Chicherin House

Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Apartment Buildings
CHICHERIN HOUSE (Kosikovsky House, Eliseev House) (15 Nevsky Prospect), monument of early Neoclassical architecture. Built in 1768-71 (architect unknown, possibly G.B. Vallin de la Mothe or Y.M. Felten) for general chief of police N.I. Chicherin, on the site of the former wooden Winter Palace of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. In 1794, a wing along the Moika River Embankment was added. Another wing for the new house owner A.I. Kosikovsky, was added at the side of Bolshaya Morskaya Street (1814-17, architect V.P. Stasov). With its facades opening onto three streets, Chicherin House is an important piece of urban planning. From 1858, it belonged to the Eliseev merchants (back then, it was reconstructed with the participation of architect N.P. Grebenka). The interiors contain some fragments of decorative ornaments of the second half of the 18th century (columns and pilasters of Corinthian Order in a round hall in the corner of the third storey, etc.) have been preserved. In 1780-83, architect G. Quarenghi lived in Chicherin House. In the early 19th century, a printing house and a book store of A.A. Pluchart (see A.A. Pluchart 's Publishing House) were situated in the first floor of the house, as well as the Talon restaurant. It was also the place, where the editorial office of P.P. Svinyin's Otechestvennie Zapiski journal resided. Publisher and publicist, N.I. Grech, at whose place W.K. Kuchelbecker stayed in 1825, lived in Chicherin House. In the block of Bolshaya Morskaya Street side, A.S. Griboedov resided in 1828. In 1862, the Chess Club was situated in Chicherin House; and in the second half of the 19th century, the Noble Assembly, where literary soirees and concerts were organized, held its assemblies here. In 1919-22, there was the House of Arts in Chicherin House, where many outstanding writers of the early 20th century lived and worked (K.A. Fedin, V.A. Kaverin, M.M. Zoshchenko, the main body of Serapin Brothers Group). In 1923, Svetlaya Lenta Cinema (as of 1930, Barrikada) opened in Chicherin House. Among the institutions occupying the house is PAKS Periodontic Centre.

References: Сомина Р. А. Невский проспект. Л., 1959; Чеснокова А. Н. Невский проспект. Л., 1985. С. 23; Шульц С. С. Дом Искусств. СПб., 1997.

O. A. Chekanova. Chicherin Nikolay Ivanovich
Elizaveta Petrovna, Empress
Fedin Konstantin Alexandrovich
Grebenka Nikolay Pavlovich
Grech Nikolay Ivanovich
Griboedov Alexander Sergeevich
Kaverin Veniamin Alexandrovich
Kosikovsky Andrey Ivanovich
Kuchelbecker Wilhelm Karlovich
Pluchart Alexander I.
Quarenghi Giacomo
Stasov Vasily Petrovich
Svinyin Pavel Petrovich
Vallin de la Mothe Jean Baptiste Michel
Zoschenko Mikhail Mikhailovich
Bolshaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 15
Сомина Р. А. Невский проспект. Л., 1959
Чеснокова А. Н. Невский проспект. Л., 1985
Шульц С. С. Дом Искусств. СПб., 1997 Otechestvennye Zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland), journal
Arts, The House of, literary society
Serapion's Brothers
1817
1822