Arseny Morozov House

The land had already burned once. An equestrian circus stood on the site until a fire cleared it in 1892, and Varvara Morozova bought the plot as a 25th birthday present for her son Arseny. His older brother Ivan ran the family’s textile empire. Arseny preferred hunting, dog breeding, and a reputation as Moscow’s most committed playboy, and building a Portuguese fantasy castle on his mother’s land seemed as good a way as any to distinguish himself.

The inspiration arrived by way of architect Viktor Mazyrin, who accompanied Morozov on a tour through Portugal and Spain. The Pena Palace in Sintra, a nineteenth century royal folly stacked with Gothic towers, Moorish domes, and nautical flourishes, left an impression neither man could shake. Construction ran from 1895 to 1899. When Varvara saw the finished Neo-Manueline mansion, she offered the assessment that would outlive them both: “Only I used to know that you’re a fool, now the whole of Moscow will know!”

Morozov lived there for nine years, mostly hosting banquets for Moscow’s beau monde, courtesy of his cousin, theatrical patron Savva Morozov, who once brought Maxim Gorky along. In 1908, at one such gathering, Morozov shot himself in the foot to win a bet about pain tolerance. He didn’t scream, technically winning the argument, then kept drinking instead of seeing a doctor. He died three days later of blood poisoning, at 35.

Anarchists took the house after the revolution, followed by a proletarian theater troupe and, eventually, the Soviet government. A restoration between 2003 and 2006 returned it to official use: today it receives foreign dignitaries as a reception house for the Russian government, under the same roofline that once made Arseny Morozov the joke of Moscow.