House of Four Colonnades

Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Public Buildings and Edifices
HOUSE OF FOUR COLONNADES (12 Sadovaya Street), a monument of Neoclassical architecture. Built in the 1750s-60s, supposedly to the design of architect A.F. Kokorin; the facades reconstructed in 1809-10 (architect S.P. Bernikov, L. Rusca). The rectangular three-storey building with an arcade in the basement, and four eight-column porticoes of Ionic Order (three of them are placed in the main facade looking onto Sadovaya Street) dominates surrounding buildings. The facades are decorated by sculptural decorative panel-paintings featuring mythological scenes. The building was made for Count I.I. Shuvalov on the site of a house from the first half of the 18th century, in which the Secret Chancellery (the Institution of Investigation and Justice) was situated. In 1773, the house was rented out, and in 1777, it was bought by the Treasury for Codification Commission - a representative body created by Empress Catherine II for the elaboration of a new Code of Laws. In the 19th century, the building belonged to the Ministry of Finance, in the 1850s, 1870s and the 1880s it was repeatedly reconstructed (architects L.F. Vendramini, V.E. Strukkey, G.B. Prang). In 1912, the building was bought by Grigory Bekenson Commercial and Industrial Partnership. In 1913, architects A.F. Gaush and N.E. Lansere measured the building and photographed its interiors. In 1914, a two-storey stone extension was added to the wing with a cinema hall (architect Y.Z. Bluvstein), Pavilion de Paris miniature theatre was opened (singer A.N. Vertinsky made his debut here in August 1915). In 1915, Empire coffee-shop opened (restored in the 1990s). Until 1917, the editorial office for Family and School magazine, the administration of the All-Russian Professional Union of Credit Institutions, a book store, etc. were situated in this building. In 1917-19, a post and telegraph office was located here, in 1919-20, the Shevchenko Ukrainian Communist Theatre. In 1921, in a hall of Pavilion de Paris, Volnaya Komediya (Free Comedy) theatre was opened (director N.V. Petrov) and Balaganchik night cabaret-theatre, in 1928, Capitol cinema, since 1929, KRAM cinema (Cinema of working youth), today, Molodezhny Movie Theatre. In the 1950s-60s, Severny restaurant was situated in the part of the building along Sadovaya Street. From the early 1970s, Baku restaurant, from the early 1990s until 2002, Shanghai restaurant (the first Chinese restaurant in St. Petersburg). Since 1992, St. Petersburg Currency Market functions in the part of the building along Italyanskaya St.

Reference: Богданов И. А. Дом с четырьмя колоннадами. СПб., 2002.

I. A. Bogdanov. Bernikov Sergey Petrovich
Bluvstein Yakov Zaharovich
Catherine II, Empress
Gaush Alexander Fedorovich
Kokorinov Alexander Filippovich
Lansere Nikolay Evgenievich
Petrov Nikolay Vasilievich
Prang Henrich Bogdanovich
Rusca Luigi (Aloisy Ivanovich)
Shevchenko Taras Grigorievich
Shuvalov Ivan Ivanovich, Count
Stukkei (Stokke) Veniamin Egorovich
Vendramini Lev Frantsevich
Vertinsky Alexander Nikolaevich
Sadovaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 12
Богданов И. А. Дом с четырьмя колоннадами. СПб., 2002 Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Finance
Show-Booth, Cabaret Theatre