Until the last third of the 18th century, the plot of house No. 12 on Nevsky Prospect was part of the Admiralty Meadow, which later became Palace Square.

The first house here was built in 1768 according to a standard design by architect Kvasov for the wife of Colonel Alexander Vasilyevich Tolstoy, Elizaveta Vasilyevna. In 1777, she sold the house to tailor Karl Friedrich Heideman, who in 1782 sold it to Lieutenant General A. D. Lansky, a favorite of Catherine II. Lansky died two years later. In 1786, the house was bought from his heirs by Prince A. Ya. Shakhovskoy. By 1804, house No. 12 was owned by the wealthy Greek merchant Ivan Kalerzhi, who arrived in Petersburg around 1800.

From 1819, the upper floor of Kalerzhi’s house was rented by the military governor of Petersburg, Count Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich, who had taken up the post a year earlier. According to historian Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, Miloradovich’s apartment resembled “furniture shops or fine art stores by the great multitude of diverse items and things found there; I have seen no such arrangement anywhere else: it was a complete disorder combined with refined taste. For example, there were paintings by Titian, Vernet, Salvator Rosa, Guido Reni, and next to them books, plans, birds, pipes, amber mouthpieces, and two pianos. Almost every room had its own lighting; in one, the light came from wax candles, in another from alabaster lamps, in a third the candles were arranged so that they were not visible and illuminated only the paintings. One room was entirely mirrored: not only the walls but the ceiling was made of mirrors; another room was furnished with sofas in Turkish style, and the most sensual paintings were hung there. In the middle of the library was a birdcage; beautiful marble statues were everywhere. ‘Where is your bedroom?’ I asked him. ‘I have no bedroom,’ he replied, ‘I spend the night wherever I please.’ In one hall, where there were beautiful paintings and statues, I saw a black marble vase. Near it stood a pot with a withered cypress, and when I asked what it meant, the owner told me, ‘This is a monument to my lost happiness.’”

In the spring of 1820, Miloradovich summoned Pushkin in connection with the spread of his libertine and frivolous poems. It was here that the great Russian poet received the official order to leave Petersburg and go south into his first exile. The governor left Kalerzhi’s house in early autumn 1822. Since June, the "St. Petersburg Gazette" had carried an announcement about renting out from September “two floors, currently inhabited by His Excellency S. P. B. Military General-Governor Count Mikhail Andreyevich Miloradovich.” When moving to government apartments (38 Bolshaya Morskaya Street), a special detachment helped him transport his belongings.

After Ivan Kalerzhi’s death in 1837, house No. 12 passed to his son Ivan Kalerzhi Jr. He was only 23 years old then but had already become one of the leading traders of wheat exported from Russia. He was one of the richest men in the country. On January 3, 1839, he married 16-year-old Princess Maria Nesselrode, niece of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The gift to the young wife was house No. 12 on Nevsky Prospect, as well as a bank account in one of Petersburg’s banks with 600,000 gold rubles.

The marriage of Ivan and Maria Kalerzhi was not happy. The husband turned out to be extremely jealous. Their foreign honeymoon had to be cut short; Maria returned to Petersburg, where on January 5, 1840, she gave birth to a daughter, of which the father was initially not even informed. Maria settled not in the gifted house but with her uncle, the Vice-Chancellor. Upon learning this, Ivan Kalerzhi urgently moved his wife and daughter to the house on Nevsky Prospect. He forbade her to leave the house without permission, surrounding her with maids. In early autumn 1840, Maria managed to leave the capital and move to Warsaw to her father. Later, she visited Petersburg in the winter of 1852-1853. She lived here and gave concerts in the salon of the Wielhorski counts. After Ivan Kalerzhi’s death, Maria married Sergey Sergeyevich Mukhanov. House No. 12 was sold to Court Councilor Vera Shishkina.

In the 1870s, house No. 12 on Nevsky Prospect housed the banking office of A. Singer.

In 1910, the building was purchased from the heirs of S. V. Shishkin by the commercial bank "Junker & Co." It was founded in Moscow in 1869. At the beginning of the 20th century, a Petersburg branch appeared, which before moving here was located at house No. 22 on Nevsky Prospect.

The architect Wilhelm Ivanovich van der Gucht was the author of the reconstruction project of house No. 12. Possibly, architect Erikson assisted him. The new bank building was constructed in record time, during the winter and spring of 1910-1911. It is faced with red Swedish granite. The relevant work was carried out by the East-Finland Granite Joint Stock Company (Vyborg) and the office of engineer A. I. Guri.

During World War I, the controlling stake of the bank was bought by financier D. L. Rubinstein. After his arrest (in 1916), the institution passed to the Moscow Industrial Bank.

After the 1917 revolution, house No. 12 was nationalized. Most of its premises were allocated for housing. During the NEP years, clothing stores opened on the first floor, continuing to operate even after the "new economic policy" was curtailed. In the 1920s, offices and stores of "Leningradtextil" were located here. For many years during the Soviet period, the famous Leningrad high-fashion atelier was located at house No. 12 on Nevsky Prospect. On June 9, 1934, "Leningradskaya Pravda" reported: “Today on 25th October Prospect (the historical name of the city’s main avenue was restored on January 13, 1944) a ladies’ department store opens. In this store, individual orders for outer dresses, suits, pajamas, robes, underwear, blouses will be freely accepted from all citizens. All products will be made from high-quality materials. When ordering, 60% of the cost is paid upfront.”

In the knitwear atelier, stars of Soviet cinema and stage such as Faina Ranevskaya, Alla Tarasova, Lyubov Orlova, and Klavdiya Shulzhenko sewed their outfits. Gradually, the fashion atelier remained, although expensive, more accessible. Gentlemen had to pay considerable sums to buy or tailor fashionable clothes for their ladies, sometimes going into debt. The famous Leningrad atelier earned the joking popular nickname: “Death to Husbands,” often adding “Prison to Lovers.” Here one could buy magnificent foreign items and exclusive clothing from domestic seamstresses, order tailoring according to fashion magazines and catalogs.

In 1992, the building was leased to the bank "Lyon Credit." In August 2000, fashion stores belonging to the Russian company "Bosco di Cilirgi" of Mikhail Ernestovich Kusnirovich opened here.

Sources:

https://www.citywalls.ru/house1805.html

https://walkspb.ru/istoriya-peterburga/zd/nevskiy12

https://www.companybest.ru/publications/60-svoboda/2852-atele-mod-smert-muzhyam.html