The Central House of Journalists is a building with pedigree: it stands on the place which more than 200 years ago was occupied by a vast park and a magnificent palace with a colonnade, galleries and outbuildings. The nest of the princely clan of Gagarins perished in the fire of 1812. Today the only surviving outbuilding at the Arbat Gate in Moscow (many times rebuilt, enlarged and renovated) houses the Central House of Journalists, the Domzhur for all of its habitués.