Among the numerous awards that Peter the Great showered upon General Field Marshal Count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev after the victory over the Swedes at Poltava (June 27 (July 8), 1709) was a plot of swampy land on the bank of the Nameless Erik (Fontanka River), on the condition that a "chamber courtyard building" be constructed there. At that time, the Fontanka served as the boundary of Peter's St. Petersburg. From that time on, on Sheremetev's large plot, located between the heavily marshy bank of the Fontanka and the line of the present-day Liteyny Prospect, the construction of various buildings began, initially wooden, then stone. In 1712, the original wooden house was built; in the late 1730s – early 1740s, a new one-story palace was constructed for Boris Petrovich Sheremetev’s son, Peter, on the site of the old wooden buildings under the direction of architect G. D. Dmitriev. A drawing by Fyodor Vasilyev titled "Sheremetevo Compound," made around 1719 and held in the Russian Museum, gives an idea of what this plot looked like.

In the 1730s, a large pond was dug on the plot, the soil from which was used to raise the roadway of Liteyny Prospect. At the same time, a new stone house was built facing this thoroughfare. Here on the Fontanka was the Sheremetev country estate with a garden adjoining the Italian Palace. The family’s city palace at that time was located on the Strelka of Vasilyevsky Island.

The current two-story palace was built in the early 1750s in the style of Russian Baroque according to the project of architects Savva Ivanovich Chevakinsky and Fyodor Semyonovich Argunov (a serf architect of the Sheremetev counts) in the mid-18th century. The old building was topped with a second floor and rebuilt in the Russian Baroque style. The building stands deep within the formal courtyard, opened toward the river. The center of the main facade is highlighted by pilasters and a mezzanine topped with a curved pediment. In the field of the pediment is a cartouche with the Sheremetev coat of arms. The side wings of the building end with slightly protruding risalits decorated with pilasters and crowned with triangular pediments. Originally, a wooden balustrade with statues on pedestals was arranged along the roof edge. In the center of the building was a tall two-span porch. In 1759, two gilded wooden horse figures by sculptor Johann Franz Dunker were installed on pedestals at the entrance. East of the palace was a magnificent garden ("Sheremetev’s lindens," as Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova wrote).

After the death of his wife and daughter, Count Peter Borisovich moved to Moscow in 1768, but the estate continued to be rebuilt during the owners’ absence.

After Peter Borisovich’s death in 1788, the estate passed to his son Nikolai. For a long time, Nikolai Petrovich spent time in Moscow, but by the late 1790s he began to live regularly in the capital. To update the interiors of his palace, he hired architect I. E. Starov. In 1796, the count settled in the Fontanka house. The Sheremetevs had their own serf theater and orchestra here. After Starov, the palace interiors were rebuilt by D. Quarenghi and A. N. Voronikhin. On the estate grounds, a Summer House, Carriage Sheds, Garden Pavilion were built, and service wings were rebuilt.

After Nikolai Petrovich’s death in 1809, the estate passed to his six-year-old son Dmitry Nikolaevich. At the initiative of Empress Maria Feodorovna, a guardianship was established over the Sheremetev property due to the heir’s minority. In 1811–1813, according to the project of H. Meyer, the Chancellery wing and the adjoining Hospital wing were built on the site of the Orangery facing Liteyny Prospect. In 1821, architect D. Quadri built the three-story Fontanny wing with the main facade facing the Fontanka. Between it and the Hospital wing, the Singing wing was built. Here lived the choristers of the Sheremetev chapel, formed from the serf choir of his father.

During Dmitry Nikolaevich’s service in the Cavalry Guard Regiment, his comrades often visited the palace. Officers frequently enjoyed the count’s hospitality, and the regiment even coined the expression “living on Sheremetev’s account.” Starting in 1824, the artist O. A. Kiprensky often visited the palace; he was friends with D. N. Sheremetev and created a series of portraits of the owner’s friends—officers of the Cavalry Guard Regiment who often stayed at the palace. In late May – June 1827, in his studio located in the palace (now the Avant Hall), he painted the famous portrait of Pushkin.

In the 1830s–1840s, architect I. D. Korsini worked in the palace.

According to his project, a cast-iron fence with gates (1838) was made on the Fontanka, decorated with the Sheremetev counts’ coat of arms. He completely rebuilt the palace interiors, and in 1845 the Garden wing was constructed.

Musical evenings were held in the Fontanka house, featuring invited composers Glinka, Berlioz, Liszt, and singers Viardot, Rubini, Barteneva.

In 1867, the Northern wing was added to the palace according to the project of N. L. Benois.

After the death of Count Dmitry Nikolaevich in 1871, the property was divided between his sons Sergey and Alexander. The Fontanka house went to Sergey Dmitrievich. In 1874, architect A. K. Serebryakov worked on the Sheremetev estate, building new five-story buildings. As a result, the plot was divided into two parts. Income houses (No. 51) were built on the Liteyny Prospect side, while the formal part remained on the Fontanka side (house No. 34). At the beginning of the 20th century, work was completed on rearranging the income part of the plot. The Garden gates, Grotto, Hermitage, Orangery, Chinese Pavilion, and other garden structures were destroyed.

In 1908, the riding hall and stables were rebuilt into a Theater Hall (now the Drama Theater on Liteyny). In 1914, according to the project of M. V. Krasovsky, two-story commercial pavilions were erected here.

Under Count S. D. Sheremetev, the Fontanka house, which housed a huge family archive, became the center of activity for several historical societies, including the Society of Lovers of Ancient Writing, the Russian Genealogical Society, and others. After the 1917 revolution, the last owner of the estate, Count Sergey Sheremetev, voluntarily agreed to the nationalization of the palace.

After the revolution, the house was opened as the Museum of Noble Life and Serf Life of the 18th–20th centuries, later becoming part of the Historical and Everyday Life Department of the Russian Museum and existing until 1931. During this entire time, its director and custodian was V. K. Stanyukovich. The museum’s collections were based on the Sheremetev private collection. It included a picture gallery, collections of sculpture, weapons, decorative and applied arts (bronzes, porcelain, silver, furniture), a library (musical and book collections, manuscripts), a collection of church utensils and icons (from the house church of the Fontanka house). Attempts by museum workers in the 1920s to preserve the collection’s integrity failed. The palace shared the fate of all “noble nests.” It was handed over to various state institutions, the Sheremetev collections were partially sold abroad, and only a small part of the art objects went to the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, and part of the scattered library to the Russian National Library.

In 1935, the House of Entertaining Science opened in the right wing of the palace, organized by Ya. I. Perelman and sharing premises with the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route. The House of Entertaining Science was closed in 1941 after the start of the Great Patriotic War. In the post-war period and until 1989, most of the building was occupied by the Arctic and Antarctic Institute.

The southern wing of the palace housed service apartments for museum staff. From the mid-1920s until 1952, Anna Akhmatova lived there together with Nikolai Punin. (More information here: https://reveal.world/story/fontannyj-dom-yuzhnoe-krylo-1924-1952). As part of the civil initiative “Last Address,” on March 22, 2015, memorial plaques were installed on the house bearing the names of Orientalist Nikolai Nikolaevich Punin, arrested on August 26, 1949, and died on August 21, 1953, in Minlag, Komi ASSR, and worker Heinrich Yanovich Kaminsky, arrested on September 19, 1941, and died on November 3, 1943, in Taishetlag, rehabilitated “due to lack of a crime.”

In the garden, modest monuments have been erected to two remarkable women whose fates are closely connected with the Fontanka house—Praskovya Ivanovna Zhemchugova-Sheremeteva and Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova, whose memorial museum operates in the southern garden wing.

Since 1990, by order of the Leningrad City Council, the palace again housed a museum—this time the Museum of Music (a branch of the Museum of Theater and Musical Art). The museum’s collection consists of unique musical instruments from different eras and countries. This collection is located on the first floor of the palace and, after restoration in the 1990s, in the halls of the formal enfilade on the second floor, which is also open to visitors (a separate, second ticket must be purchased at the museum ticket office). The Museum of Music displays a collection of musical instruments numbering more than three thousand exhibits. Here one can see and hear Russian bells, copies of ancient instruments made in the 19th century based on originals found during excavations of ancient Etruria. The baroque fancifulness of the forms of European instruments of the 17th–18th centuries—old harps, viols, harpsichords—is extraordinarily consonant with the style of the palace, the intricate patterns of the cast-iron fence, and the stucco decorations of the interiors. The famous collection in the old setting of baroque architecture is perceived as one of the new pages of the musical-historical chronicle of the Fontanka house, preserving the names of famous artists of the past, well-known historians, painters, and architects.

After the early death of his wife, serf actress Parasha Zhemchugova, Nikolai Petrovich Sheremetev erected a monument to her in a remote corner of the garden. As already mentioned, this monument disappeared during Soviet times. In 2006, a monument to Anna Akhmatova was opened in the garden, and then in 2007, a new monument to Parasha Zhemchugova was installed in the garden; it was finally completed by 2008.

The complex of buildings of the Sheremetev Palace is included in the Unified State Register of Cultural Heritage Objects (monuments of history and culture) of the peoples of the Russian Federation as an object of cultural heritage of federal significance.

Source:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Фонтанный_дом

https://theatremuseum.ru/filial/sheremetevskiy_dvorec_muzey_muzyki

https://photoprogulki.narod.ru/spb_fontanka9.htm

https://www.citywalls.ru/photo386663.html