Wawelberg Revenue House (St. Petersburg Commercial Bank) — a building in Saint Petersburg, located at the intersection of Nevsky Prospect and Malaya Morskaya Street, a federal architectural monument. Like every building in Petersburg, the Wawelberg House has its own unique history and an equally interesting backstory. The St. Petersburg Commercial Bank was founded in 1846 by first guild merchant Heinrich Mikhailovich Wawelberg in Warsaw. Later, the family business was continued by his son Hippolyte Andreyevich Wawelberg and son-in-law Stanislav Matveyevich Rotwand.

By that time, the banking house already had a branch in Petersburg. But in 1901, the question arose about constructing a new building. The bank had to convey stability and reliability to its clients, as well as demonstrate the wealth of its owners, endowed with refined taste. This is exactly what the Wawelberg House became — a "money palazzo": a laconic yet uniquely beautiful granite treasury of funds on the city’s main street — Nevsky Prospect.

The two-tier arcade on the prospect side gives a distant resemblance to the medieval Doge’s Palace in Venice. The diverse sculptural decoration was created by Ditrih and Kozlov. The operating hall with two rows of columns is also designed in the spirit of Neo-Renaissance, and the vestibule is shaped as a rotunda.

The five-story building has three facades. The architect emphasized the part of the house facing the intersection of Nevsky Prospect and Malaya Morskaya Street — the wall surface is divided in the middle by a risalit with columns and pilasters decorated with reliefs, including numerous lion heads. On the second floor, there are three balconies, and from the corner of the building, a grand entrance to the bank was arranged.

The first two floors of the facade on the Nevsky Prospect side are designed as semicircular arcades. The windows of the fourth and fifth floors are paired. The central part of the facade with a balcony at the fourth-floor level is adorned with a relief coat of arms of the banking house with the initials "H" and "W" — Hipolit Wawelberg. The facade decoration — pilasters and cartouches, mascarons and garlands, compositions with horns of plenty and plant ornaments — was executed by sculptors Leopold-August Ditrih and Vasily Vasilyevich Kozlov.

The main interior space of the building — the two-level operating hall — is also maintained in the spirit of Neo-Renaissance. The hall is covered with a coffered oak ceiling and divided by two rows of Ionic columns made of artificial marble, adjoining a balcony running along the perimeter. The vestibule of the hall is shaped as a rotunda, the ceiling of which is decorated with a painted polychrome plafon in the form of a tondo. At the center of the design is an acanthus rosette, and around the perimeter of the plafon are symbols of Hermes.

One interesting legend has been preserved. The house was built literally in a year. When Mikhail Hippolitovich Wawelberg came to inspect the construction, he examined everything and made no complaints. But suddenly, on the doors, the banker noticed a sign: "Push away." Wawelberg immediately objected, ordered everything to be redone, and the sign to be changed to: "Pull towards yourself!" As he explained to the builders, "Push away" was not his principle.

The upper floors of the hall were allocated for office premises, the Gerlach factory of geodetic and drawing instruments. In addition, the house contained living quarters for the head of the banking house and his family, shops, and apartments for rent.

Besides the bank, the building housed the management of joint-stock companies of the Russian Cotton-Spinning Manufactory, Upper Iset Mining and Mechanical Plants, as well as the ironworks, steel foundries, and mechanical plants of "Sormovo."

After the 1917 revolution, various organizations and offices were located in this building. The Central Air Communications Agency and Aeroflot ticket offices occupied the former bank premises from the 1950s. At that time, the "Beryozka" store was opened, selling goods, including imported products, for "certificates." The former operating hall and vestibule were restored in 1968–1970.

Since 2021, the building houses the five-star Wawelberg Hotel.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Доходный_дом_М._И._Вавельберга

https://peterburg.center/maps/dom-m-i-vavelberga-palacco-dozhey-v-peterburge.html

https://www.citywalls.ru/house477.html

https://wawelberg.com/istoriya-mesta

Kirikov, Kirikova, Petrova: Nevsky Prospect. House by House