House of Leontyevs

Empire-style manor house with a six-column Tuscan portico and a mezzanine, crowned with a belvedere, standing at the back of a quiet lane, was built in 1830s, supposedly by the architect of post-fire Moscow A. Grigoriev.

It was not the first house being in possession. Until the XVIII there was a Pomegranate Court here (and hence the name of the alley) to house No. 8, where gunpowder, shells, etc. were kept. All this was burnt in a fierce fire with numerous victims. A similar beginning of the history of the place set the tone for all subsequent structures.

During the times of the next owner – A. Kikin – there were stone chambers, which were sold in 1733 to Orlov brothers, and in 1763 to the Office of the Leib Guard of Preobrazhensky regiment. By 1800 the buildings came in such a poor condition that it had to be demolished and the site was sold. The new owner - Princess Golitsyn - built a two-story building with a stone first floor in 1804, which burned in a fire in 1812.

More than 20 years had passed before the present house was built on the ashes of the previous one – the house was built for the grandson of the great commander A. Suvorov and nephew of Catherine's favorite - Platon Zubov. His daughter Lubov married the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, General Ivan Leontiev and in the 1850s the ownership passed to their heirs.

In 1913, the house was under the threat and it was decided to build a tenant house - on its place. The roof and the floors were already broken, but the First World War intervened.

Ten years later the mansion was restored, the mezzanine with a belvedere, architraves, gratings of the terraces were recreated, and the Weights and Measures Department appeared here.

Grating – a copy of the fencing of the Gagarin house on Novinsky boulevard, which ‘died’ in 1941, separates the house from the street.