In the early 1900s, on a plot owned by hereditary honorary citizen and owner of several houses Panteleimon Trifonovich Badaev, a revenue house was built. Badaev was the elder of the house church and an honorary steward for economic affairs at the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary, located on the Obvodny Canal.
The architect of the building was Vasily Antonovich Kosyakov, a graduate of the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1885, an artist, and a teacher at the Institute since 1888. Kosyakov began construction of the house with Kornilov. Then the architect involved his younger brother, who, together with architect Podberesky, created sketches for the decorative design of the house.
And already in 1907, Vasily Kosyakov was awarded a silver medal for this house at the city facade competition. This is one of the most striking Art Nouveau buildings in the city. The rounded corner of the building is crowned with a gable featuring the image of a "sad angel" — a sculptural bas-relief in the form of a female figure.
Above the female figure’s head is a halo in the form of a celestial sphere with zodiac signs. According to legend, the client of the construction, Panteleimon Badaev, had a daughter who committed suicide (jumped out of a window). Therefore, the angel with wings and a halo was meant to protect the house from misfortunes.
Interesting on the facades are small bay windows with colorful majolica inserts. The majolica was produced at the newly established Vaulin and Geldwein enterprise in the village of Kikerino in 1906. Besides the bas-relief of the sad angel, the house features many other unique images, which you can see in the photos below. Ceramic panels can also be seen in the vestibules of the main staircases. The corner part houses the largest and most representative apartments. There is a fireplace in the main entrance hall of the building.
The Badaev revenue house attracted architects not only to admire this unique creation but also to live in it. It’s understandable, the house was beautiful both externally and internally. It had all the aesthetic and hygienic conditions, as well as all the conveniences of the time; it was warm and cozy.
The largest and most representative apartments are located in the corner part.
As noted by the well-known researcher of St. Petersburg architecture Kirikov, "the Badaev house is one of the first, if not the earliest, buildings in Petersburg decorated with majolica." Here, majolica found its use for the exterior facades and for the interior decoration of the vestibules.
There is also information about the residents and this house. It is both interesting and somewhat sad. Here is what actor V. Retsepter writes about the residents of the house in the publication "Life and Adventures of BDT Artists" in 2005:
“Translator Vera Markova lived in this house for many years. Her father was a railway engineer and chose a large apartment with a bay window facing the corner of Znamenskaya and Zhukovsky streets for the family shortly after the February Revolution. He struggled for a long time to get an answer from the owner about what money to pay; finally, the matter was resolved, and the seller preferred paper kerens to the Tsar’s gold or currency, soon facing the October default.
It was said that at one time Vyrybova herself lived in the house. All entrances had fireplaces, guests were greeted by doormen, and visitors left their outerwear and galoshes downstairs. The oak elevator, resembling a toy with narrow mirrors, lifted guests silently and smoothly. R. still remembered that cabin, battered by time and mistreated by people, and already in his presence in the late seventies, workers from the Liftmontazh trust cut it out of the shaft and replaced it with a steel monstrosity resembling a safe or torture chamber.
During the blockade, a German shell hit the house, and the apartments on the upper floors of our wing were left without southern walls and were long open to the comforting sun.
After the major renovation in the early 1950s, the housing mostly became communal, the entrances were soon left wide open, windows were broken, and a new life began on the wide windowsills. Prostitutes from the Moscow railway station received clients here, ideological alcoholics and experimenting youngsters drank here, later drug addicts began to spread here, hiding dirty syringes in tin-covered nests of electric meters. On severe frosts, homeless people spent the night under the radiators.”
The house was neglected for a long time, but recently most of it has been restored.
Sources:
http://www.pallada-afina.ru
https://peterburg.center/story/dohodnyy-dom-p-t-badaeva-chudesnyy-modern-i-pechalnyy-angel-neobychnyy-peterburg.html
https://www.citywalls.ru/house31.html
