The Petrograd Side is a true sanctuary of Art Nouveau, where lovers of early 20th-century architecture are constantly met with new discoveries. Interesting mansions and apartment buildings adorn not only the main thoroughfares of the district but also numerous side streets and alleys, where real treasures can sometimes be found.
The mansion of Sergey Nikolaevich Chaev, with its characteristic Art Nouveau variety of textures, relief friezes in the spirit of antiquity, elegant decoration in the style of the Vienna Secession, and an extraordinary spatial solution featuring a winter garden rotunda, is among the best works of St. Petersburg Art Nouveau. Since the 1930s, the mansion has housed District Dental Clinic No. 17, so anyone interested can freely enter, admire the partially preserved interiors, appreciate the unusual layout of the building, take photos as a keepsake—and, if the occasion arises, even get dental treatment.
The mansion on Rentgen Street was built in 1906-1907 for the railway engineer and participant in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Chaev, and became an embodiment of innovative Art Nouveau principles. This work was a signature piece by the military engineer and architect Apyshkov. Looking at the building, one can easily notice its resemblance to the Kshesinskaya mansion, built by von Hogen in 1904-1906. At the same time, Chaev’s mansion stands out with a very special spatial organization; it is one of the most interesting monuments of St. Petersburg Art Nouveau, distinguished by an unusual and progressive volumetric-spatial composition built around a diagonal of three differently sized cylindrical volumes. The first outer cylinder houses the vestibule and a narrow spiral staircase. The central inner cylinder is a three-tiered round hall connecting different complexes of the mansion’s rooms. The third, outer cylinder contains the glazed volume of the winter garden. The architect recalled that the central hall, illuminated by top light, “was the result of a very specific requirement from the homeowner—not to have dark or even semi-dark corridors.”
With a maximally compact plan, the architect managed to unite all the rooms into a single ensemble, linking the interiors together and composing a kind of “symphony” of spaces. The kitchen and laundry were arranged upstairs so that odors would not penetrate the living and formal rooms.
The mansion’s facades are finished with a variety of contrasting materials: granite, light brick, bluish ceramic tiles. Against the walls of the outer stair cylinder stands out a molded frieze depicting horsemen. A large female figure that once crowned the central risalit of the main facade has not survived to this day.
The interiors of the mansion were decorated in the spirit of various historical styles with elements of Art Nouveau. The dining room is finished with oak panels and hunting-themed reliefs; the bedroom is decorated in the Empire style. Apyshkov mentioned that in many rooms, especially auxiliary ones, he adhered to the “principle of simplicity,” using smooth ceilings with simple cornices that do not collect dust, and smoothly plastered walls.
The appearance of the mansion changed somewhat under subsequent owners: in 1914, an extension on the courtyard side was carried out by Lidval; in 1916, a one-story volume was added on the west side by Roslavlev.
Sources:
https://xn--c1acndtdamdoc1ib.xn--p1ai/kuda-shodit/mesta/osobnyak-s-n-chaeva/
https://www.citywalls.ru/house579.html
