Description of the attraction
In St. Petersburg, on Tchaikovsky Street (formerly Sergievskaya), there is a mansion owned by a gold miner, entrepreneur, descendant of Russified Germans, Alexander Ferdinandovich Kelkh. The structure, due to some peculiarities, differs from other mansions and residential buildings that are located on this street. The facade of the front side of the mansion is made in the style of the French Renaissance, while the courtyard facades bear the features of the Gothic style. In the motives of the richly decorated interiors (in addition to the Gothic and Renaissance), the Rococo style is guessed.
The authorship of the development of the project of the mansion and the decoration of its internal premises belongs to the architects Vasily Ivanovich Schoene and Vladimir Ivanovich Chagin. The project was approved in 1896, and already during the construction of the mansion, significant changes were made to the project, as a result of which it had to be re-approved in 1903, when the building was already partially built. The front of the house is finished with sandstone - the ground floor is faced with pink, the rest of the floors - light yellow.
The interior decoration of the mansion has been worked out in detail and executed in an extremely sophisticated technique. The design harmoniously intertwined various techniques and styles: the staircase of the main entrance in the characteristic Renaissance style, a detailed composition in the Gothic style decorates the dining room with stained glass windows, the living room in the Rococo style. Sculpture, carving, stucco molding were used in the decoration of the interiors.
The courtyard of the house is also interesting from the point of view of the integrity and completeness of the architectural solution. The service (stable) wing completes the courtyard perspective. The brick walls, which it was decided not to plaster, contrast with the skillfully executed decoration and the openwork pavilion in the Gothic style. Above the aisle, in the backyard, there is an arch in the same Gothic style.
Noteworthy are the spectacularly executed study with a huge fireplace, a grand staircase, a living room decorated with a stucco plafond, and a rich Gothic decoration of the dining room.
Alexander Kelkh bought a large number of exquisite decorative items of great masters to decorate the mansion. For example, the Easter eggs that Kelch ordered from Carl Faberge could only be afforded throughout Russia by the oil industrialist Ludwig Nobel, the emperor and A. F. Kelch. For Kelch's wife, Faberge personally selected rare jewelry.
The fate of Kelch is of particular interest. Kelch did not leave Russia after the October Revolution, but preferred to stay and worked in Siberia as an ordinary worker, at his former factory. Later, in the 1920s, Kelch returned to St. Petersburg. But attempts to get a job were unsuccessful, he was forced to sell cigarettes on the street, begging. It all ended with Kelch being arrested in 1930 and sent to Stalin's camps. Nowadays, at many auctions you can find jewelry from the rich collection of Alexander Kelkh.
The Kelch mansion was severely destroyed during the blockade years, but was rebuilt in 44-45 years of the last century. The UNESCO Center in St. Petersburg was housed in a mansion in the 1990s.
In different years of the Soviet period, various organizations were located in the building. For example, since 1919, the world's first educational institution of cinematography has worked here, in which many cultural figures have been trained in acting and directing. So, in 1924 Vasiliev Sergey Dmitrievich graduated from the institute, who later created the legendary Soviet film "Chapaev". At that time, the building was not heated, and the students called the mansion "Ice House".
Most recently, the former mansion was transferred to the ownership of the Ministry of Justice.
