The museum is an old mansion on the embankment. Ancient mansion on the embankment

It turns out that in the capital you can not only enjoy the splendor of ancient houses and mansions that seem closed from the common people from the outside, but also get inside. And there!.. Let's trample these paths.

SMIRNOV'S MANSION: Masks of sinners, the courtroom and the owner's escape

Tverskoy Blvd., 18.

Legend: the son of vodka maker Smirnov, Peter, rebuilt this mansion at the end of the 19th century (by ordering the work from Fyodor Shekhtel himself!) for his mistress.

Life truth: the “mistress” had been Smirnov’s legal wife for several years. They even had three children. Two more will appear in this mansion. Fate, alas, is destined for them...

Main characters: masks of sinners on the wall in the fireplace room, which Shekhtel designed in the form of... a temple. You walk in, look up - bam! - and everything reminds you that you are a sinner! Well, it was not for nothing that it was in this hall that the Soviet government, seemingly alien to mysticism, having expropriated the mansion, immediately set up a Revolutionary Tribunal.

In the next room, where the “closet” door leads, you will understand why you cannot go out onto the balcony floating above Tverskoy Boulevard. And finally, you will freeze with delight in the Egyptian Hall, made in the form of a temple of art. Balls were planned here, but in 1910 Smirnov died of the flu, and the widow began renting out the hall for card games...

Zigzag of fate after the revolution II: Smirnova fled abroad, leaving her children, hoping to take them out later. But only one daughter will make it to her mother in France alive... And after the tribunal, the mansion will be occupied by the prosecutor's office and the court.

: Now the house is rented for all sorts of events - for example, a fashion show. They say that Pugacheva celebrated one of her birthdays here. You can also come on a tour with the projects “Moscow that doesn’t exist”, “Travel Store”. From 800 rub.

MANSION OF THE OLD BELIEVER NOSOV: The miracle house appeared thanks to a family scandal

st. Elektrozavodskaya, 12.

Legend: the mansion was built due to the fact that the merchant Vasily Nosov, who had a cloth factory (under the USSR - the Wool Research Institute), did not want to live under the same roof with his son’s fiancee, who came from a family of other Old Believers - the Ryabushinskys.

Life truth: Yes, Nosov did not like the Ryabushinskys. Firstly, for the strict conduct of business: for those, the plant was a BUSINESS, but for Nosov it was a FAMILY. He celebrated holidays with the workers, treated them, and took care of their families. Secondly, the Nosovs and Ryabushinskys belonged to different Old Believers. And so, when the son of Vasily Dmitrievich fell in love with Euphemia Ryabushinskaya, the stubborn merchant left the old house to the newlyweds, and he himself called the then famous architect Lev Kekushev to build him a separate home! And he, at the beginning of the 20th century, erected a wooden example of Art Nouveau, so intricate and wavy that roofers, for example, still cannot figure out how to repair this geometrically broken roof with endlessly uneven eaves...

Main characters:“female” and “male” halves of the mansion. Nosov settled here with one of his daughters: she and the servants were upstairs, he was downstairs. And Kekushev took this into account: for the “female half” he created air fireplaces, for the “male half” - powerful ones, with character to match the owner, who doused himself with cold water until he was 70 years old!

Zigzag of fate after the revolution: The Nosovs were evicted, and the house was given over to a hostel for workers at the Wool Research Institute. The mansion was becoming sad and crumbling before our eyes. Restoration began in the 90s. The merchant's descendants brought here pre-revolutionary family belongings and photographs - so in the mansion you get the impression that you are visiting, and the owners came out for a minute.

How to get to an ancient mansion in Moscow: to events of the Russian Library for Youth (its branch is here). Or with the projects “Moscow, which does not exist” and “Moskvahod” (then they will also give you a tour). From 650 rub.

PASHKOV HOUSE: Oath of the emperors and the “well of Grozny” in the courtyard

Vozdvizhenka, 3/5, building 1.

Legend: the architect Vasily Bazhenov, whom Catherine II had just removed from the restructuring of the Kremlin, was offended by the empress and built the house with its back to the Kremlin.

Life truth: in fact, it was necessary to build an entrance to the house, but it was unthinkable to build one from the Kremlin side: the mansion was built on a hill! That’s why the entrance to it was from Starovagankovsky Lane. But the garden facade, which we see from the Mokhovaya side, is so good that after the fire of 1812, this house was the first to be restored at the expense of the treasury (!). It was here, on the balcony, that the Prussian emperor, the father of the future wife of Nicholas I, was brought in 1818, when he wanted to look at post-fire Moscow. He looked at the simultaneous greatness and devastation, fell to his knees and, together with his sons, immediately swore not to fight with Russia. The place of this “oath of the emperors” can be seen from the inside by approaching the huge windows of the hall. In which, according to another legend, Natasha Rostova danced. But this is not true. By the way, the owner of the house, the son of Peter the Great’s orderly, Pyotr Pashkov, who was selling vodka, never danced here either. The War of 1812 and that same fire interfered...

Main characters: In addition to the splendor of the interiors, there is also a recently discovered megawell in the courtyard. They were looking for the famous library of Ivan the Terrible in it. Not found. According to another version, the well leads to a dungeon that connects Vagankovsky Hill with the Kremlin.

Excursionists are allowed to go down a steep flight of stairs, but you won’t be able to stay for long: as soon as the light from above stops falling on the narrow steps, you’ll want to go back as soon as possible, and God be with him, with Grozny... It’s better to return to the Pashkov House and sit in a real library - Rumyantsevskaya, - where Tolstoy went for 40 years and where they let you look through huge old books!

How to get to an ancient mansion in Moscow: excursions are conducted by the company “Step by Step” and, of course, the owner of the Pashkov House - the Russian Library (popularly known as Leninka). From 500 rub.

The building of the Ancient Mansion is located in Arkhangelsk. It was built in 1786. The fate of this house was not easy: it burned down several times, was rebuilt several times, corrected, reconstructed, and was never used for its intended purpose. At first there was a Bank office here, then a Exchange office, a Commercial Bank and, finally, a city customs office.

In 1964, the building was transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts. For several years, an exhibition of ancient Russian art was located here, and later - museum collections. Since the early 1980s, the Mansion has been restored. The opening of the museum took place in September 1998. The first exhibition – “Portrait in an ancient interior” – provided an opportunity to see the transformation of artistic styles in the interior of the late 18th – early 20th centuries. The formation of the ensemble, which, in addition to portraiture, includes furniture, mirrors, and porcelain, made it possible to create a special atmosphere in which works of fine art seem to awaken when they find themselves in an environment close to them. The house has a permanent exhibition “Portrait in an ancient interior”.

Since the Mansion on the Embankment was never in the possession of a specific family, the authors of the exhibition decided not to reproduce the original interior. But on the other hand, the museum’s funds contained furnishings and household items from the 18th – early 20th centuries. Therefore, it was decided to restore the living environment, into which the museum exhibits would fit organically.

The Portrait Gallery of the Old Mansion features works that come from local institutions and old houses. Among them you can see a portrait of I.K. Bazhenin (a person related to Arkhangelsk) and royal portraits: Peter the Great, Elizaveta Petrovna, Pavel Petrovich (II half of the 18th century). The portrait gallery characterized the owner’s taste and was the subject of his pride and vanity.

The owner's office was one of the main rooms of the noble house and represented, in a way, its intellectual and economic center. The main place in the cabinet exhibition is occupied by portraits of Arkhangelsk governors of the 18th century: T.I. Tutolmina, P.P. Konovnitsyn and others. The interior recreates the decoration of an office from the late 18th – early 19th centuries.

In the living room of the Old Mansion you can feel the atmosphere of a town house from the first quarter of the 19th century. The living room of the 19th century was a place where they read and empathized out loud, did handicrafts, “explained themselves,” and played music. Of course, it is difficult to imagine a living room without a piano. In addition, marble sculpture and bronze items occupy the main place in the interior decoration. The heart of the living room is her portraits, which at the beginning of the 19th century served as an indicator of her standard of living and position in society. Most often, the portraits were anonymous: not only the author, but also the people depicted in them are unknown. A group of such portraits was placed above the sofa.

The house contains a room with a women's boudoir (mid-19th century), where the mistress of the house took a break from social duties, read, did handicrafts, and carried out the obligatory correspondence, as evidenced by the elegant bureau-secretary. Also here you can see a dressing table and a table for needlework. The picturesque paintings of this room convey a variety of moods, in tune with the world of a woman. Here you can see romantic paintings by Aivazovsky, Sudkovsky, Bogolyubov, a sentimental idyll of a Western artist in the Rococo style, “Family Scene” by the artist Charles van den Dele and, of course, portraits of children. The pearl of the women's boudoir is “Portrait of an Unknown Woman,” donated to Arkhangelsk by the Russian Museum in 1929, and it came to the museum from the artist’s studio.

The final hall of the Mansion is the dining room. It was usually a bright, comfortable room. The main place in the interior is occupied by the extendable “centipede” table, around which all family members gathered. It was necessary in the dining room to have glass cabinets in which various items made of porcelain, glass, and earthenware were displayed. A special place in the decoration was given to porcelain. At the end of the 19th century, it was not just an object of collecting and representation, but was a necessary part of table setting. On the wall you can see “Portrait of a Woman in a White Dress” by A.I. Vakhrameev, portrait of N.D. Vidyakina by an unknown artist.

The old mansion on the Embankment lives a bright, active life. Thematic exhibitions and excursions are regularly organized here, arousing genuine interest among local residents and tourists. In the halls of the mansion you can hear chamber music, balls for children, social events, receptions and presentations are held.