From Portugal With Scallop Shells

Moscow is renowned for its architectural eclecticism. But even here, the Moresque mansion at 16 Ulitsa Vozdvizhenka, across from the Russian Armed Forces General Headquarters, stands out for its sheer whimsy and exuberance.

This house is still most widely known by its Soviet-era name, the House of Friendship With the Peoples of Foreign Countries. But it was originally built in 1894-1899 by a wealthy merchant's son, Arseny Morozov, and designed by noted Moscow architect Viktor Mazyrin.

This part of Moscow was long home to a diverse population, including merchants from the East who left their mark on the famous Ulitsa Arbat, whose name means "the outskirts" in Arabic. Ivan the Terrible's feared oprichniki guards later took up residence here, followed by the Morozovs, a boyar family, and the princes Naryshkin and Dolgorukov.

In 1894, the new owner of the plot at 16 Ulitsa Vozdvizhenka, Varvara Morozova, had all the buildings on her land torn down to make way for Mazyrin's creations. In 1868, Morozova, the daughter of a wealthy cotton producer, had been married off to Abram Morozov, owner of the Tverskaya paper products plant. In 1882, Morozova's father and husband both died, leaving her a substantial fortune. Anton Chekhov described Morozova as "a marvelously wealthy and at the same time a most pleasant woman."

After 1886, Morozova lived in a mansion designed by architect Roman Klein at 14 Ulitsa Vozdvizhenka. Her literary salon was attended by such luminaries as Chekhov, Alexander Blok and Valery Bryusov. Morozova was the prototype for female characters in several literary works, including Nikolai Leskov's story "Night Owls."

Morozova's three sons were brought up in an atmosphere of learning and the arts. Mikhail Morozov -- subject of a famous portrait by Valentin Serov that hangs in the Tretyakov Gallery -- was the author of historical monographs and amateur belletristic works. Ivan Morozov collected Western European painting. His large collection of French Impressionists was subsequently divided between the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and Moscow's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

The third son, Arseny Morozov -- the real hero of our story -- was a rather unexceptional fellow, as often happens in Russian fairy tales. The success of his brothers gave him no rest, however, so he decided to construct a most original house to show them up.

Arseny Morozov chose architect Viktor Mazyrin for his grand project. Mazyrin moved in the same artistic circles as the Morozov brothers; his friends included Fyodor Chaliapin and Sergei Rachmaninov. In 1897, Morozov and Mazyrin traveled to Spain and Portugal in search of architectural inspiration. Mazyrin was impressed by the former royal castle at Sintra, near Lisbon, and incorporated many of its elements in his design for the Morozov house.

Construction was completed in 1899. The press was soon filled with caricatures of Arseny Morozov and jokes about his unusual house. Lev Tolstoy described the house in his novel "Resurrection." The novel's hero, Prince Dmitry Nekhlyudov, is on his way to visit Katyusha Maslova in prison when he sees a huge house being built in "a complicated, unusual style." Struck by this sight, Nekhlyudov begins to think about social injustice. "And how sure they all are -- those that do the work as well as those that make them do it -- that it ought to be; that while their wives at home, who are with child, are laboring beyond their strength, and their children with the patchwork caps, doomed soon to the cold grave, smile with suffering and contort their little legs, they must be building this stupid and useless palace for some stupid and useless person -- one of those who spoil and rob them."

The finished mansion was a masterpiece of eclecticism. The interiors remain very much as they were a century ago. Upon entering the house, you find yourself in a large hall with a fireplace. The painting hanging over the mantelpiece, the huge bronze candleholders shaped like knights' arms holding torches, and the sculpted animal heads recall the castles of early France, as well as Arseny Morozov's fondness for the hunt.

At the heart of the mansion, beneath a glass ceiling, you'll find the so-called "Roman Court," an amazing room filled with Ionic columns, marble, mosaics and inlay of malachite and jasper. The biggest room in the house, a ball room, is decorated in the Gothic style. It features intricate stucco moulding on the ceiling and figures of Greek muses and satyrs on the walls.

The mansion's exterior is decorated with stylized shells, a reference to the Spanish legend according to which St. Santiago came to the Pyrenees in a boat whose hull was encrusted with huge shells. Monks carried the shells around the country as relics. In the town of Salamanca stands the Casa de las Conchas, a 16th-century castle whose walls are covered with carvings of scallop shells, symbol of the military Order of Santiago, of which its first owner was chancellor.

Such a legend must have appealed to Mazyrin, who was something of a mystic. He believed in the reincarnation of souls, and was convinced that his own soul had been born in Egypt.

Arseny Morozov died in 1908 of a tragic experiment. Convinced that man could overcome all pain and injury, Morozov shot himself in the leg with a pistol. He died of the wound.

It would be hard to exaggerate the surprise of Morozov's relatives when they discovered that he had left his entire estate to his lover, a certain Madame Konshina. Varvara Morozova, mother of the deceased, launched a court battle with Konshina that was settled in 1914. Konshina returned 500,000 rubles to the family but kept the mansion.

After the 1917 Revolution, the mansion was seized by anarchists. In April 1918, agents of the All-Russian Emergency Commission, headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, kicked out the anarchists and nationalized the building. From that time, it became the home of the Proletkult theater. The Proletkult was a proletarian cultural and educational organization.

The mansion had no stage, so performances were held in the former ballroom. Legend has it that many of these shows -- directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Sergei Eisenstein -- were positively wild, with actors dropping down into the audience on ropes. The performances were frequented by party bosses such as Mikhail Kalinin, Mikhail Frunze and Anatoly Lunacharsky. Vladimir Mayakovsky recited his poetry here, and Sergei Yesenin lived in one of the mansion's rooms for a short while.

In 1928, the Morozov house became the Japanese ambassador's residence. But in 1941, after Japan sided with Germany in World War II, the building was transferred to the British. In 1952, the Indian embassy moved in.

And in 1959, the Moresque mansion on Vozdvizhenka became the House of Friendship With the Peoples of Foreign Countries, associated with Soviet efforts to promote ties with friendly regimes abroad.

Today it houses an office of the Russian Center for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation, which, unfortunately, does not provide tours to the public. But if you're ever invited to a conference, exhibition or concert here, don't miss it. You'll be glad you came, if only to see the building's unforgettable interior.