South of the Field of Mars, we see a building with three facades facing the Moika River, the Field of Mars, and Aptekarsky Lane. The eight-columned portico on the southern facade facing the Moika vividly closes the perspective of the Griboedov Canal from the Nevsky Prospect side.

The rounded corner is decorated with pilasters. The wall surfaces are adorned with a molded frieze of griffins and plant ornaments. This is the Adamini House.

Near the building is the Theatre Bridge, reminding us of the theatrical building that once stood here on the southwest corner of the Field of Mars. Even during the life of Empress Elizabeth, a wooden riding hall was erected here, where visiting foreign troupes performed.

Over time, the structure deteriorated, and in 1782 a new wooden theater was built. A contemporary description has been preserved: “The stage is very high and spacious, and the hall intended for spectators forms three quarters of a circle. There are no boxes, but besides the parquet and the stalls with benches, a three-tiered balcony was made, rising one above the other and surrounding the hall without any gaps. The painting is very beautiful, and the view is very good when, upon entering, you see the spectators sitting amphitheatrically as in ancient times.”

In addition to the main entrance, six more exits were made, very spacious and arranged so that in case of fire the audience could exit “in a few minutes.”

The “Free Russian Theatre” performed here, with active participation from the talented actor and director I.A. Dmitrovsky.

Denis Fonvizin (“friend of freedom,” as A.S. Pushkin called him) finished work on the comedy "The Minor" in 1782. By this time, the country, recently engulfed in the fire of the peasant war led by Yemelyan Pugachev, was under reactionary rule. Empress Catherine II had dropped the mask of ostensible liberalism, and Fonvizin’s attempts to stage his satirical comedy at the court theater (the Hermitage Theatre) were in vain. The only option was to stage it at the “Free” or private theater on the Field of Mars.

Dmitrovsky (a friend of Fonvizin) played Starodum, and well-known Petersburg actors Shumsky and Plavilshchikov participated in the performance. The premiere took place on September 24, 1782. According to a contemporary, “the theater was overcrowded, and the audience applauded the play by throwing purses.”

Several years passed. The theater building became empty, its window openings gaping bare. Once, passing by, Paul I asked disapprovingly: “What is this ruin?” He was told that this half-ruined structure was left from the theater building. “By morning, let it be gone!” ordered Paul. The order was carried out. This was in 1797.

On the site of the Free Theatre, architect Domenico Adamini built a house between 1823 and 1827, which went down in history as one of the best residential buildings of its time.

On the first floor of the Moika-facing wing, the first owner of the building, merchant Antonov, intended to arrange shops, and in connection with this, the arches of the first floor were supposed to be open, like the galleries of shopping rows. The Adamini House became one of the first victims of fascist vandals. On November 26, 1941, two high-explosive bombs fell on it. One destroyed the central part of the Moika-facing facade, the other broke the interior from the Field of Mars side. Immediately after the end of the war, the building was restored.

Many outstanding figures of science and culture lived within the walls of the Adamini House. A memorial plaque states that here lived and on July 25, 1837, died the Russian inventor of the electromagnetic telegraph Pavel Lvovich Schilling von Canstatt. He was one of the most educated people of his time. A physicist, researcher of the languages and cultures of the peoples of the Far East, he amazed contemporaries with the versatility of his knowledge and interests.

Schilling introduced electrical detonation of gunpowder charges underground over long distances, created the first lithography in Russia, directing it for cartographic needs. He developed a special method of reproducing Chinese texts and applied it in printing the book "San-Tszy Jing" ("Three Words"), translated into Russian by the famous sinologist I.Ya. Bichurin.

The first copy of this book’s print run was gifted by the translator to A.S. Pushkin. Pushkin was friends with Schilling and sought to participate in the Siberian expedition under his leadership. But in January 1830, Pushkin was informed that Nicholas I had refused him. Apparently, the tsar feared a possible meeting of the poet with the Decembrists sent into Siberian exile and penal servitude.

In search of electric lighting, Schilling conducted an interesting experiment: he made a piece of coal glow by passing an electric current through it. The "Northern Bee" in the article "On Electrical Experiments in Russia" wrote that “the light of these burning coals was so strong that it was difficult to look at it.”

On October 9, 1832, in the Adamini House, Schilling demonstrated his invented electromagnetic telegraph apparatus for the first time to the gathered public in his apartment. For greater clarity of the experiment, Schilling rented an entire floor from the building’s owner, merchant Antonov. Schilling’s biographer wrote: “For the demonstration, the transmitter was installed at one end of the building, where the invited guests gathered in a small hall, and the receiver at the other end, in P.L. Schilling’s office, the so-called ‘Chinese room.’ The world’s first telegram, consisting of a dozen words, was instantly and correctly received by P.L. Schilling in front of the assembled audience.”

This session caused such interest in the capital that Schilling had to publicly repeat his experiment many times after October 9. Addressing the audience, Schilling said he considered it his sole and highest duty to serve his homeland and believed that the most useful thing for Russia would be the construction of “electric telegraphs” throughout the vast expanse of Russian land, especially between Petersburg and Moscow. “The day will come,” said Schilling, “when human thought will be able to overcome any distance with the speed of lightning. That is my secret dream…”

The Adamini House played a prominent role in Russian culture. One of its residents from 1832 to 1837 was Baron Pavel Lvovich Schilling von Canstatt — a famous Russian inventor. He was engaged in Oriental studies and cryptography, but his greatest fame came from inventions in electrical engineering: the electromagnetic telegraph apparatus and the electric fuse for underwater mines. It was in the Adamini House in 1832 that Schilling conducted the first demonstration of the electric telegraph.

There is a funny anecdote about how at one of these demonstrations the archpriest of the Tsarskoye Selo church, Father Dionysius, was present. The following dialogue took place between him and Schilling:

— “Being a witness to these secular amusements, I would like to understand how they should be interpreted? Is it possible to seriously admit that sinful human thoughts, by that very fact defiling themselves, are transmitted through the Lord’s space by electrical power, which is itself the devil’s delusion?”

— “Your reverence, the transmission of thoughts through space is a strictly God-pleasing matter, because, according to the Holy Scripture, thoughts are given to man only by our Lord and no one else. Therefore, these thoughts can be transmitted by man only through the Lord’s space. As for electrical power, the devil had no idea about it. Believe me, father, I have precise information on this matter.”

— “Allow me to be curious, where could you have obtained such information?”

— “From the devil himself, your reverence, from the very first, so to speak, hands.”

In 1886, a memorial plaque was installed on the facade of the house in memory of Schilling (one of the first memorial plaques in our city). It has not survived to this day; in 1901 it was replaced by a new one designed by architect K.V. Baldi.

Schilling did not live to see his dream realized. Only several years later did a telegraph cable connect the devices located in the extreme buildings of the Admiralty. Another year passed, and the tsar ordered the installation of the same connection between Peterhof and Kronstadt. Schilling’s sudden death interrupted this work...

At the end of 1916, the very popular writer Leonid Andreyev settled in a spacious apartment on the third floor of the Adamini House. In his spacious study, six windows faced the Moika. From the windows facing the Field of Mars, he observed the funerals of the victims of the February Revolution (soon publishing a brochure "In Memory of Those Who Died for Freedom"). From here, Andreyev left for his dacha in Finland, where the last months of his life passed.

In 1921–1922, Anna Akhmatova lived in this house with her friend, actress O. Glebova-Sudeykina.

In the postwar years, outstanding writers V.F. Panov (apt. 4), Elmar Green (apt. 19), B.F. Chirskov (apt. 33), L.N. Rakhmanov (apt. 58), E.A. Fedorov (apt. 62) lived here. Yu.P. German not only lived in this house (apt. 37) but also “settled” many of his characters here.

In 1914, the “Art Bureau of N.E. Dobychina” was located in one of the apartments of the house. The bureau organized concerts, literary readings, performances (V.E. Meyerhold’s studio worked under it), but it became best known for organizing art exhibitions. Dobychina was broad-minded, so representatives of both the “World of Art” and the futurists from the “Union of Youth” exhibited here.

However, it entered history primarily as the place where on December 19, 1915 (January 1, 1916) the “Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings ‘0,10’” opened, marking the advent of the era of non-objective art.

It was here that Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square” was hung in the “red corner” instead of an icon. Besides Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin participated in the exhibition, presenting his counter-reliefs — another variant of abstract art from which Constructivism later grew.

Another very significant artistic establishment associated with the Adamini House was the cabaret “Comedians’ Halt.” “Comedians’ Halt” became the revival of the “Stray Dog,” which was closed in February 1915 after a scandal caused by Mayakovsky’s declamation of his poem “To You!” As Vertinsky, who participated in the performance that same evening, recalled, bottles flew at Mayakovsky from the audience, and he threw them back. As a result, the city governor ordered the closure of the scandalous establishment. However, less than a year later, the director of the “Stray Dog,” Boris Pronin, found a new venue — a basement in the Adamini House (he himself also lived in this house).

The walls and ceiling of the basement were painted by Boris Grigoriev, Sergey Sudeykin (who, by the way, also lived in the Adamini House), Vasily Shukhaev, and Alexander Yakovlev, and a large fireplace was built according to Ivan Fomin’s design.

The establishment operated until 1919. During this time, many outstanding figures of Russian art visited it: Blok, Akhmatova, Gumilev, Meyerhold, Mayakovsky, Kuzmin, Mandelstam, Klyuev, and many others.

For performances, fantastic works by Carlo Gozzi and Theodor Hoffmann, Andersen’s fairy tales, and Cervantes’ interlude (“Theatre of Wonders”) were chosen. The three basement halls of the theater-cabaret, their walls and ceilings, were painted by outstanding artists Sergey Sudeykin, Alexander Yakovlev, Vasily Shukhaev, and Boris Grigoriev. There is evidence that in the “Tavern” halls, Grigoriev’s paintings were especially expressive, united by the theme “Shadows of Nighttime Paris.” Visitors to the “Tavern” were involved in the game, responding to the remarks of the duty servants in Eastern costumes (actors in disguise), answering jokes from the dwarf Vasily Ivanovich standing at the entrance (he traditionally wore a rooster costume)... “Comedians’ Halt” was visited by A.V. Lunacharsky, A.M. Gorky, V.V. Mayakovsky, and other cultural and art figures.

Anna Akhmatova preserved memories of “Comedians’ Halt”:

Yes, I loved them, not the nightly gatherings,

On the small table, icy glasses,

Above the black coffee, fragrant, thin steam,

The heavy winter heat of the red fireplace,

The acrid cheerfulness of literary wit...

During the Great Patriotic War, on the day of November 26, 1941, two high-explosive bombs hit the building. One destroyed the internal structures of the eastern part of the building, and the other destroyed the central part of the southern facade. The Adamini House was restored in 1946 according to the project of architect Alexander Ginzburg. 

Sources:

http://www.mihgri.ru/adamini.html

https://www.citywalls.ru/house1645.html

https://babs71.livejournal.com/1416539.html