German Quarter
In 1691, during one of his visits to the German Quarter, young Peter I of Russia became enamoured of Anna Mons, the daughter of Dutch wine merchant Johan Mons. His origins were from Westphalia in Germany. Her younger brother was Willem Mons (1688–1724), destined to be the Imperial Chamberlain to Catherine I and Matrena her sister who married Fedor Balk, Major General and Governor of Riga. Her niece was the infamous Natalia Lopukhina (1699–1763) later victim of the so-called Lopukhina Affair in 1742. As Peter's relations with the tsarina Eudoxia Lopukhina gradually worsened, Anna Mons took the place as his permanent and semi-official royal mistress. In the 1690s, he gave her 295 farms and a mansion near Moscow. The relationship lasted for 12 years.