16 Embassies Open Doors for Muscovites within 2nd Stage of Historical and Cultural Heritage Days

The second stage of Days of Historical and Cultural Heritage, which are annually organized by the Government of Moscow represented by the Department of Cultural Heritage in cooperation with the Russian Foreign Ministry’s GlavUpDK, was successfully held in the Russian capital in May. Within the framework of the Ambassadorial Program of the Cultural Heritage Days, 16 diplomatic missions: the embassies of Australia, Austria, Armenia, Belarus, the UK, Germany, Denmark, India, Iceland, Italy, Cyprus, Norway, Palestine, the United States, France and Switzerland, flung their doors open for organized groups of visitors. Some 1500 people were able to get acquainted in May with the “gems” of Moscow architecture - mansions designed by Fyodor Schechtel, Alexander Kaminsky, Lev Kekushev, Ivan Zholtovsky, Adolf Zeligson, Nikolai Pozdeyev in which diplomatic missions of foreign states are accommodated at present.

A meeting of the Russian mass media representatives with the leadership of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the City of Moscow and Russian Foreign Ministry’s GlavUpDK was held on May 18 within the framework of the Historical and Cultural Heritage Days program. The meeting was held at Yakov Shlosberg’s mansion at 46, Povarskaya Street, which is the residence of the German ambassador since 1956.

Deputy Head of GlavUpDK Alexei Izotov told journalists that the mansion in Povarskaya Street, built in 1910-1911 upon the project of Adolf Zeligson for the top guild merchant Yakov Shlosberg, is among 113 cultural heritage sites managed by GlavUpDK. Each of these unique buildings has witnessed successful trilateral cooperation of GlavUpDK, the Department of Cultural Heritage and the current “hosts” of the mansions – diplomatic missions.

Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage Alexei Yemelyanov said that the Yakov Shlosberg mansion, gracing Povarskaya Street, has preserved many authentic interior details, and thanked the German embassy for maintaining the residence building in good condition. He also expressed confidence that the forthcoming major works within the framework of fulfilling the mansion’s preservation obligations will reveal many new details in its architectural history.

Alexei Izotov also told journalists that GlavUpDK, fulfilling the task of ensuring favorable conditions for the work and life of foreign diplomats in Moscow, has been consistently implementing a large-scale program for total renovation, restoration and adaptation of historical mansions for modern use. In recent years, repair and restoration works have been carried out in 14 premises, including residences of the ambassadors of Australia, Switzerland, in the embassies of Vietnam, Syria, Iceland, in the Suvorov mansion in Malaya Nikitskaya Street and in the Olga Korobkova mansion in Pyatnitskaya Street. Numerous awards of the Moscow Government’s Moscow Restoration competition for the best project in the sphere of the preservation and popularization of cultural heritage sites, have become the recognition of the high quality of the projects implemented by GlavUpDK.

An excursion over the mansion was organized for journalists after the meeting.