - baroque, neoclassicism, gothic, modern. All these directions in this architectural project are very successfully combined. But the lush interiors of this mansion are especially striking.
By the way, this was one of the first houses in Moscow, where electricity was installed and a doorbell was installed.
Today the Italian Embassy is located here. It often holds creative evenings within the walls of the mansion. The building underwent restoration several years ago.
Recommended:
How apartments were rented 100 years ago: What were the tenement houses for the elite and how the guests lived poorer
Pre-revolutionary apartment buildings are a special topic and a special layer both in Russian architecture and in residential construction in general. In the late XIX - early XX century, the popularity of this trend began to grow so rapidly that houses for renting apartments and rooms for rent began to appear in large cities like mushrooms. Wealthy merchants understood that building such houses was a profitable business. It is very interesting what development this direction would have received further, but, alas, a revolution happened … Fortunately, we can still do anything
How Soviet soldiers survived, who were carried into the ocean for 49 days, and How they were met in the USA and the USSR after they were rescued
In the early spring of 1960, the crew of the American aircraft carrier Kearsarge discovered a small barge in the middle of the ocean. On board were four emaciated Soviet soldiers. They survived by feeding on leather belts, tarpaulin boots and industrial water. But even after 49 days of extreme drift, the soldiers told the American sailors who found them something like this: help us only with fuel and food, and we will get home ourselves
What cars were in the garage of Nicholas II, and who got the imperial vehicle fleet after the revolution
Cars were one of the strongest hobbies of the last Russian emperor. Any European monarch could envy the fleet of Nicholas II: by 1917 there were more than fifty "self-propelled carts" in the royal garage. Among them were not only the cars of the emperor and his retinue, but also such innovations as a road train with trailed carts and a tracked vehicle
What were the names under which the films of Eldar Ryazanov were released in the foreign box office
When a film is released abroad, its name sometimes not only changes, but loses its original meaning. Moreover, this applies not only to foreign films in the domestic box office, but also vice versa. Foreign filmmakers sometimes distort the original version of the title of films. So, the films of Eldar Ryazanov's films are very popular abroad, but they are very difficult to recognize by their new name. Here are some of these metamorphoses
What were the names under which popular Soviet comedies were released in foreign box office
When a film is released abroad, its name is often changed - this is a well-known fact. Yes, sometimes they change so that even the original meaning put into the name by the filmmakers changes. And Soviet films are no exception. In this review, you will find out under what names the cult Soviet comedies directed by Leonida Gaidai were released abroad