12 buildings in St. Petersburg worth seeing, although they are not included in the guidebooks

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Petersburg is so rich in architectural masterpieces that the eyes run up. However, behind the popular buildings, known to all tourists by magnets and postcards, sometimes less famous, but no less interesting houses are lost. We invite you to find out about 12 amazing buildings of St. Petersburg, which a visitor of the city should definitely visit in order to have a more complete impression of the diversity of the architecture of the northern capital.

Kolobov's mansion

Kolobov's house is not as widely known as other architectural masterpieces of the northern capital, but it is incredibly beautiful. The author of the project is Sergey (Tsalek) Ginger. The building was commissioned by the famous merchants-millionaires Kolobovs in the neo-baroque and eclectic style.

The house has a very original layout. The amazing bay windows that support the figures of the Atlanteans, and the caryatids on the loggia, and, of course, the corner tower itself are striking. In general, it is better to see all this with your own eyes.

Address: st. Lenina, 8 / Pushkarsky per., 2 (at the intersection of streets)

Buck's apartment building

The style of this famous building (architect - Boris Girshovich) is called the "third baroque". The facade of the house is dotted with interesting cornices, bay windows, generously covered with stucco and wrought iron decorative elements.

But the most striking feature of this apartment building is that corridors-galleries connect in the area of the second and fourth floors of the building. It is interesting that you can get to the second part of the house only by going through the gallery.

Address: st. Kirochnaya, 24.

House-glass

This house is a clear example of the experiments of Soviet modernism carried out in the second half of the 20th century. The building was designed by specialists from the 5th workshop of LenNIIproekt, led by a group of architects David Goldgor. The people call this building not only "glass", but also "corn".

Initially, the building was built as a commune house, so common kitchens were provided on the residential floors. Since the corridors on the floors are looped, no matter which direction you go, you will not miss the desired apartment.

Address: st. Budapest, 103.

House-ring

This building is considered the very first round house erected in St. Petersburg, in addition, it is one of the oldest in the city on the Neva. The house was designed by the architect Joseph Charlemagne. His task was to fit it into a very small area - so that the building would not block the sun too much for neighboring houses, including the main building.

It is believed that this house can fulfill a cherished desire. Thinking it out, you need to stand in the center of the "ring" (round patio) and look up.

Address: nab. Fontanka river, 92 (at the corner of the embankment, Gorokhovaya street and Semenovskaya square)

House of the Emir of Bukhara

This amazing building in St. Petersburg was built for the last emir of Bukhara, Seyid Alim Khan. The author of the project is Stepan Krichinsky.

Since the emir was a progressive man (he was educated in the Nicholas cadet corps of St. Petersburg, had close relations with the Russian imperial court and even was a member of His Majesty's retinue), he decided to build the house not in the Eastern, but in the European manner. The building is made in the neoclassical style and is somewhat reminiscent of an Italian palazzo.

Address: Kamennoostrovsky prospect, 44b

CFT House

This mega-long building with two-level apartments stretches almost along the entire embankment of the Smolenka River. The style of construction is late modernism (brutalism).

The CFT House very well illustrates the grandeur of the late Soviet Leningrad architecture (the Center for Firm Trade). It was designed by a whole group of specialists (Sokhin, Sokolov, Kurochkin, etc.). The building rises on a massive plinth. Shops are located along the lower floor (as it was originally conceived).

Address: Novosmolenskaya emb., 1

The pink granite house where Nabokov lived

The great writer Vladimir Nabokov lived here since his birth; he mentioned a building made of pink granite in his work "Other Shores". After emigration, he could not forget this house, considering it his only native haven.

The building is made in the early Art Nouveau style, the house has many interesting decorations - for example, a mosaic frieze, stained glass windows, and inside there is decoration made in different styles. The view that Nabokov remembered and which we can admire now, the building acquired thanks to the engineer-architect M. Geisler.

Address: st. Bolshaya Morskaya, 47

House with towers

This incredibly beautiful and original building on the Petrogradskaya side was designed by the architect and director of the cement plant Konstantin Rozenshtein (he also owned this site) in collaboration with the architect and artist Andrey Belogrud.

The building, which looks like a medieval castle, is made in the Gothic style, while having elements of the neo-Renaissance. On one of the towers of the house, you can see a dial with images of the zodiac signs.

Address: Bolshoy prospect of Petrogradskaya side, 75.

House of the merchant Polezhaev

As soon as this house appeared in St. Petersburg (and it was built at the beginning of the last century), it immediately amazed the townspeople with its scope and splendor. The building has so many interesting elements that it is impossible to list them all. The house was designed in the Art Nouveau style by the engineer-architect Ivan Yakovlev.

The wealthy merchant Polezhaev wanted to make the renting of expensive apartments in this house an additional source of his income, but the revolution did not allow his plans to come true. By the way, the director Bortko filmed the film "The Master and Margarita" in this house.

Address: Starorusskaya st., 5

Buddhist temple-monastery Datsan Gunzechoinei

This building was built at the beginning of the last century. The Tibetan Dalai Lama petitioned the emperor to build a Buddhist temple in St. Petersburg, and Pyotr Stolypin supported his request.

Datsan Gunzechoinei is considered the largest and most northern Buddhist temple in Europe. The author of the project was the famous architect of that time Gabriel Baranovsky, and then the work was continued by R. Berzen. Nicholas Roerich also took part in the creation of this unusual monastery (by the way, a Buddhist monk painted the interior according to his sketches).

Address: Primorsky prospect, 91

Singer House

This very famous building immediately catches the eye of tourists who stroll along the Nevsky. It was built by the Singer company. In the city, there were restrictions on the construction of buildings in height, but the architect Pavel Syuzor figured out how to comply with this formality, but make the house very high. He envisioned a graceful dome tower in the project, and placed a glass globe with a diameter of almost three meters on top. The fact is that this restriction did not apply to the tower.

The pompous building is made in the Art Nouveau style. At first, not all Petersburgers accepted this building, and some considered it too shocking, but gradually they got so used to it that it is already difficult to imagine Nevsky Prospekt without Singer's house.

Address: Nevsky prospect, 28.

Egyptian house

The house was designed by Mikhail Songailo. The customer was the lawyer Nezhinsky, or rather, his wife.

The house, built in the Art Nouveau style, can be considered a real textbook of Egyptology. Here you can see both the god Ra and the goddess Hathor, the walls are richly decorated with elements with Egyptian symbols, moreover, such decorations can be seen not only on the front facade, but also on the inner one.

Address: st. Zakharyevskaya, 23

We also recommend visiting the Apartment House on Grazhdanskaya - a building that makes wishes come true.