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Foreign Ministry mansion is situated in Spiridonovka street, 17 and is used as a reception house for bigwigs and top brass (e.g. the G8 Summit in Moscow was held there).
Th mansion was built by a talented architect Fyodor Shekhtel in the 1890s and bears the traits of neogothic style.

The construction was ordered and sponsored by a famous industrialist and patron of the arts Savva Morozov. The mansion was built primarily for his wife Zinaida Morozova who liked luxury and had money to burn (all the interiors were carefully designed by Shekhtel and his friend, Mikhail Vrubel, a famous painter). Later after the mysterious death of Savva (officially suicide) the mansion was sold the Ryabushinkys family. Varvara allegedly said that Savva’s ghost cannot leave thу house and she was not willing to live there any longer.

The mansions’ exterior at night

This very mansion hosted another prominent figure. For some Morozov hid revolutionary Bauman (remember Baumanskaya metro) in the house. Oddly enough but at this very time Morozov also threw a grand reception, among the guests was Grand Duke Sergey, Moscow’s Governor who even cannot imagine that a dangerous and violent revolutionary was among the guest introduced like a close friend of the family.

This very mansion is considered a prototype of Margarita’s mansion from Mikhail Bulgakov’s book Master and Margarita .

Note a big Gothic window through which Margarita left the house.

Evil creatures of the mansion

View from the backyard

Mansion’s lobby. The knights were made in Germany in the 18-19th centuries.

Savva Morozov’s former drawing room

The present interiors does not correspond completely to the interiors Savva Morozov used to have. However, all the furniture, carpets, paintings etc. are originals collected from different sources mainly of 18-19th centuries.

Former smoking room. Painting by Vrubel.

Conference room. Presidents meet here. The place where the G8 Summit was held.

Stairs to the second floor. Sculpture by Vrubel.

Fireplace room (all fireplaces in the mansion can be used). Now used as a meeting room. The door to the right leads to a modern kitchen.

The kitchen itself.

A refined cabinet.

Corridors with the cabinet and red lamp designed by Shekhtel.

Former bedroom of Zinaida Morozova. Now another meeting room.

Former boudoir of Zinaida Morozova. Now again a meeting room.

Round table of the 19th century. The place for top level negotiations.

All the old clocks in the mansions are ticking and chiming.

Again, the main Conference room, also called the White room or the Marble room.

Again the knights

Wooden stairs with sculptures.