A.L. Knop’s mansion main house
True Gothic castle with turret and gear faceted gable curly closes stands in ancient Kolpachny Lane. This is a fine example of neo-Gothic style, propensity to the "Tudor Gothic". Mansion was built by architect Charles V. ( Gustavovich ) Treiman for Baron A.L. Knop in 1900. The ensemble also includes outbuildings: gatehouse, stand-alone home powerhouse designed in the Gothic Revival style just like the fence.
Johann Ludwig Knoop was born in Bremen and become a founder of Knops’ merchant family in Moscow. First he arrived from England to Russia in 1839 as a representative of the British company «De Jersey & Co» and stayed there forever. In large part thanks to his efforts entire textile industry of the country was retrofitted. He began to bring steam machines for textile mills to Russia and sell it to Russian merchants in installments very actively. He supplied considerable part of the equipment in exchange for companies’ shares, which allowed him to become the owner of more than one hundred factories by the end of the XIX century. In this regard, there was well-known saying: "Where the Church – there is pop, and where the factory – there is Knop."
He founded the "L. Knoop Trading House" in 1852 which had branches in many cities of the Russian Empire.
Ludwig Knoop was granted the hereditary baronial dignity by for his great achievements in the field of Russian industry by the decree of Emperor Alexander II in 1877.
Knop elected Kolpachny Lane for his residence because of the Lutheran Church of Peter and Paul located nearby. All his family was parishioners of the church.
Family business passed into the hands of his sons - Andreas ( Andrew L. ) and Theodore ( Theodore L. ) after the death of Ludwig Knoop. Extensive paternal homestead in Kolpachny lane they divided into two parts. Andreas Knoop built the "Gothic castle" in the modern possession number 5. Andrew L. was chairman of the community of the "Piterpaulkirhe" (The church of Peter and Paul) and one of the major contributors in the construction of the new building of the Lutheran Church in 1903-1905.
After the revolution, the property was nationalized. The Representation of the Ukrainian SSR has originally settled here, which was replaced by the Committee on Higher Technical Education in the USSR Central. Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol located in the building since the late 1930s. Applications of volunteers to go to the war front were collected here and vouchers to the front were given in 1941. Civilians formed defense teams, medical and air defense, intelligence and sabotage activities in the enemy's rear squads. Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya, the future hero of the Soviet Union received her ticket to a special military unit 9903 here.
The former Knop house was used as formal receptions house of the famous "Yukos" oil company in the 1990s. The mansion was restored. Part of the pre-revolutionary interiors was preserved.
Currently, various commercial offices are located here.
