The plot granted for construction to Princess A. P. Golitsyna neighbored the palace of Tsarevna Natalia Alekseevna, separated from it by the Voskresensky Brook (now the route of Chernyshevsky Avenue). The house originally formed part of the building front on the Embankment Street of the Russian Settlement. The settlement’s layout was carried out by D. Trezzini in 1712–1715. Downstream on the Neva, on the Voskresenskaya Embankment, were located the palaces of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and the tsarinas Marfa Matveyevna and Praskovya Fyodorovna.
The mistress of the stone house, Princess Anastasia (Nastasya) Petrovna Golitsyna (1665–1729), née Princess Prozorovskaya, belonged to the highest stratum of Moscow society and was close to the court from an early age. Her father, the close boyar Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Prozorovsky, was appointed as a tutor to the young Tsarevich Ivan Alekseevich, the future Tsar Ivan V. Her mother, Anna Fyodorovna, née Rtishcheva, was the daughter of Okolnichy Fyodor Mikhailovich Rtishchev, an enlightener and patron, friend and favorite of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. In 1684, Anastasia Petrovna married the chamber stolnik Ivan V, Prince Ivan Alekseevich Golitsyn (1658–1729), younger brother of Prince Boris Alekseevich, the “uncle” (tutor) of Peter I. Anastasia Petrovna’s sister, Princess Agrafena Petrovna Prozorovskaya (†1707), became the wife of the kravchy Vasily Fyodorovich Saltykov, the brother of Tsarina Praskovya Fyodorovna, wife of Ivan V.
A. P. Golitsyna was close to the wife of the tsar, Ekaterina Alekseevna, accompanied her on travels, and was among the few guests present at the 1712 wedding of Ekaterina and Peter I. She also took part in Peter’s entertainments, including the jesters’ organization uniting the tsar’s friends—the “All-Jesting, All-Drunken, and Most Absurd Assembly,” where she was called “Princess Abbess.” She was titled “Most Serene Princess,” although she had no right to this title.
In 1718, A. P. Golitsyna was involved in the investigation of the case of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, was found guilty, publicly whipped with rods, and then sent to her husband, who, however, returned her to her father’s house.
In 1722, Golitsyna was pardoned and returned to the court. In 1724, after the coronation of Catherine I, she was the first to be appointed a lady of the court and, along with Princess Daria Mikhailovna Menshikova, enjoyed the title of “Serene Highness.” In 1725, A. P. Golitsyna became related to the imperial family by marrying her eldest son, Prince Fyodor Ivanovich, to Peter I’s cousin Maria Lvovna Naryshkina. After the death of Catherine I, A. P. Golitsyna retired and moved from Saint Petersburg to Moscow, where she soon died. A month later, her husband, who had taken monastic vows, also passed away. The couple were buried in the Epiphany Monastery in Moscow (their graves have not survived).
The house of A. P. Golitsyna was built in 1712–1716. Judging by the image in A. F. Zubov’s “Panorama,” it was originally a large two-story building with a high multi-profile roof with breaks, with three segmental pediments topping the raised central and two side parts. The main facade, facing the embankment, is distinguished by a flat risalit with eight axes, which has survived to this day. A building plan with strongly protruding risalits facing the courtyard is characteristic of the Petrine era.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a large, sparsely built plot with the former house of Princess Golitsyna belonged to the merchant I. I. Milov. On the second floor of the courtyard wing in 1798–1799, the first Old Believer church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was established in Saint Petersburg, popularly called the “Milov Church.” In the 1840s, for the construction of a new stone Old Believer church, I. I. Milov’s daughter M. I. Morozova provided land on the side of Zakharyevskaya Street, on the eastern half of the ancestral estate. At the beginning of the 20th century, the house was owned by V. F. Kolobova.
Until recently, the house of Princess A. P. Golitsyna was considered lost. In the mid-1990s, architectural historian M. N. Mikishatev (1945–2020) suggested that the existing building at the corner of the current Shpalernaya Street and Chernyshevsky Avenue is the house of A. P. Golitsyna.
In the 2000s, the house underwent reconstruction for the Saint Petersburg office of the ITAR-TASS agency without preliminary historical-archaeological research and measurements. During the work, which involved enlarging windows on the external facades and completely removing plaster inside the building, masonry from the Petrine era was discovered, as well as characteristic construction techniques throughout the building’s height.
A responsible approach was shown by architect M. A. Mamoshin, the author of the reconstruction project of Golitsyna’s house and the construction of a new residential building nearby. He left the especially valuable courtyard part of the house untouched, and gave the new multi-story building a complex polygonal plan to preserve the view of the courtyard facade of the architectural monument of the Petrine era.
In 2001, the house was included in the list of newly identified objects representing historical, scientific, or other cultural value.
Sources:
https://petersmonuments.ru/russia/memorials/dom-svetleyshey-knyagini-n-p-golitsynoy-s-peterburg/
https://www.citywalls.ru/house5843.html
