Fyodor Schechtel, leader of the Muscovite Art Nouveau movement, was the architect of this townhouse built between 1900 and 1903. It illustrated the full range of the style's vocabulary down to the smallest details, including stained glass, wrought iron, wooden floors and a polished limestone staircase that ripples like a wave. The place still echoes with the memory of Maxim Gorky, who lived here from 1931 until his death in 1936.