The history of the development of the plot dates back to the first quarter of the 18th century. In 1711, the Foundry Yard was built on the banks of the Neva, around which a settlement of craftsmen engaged in cannon production formed. In the same year, architect Trezzini developed the layout of the adjacent plot on the left bank of the Neva, which became known as the Moscow, or Russian Side (since this was where the road from Moscow and Novgorod approached). According to Peter I’s plan, this was to be the aristocratic center of St. Petersburg. Streets parallel to the Neva were called lines. The 1st and 2nd lines were aristocratic, with stone or wattle-and-daub houses. Further from the river were plots and houses of craftsmen, minor palace officials, and merchants. The buildings were wooden, covered with shingles or boards. The future Sergievskaya Street was called the 3rd line. Settlement here was ordered for employees of the Berg College and Admiralty Department.
In 1731, at the corner of the 3rd line and Liteiny Prospect, the "cathedral of the entire guard artillery" was built, consecrated in honor of Saint Sergius of Radonezh (hence the subsequent name of the street – Sergievskaya). After 1738, the entire part of the city adjacent to Liteiny Prospect became known as Liteiny.
By the late 18th to early 19th century, plots on this street began to be acquired by wealthy people: representatives of the merchant class, military officers, aristocrats, and large industrialists. Fashionable palaces and mansions began to be erected for them.
The predecessor of the current building at 28 Tchaikovsky Street was an impressive two-story mansion in the "Second Baroque" style, construction of which began in 1858 by order of Kondoyanaki. The project was designed by academic architect Kolman. The mansion faced Sergievskaya Street with a symmetrical facade featuring two balconies on the second floor and two entrances on either side of the first floor. The building had an L-shaped plan. A two-story stable building was constructed in the courtyard.
Later, the fate of the mansion became intertwined with the history of the Bazanov/Kelkh family. The Bazanovs, the wealthiest gold miners of Eastern Siberia, had a capital of tens of millions of rubles by the late 19th century. After the death of the family head, Pyotr Ivanovich, in 1892, all this passed to his wife Yulia Bazanova and daughter Varvara. The mother and her twenty-year-old daughter mainly lived in Moscow, where they had long been engaged in charity. Yulia spent millions of rubles during her long life on building hospitals and libraries, supporting educational institutions, and funding Siberian students studying in Moscow. For this, she even received a portrait of Emperor Nicholas II with his handwritten signature as a gift for her efforts.
In Moscow, merchant Bazanova met Ferdinand Kelkh, who was engaged in public education. He was so successful that he received numerous orders and a baronial title. Business always gravitated toward aristocracy, so Yulia Bazanova decided to acquire a noble title for the dynasty. To this end, in 1892 she arranged the marriage of Nikolai Kelkh, the baron's eldest son, to her daughter Varvara. But the newlyweds’ happiness was short-lived; two years later, Nikolai suddenly died. Immediately after the funeral, Alexander Kelkh, the baron's middle son, proposed to Varvara, and she agreed to marry him. Thus, the young cornet suddenly became the manager of his wife’s vast estate. At that time, it consisted not only of gold mines but also factories and the large Lena-Vitim Shipping Company. Alexander Kelkh, while remaining in military service, lived in St. Petersburg at 53 Bolshaya Morskaya Street. The young wife stayed with her mother in Moscow at 6 Mokhovaya Street. A couple of years after the wedding, in 1896, the Kelkh family decided to acquire their own residence and purchased the two-story mansion from the Greek consul Ivan Kondoyanaki. The house at 28 Sergievskaya (Tchaikovsky) Street was bought for 300,000 rubles and registered in the name of Varvara Petrovna.
Alexander Kelkh immediately began remodeling the two-story mansion in the Neo-Baroque style, although it was quite new – built in 1859. For the large-scale reconstruction, two young architects were invited: Vladimir Chagin and Vasily Shene. They were given full financial freedom, and the interiors were ordered to be decorated only with natural and expensive materials. Alexander Kelkh did not look at the bills – he only signed them.
The mansion was located in an area where buildings of the aristocratic and business circles of the Petersburg elite were concentrated. It was executed in the fashionable Historicism style, which replaced the monotonous Classicism and Empire styles. Freedom, complexity, and variety of architectural forms combined with stylistic accuracy in reproducing historical styles. The Kelkh mansion became a vivid representative of this romantic architectural direction. The main facade of the Kelkh house was detailed and precisely executed in the French Renaissance style. The cladding was made of natural sandstone: the plinth from pinkish stone, the upper floors from yellow. The first floor was rusticated, the second featured Ionic order pilasters between arched windows. The top floor had three bay windows, but the right one was later destroyed during World War II and was not restored.
Overall, Alexander Kelkh’s mansion became a treasure of Russian culture and one of St. Petersburg’s architectural gems in the late eclectic style. The building is a unique composition combining styles of a Gothic castle, Rococo, French Renaissance, Baroque, and Art Deco. This applies to both the exterior and interior design.
During construction, the project underwent significant revisions, requiring re-approval in 1903. In 1903, according to architect Schmidt’s project, a Gothic pavilion was built in the courtyard. On May 12, 1903, the technical department of the St. Petersburg City Administration approved the changes made during the major reconstruction of all parts of the house. The mansion’s floor plans underwent only minor changes. However, the interiors were completely redone to suit the tastes of the new owners. Interestingly, at the final stage of the house’s reconstruction, Varvara Petrovna became sharply dissatisfied with the results and unexpectedly changed the architect. Karl Schmidt, who had previously built the Fabergé jewelry firm building, was invited to finish the work. He added an elegant courtyard wing and stables. The architect gave the wing strict Gothic features, while the stables were designed in the Art Nouveau style. The current facade decoration corresponds to archival drawings made in 1903.
From the street side, the mansion is two stories; from the courtyard side, it is three stories.
The street-facing facade is two stories with large semicircular mirrored windows, topped with a kind of spire. The front facade is designed in the spirit of the French Renaissance, while the inner courtyard facades are in Gothic forms. The front facade at the plinth level is clad in pink sandstone, and the upper floors in light yellow. Carved details are made of sandstone. The roof is shaped like a high spire. The first floor is rusticated, the second features Ionic order pilasters between windows. The protruding central part of the second floor (central bay window) is highlighted by window framing with pilasters and a triangular pediment, an elegantly patterned balcony railing under the window. On either side of the bay window are pilasters with stucco decoration and the dates of the mansion’s reconstruction (1896-1897), and above is a semicircular pediment with sculptural decoration. The second floor was decorated with bay windows on the sides (above the entrance and above the gates), topped with triangular pediments. The strict symmetry of the facade was disrupted during the Great Patriotic War when a bomb hit the right part of the mansion (above the gates). During restoration, the right bay window was not restored. The building’s facade is crowned by a balustrade, in the center of which is a stepped turret topped with a peculiar portico, inside which is a male figure. The spire serves as a backdrop for this composition.
The main building from the courtyard side is three stories. The protruding balcony section in the center of the second floor is decorated on the sides with sculptures of chimeras and towers with pointed tops rising above them; above the window is a bas-relief depicting a scene of a knight fighting a lion. Large windows above the entrance arch and on the second floor are divided into narrow longitudinal sections, with pointed arches on the first floor and complex Gothic tracery on the second. The pointed arches of the paired windows on the third floor and the triangular pediment in the center complete the Gothic decoration of the facade.
The inner courtyard is very interesting. The perspective of the unplastered brick walls is closed off by an openwork Gothic stable pavilion. The marble sculpture was installed later. Above the passage to the courtyard is a Gothic arch.
Perpendicular to the main building is a courtyard wing with a door in the corner, which was accessed by a now-removed staircase, and huge stained-glass windows on the second floor. The second floor is decorated with a bay window and two pointed pediments above the cornice. The courtyard is closed off by a service (stable) building with brick walls and plastered details.
In the ensemble of the first courtyard, the "Gothic" pavilion dominates with white-stone sculpture under its vaults (though installed much later). It is pierced by arches and decorated with Gothic decor – "bundles" of thin columns, pointed towers with coats of arms under the finials, and dwarfs sitting beneath them. The central part is topped with an openwork pediment, and above the arch protrudes the head of a chimera, "warding off" evil spirits. The arch of the stable building leads to a second, smaller courtyard, which is enclosed by the stable and service buildings of the mansion with a flat arch on the first floor (where the sheds were located) and an impressive keel-shaped completion of the second floor, decorated with a balustrade. The first floor of the stable building housed horse stalls, and the second floor contained rooms for coachmen and a laundry. The composition of the first courtyard included a small walking garden with lawns and bushes trimmed into pyramids. The side facade and driveway (from the main building gates to the stable gates) were fenced with an elegant grille.
The mansion’s interiors unexpectedly impress with their richness of decoration, where each hall is executed in minute detail in a specific style. Alongside Renaissance and Gothic, Rococo style is also used in the design. Each room in the Kelkh mansion produces a very cohesive stylistic impression.
Behind the old oak doors of the mansion is a vestibule decorated with four picturesque canvases from the late 19th century featuring romantic landscapes. The grand staircase is made of white marble and decorated with carvings. In the center of the ceiling is a skylight with stained glass featuring a polychrome arabesque composition. Marble sculptures "Awakening" and a copy of "Venus Italica" are installed in niches on one of the walls.
Every corridor, staircase, and room in the Kelkh mansion is unique and distinguished by a variety of decorative styles. Here one can find the most intricate carved ornaments on stone and wood, exquisite stucco decor, stained glass shining with rich colors, unique sculptural compositions, and fireplaces.
Deep within the mansion is a whole armored room measuring 30 meters. Its walls are one meter thick, and the doors have safe locks. It currently houses an archive, but previously it stored Fabergé Easter eggs. The Kelkh family is famous worldwide for having the second-largest collection of precious eggs after the royal family. Alexander Kelkh was a regular client of the Fabergé firm, ordering Easter eggs, tableware, and precious jewelry.
In 1898, Varvara Petrovna finally moved to her husband in Petersburg and that same year received the first Fabergé jewelry egg as a gift from Alexander Kelkh. The story with the precious works is quite strange, as an ordinary officer would hardly have been able to afford the luxurious work of Carl Fabergé, and the jewelry workshop, with rare exceptions, accepted orders only from the royal family. The only explanation for Varvara Kelkh’s collection of seven jewelry eggs is that all the gifts were made with her money and under her direction.
In 1905, just two years after the house’s reconstruction was completed, Varvara Kelkh suddenly withdrew money from accounts, abandoned her husband and daughter, and left for Paris with a collection of seven Fabergé eggs. Alexander continued managing his wife’s affairs and, under her power of attorney, mortgaged the mansion for 700,000 rubles. Two years later, Kelkh was unable to repay the debt and lost the property in March 1908 after a grace period.
Signs of decline also appeared in Siberian finances, and in 1910 they were bought by the English company "Lena Goldfields." Alexander Kelkh tried in subsequent years to recoup his financial losses through a military career. Thus, within a few years, he was listed in directories first as a titular counselor (1907), then collegiate secretary (1908), and finally state counselor (1913). The last rank is equivalent to a modern colonel. In 1915, after 10 years of completely separate living, the Kelkh couple divorced according to Orthodox tradition. On August 30, 1916, the German Alexander Ferdinandovich converted to Orthodoxy and became Fyodorovich.
In 1914, Alexander Ferdinandovich Kelkh sold the mansion at 28 Sergievskaya Street to Ivan Mikhailovich Alexandrov, a hereditary honorary citizen and member of the Mutual Credit Trading Society council.
In 1915, after 10 years of completely separate living, the Kelkh couple divorced according to Orthodox tradition. On August 30, 1916, the German Alexander Ferdinandovich converted to Orthodoxy and became Fyodorovich.
In 1916, the liquidation of the Joint Stock Company "Industry of All Siberia" and the Partnership "Lena-Vitim Shipping Company" took place. The liquidation acts were signed by chairmen L. Grauman and A. Kelkh. In the same year, Kelkh changed his faith, as evidenced by an entry in the metric book of the Orthodox Church of the Main Postal and Telegraph Administration dated June 11, 1916. Since then, his patronymic has been written differently – Fyodorovich. This may be related to the active anti-German sentiments after 1914.
Soon he remarried to the seamstress Alexandra Ivanovna Gorkina, who was 20 years younger and had a ten-year-old daughter. By this time, Kelkh was completely ruined, and in search of work, he left for the Far East in September 1917.
After Petropavlovsk, he worked at a chemical plant of the Northern group of mines in the Kuznetsk Basin. In 1923, the enterprise passed into the hands of a foreign company, and Kelkh moved with his family to Petrograd. He could not find work for himself; his wife and stepdaughter supported the family, working as laborers at the "Nevgvozd" factory.
At this time, Varvara Petrovna (Kelkh’s first wife) wrote him letters inviting him to come to Paris. Learning of Alexander’s dire situation, she began sending him money every 2-3 months. In 1920, she sold six Fabergé eggs to the Paris gallery "A La Vieille Russie" and had a small capital from this. Alexander Kelkh refused to go to Paris, not wanting to be a burden to Varvara, or perhaps he was held back by attachment to his second family. The only job he could find through the labor exchange was selling cigarettes. He did this from 1926 to 1929 until he got a position as a clerk at the "Rudmetalltorg" organization, located in a building on Nevsky Prospect.
In the late 1930s, the period of mass repressions began. Belonging to the wealthy class, to the Cadet party, correspondence and receiving money from abroad were more than enough grounds for conviction. In 1930, Kelkh was arrested and sentenced. He probably died in a camp.
On March 17, 1919, the School of Screen Arts opened in the mansion – the world’s first cinematographic educational institution. Acting and directing were taught here. Over time, the school was transformed into a Film Technical School. From 1922, the institution gained the status of an institute (Institute of Screen Arts). In 1924, Sergey Dmitrievich Vasilyev, one of the creators of the famous film "Chapaev," graduated from the institute. After the institute moved, a nursing home was established here.
From 1930 until the early 1990s, the building housed the Dzerzhinsky District Committee of the CPSU, then a UNESCO office. The mansion was damaged during World War II and restored in 1944-1945.
On June 1, 1998, the mansion was transferred to Saint Petersburg State University for use by the Faculty of Law and the Association of Lawyers of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region as the House of the Lawyer.
On December 11, 1999, the House of the Lawyer was opened. It housed the Charter Court, and the creation of a legal club was planned.
Sources:
https://saint-petersburg.ru/m/history/rubin/372111/
https://www.citywalls.ru/house736.html
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Особняк_Кельха
