On the satellite map of Abkhazia you will find the initials of merchant Igumnov — INV. These are cypresses he planted in exile a hundred years ago. Nikolai Vasilyevich owned the Yaroslavl Big Manufactory, and he was also in charge of the gold mines of Siberia. In 1888, the merchant decided to purchase a residence in Moscow.

It was difficult to call the place he chose for it prestigious. It is far from the center, but the area is not rich. There are two versions of such a strange choice of the owner of gold mines: the first is to avoid being in sight of prying eyes, and the second is that this street remembers the young merchant.

Nikolai Pozdeev, a young architect from Yaroslavl, was invited for the construction. The interior decoration was entrusted to Pyotr Boytsov, the bricks were delivered from Holland, the tiles were ordered at the best factories in the city of Kuznetsov. The house looks like the State Historical Museum. But Moscow at that time did not like the delights too much. It is said that the secular society greeted the mansion cool and began to criticize sharply, and upset Igumnov did not pay for the work of the architect. He committed suicide: the project was his last.

Moscow did not like the merchant. They said that he had a mistress in the mansion, whom he killed for treason, and it was not easy to kill - he buried it in the wall. In 1901, Igumnov gave a ball in the mansion and covered the floor with chervonets. But the problem was that the guests danced right in the images of the emperor. For this, the merchant fell into disgrace: he was expelled from Moscow to Abkhazia. But even then the merchant did not disappear: he bought land and built a new plant for the production of canned food.

He provided the workers with housing, and brought plants to the local swamps that needed a lot of water — they instantly coped with the excess moisture. The merchant himself brought black soil from Kuban, and excellent cattle from Yaroslavl. Igumnov engaged in gardening: he began to cultivate tangerines, kiwi, mango and tobacco, created alleys from cypresses. After the revolution, the merchant donated property to the state and began working in his estate as a simple agronomist.

And the mansion managed to be home to the Goznak factory — an interesting turn back to the ball with gold coins. Then there was a brain laboratory here. In 1938, the mansion was handed over to the Embassy of France, which later moved to a neighboring house.

All the same, there is a gloomy fame behind the house: they say that the ghost of a walled up girl is still walking around it...