Previously, a wooden Sea Market stood on this site, which burned down in the 1780s. The building was constructed between 1783 and 1790 based on a design by Quarenghi. The project was approved on May 5, 1783. According to some researchers, this building was Quarenghi’s first commission in St. Petersburg (although the Foreign Collegium house was rebuilt by him earlier, in 1782–1783).
According to legend, the building was initially designed by Giuseppe Brigonci, but it collapsed at the early stages of construction under its own weight. Disgraced, Brigonci drowned himself in the Griboedov Canal, and his ghost is said to haunt the bank’s basements. Also according to legend, the estate layout of the building was used as a sign of respect to noble clients and to attract them to entrepreneurship.
The three-story (two floors above high cellars) central block stands deep within the ceremonial courtyard, the edges of which are formed by a horseshoe-shaped building of storerooms (coin vaults—the Assignation Bank exchanged paper money for coins). The storerooms were connected to the main building (which housed the operational halls) by open colonnade galleries. The side pavilions are decorated with loggias, and in the center of the main facade is a risalit with a pediment and a Corinthian order colonnade spanning the two upper floors. Above the pediment stand allegories of Law, Justice, and Wisdom. On the ground floor, there are three ceremonial entrances framed by rusticated arcades (originally, the ceremonial entrance was from Sadovaya Street, and the canal side entrance was for service, but later the Sadovaya entrance was closed to better preserve the gold reserves). The second-floor windows were adorned with window frames topped with sandriks.
According to Quarenghi’s design, the storerooms were not supposed to have glass windows; only grilles were to be installed to prevent copper vapors from poisoning the air. However, 26 windows were glazed due to the climate and to prevent snow and rain from entering the premises.
The cast-iron fence on stone pillars topped with spheres was created in 1791 in Petrozavodsk at Charles Gascoigne’s Alexandrovsky Plant, based on Quarenghi’s sketches. Its early version resembled the Summer Garden grille, but the final version was agreed upon considering the building’s utilitarian role. Initially, the facade facing the canal was not elaborated and was hidden behind a stone wall. A semicircular one-story service building on this side (housing service rooms and a shed for firefighting equipment) was built between 1786 and 1788. Barracks for the military guard and stables were located on the Bank Lane side, and fire sheds were along the canal. The building had a central corridor with storerooms on both sides.
The facade and side wings are decorated with lion masks and a frieze of garlands and bucrania by Fyodor Gordeev.
In 1783, 40,740 rubles and 31 kopecks were spent on the building’s construction; in 1784, 98,090 rubles and 64 kopecks; in 1785, 169,508 rubles and 29 kopecks; in 1786, 80,401 rubles and 49 kopecks; and about 200,000 rubles were spent between 1788 and 1791 (there was a delay in 1787, and no funds were spent). The originally gilded grille created by Quarenghi was valued at 45,270 rubles; a bronze version without gilding was valued at 27,420 rubles; the realized version cost 7,776 rubles.
Coins were brought to the building from the Mint of the Peter and Paul Fortress by water, on barges.
Of the interiors created by Quarenghi, the decoration of the vestibule and main staircase has been preserved. The staircase walls are adorned with paired Corinthian pilasters and sculptural medallions (the Muse of Astronomy and Geography, the Muse of Architecture, Sailing Navigation, Poultry Farming, Trade). Statues stand in six wall niches (due to the loss of attributing details, it is impossible to determine what they personified, although one is recognized as the Muse patroness of registration holding a ledger in her left hand). In the vestibule, free-standing columns and Doric order half-columns vertically divide the wall surfaces. The now-lost paintings of the reception rooms were done by Giuseppe Valesini.
From 1799 to 1805, during the construction of a specialized building, the Bank’s Mint was located in this house. In 1810, the management of the Assignation Bank demanded the Mint return the occupied part of the building. In 1815, according to a design by Alexander Postnikov, the premises used by the Mint were converted into residential apartments. In 1817, the Bank’s storerooms were also converted into housing.
On the canal side, the fence was erected according to a drawing by Rusk in 1817; at the same time, the architect rebuilt the service building on this side and constructed gold vaults in it. The eastern wing became two stories high due to the addition of inter-floor ceilings, and the loggia was built over with a two-story insertion with a staircase. The center of the fence is highlighted by a colonnade of six Doric columns and two half-columns, between which is a wall with a cast-iron grille of vertically placed spikes. The gates are located on the axis, and arched openings divided by pylons are located in the side parts of the fence; the work cost 500,000 rubles.
Until 1817, the bank issued assignation notes, and in 1843, after the introduction of state credit notes, it was closed as unnecessary. In 1849, the State Russian Bank began operating in the building.
In 1839, the 1st and 3rd floors of the main building, along with part of the storerooms on the left side, were transferred to the Commercial Bank; on the right side, it was planned to create a reception for copper coins. To this end, it was intended to add a story to the semicircular wing, but the plan was not realized. At that time, the walls of the ceremonial staircase were pale ochre, the stair flights and parapets were gray, and the ceiling had ornamental patterns. The other rooms were painted yellow, pearl, green, light green, and pale ochre.
In the 1860s, in iron pavilions in the courtyard on the Sadovaya side, worn-out assignation notes and credit tickets were publicly destroyed (burned), attracting spectators; due to flying ash, a fundamentally new furnace was created by 1894, which was later dismantled in 1934. In 1861, the colonnades of the gallery were glazed; at the same time, an apartment was made on the third floor with a black staircase leading to it. In 1864, in the left pavilion, premises for savings banks were created instead of a spare storeroom and an adjacent apartment.
A fire in 1862 destroyed the Ministry of Internal Affairs building and reached Sadovaya, bending the bank’s iron grille and cracking its plinth. After that, the building’s wooden doors were replaced with metal ones, the ceilings were replaced with fire-resistant ones, a stone staircase was built, and four firewalls were installed.
Between 1895 and 1904, another reconstruction took place based on a design by Andrey Bertels; the third floor was added to the semicircular wing. In 1904, according to a design by Matvey Chizhov, the vestibule in the canal-facing wing was remodeled, heating was installed throughout the building, and in 1905, plumbing was installed. On June 12, 1905, a house church in honor of Alexander Nevsky was consecrated on the floor created by Bertels (closed in 1918 with the transfer of property to the Vladimir Church; the room was rebuilt into an assembly hall around 1939). By 1910, it was decided that further reconstructions could not improve the building’s functionality.
On June 3, 1930, the Leningrad Financial and Economic Institute opened in the building.
During the Great Patriotic War, the facade stucco was damaged, the roof was damaged, the sewage system, water supply, and courtyard lamps were destroyed. A 1,000-kilogram aerial bomb fell on the sixth wing, causing a severe fire. In total, 50 large-caliber shells fell on the territory. The laundry building was destroyed by a 250-kilogram bomb, which also damaged the power station. Another fire that destroyed the interior decoration started after a shell hit 22 classrooms (2nd floor of the main building). The basements housed a bomb shelter. From November 27, 1941, an evacuation hospital and paramedic courses operated in the building.
In 1967, on the 150th anniversary of Quarenghi’s death, a monument to Quarenghi was installed in the garden on the Sadovaya Street side. In 1976, a restoration project proposed removing the third floor from the building and opening the connecting galleries on the Sadovaya side, but the project was not implemented.
Sources:
https://www.citywalls.ru/house3615.html
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Здание_ассигнационного_банка_(Санкт-Петербург)
