Until 1905, a large plot at the corner of Officer Street (Dekabristov) and English Avenue was owned by the widow of Colonel Maria Ivanovna Maslova, who possessed a four-story residential income house from the mid-19th century.

In 1882–1883, the composer Tchaikovsky lived for some time in this house, in the apartment of his cousin Amalia Litke.

In 1905, Petr Ivanovich Koltsov, a gold miner and a member of the City Duma, purchased the plot from Maslova’s daughter.

Merchant Koltsov and contractor Doroshevsky expressed to the architect their wish that the new building resemble the Perzov income house near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, built a year earlier by civil engineer Zhukov based on sketches by the talented painter and original decorator Sergey Vasilyevich Malyutin. This artist had an excellent understanding of “the very essence of old Russian architecture by intuition.” Architect Bernardazzi carefully studied the building, met with the artist Malyutin living there, and, influenced by his impressions, created his own project for the future house in Petersburg. He skillfully combined elements of the Moscow Neo-Russian style and Petersburg’s “Northern Modern.” In the summer of 1909, he visited the Moscow artel “Murava” on Bolshaya Presnya and, through Malyutin, commissioned majolica decoration on Russian lubok themes for the facades of the new house. Bernardazzi’s order was fulfilled, and soon Moscow majolica, based on Vrubel’s sketches, adorned the walls of the new building. In addition, a stone-carved Phoenix bird with a two-meter wingspan appeared on the facade, supporting the corner bay window. It was created by the fashionable sculptor Baron Konstantin Konstantinovich Raush von Traubenberg, whose works on Russian folklore themes were widely known at the time.

The building became popularly known as the “Fairy Tale House.” This folk name was given to house numbers 21–23 on English Avenue in Saint Petersburg because of its bright and unusual facades.

The proximity to the Mariinsky Theatre largely determined the composition of the first residents of this house. Mostly, they were theater workers and actors. The Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova lived here, and therefore among Petersburgers, this house was known as the “House of Anna Pavlova.” Her luxurious apartment included a rehearsal hall equipped with a tiled stove decorated with Empire-style wreaths and a frieze of dancing nymphs under a high ceiling. It was in this hall that choreographer Fokin staged the famous “Dying Swan” for Pavlova.

Poet Samuil Marshak, professors of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, composers, actors, and directors also visited here. One of the apartments was occupied by Ignaty Krachkovsky, the founder of the domestic school of Arab studies and author of the book “Over Arabic Manuscripts,” an academician. Another was occupied by the singer and conservatory professor Evgenia Bronskaya. In the 1930s, sculptor Matvey Manizer moved into the house.

In the winter of 1942, a fire broke out in the house. For several days, the residents, weakened by hunger, fought the fire alongside firefighters, stretching hoses to an ice hole in the Pryazhka River. They managed to save only the courtyard part of the residential building; the majolica-adorned facade collapsed. After the war, the building was dismantled, preserving only the courtyard wings. The building was rebuilt on the old foundation, without restoring the external appearance.

The strict and modest architecture of the restored house no longer resembled the fairy-tale composition born in the architect’s imagination. However, memories of the “Fairy Tale House” are so persistent that even today, residents of Kolomna call the otherwise unremarkable house on Dekabristov Street by this name.

A significant part of his life was spent in the new building by the famous Petersburg sculptor and creator of decorative dolls Roman Shustrov.

Sources:

https://www.citywalls.ru/house5025.html

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Дом-сказка