The museum is an old mansion on the embankment. The new owner will save the wooden mansion “Dachi Golovin” on Vyborgskaya Embankment
The building of the Ancient Mansion is located in Arkhangelsk. It was built in 1786. The fate of this house was not easy: it burned down several times, was rebuilt several times, corrected, reconstructed, and was never used for its intended purpose. At first there was a Bank office here, then a Exchange office, a Commercial Bank and, finally, a city customs office.
In 1964, the building was transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts. For several years, an exhibition of ancient Russian art was located here, and later - museum collections. Since the early 1980s, the Mansion has been restored. The opening of the museum took place in September 1998. The first exhibition – “Portrait in an ancient interior” – provided an opportunity to see the transformation of artistic styles in the interior of the late 18th – early 20th centuries. The formation of the ensemble, which, in addition to portraiture, includes furniture, mirrors, and porcelain, made it possible to create a special atmosphere in which works of fine art seem to awaken when they find themselves in an environment close to them. The house has a permanent exhibition “Portrait in an ancient interior”.
Since the Mansion on the Embankment was never in the possession of a specific family, the authors of the exhibition decided not to reproduce the original interior. But on the other hand, the museum’s funds contained furnishings and household items from the 18th – early 20th centuries. Therefore, it was decided to restore the living environment, into which the museum exhibits would fit organically.
The Portrait Gallery of the Old Mansion features works that come from local institutions and old houses. Among them you can see a portrait of I.K. Bazhenin (a person related to Arkhangelsk) and royal portraits: Peter the Great, Elizaveta Petrovna, Pavel Petrovich (II half of the 18th century). The portrait gallery characterized the owner’s taste and was the subject of his pride and vanity.
The owner's office was one of the main rooms of the noble house and represented, in a way, its intellectual and economic center. The main place in the cabinet exhibition is occupied by portraits of Arkhangelsk governors of the 18th century: T.I. Tutolmina, P.P. Konovnitsyn and others. The interior recreates the decoration of an office from the late 18th – early 19th centuries.
In the living room of the Old Mansion you can feel the atmosphere of a town house from the first quarter of the 19th century. The living room of the 19th century was a place where they read and empathized out loud, did handicrafts, “explained themselves,” and played music. Of course, it is difficult to imagine a living room without a piano. In addition, marble sculpture and bronze items occupy the main place in the interior decoration. The heart of the living room is her portraits, which at the beginning of the 19th century served as an indicator of her standard of living and position in society. Most often, the portraits were anonymous: not only the author, but also the people depicted in them are unknown. A group of such portraits was placed above the sofa.
The house contains a room with a women's boudoir (mid-19th century), where the mistress of the house took a break from social duties, read, did handicrafts, and carried out the obligatory correspondence, as evidenced by the elegant bureau-secretary. Also here you can see a dressing table and a table for needlework. The picturesque paintings of this room convey a variety of moods, in tune with the world of a woman. Here you can see romantic paintings by Aivazovsky, Sudkovsky, Bogolyubov, a sentimental idyll of a Western artist in the Rococo style, “Family Scene” by the artist Charles van den Dele and, of course, portraits of children. The pearl of the women's boudoir is “Portrait of an Unknown Woman,” donated to Arkhangelsk by the Russian Museum in 1929, and it came to the museum from the artist’s studio.
The final hall of the Mansion is the dining room. It was usually a bright, comfortable room. The main place in the interior is occupied by the extendable “centipede” table, around which all family members gathered. It was necessary in the dining room to have glass cabinets in which various items made of porcelain, glass, and earthenware were displayed. A special place in the decoration was given to porcelain. At the end of the 19th century, it was not just an object of collecting and representation, but was a necessary part of table setting. On the wall you can see “Portrait of a Woman in a White Dress” by A.I. Vakhrameev, portrait of N.D. Vidyakina by an unknown artist.
The old mansion on the Embankment lives a bright, active life. Thematic exhibitions and excursions are regularly organized here, arousing genuine interest among local residents and tourists. In the halls of the mansion you can hear chamber music, balls for children, social events, receptions and presentations are held.
An abandoned mansion with windows overlooking the Neva, an unfinished five-star hotel, which is called cursed, a former restaurant where a film with Alisa Freundlich was filmed, and an estate with an apple orchard hidden behind the houses - “ Paper" chose ten empty St. Petersburg buildings with ancient marble fireplaces, stained glass windows and statues.
Betling Mansion and Chelishchev Mansion
The 18th-century buildings on the banks of the Neva were rebuilt several times and changed owners. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Swedish Embassy was located in the Betling mansion. In the 30s, the houses were combined and the Electromechanical College was placed there. The buildings have preserved the house church, a staircase with wooden balusters, a Swedish system elevator, etched glass and a marble fireplace.
Hotel "Northern Crown"
An abandoned five-star hotel with five restaurants, a swimming pool and a sports complex began to be built in 1988. Due to conflicts between customers and contractors, the opening dates were constantly shifted, and as a result, construction was frozen. In 1995, when Metropolitan John died at a presentation on the occasion of its imminent opening, the hotel began to be called a “bad place.” At the end of 2018, demolition of the building began.
Ernest Igel's mansion
In the middle of the 19th century, a wooden one-story dacha of Prince Vyazemsky stood on this site. In 1894, the French merchant Igel acquired it and opened the Ernest or Ernest's Dacha restaurant there. After the revolution, the building housed the House of Proletarian Culture, as well as the Metalist club. The film “Everyday Life and Holidays of Serafima Glyukina” with Alisa Freundlich in the title role was filmed in the interiors of the mansion.
Mikhailovka Estate
The 19th-century palace and park ensemble Mikhailovskaya Dacha belonged to Grand Duke Mikhail, son of Nicholas I. In addition to the palace, the complex included kitchen and stable buildings, as well as numerous garden verandas, statues and fountains. From 1919 to 1941, the labor school-colony “Red Dawns” operated in the estate. In 2006, the complex was transferred to St. Petersburg State University for the GSOM campus. The palace building has been preserved.
Demidov Estate
The Palace of Demidov Entrepreneurs was built in the mid-18th century. Its main feature is the veranda with a rounded metal staircase overlooking the apple orchard. According to rumors, in the basement of the building under the Demidovs there was the first bowling alley in Russia. In 1830, the palace was handed over to the English Club; during Soviet times, the Iceberg Central Design Bureau, which designed nuclear icebreakers, was located there.
Ekval's Mansion
The two-story mansion was built by architect Fedor Lidval in 1901 for Karl Ekval, the owner of the Iron Foundry and Mechanical Plant. The abandoned mansion is interesting because it is one of the few wooden buildings in the Art Nouveau style remaining in St. Petersburg. The walls of the building are decorated with floral patterns and textured plaster. The mansion is hidden behind a concrete fence.
Wege Mansion
The mansion at the ultramarine plant of the famous industrialist Georgiy Vega was built in 1890 by an unknown architect. The building is an example of the eclectic style. The mansion is in disrepair, but the stucco moldings, stained glass windows, as well as wall paintings and caryatids have been preserved inside. The mansion is located on the territory of the Pigment plant.
Brusnitsyns' mansion
Since 1844, the mansion belonged to Nikolai Brusnitsyn, the founder of the Brusnitsyn tannery. The building has preserved the White Hall with a chandelier and a marble fireplace, a Moorish-style smoking room, and a billiard room. The legend of the “mirror of Dracula” is associated with the mansion. Allegedly, it hung in one of the Venetian palazzos where the ashes of Count Dracula were kept. Tours have been temporarily suspended since February.
Good news came to us from St. Petersburg! The press service of AUIPIK reported that the ancient “Golovin’s Dacha”, which is located on Vyborgskaya Embankment, will have a new owner for the next 25 years.
Previously, the beautiful mansion, built in the first quarter of the 19th century by Ludwig Charlemagne, was already beginning to deteriorate. Fears for its fate were complicated by the fact that this house was built of wood and is one of the few ancient wooden mansions surviving in St. Petersburg.
Who is the new tenant of Golovin's Dacha and how does he plan to adapt the mansion for modern use?
“Golovin’s Dacha” is rather a conventional historical name for a preserved mansion on Vyborgskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg. In the 18th century, this territory was indeed granted to an associate of Peter the Great, a prominent statesman, Alexander Golovin. At first there was a small dacha building here, and then a city estate. However, at the beginning of the 19th century, the manor house became very dilapidated.
At that time, “Golovin’s Dacha” had already been bought by the state. By order of the state, a new mansion was built here by the famous architect Ludwig Charlemagne in the period from 1823 to 1824. A luxurious building in a classical style, made of wood, served as a home for high-ranking guests and members of the imperial family. Since the middle of the 19th century, the building housed various government and social institutions. After the revolution, the building here was a hospital for a long time.
In 2004, the building was transferred to the management of AUIPK and urgent emergency work was carried out there. They have been looking for a responsible tenant for Golovin's Dacha for several years. And so, on the official website of AUIPIK it was reported that the building with an area of 800 square meters. meters and a land plot of 0.7 hectares is transferred based on auction results and on the basis of an order from the Ministry of Culture.
Golovin's dacha is an architectural monument and needs restoration. According to the terms of the auction, the winner of the auction, Finance-Real Estate LLC, which is part of the investment and construction holding AAG, will have to reconstruct the facility.
“I think this deal is quite successful, both for the city and for us. We will not only carry out a complete reconstruction of the building, but also breathe new life into it, restoring both the exterior and the spatial layout of the 19th century. This architectural monument should regain its appearance,” commented the general director of the AAG holding, Alexander Zavyalov, on the results of the auction.
The lease term will be 25 years. The building can be used as commercial real estate.
Investment and construction holding AAG is a diversified structure founded in 2007. The holding implements its own housing construction projects and also provides comprehensive services for the development of investment and construction projects to property owners: both developers and non-core investors. Currently, the company's portfolio includes more than 45 projects in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, the press service of AUIPIK reports.
