HOUSES, GARDENS AND BUILDINGS IN SAINT PETERSBURG

Petersburg is a city of contrasts. Old mansions coexist with modern high-rise buildings. Old apartment buildings decorated with stucco and columns and ordinary panel multi-storey buildings of the Soviet construction. It is in these old houses that the exquisite interior, stucco molding, columns and even fireplaces, breathing the spirit of that time, have been preserved. Not all residents of St. Petersburg can boast of a unique interior of the entrance to the house. It is impossible to cover everything within the framework of one article, so we will dwell only on some of them, walking through the historical center of St. Petersburg. The Eliseevs’ house was erected in 1882. It is distinguished by a huge front staircase, and the first elevator in the city, with a cabin in a forged cast-iron patterned cage, which worked with steam and did not lose its relevance until the end of the 90s. The people call this front door “Daisy”, because of the yellow walls and white windows with stained-glass windows, even in cloudy weather warm light flows through them. The staircase spirals around the openwork lattice of the elevator to the very top. Mirrors placed between the first and second floors, create a feeling of infinity. And in the house itself, to this day, communal apartments have been preserved. The Eliseevs owned several more houses built by the same architect. All of them are examples of exquisite art. Walking along one of the streets, if you look up, do not be alarmed if you meet the sun god’s eyes. The Egyptian house was designed at the very beginning of the 20th century for the wife of a state councilor. It became the most advanced architectural solution at that time. fully automated elevator system “Stiegler”. On the sides of the entrance there are imposing figures of the sun god Ra, with a bas-relief of a winged solar disk, a little higher is the image of the sky goddess Hathor .. Scenes from the life of the Egyptians decorate the rest of the house, the grill and railings are also made in the Egyptian style. In Maltsev’s apartment building, the floors are adorned with figures of women propping up the ceiling with stucco moldings like the Atlanteans. A massive stone staircase connects 6 floors. Windows with a bizarre geometric pattern and colored stained-glass inserts remind of former beauty and create an art-house atmosphere. Walking around the city, you can come across a fairy-tale house. Nikonov’s profitable house, indeed, looks like a gingerbread house from a fairy tale. So intricately decorated. The house was built in the first half of the 19th century and was originally 2-storey, after its acquisition by the architect Nikonov , he rebuilt it for himself, and made it 5-storey. After, the house housed communal apartments overlooking the courtyard-well. The decor of the house can be traced to old Russian traditions. Luxurious floral ornament, gabled roofs, roofing and bay windows in the form of tents. A vaulted gateway with an openwork lattice leads to a courtyard with a turret and tiles. The house-tower is richly decorated with mosaics, multi-colored ceramics, brickwork, majolica, porticoes and columns. The front hall has stained-glass windows and a large hall with metlakh tiles on the floor. Houses on “chicken legs” settled on Novosmolenskaya embankment. They were built in the 20th century, on supports to protect themselves from floods and wind loads from the Gulf of Finland. 22-storey giants were erected in the 1980s as part of experimental construction. the last floors offer a wonderful view. Bernstein’s apartment building has a wide staircase with turquoise brick walls, along which there is a stucco ornament depicting water lilies and lilies. The floor between the floors is covered with colored tiles on the same theme. The spans between the floors are equipped with chairs, you can relax on them, looking into the huge, floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the well courtyard. Well courtyards are the hallmark of St. Petersburg. According to one version, their appearance is associated with the circular development of apartment buildings in order to increase the number of apartments for rent. There are whole labyrinths of courtyards connected by walk-through arches. Some courtyards of St. Petersburg are also works of art, for example, an Italian courtyard in the very center of the city on Italyanskaya Street. The courtyard is decorated with the Colosseum and a Venetian canal painted on one of the walls. So, walking around St. Petersburg, you can accidentally find yourself in Italy. The mosaic courtyard began to overgrow with mosaics right in front of the residents. The walls, curbs, sculptures and the playground were decorated with colored glass mosaics. A dragon settled in one of the courtyards. It has a long history that began in the 1980s. It was made by a concrete sculptor who lived in one of the houses of this courtyard. The dragon changed color many times and went through many stories, but it still remains to please the residents. You can accidentally find yourself in Liverpool by looking in the courtyard of The Beatles. It is decorated with a yellow submarine, bas-reliefs of the members and details related to the work of the group. This is why the street was named John Lennon, although you will not find it on the map. The courtyard of the Baka apartment building is interesting for its “bridges” – transitions between the front ones. In the early 20th century, the owner took an additional fee from the tenants for the opportunity to enter from the street like a decent person.