More than 100 events are planned in Moscow during a month that focuses on historical and cultural heritage through the end of May. There will be lectures, entertaining historical quests and excursions to architectural sites that are usually closed. A special surprise will be the opportunity to take a tour of mansions that today house foreign diplomatic missions. Those tours will be held on May 18.
RBTH lists some of the properties that will open their doors to the public:
1. A corner of Italy in the heart of Moscow
House of the merchant Tarasov. / Photo: Nicon NN (CC BY-SA)
The House of the merchant Tarasov (Spiridonov Street, 30/1) was built in the best traditions of the Italian Renaissance. Its façade is borrowed from the Palazzo Thiene (Vicenza, mid 16th century). Its interiors also correspond to the Renaissance style. They are based on the contrast between bright walls and picturesque ornamental decorations on the ceilings.
In Soviet times the Tarasov House housed USSR Supreme Court, the German and Polish Embassies and, from 1979, the Russian Academy of Science's Africa Institute.
2. A house that looks like the Hermitage
Morozovs' townhouse. / Photo: Legion Media
The Morozovs' townhouse (Podsosensky Lane, 21, bldg. 1) is a mansion that seems as if it has been imported directly from St. Petersburg. Vaguely reminiscent of the Hermitage, it has light green walls and statues of the Greek god Atlas supporting the balcony over the main entrance. The last owner of the mansion, Alexey Morozov, was a passionate collector and wanted to change the mansion's interior according to his taste. The décor was created by Fyodor Shekhtel, Mikhail Vrubel and Sergey Konenkov.
It was from this house that, on February 16, 1907, a coffin bearing the body of Nikolay Schmidt, a relative of the mansion's owner and participant in the armed uprising during the first Russian revolution, was carried out.
In the 1920s all of Morozov's property was nationalized; his collections were broken up and distributed among various museums.
3. The house with a theater
Ziminy Mansion. / Photo: Legion Media
Architect Edmund Yuditsky designed and built the Ziminy Mansion (Degtyarny Lane, 8, bldg. 3) in 1896. This building is considered one of the best-preserved mansions of the late 19th/early 20th century. Commissioned by wealthy tobacco factory owner Nikolay Zimin, it is built in the style of Late Historicism and its façade is decorated with avant-corps - built extensions that jut out - and Tuscan columns. It contains a hall that doubles as a home theater.
In the 1920s the mansion housed the Directorate of the Y. M. Sverdlov Communist University and then, until 2015, the VGIK Cinema Scientific Research Institute.
4. The mansion where Shalyapin sang
Townhouse of Vasilchikova, Obolensky and von Mekk. / Photo: Legion Media
The townhouse of Vasilchikova, Obolensky and von