Chichrerin House () was a historical landmark building located at Nevsky Prospekt 15 (between Bolshaya Morskaya Street and Moika River embankment) in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is also known as Kosikovsky House, Elisseeff House and Barrikada cinema theater.
Preceding buildings
In 1716-1720, the area between the Moika River and Bolshaya Morskaya Street was the site used to build Mytnyi Dvor (), a project by Georg Johann Mattarnovy and Nicolaus Friedrich Harbel. This building had a two-story gallery and a tower overlooking the Moyka, and it was commonly called Gostiny Dvor () (not to be confused with the modern Gostiny Dvor in Saint Petersburg that was built later, in 1757). It was destroyed in a fire in 1736.
After the fire, the site remained empty until 1755, when architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli constructed a single-story wooden temporary Winter Palace to be a residence for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna while the new permanent Winter Palace was being built. The palace spanned the entire space from the Moyka River to Malaya and Morskaya streets, occupied today by Chicherin House at Nevsky 15 and Chaplin's House at Nevsky 13.
The history of the palace is linked to the history of the first Russian theater. When famous actor Fyodor Volkov was invited to come from Yaroslavl to Saint Petersburg in 1757, he became the director of the Imperial Theater. Performances were held in the palace, in a specially prepared hall. Empress Elizabeth lived in this palace until her death there on December 25, 1762.
Chicherin House
By 1767 the wooden palace had deteriorated so badly that it had to be demolished. Empress Catherine II gave the vacant land to Nikolai Ivanovich Chicherin, a brother of Denis Ivanovich Chicherin, who was commander of the military unit in which Gregory and Alexey Orlov served. The Orlov brothers helped Catherine rise to the power in a coup. After she became empress, Denis Chicherin was appointed governor of Siberia, and Nikolai Chicherin was appointed chief police general of Saint Petersburg.
Chicherin ordered a house to be built on the site and a four-story building was constructed in 1768-1771. It is not known for certain who the architect was. It has been suggested that it could have been Vallin de la Mothe, Yury Felten, Alexander Kokorinov or Andrey Kvasov. The nearby Green Bridge across the Moyka river was renamed Police Bridge due to its proximity to the police chief's home. The architecture, in rigorous neoclassical style, is a rare example of the corner of a building forming a semicircular arc. The facade on one street flows smoothly into the facade on the intersecting street, in a united ensemble.
Chicherin's family lived in the third floor. The first floor featured various shops including a bookstore. All the other apartments were for rent. One of the tenants in 1780-1783 was Giacomo Quarenghi.
In 1778, Saint Petersburg's second music club opened in Chicherin House, where weekly concerts and masquerades were performed. Attendees included Alexander Radishchev, Denis Fonvizin, Ivan Starov and Fedot Shubin. The club was unable to operate at a profit and was closed in 1792.
Kurakin House
In 1792, Chicherin's children sold the property to prince Alexei Kurakin who lived there since 1792. One of the tenants in the Kurakin's house was Mikhail Speransky. Young Speransky impressed Kurakin with help on a business letter, and was immediately offered a job as the prince's scribe. That was the start of Speransky's spectacular career. In 1800-1806 the owner of the house was Abram Peretz, merchant, prominent financier, ship building contractor and salt supplier.
Kosikovsky House
From 1806, the ownership passed to merchant Kosikovsky. In 1814-1816 new section of the house was built alongside Bolshaya Morskaya street. Architect Vasily Stasov led this project. The facade of the new section featured twelve columns to commemorate victory in the War of 1812 over Napoleon. In this part of the building, on the first floor Frenchman Pierre Talon open restaurant Talon. Alexander Pushkin used to visit this restaurant, and in his novel in verse Evgeny Onegin he also sent there Onegin himself: