The Embassy of Austria 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 ...

is the

diplomatic mission A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes ...

of the

Republic of Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

to the

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It is located at 1 Starokonyushenny Lane () in the

Khamovniki District Khamovniki District () is a administrative divisions of Moscow, district of Central Administrative Okrug of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Moscow, Russia. Population: The district extends from Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge into the Lu ...

. The Consulate, located in the same building until 2007, now operates from a new nearby building at 7 Bolshoy Levshinsky Lane.

The building

The Embassy occupies a listed

neoclassical revival Neoclassical architecture, sometimes referred to as Classical Revival architecture, is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy, France and Germany. It became one of the most promin ...

building, the Nikolay Mindovsky House, designed and built by

Nikita Lazarev Nikita Gerasimovich Lazarev () was a Russian civil engineer, contractor, real estate developer and Neoclassical architect, notable for his 1906 ''Mindovsky House'' in Khamovniki District of Moscow (now Embassy of Austria). According to Igor Gra ...

in 1906. Mindovsky family originated in

Kineshma Kineshma (), the second-largest town in Ivanovo Oblast in Russia, sprawls for along the Volga River, 335 kilometers north-east of Moscow. Population: Etymology From a substrate Finno-Ugric language (cf. ('kine', < Proto-Finno-Permic ''*kän� ...

, where

serf Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed du ...

Ivan Ivanovich Mindovsky (1781–1853) launched his own textile mill. His grandson, Ivan Alexandrovich, commissioned the first historical Mindovsky House to Lev Kekushev (44, Povarskaya Street, present-day Embassy of New Zealand in Moscow). Next of kin, Nikolay Ivanovich, commissioned the second Mindovsky House to Nikita Lazarev. Various other members of the clan also owned mansions and apartment blocks in the city so as of 2008 there are six extant Mindovsky houses. Mindovsky House that became Embassy of Austria stands on a strategic corner lot visible from Prechictenka Street. In the 18th century the area was occupied by a spacious

Gagarin family The House of Gagarin () is an ancient Russian princely family descending from Monomakhovichi, sovereign rulers of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma, a branch of the Rurik dynasty. Origins Yaroslav Vsevolodovich II of Vladimir (died 1246) gave to his you ...

estate, destroyed by the fire of 1812, then by wooden Mukhanov estate. In 1899 the dilapidated Mukhanov property was purchased by real estate developers and split into three lots; the first two buildings were built to

William Walcot William Walcot (10 March 1874 – 21 May 1943) was a Russian-Scottish architect, graphic artist and etcher, notable as a practitioner of refined Art Nouveau (Style Moderne) in Moscow, Russia (as Вильям Францевич Валькот ...

's design in 1900–1902, the third was purchased by Mindovsky. Memorial buildings of Moscow. Earthen City. (Памятники архитектуры Москвы. Земляной город. — М.: Искусство, 1989.) p.86-87 Lazarev's Mindovsky House became a statement of neoclassical reaction against " Decadent art". The L-shaped structure extends over 32×44 meters. Its two main parts intersect at 90 degrees, while the streets actually cross at a sharper angle – this allowed placing a small garden in front of the corner

rotunda A rotunda () is any roofed building with a circular ground plan, and sometimes covered by a dome. It may also refer to a round room within a building (an example being the one below the dome of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.). ...

hall, but the western facade with main entrance had to be tapered to fit into street boundary. Originally all the building was single story; in 1913 the owners rebuilt the eastern living wing into two stories. Eastern wing, which housed the consulate until 2007, was regularly remodelled later while the single-story formal halls of the western wing, facing Prechistensky Lane retain the original 1906 interiors. The Embassy of Austria moved into Mindovsky House in 1927. After the

anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

of 1938, it was used as an exclusive

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

for foreign dignitaries, housing guests like

Joachim von Ribbentrop Ulrich Friedrich-Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German Nazi politician and diplomat who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945. ...

(August 1939, see

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

) and

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

(October 1944). However, the rumour that Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed in Mindovsky House is, most likely, an

urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...

. In April 1955 the building was the site of Austrian–Soviet talks on the

Austrian State Treaty The Austrian State Treaty ( ) or Austrian Independence Treaty established Austria as a sovereign state. It was signed on 15 May 1955 in Vienna, at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the Uni ...

and then became an embassy of independent Austria for a second time. Embassy of Austria. History. Mindovsky House, specifically its corner hall, is also known as the site of a fictional shooting in the 1957 novel '' Doctor Zhivago'' by

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...

. Embassy of Austria. History.

References

External links

*
Embassy of Austria in Moscow
{{Diplomatic missions in Russia

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Austria–Russia relations Austria–Soviet Union relations Houses completed in 1906 Khamovniki District

The building

See also

References

External links