Igumnov House () is a historic house in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, used as the residence of the French Ambassador to Russia. The house is located at 43 Bolshaya Yakimanka Street () in the

Yakimanka District Yakimanka District () is a administrative divisions of Moscow, district of Central Administrative Okrug of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Moscow, Russia. Population: It is named after the former church of Saint Joachim and Sain ...

of Moscow.

The building

It is the oldest building occupied by the French embassy, facing Yakimanka Street (No. 43) - Igumnov House - was built in 18831893 to the design by Nikolay Pozdeyev (1855-1893), and cost the architect his life. Igumnov family acquired the lot in 1851; in 1880 Nikolay Igumnov hired Nikolay Pozdeyev to rebuild the old two-story

empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 duri ...

mansion into a larger residence. Pozdeyev, a graduate of

Imperial Academy of Arts The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov, the founder of the Imperial Moscow University, under the name ''Academy of th ...

, already had five years of practice as the town architect of

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

, where Igumnov had substantial investments in textile mills. Halfway through the project, in 1888, Embassy of France. History

/ref> architect and the client agreed to discard the existing structure altogether and redesign the building from scratch; its dimensions, as built, increased to 45×33 meters. After 13 years of slow progress the building attracted public attention and became a target of numerous art critics, detesting its pseudo-Russian luxury; whether for this reason or due to sheer greed, Igumnov refused to compensate cost overruns to Pozdeyev; the ruined architect committed suicide in October 1893. After the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

the nationalised building was taken over by a communal club, then by medical institutions. These included the Institute of Blood Transfusion established by

Alexander Bogdanov Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (; – 7 April 1928), born Alexander Malinovsky, was a Russian and later Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer and Bolshevik revolutionary. He was a polymath who pioneered blood transfusion, a ...

in 1926. He lived there with his wife, Natalia Bogdanovna. Following his death, Natalia had Bogdanov's son move into her flat, the two of them remaining there until 1937. The

Embassy of France The French Republic has one of the world's largest diplomatic networks, and is a member of more multilateral organisations than any other country. France's permanent representation abroad began in the reign of Francis I, when in 1522 he sent a d ...

has occupied it continuously since 1938. A larger, modernist Embassy structure (No. 45) was built on an adjacent block in 1979; since that year, Igumnov House became an official residence of the ambassador. Embassy of France. History

/ref> In August 2007 the management of

GlavUpDK The Main Directorate for Servicing the Diplomatic Corps under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia (), or shortly GlavUpDK () is an entity under the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs ( ...

, the state organization in charge of embassy buildings, announced a forthcoming restoration of the building, estimated to cost 10 million

US dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

s. RIA Novosti, 17 August 200

/ref>

References

External links

*
Embassy of France in Moscow
{{Diplomatic missions in Russia France–Russia relations France–Soviet Union relations

Ambassador residences in Moscow Houses completed in 1893

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Moscow

The building

See also

References

External links