Shawl "METROPOL" wool 135х135

The land plot, where Metropol is now located, has not been built up for a long time. And only in 1834, the merchant P. I. Chelyshev built a beautiful building in the classical style in accordance with the plans of Osip Bove, the creator of the composite ensemble of the Theater Square. The building had a hotel with baths.

In the 1890s, Savva Mamontov the industrialist and art patron bought a hotel to realize his idea of organizing a grand cultural and leisure center in Moscow, which is a hotel complex with restaurants, a theater, art galleries, and sports facilities.

Under the guidance of the architects William Walcot and Lev Kekushev, the construction of the hotel was not easy and subjected to various peripetias: starting with the arrest of Savva Mamontov accused of major embezzlement and ending with a large fire in 1901. The building was rebuilt in 1905.

 The Metropol is considered to be one of the most striking historical and architectural monuments of the modern style in Moscow. A whole galaxy of famous and talented architects and artists worked on the creation of the hotel complex.

Particular attention should be paid to the decoration of the facades of the building. Mamontov wanted to use the facades of the Metropol in the center of Moscow to perpetuate the works of a new trend in art. In Abramtsevo Ceramic Workshop, a Savva Mamontov's favorite creation, maiolica panels  were made for the Metropol, the main of which is the Princess of the Dream, made by Mikhail Vrubel's picturesque panel.

The kerchief depicts a fragment of the western facade of the building decorated with maiolica panel Cleopatra, made according to Alexander Golovin's sketch.