Yeliseyev Brothers Store

The building of the Yeliseyev Brothers trading company was put up on Nevsky Prospekt between 1902 and 1903 to a design by Gavriil Baranovsky, and is one of the most conspicuous examples of Art Nouveau in Saint Petersburg.

The facade

The facade is held by an enormous stained-glass window four storeys high, flanked by allegorical figures of Industry, Trade, Art and Science by Amandus Adamson. On Nevsky this was a provocation: the neighbours were classical, and the Yeliseyevs put up a glass shopfront the full height of the building.

A trading combine

The building was never meant to be only a shop: a food hall and wine cellars below, a restaurant, a bank office and a theatre above, so one building fed, watered and entertained. Baranovsky built a good deal for the Yeliseyevs and with their money; among his other works in the city are the Buddhist temple in Staraya Derevnya and the house of the Russian Geographical Society.

The theatre

The Akimov Comedy Theatre has occupied the upper floors since 1929. It is a rare case of a building keeping almost its whole original function: trade below, performance above.

The hall

The shop floor keeps its historic fittings: dark wooden counters, mirrors, cast chandeliers and palms, which is why it has always been filmed for anything set in pre-revolutionary Petersburg. Under Soviet rule it was Grocery Number One, but the merchants' name stuck to it anyway. You can walk in and look without buying anything.

Address

Nevsky Prospekt 56, St Petersburg · metro Gostiny Dvor

Opening hours

Shop open daily; the theatre by its programme

Prices

Free to enter the shop

On the map