House of Prince S.S. Abamelek-Lazarev (on Millionnaya Street). What do the historical mansions look like that Smolny occupies Abamelek Lazarev's mansion

Yulia Chesnokova, correspondent:
Today we are going to visit the Sports Committee. But it’s not the hockey rinks and sports fields that interest us, but the historical interiors where Olympians are awarded and meetings are held. I am sure that on Millionnaya Street they simply cannot be anything other than luxurious.

Elena Popova-Yatskevich,
Thanks to the program Open City“You and I can get into one of the oldest mansions. They wrote about him in the 19th century. These were legends. Well, first of all, our 4 columns at the entrance were extremely popular. People came in carriages to look at them, as if they were the first columns in a private house.

Legends have always shrouded Millionnaya. In imperial St. Petersburg, this is the real center of the aristocracy. Apraksins and Sheremetyevs, Yusupovs and Baryatinskys. Like most of its neighbors, plot No. 22 on Millionnaya Street has been replaced by dozens of brilliant owners throughout its life. The building bears the name of the latter, Prince Semyon Semyonovich Abamelek-Lazarev, to this day.

Elena Popova-Yatskevich,tour guide of the Open City project:
Why Prince Abamelek-Lazarev? Firstly, double surnames in Russia were given only at the behest of the emperor. Secondly, what are Abamelek-Lazarevs? The surname is non-Russian. And so it turned out. The Lazarevs are descendants of Armenians who were evicted to the territory of Persia in the 17th century.

Now, like a hundred years ago, the main thing that amazes guests of the palace is its well-preserved interiors.

Yulia Chesnokova, correspondent:
In a series of ceremonial halls, tourists unnoticed find themselves completely no longer on Millionnaya. The fact is that the Abamelek-Lazarev mansion, like a real Russian nesting doll, inside consists of four buildings at once. From the balcony of this, for example, there is a wonderful view of the Moika River.

Elena Popova-Yatskevich,tour guide of the Open City project:
The complex of houses consists of interesting buildings, because one of them is a copy of the house on Nevsky Prospekt - if you look at the Armenian Church, the right house - house 40 - is the family nest of the Lazarevs.

Semyon Semyonovich Abamelek-Lazarev was forced to leave the family nest after the death of his father. The old prince bequeathed the building to the Armenian Church. The younger Lazarev moves to a mansion on Millionnaya, acquiring with it the neighboring plot on the Moika. At this place, a house is being built for him, exactly like the one on Nevsky Prospekt.

Yulia Chesnokova, correspondent:
We find ourselves in the most modern building of the palace. This address is Moika River embankment, 23. It was built in 1914. And this was officially the last mansion erected in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg. From the Theater Hall, where only a couple of productions were staged, we find ourselves in the most beautiful space - a large banquet hall. Its area is 200 sq. m.

Now receptions are held here in honor of St. Petersburg Olympians. The Committee on Physical Culture and Sports has owned the mansion on Millionnaya for almost 90 years. Now not only officials, but also everyone can see its beauty. You can sign up for free public tours of the building on the Open City project website.

In the place where the Abamelek-Lazarev house is now located, it was not distinguished by great architectural merits. Along with old mansions, not so much beautiful as attractive precisely because of their “antiqueness”, there were also faceless buildings of the second half of the 19th century, and in some places huge apartment buildings were already towering. The four-story house of Prince S.S. Abamelek-Lazarev, with small apartments, was not much different from them.

The prince planned to build a new, more respectable building with spacious halls, a large dining room and, of course, a theater hall. The old house was dismantled, and the architect I. A. Fomin was invited to develop the project and build a new one at the beginning of 1913.

The complexity of the task facing the architect lay in the limited space. There were already houses on both sides, and the new one had to fit into their row. The location of the building in the city center, not far from Palace and Konyushennaya squares, also imposed certain “obligations.” Fomin successfully dealt with this, managing to give the house a monumental feel, despite its relatively small size.

The basis of the composition of the facade is a clear structure of pilasters of the Corinthian order, rising to the height of all three floors.

The pilasters are placed on a low granite-lined plinth. They support a massive entablature, completed above the cornice by a blank parapet. The facade has a sense of calm grandeur, inherent in the best buildings in the classicist style. On the roof, on the pedestals of the parapet, which echoes the granite parapet of the embankment, vases were installed.

Thanks to the clarity of the design and large forms, the façade of the house immediately attracts attention. It is the building of the palace that creates the impression of completeness of the space surrounding one of the main squares of St. Petersburg - Palace Square. Fomin managed to introduce a note of refined aristocracy into the architecture of the mansion, in tune with the nearby Winter and Marble Palaces.

But the facade is only a small part of the building, during the design and construction of which the architect Fomin showed excellent knowledge of classical architecture and a remarkable ability to solve complex planning problems. The ceremonial interiors of the house also give the impression of grandiose and majestic palace halls. It's hard to believe that they were created within the walls of a small city mansion.

The composition of the interiors begins with the lobby - a small, rectangular room located in the left half of the building. The entire perimeter of the lobby is surrounded by columns and pilasters of the Doric order, lined with dark yellow artificial marble. The proportions of the order are deliberately weighted, and thanks to this the colonnade, whose height is not much greater than human height, is perceived as a monumental structure.

In contrast to the lobby, the adjacent grand staircase appears especially light and airy. The staircase is successfully integrated into a high, well-lit room, covered with a coffered vault.

From the top of the stairs you can get to the Great Dining Room of the mansion, which has three huge windows overlooking the embankment.

The dining room is decorated festively, brightly, it is distinguished by the integrity of the volumetric solution and the luxury of decorative finishing. The center of the composition here is a loggia with choirs for musicians. It is separated from the entire room by two pairs of tall columns of the Ionic order, lined with deep black artificial marble with large dark red and greenish-brown splashes.

The columns contrast with the delicate light green tone of the walls, against which white architectural details and white doors with gilded relief decorations stand out brightly. In the center of each of the side walls of the dining room, in an arched frame with columns of the Corinthian order on the sides, there were picturesque panels.

The flat ceiling, which turns at the edges into a plastically curved arch, is also decorated with decorative ornamental painting; its surface is divided into diamond-shaped caissons with the finest rosettes in pattern. Other sculptural details also create a sense of artistic richness: the complex carving of the cornice, the graceful brackets of the sandriks above the doors, the softly sculpted reliefs in round medallions. Wonderful inlaid parquet organically complements the interior design.

Next to the dining room is the Theater Hall. Its architecture worthily continues the monumental theme begun by the composition of the façade. The main element of the hall is a row of high pilasters of the Corinthian order. Their orange-red faux marble cladding stands out against the gleaming ivory marble walls. Between the pilasters there are doors framed by strict platbands decorated with reliefs with images of griffins. The plot of the ceiling painting is suggested by the purpose of the hall: in the center of the ceiling in an octagonal frame there is an artistically executed quadriga of Apollo, the god of beauty, patron of the arts, rushing through the clouds. The ceiling is surrounded by a frieze with images of putti supporting garlands. When creating the Theater Hall, the masters I. A. Bodaninsky, who painted the ceiling, and B. I. Yakovlev, who created its sculptural decor, worked together with Fomin.

After the revolution, from 1917 to 1922, the building housed the Department of the Petrograd Criminal Investigation Department, and until 1926 - the Pushkin House. In 1933, the Committee on Physical Education and Sports of the Leningrad City Executive Committee was located in the mansion. For an unknown reason in Soviet time the vases from the roof parapet were removed.

Nab. R. Moiki, 23

The doors of the attractions were opened in honor of the International Day for the Preservation of Monuments and Historical Sites.

April 18, International Day world heritage, the doors of architectural monuments should be open to guests, no matter who lives in them. How showed Karpovka survey, few St. Petersburg residents are aware of their right to explore usually closed attractions. This was decided to be corrected by the Commissioner for Human Rights in St. Petersburg, Alexander Shishlov, who organized a “Cult Walk” - a tour of two ancient buildings. On ordinary days, the Abamelek-Lazarev mansion and the House of the Salamandra residential insurance company are inaccessible to townspeople - they are home to three Smolny committees. “Karpovka” visited the architectural monuments and found out what was left of the owners from the century before last and in what conditions three city departments work.

Abamelek-Lazarev mansion

Where: Millionnaya, 22
Occupies: Committee for Physical Culture and Sports of St. Petersburg

The first owner of the mansion on the future Millionnaya, and then Nemetskaya, street was the brother of the famous Admiral General Count Apraksin.

Main staircase

After the death of the new owner, a long series of changes in owners of plots and houses began. The building was rebuilt several times to suit new architectural tastes or for utilitarian reasons. The last owners were the princes Abamelek-Lazarev.

This family was fabulously rich. They inherited a huge fortune from Georgian kings and Italian princes. In addition, Semyon Semenovich Abamelek-Lazarev, the owner of the house, owned a Perm estate - a site in the Urals with huge metal deposits and metallurgical plants.

Even before purchasing the mansion on Millionnaya, the Abamelek-Lazarev family owned villas in Rome, Florence, and a mansion in Nizhny Novgorod and a house on Nevsky Prospekt, 40, next to the Armenian Church. The last building was supposed to go to the Armenian community after the death of Semyon Semenovich’s father, so his son had to buy a mansion near Palace Square. But the entrepreneur was in no hurry to finally part with his rich nest.

The house on Nevsky was filled with numerous treasures and works of art. When Semyon Semenovich moved to Millionnaya, he asked the council of the Armenian church for permission to take some items in memory of the family. Having received it, the prince moved parquet floors, doors, window frames, stoves, molded cornices, as well as most of the paintings, sculpture and mirrors.

Egyptian Hall. The film Aesop (1981) was filmed here.

When he was forcibly stopped, the new resident demanded that during the restructuring, exact copies of some rooms of the house on Nevsky be built in the mansion on Millionnaya. At the request of Semyon Semenovich, a home theater was built in the house. It was completed in 1915, so they only managed to use it a few times.

Home theater

The interiors have been preserved in a very “budget” version. At the time of the revolution, the situation was much richer. The very rich art collection that the Abamelek-Lazarev princes had also disappeared. What remains from the previous owners is parquet in some rooms, several oak doors, a couple of chairs and a table.

Door from the main hall to the theater

Semyon Semyonovich died suddenly in Kislovodsk five months before Nicholas II abdicated the throne. The widow Maria Pavlovna emigrated and lived abroad until 1958.

Main hall

After 1917, the house passed from one organization to another. Here lived a successful dental institute with the largest specialized museum in the country. In 1924, the money to maintain the institution ran out and it was closed. The mansion became the central home of physical education workers in 1927, and since 1933 the Committee on Physical Culture and Sports moved in here, which still lives there.

House of the residential insurance company "Salamander"

Where: Karavannaya, 9
Occupy: improvement committee and development committee transport infrastructure

Courtyard

The apartment building was built in 1906–1911. The project was developed by the architect Pel, who died just at the beginning of construction. For more than a hundred years, there are practically no “greetings” from the past left in the building. The entire house is divided into small parts that are protected or have no value for generations. Several staircases, mosaics on the floor, a bay window on the second floor and an arch with cross vaults in the courtyard have been preserved. The rest of the space was swallowed up by “European-quality renovation” of beige walls, tiles and plastic windows.

Guests are invited to take the main staircase, one of the local attractions. On the front landings, the floor is covered with mosaic tiles - also a subject of protection. The main pride of the improvement committee is the metal staircase, which was cast at the famous San Galli iron foundry. Officials regularly use it to climb to the sixth floor: there is no elevator in this part of the building. The building also has a spiral metal staircase, which also looks alien in office interiors.

In the part of the house occupied by the committee for the development of transport infrastructure, the wealth is also small: the facade, the entrance porch, the balcony, the cross-vaulted ceiling, the flights of stairs with metal railings painted green. Not a single department premises is guarded - nothing remains here from the last century.

P.S.

In 2014, CJSC VTB Development opened the first two business centers of the Nevskaya Ratusha complex. Initially, it was planned that all Smolny committees would move to its main building on the corner of Novgorodskaya Street and Degtyarny Lane. The historical buildings abandoned by officials wanted to be sold at auction.

After Georgy Poltavchenko arrived at Smolny, the fate of the project was in question. There were proposals to adapt the Nevsky Town Hall for other needs, in particular, for the Palace of Youth Creativity or for officials of the Leningrad Region.

At the end of September 2012, the acting chairman of the committee for investments and strategic projects, Oleg Lyskov, announced that the idea of moving some of the Smolny committees to the Nevsky Town Hall was again being considered. The official added that there is already preliminary list committees that are advisable to transfer first, since their buildings can be sold the fastest. By selling the old space, it was planned to buy space in the new building from VTB Development.

Ksenia Nesterova

A completely different situation arose with the construction of the house of Prince S.S. Abamelek-Lazareva.
Fomin had to fit his plan into an area limited on three sides.
From this hallway we enter the lobby. His decision is very extraordinary.
This is a small and low rectangular room, surrounded by heavy Doric pilasters, approximately human height. On two long walls they correspond to a Doric colonnade of the same proportions. These columns have no bases; they are placed on a kind of flooring that extends from the wall and is not interrupted by the intercolumnium. The pilasters and columns are made of artificial marble, the orange color so beloved by Fomin, and the capitals are made of pinkish-yellow material. (We saw this color scheme in the dance hall of the Shakhovskaya mansion.) Fomin also uses his favorite chess floor. And so the squat proportions of the columns and pilasters are aggravated by a very heavy white entablature with large decorations of laconic forms. It is interesting that, for all their apparent heaviness and squatness, the dimensions of the columns are quite comparable to the height of the average person, so there remains some feeling of the absurdity of the experienced space. This whole play of proportions and volumes is even more intensified on the end wall: at the corners Fomin uses pilasters superimposed on each other, and, freeing up the center for a niche with a sculpture, he is forced to move the pilasters so close that the gap between them becomes smaller than the pilasters themselves. It is interesting that both the entrance and exit to the staircase are made not in the end walls, but in the outer intercolumns.
The entrance to the staircase is set far enough away because of the columns, so already from the lobby we see its perspective, and it immediately becomes clear that this is a completely different space. In contrast, we see a spacious, elegant, bright interior of the staircase with smooth pale green walls, a beautiful high arch with octagonal caissons and rosettes in them, white on a green background.
A large role in this space is played by a simple, white mirror located on the site. Inexpressive at first glance, it nevertheless allows you to see the perspective of the second flight of stairs from the lobby, creating the amazing effect of an endless staircase pointing upward. A large window located on the side of the mirror provides constant bright light, illuminating not only the staircase itself, but also its reflection in the mirror. These games, which make it possible to create voluminous visual spaces with small actual sizes, were Fomin's trademark. Slender, high railings add additional lightness to the staircase.
From the stairs we enter the dining room. This is the most elegant room. Opposite the window there is a peculiar semicircular loggia with a balcony for musicians, separated by two Ionic columns and two semi-columns, lined with black marble with large splashes of reddish-brown and light brown spots, with white capitals and bases.
The walls were not decorated, they remained smooth, and, as if to emphasize this, Fomin concentrates white doors with gilded decor in the corners of the building so that the white pediments on the consoles crowning them almost touch each other at the corners. In the upper part, separated by a thin frieze of scrolls, there are round sculptural medallions above the doors. (The sculpture for this work by Fomin was made by B.I. Yakovlev.) All the white details are clearly readable against the pale beige, slightly tinted general background. The mirror vault in the lower part is decorated with caissons, the ceiling is painted by Bodaninsky in his already familiar somewhat dry stylistic manner, but not without grace.

The theater hall is of great interest. It is opposed to the dining room by its decision. The entire room is decorated with red-brown Corinthian pilasters with white capitals.Between them are white doors with gilt trim, three on each side wall, exactly the same as in the dining room, but they are framed with a thin faux marble frame of the same red-brown color with gold trim.

These are truly iconic buildings for the entire pre-revolutionary period of Fomin’s work: all the motives, all the principles have already been revealed in them. But at the same time, in their semantics they are most connected with the previous tradition. Especially Polovtsov’s dacha: classic U-shaped plan, symmetrical layout, division into front and living parts, connection with the surrounding park. But Fomin always changes something, violating classical canons and laws: oversaturation with details: too many columns, slightly changed proportions, overly accentuated detail, a little more fanciful than strict taste requires, the line is drawn, the pediments above the doors almost overlap each other? and a completely new, unexpected, sometimes ironic, sometimes elegantly sublime, sensation is created. Each new room becomes completely unexpected for us in its image and design. But overall, this is still a kind of “game on someone else’s field.”

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