Peter I’s House (“The Original Palace”) is the only building preserved from the earliest days of Saint Petersburg. It is located near the Peter and Paul Fortress on the bank of the Neva River. There are several theories about the origin of the house. According to the traditional view, the house was built from hewn pine logs in three days, from May 24 to 26, 1703. Another theory suggests it could have been one of the surviving houses from the Swedish town of Nien, transported here via the Neva during the first days of Saint Petersburg’s construction. A third version proposes that the house belonged to a Swedish peasant (or fisherman) who lived in this part of Berezovy (Gorodovoy) Island. Possibly, his house stood exactly on this site and was used by Peter for his first residence. Supporting the Swedish origin theory are the method of log cutting and the layout, typical of Scandinavian wooden architecture, as well as the floral paintings inside, which are close to Swedish folk decorative painting. Therefore, it is most likely that Peter I’s house is older than Saint Petersburg itself. The story about the three May days of 1703 is no more than a legend.
The wooden walls were painted red to resemble brickwork, which gave it the name “Red Chambers” (or “The Original Palace”). It is the smallest of all the royal residences: the building is 12 meters long, 5.5 meters wide, 5.72 meters high to the roof ridge, and 2.5 meters from floor to ceiling. The interior space of the House covers 60 square meters and consists of two chambers—a dining room and an office—separated by a hallway, plus a bedroom. The rooms are lined with canvas “in the Dutch manner.” The interior preserves a Dutch stove decorated with painted tiles. All the windows in the House are of different sizes; three face the Neva, and one faces the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The House is covered with shingles—pine boards of wedge-shaped cross-section imitating tiles. A mortar was installed above the roof, and on the corners, two bombs with flames, corresponding to Peter’s rank as a bombardier captain. Evidently, the wooden decorations were made by craftsmen Nestor Vasilyev and Ivan Filippov, who in May 1704 were sent to Shlisselburg to procure linden and pine wood “for iconostasis work.”
In 1703–1704, a two-story house belonging to A. D. Menshikov was built nearby, used as the “Ambassador’s House” (dismantled after 1710). Close by, the tsar’s associates began to build their homes. In Peter’s era, Trinity Square was significantly larger than it is now. This bustling square became the heart of the emerging city, the center of state and public life in Saint Petersburg. The square housed the Trinity Cathedral, the Gostiny Dvor (merchant arcade), and closer to the fortress were an austriya (tavern) and the building of the first printing house in Saint Petersburg. The Trinity Quay became the city’s first commercial port. In 1703, the first foreign merchant ship docked there.
The House was Peter I’s first residence in Saint Petersburg, serving him for five years. There is no chimney on the roof: the building was not heated. The tsar stayed in this residence only during the warm season.
By Peter’s decree in 1723, on the 20th anniversary of Saint Petersburg, the House was repaired and protected by an open stone gallery designed by architect D. Trezzini. The structure looked like an open arcade with pilasters and a high four-pitched roof. After the catastrophic flood of 1777, it was decided to build a new protective gallery, which was completed only in the summer of 1784. In 1795, the area adjacent to the House was cleared and fenced.
By order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in 1742, a chapel was arranged in the House’s dining room, attached to the nearby Trinity Cathedral. Its main shrine was the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands, said to have been painted for Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich by Simon Ushakov. This icon was among the most revered in Saint Petersburg and participated in festive prayers related to the city’s anniversaries. The chapel was closed in 1929; the icon is now kept in the Transfiguration Cathedral.
The existing brick pavilion above the House was built in 1844 according to a design by architect R. I. Kuzmin. In the early 1840s, a garden was laid out around the House by architect K. I. Reimers and gardener Kuznetsov; some trees were planted by members of the royal family. In 1875, the garden was fenced with a railing decorated with Peter I’s monograms on the links and double-headed eagles on the corner posts. A bronze bust of Peter I was installed in front of the House.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Neva embankment was widened and straightened, and in 1903 it was named the Emperor Peter the Great Embankment, later known from the 1930s as the Petrovskaya Embankment. The shoreline moved significantly into the Neva, and the House, once standing right at the water’s edge, was “pushed back.”
The museum in the House opened in 1930. The exhibition features authentic personal belongings of Peter I: a red cloth uniform coat, a boxwood smoking pipe—a gift from A. D. Menshikov, and a leather-covered cane. Among the exhibits are a boat called a “vereyka,” said to have been built by Peter I himself, and a cast of Peter’s hand with an imprint made in 1707 at the Lipsky (Lipetsk) ironworks.
Sources:
https://petersmonuments.ru/russia/memorials/domik-petra-i-s-peterburg/
