This unusual mansion is well known to residents of St. Petersburg and guests of the Northern capital. Gauswald's cottage on Kamenny Island differs from all the buildings surrounding it. This house, resembling a caramel toy, is surprisingly bright and even mischievous. Here, the director I. Maslennikov shot the popular film about the adventures of the legendary Sherlock Holmes and his assistant and faithful friend Dr. Watson.
Project authors
Gauswald Cottage, whose address is: Kamenny Island, 14 Bolshaya Alley, is a rare and original example of wooden architecture in Russia, the first Art Nouveau structure not only in St. Petersburg, but also in the country. Many believe that the building resembles a gingerbread house. And this is no coincidence. Young architects Vasily Shene and Vladimir Chagin built it for E.K. Gauswald, the wife of a famous baker in St. Petersburg.
V. I. Chagin received an academic education. Dacha Gauswald is not the first work of a famous architect. Before construction began, he already participated in major projects. It is noteworthy that after the 1917 revolution, Chagin did not leave the country, but began to engage in the restoration and reconstruction of many historical and architectural monuments of St. Petersburg. Buildings in the Art Nouveau style, Vladimir Ivanovich began to build in St. Petersburg one of the first. The master created most of the works in collaboration with V.I. Chenet.
A little information has been preserved about Vasily Ivanovich. He had his own mansion with a small park on Krestovsky Island. In 1916, he was confiscated for debt. Even the date of death is not exactly known: sources are usually limited to the phrase "after 1935." Nevertheless, Schenet's work has been preserved: four dachas located on Kamenny Island, among them his own, which was never completed, Kelch’s mansion, which can be seen on Tchaikovsky Street, 28, house of N. V. Tchaikovsky on 67 Nevsky , as well as several apartment buildings, which are located in the historical center of St. Petersburg.
For young architects, the cottage Gauswald was a real exam, which they passed with flying colors: they approached the matter creatively, discarding all stereotypes. They emphasized the expressiveness of geometric shapes - cylinder, cube and cone, combining these elements.
Stone island
Already during the construction of the mansion, Kamenny Island was considered a privileged area of the city, where wealthy and famous people lived: the merchant Eliseev, outstanding scientists, industrialist Putilov. The history of Stone Island is shrouded in legends and secrets.
In ancient times, lost sailors saw a huge rock that towered above the water. Having approached the coast, they explored the land and decided to give the island the name Kamenny. Much later, when Nicholas II came to power, the island became very popular with the elite - in just a few years it was built up with estates.
Dacha Gausvald (St. Petersburg): history
The building, built in 1898, is named after the names of its first owners - the spouses Hauswald. After the revolution of 1917, the island was renamed. He received the name common in those years - the island of Workers. This once picturesque area was empty, and luxurious homes were chosen by the homeless. Every year in St. Petersburg, they became more and more.
It was then (1918) that the new city authorities decided to open the Lunacharsky Children's Colony No. 3 in the building. Street children lived here until 1923. The little inhabitants pulled away everything they could take off. They took apart magnificent stained-glass windows with elegant lead inserts and made sinkers for fishing rods, and beautiful colored glass was used in games or exchanged for something even more “valuable”.
Years later, the sanatorium of the plant was placed in the mansion. The island of Workers has become a resting place for large officials. Here again appeared a holiday village. In the nineties of the last century, the cottage Gauswald was sold to Impulse, which today is its owner.
Description
Cottage Gauswald on Stone Island (St. Petersburg) is a unique architectural monument. On the ground floor of the building there were living rooms, above - guest rooms and the owner’s office. According to some experts, the authors of the project took the classic English cottage as a model, which had a separate entrance for the servant, while others believe that the Bavarian style is clearly visible in the building's architecture. We think that this was not so important for the owners of the house: impressive and stylish from the outside, from the inside the cottage was very cozy. Everything was thought out to the smallest detail here.
Mansion architecture
Gauswald Cottage on Stone Island is built in Art Nouveau style. Gray brick towers, stone slabs, yellow plastered walls are adjacent to the carved elements of the pediments made of wood. They give the design grace and complexity. At the same time, the asymmetry characteristic of this style, the broken roof line, etc.
The two-story central part of the building is made of wood; a one-story building with a semicircular portal adjoins it. The basement, revetted with rubble stove, is typical for almost all cottages on Kamenny Island. The building has almost no sharp corners, it is asymmetric, flattened and for this reason it opens from all sides. The facades are decorated with pointed pedestals. To appreciate the intent of the authors of the project, you need to go around the building.
Cottage Gauswald is distinguished by a beautiful silhouette. In the north is a tower with semicircular windows. Two terraces, each of which has four columns, are located on the south side. The house plan was divided into functional zones: the north-east was reserved for the owners, and the south-west was intended for office premises,
Interesting Facts
Dacha Gauswald is a real cinematic celebrity. These walls have become the scenery for many films. The scenes of the famous series about Sherlock Holmes directed by I. Maslennikov were shot here. Petersburgers often call this building the house of Irene Adler. That is exactly what the plot called the beloved woman of the great detective. Popular films such as The Bat and Don Cézanne de Bazan by Jan Fried were shot here.
Such outstanding actors as Yuri and Vitaly Solominy, Vasily Livanov, Mikhail Boyarsky, Nikolai Karachentsov, Igor Dmitriev, Anna Samokhina, Larisa Udovichenko, Yuri Bogatyrev and many others starred in the mansion.
The further fate of the monument
For this unique construction, difficult times came after the collapse of the USSR, during the years of perestroika. Gauswald's cottage was sold to Impuls, a private company that had not used and maintained it for twenty years. As a result, the house became desolate. Studies have shown that more than 80% of all wooden buildings are destroyed by mold and affected by fungus.
After reviewing the expert opinion, the city authorities decided to demolish all the wooden structures. However, this has not been done. A few years later, following a new accident test of the building, a final decision was made to dismantle all the wooden structures of the structure and to build the building here according to the design of Rafael Dayanov. Unfortunately, today the building is in poor condition and continues to collapse.
Dacha Gauswald: how to get there?
Today, tourists can no longer get inside the building. But you can still see how the famous building looks from the outside. To get here, Petersburgers and guests of the Northern capital need to get to the Petrogradskaya metro station. Here you will need a transfer to buses No. 46 or 1, trolleybus No. 34. This transport will take you to the Kamenny Ostrov stop. Then you need to go along Pervaya Berezova Street to the Bolshoi Alley and turn right to house No. 14. A walk will take no more than ten minutes.
You can get to the metro station "Chernaya rechka". After leaving the metro, walk towards the promenade. Then cross the bridge to Kamenny Ostrov and follow the Bolshaya Nevka embankment to the Big Alley. Then turn left to house number 14.