Description of the attraction
In St. Petersburg, at the intersection of Sadovaya and Italyanskaya streets, there is the famous House with four colonnades. It is an architectural monument of federal significance.
The facade of the house is fully consistent with the fashion trends of the mid-18th century and is made in the style of Russian classicism. It is not known exactly who was the author of the project, although there is an assumption that this is the architect A. F. Kokorinov. This has not been documented. Construction went on from 1750 to 1760.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the architect S. P. Bernikov supervised the reconstruction of the building. Its work was completed by architect L. Ruska, who made his own adjustments to Bernikov's project. From the history of the house with colonnades, it is known that the first owner was Count I. I. Shuvalov.
Before the construction, there was a secret office on this site. In 1773, the building was rented, and four years later it was bought out for the Commission to draft a new code. In the 19th century, the house with colonnades housed the Ministry of Finance. At the same time, from 1850 to 1880. the interior was rebuilt. The work was supervised by architects G. Prang, L. Vendramini and V. Stukkei. In 1912, the house was bought by the commercial and industrial partnership of Grigory Bekenson, and a year later it was sold to a private person. During the next restructuring, the interior decoration was changed, and large display windows appeared on the first floor. In 1913, the building housed the Pavilion de Paris theater, where in August 1915 Alexander Vertinsky made his debut. In 1914, an extension was made to the outbuilding, in which there was a cinema. A cafe "Empire" was opened here, which was reopened in 1990. Theater and cinema projects were developed by the architect J. Bluvstein.
Immediately after the October Revolution, the House with four colonnades housed the editorial office of the Family and School publishing house, a book store, the board of the trade union of credit institutions and the post office. From 1919 to 1920 the building was given to the troupe of the Ukrainian Communist Theater. T. G. Shevchenko. In 1921, the night cabaret "Balaganchik" and the "Free Comedy" theater were opened in the premises that the Pavilion de Paris occupied. Then, in 1929, the Kapitoliy cinema was located here, later renamed the KRAM Working Youth Cinema. In our time - the cinema "Youth".
In 1926, the premises of the cafe "Ampir" housed the first culinary school in post-revolutionary Russia, which was led by the former chef of one of the best St. Petersburg restaurants, P. Alexandrov, who received a gold medal for his skill before the revolution at the World Exhibition in Paris.
In the 50s in the wing of the House on Sadovaya there was a restaurant "Severny", a little later - "Baku". From 1990 to 2002, it was home to "Shanghai" - one of the first restaurants in the city with Chinese cuisine.
In 1992, there was a currency exchange in the wing of the Colonnaded House on Italianskaya Street. In 2008, it was transferred to City Stroy-Invest LLC, which undertook to carry out the reconstruction. The commissioning of the facility was planned for 2011, but in three years only about 10 percent of the total volume of work was done. According to the order of the construction committee, a cultural and entertainment center will be located in the premises of the house with colonnades by January 2013.
During its existence, the building has not undergone any significant alterations. In the plan it is a three-storey building with 4 porticos of the Ionic order, each of which has 8 columns. In the courtyard, elements of the original exterior decoration have been preserved. Of interest in terms of a constructive solution is the staircase under the arch of the gate, the steps of which are laid with vaults, the fulcrum of which is on four central pillars.
