Yeliseyev Brothers Store

The building of the Yeliseyev Brothers trading company was put up on Nevsky Prospekt in 1902-1903 to a design by Gavriil Baranovsky — one of the most conspicuous examples of Art Nouveau in St Petersburg. The facade is held by an enormous stained-glass window four storeys high, with allegorical figures of Industry, Trade, Art and Science by Amandus Adamson at its sides. The house was conceived as a commercial complex: a food hall and wine cellars below, a restaurant, a banking office and a theatre hall above, so that a single building fed, watered and entertained. Baranovsky built a great deal for the Yeliseyevs and on their money in general, and among his other works in the city the best known are the Buddhist temple in Staraya Derevnya and the house of the Russian Geographical Society. The Akimov Comedy Theatre has worked on the upper floors since 1929. Under Soviet rule the shop was listed as Grocery Store Number One, but the merchant name stayed with it all the same. The sales hall has kept its historic fittings — dark wooden counters, mirrors, cast chandeliers and palms, thanks to which the shop was always filmed for films about pre-revolutionary St Petersburg.

On the map