Kotomin House

Kotomin House
Дом Котомина (in Russian)
Lithograph of Kotomin House, 1830
General information
Architectural style	Classicism
Location	Nevsky Prospekt 18, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Coordinates	59°56′11″N 30°19′07″E / 59.936457°N 30.318586°E / 59.936457; 30.318586
Current tenants	Literary Cafe
Completed	1738, 1815
Design and construction
Architect	Vasily Stasov

Kotomin House (Russian: Дом Котомина) is a historical landmark building located at Nevsky Prospekt 18 (between Bolshaya Morskaya Street and Moika River embankment) in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The first building at the modern location of Nevsky, 18 was constructed at the beginning of the 18th century. It was a small wooden house owned by Cornelius Cruys - the Vice Admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy and the first commander of the Russian Baltic Fleet, close associate of Peter the Great. In 1738 the property passed to tailor Johann Neumann. He hired a famous architect Mikhail Zemtsov to build a new two story stone house. Neumann's house facade faced Moika, and the side to Nevsky Prospekt didn't even have windows. This shows that at the time, Nevsky didn't yet obtain its status of the main street in the Saint Petersburg. The house hosted the museum of wax figures - first in city, although it only existed for one year. Several boutiques operated in Neumann house. In 1743, German merchant Johann Albrecht was selling tableware made from serpentine stone, which supposedly rejected poison (considering the times, it was an attractive proposition). Frenchman Charpentier was selling powder, and Dutch merchant le-Roi had a shop "Rotterdam" selling chocolate, vanilla and ink.

In 1807, merchant Konon Kotomin bought the land and the property. Kotomin raised to prosperity after being released from serfdom for prince Alexei Kurakin some twenty years earlier. Perhaps a coincidence, but Kotomin has chosen to live right next to prince Kurakin's residence at the time - Chicherin House - across Nevsky Prospekt. Kotomin contracted architect Vasily Stasov to build a palace in place of existing house, as if to compete with his former master. The new house was built in 1812-1815, and is mostly preserved in the same form today. The main facade featured a Doric order connecting the two parts of the ground floor. There were eight semi columns in the middle (which did not survive to present time), and a lodge with four columns at each side. At the top, the cornice was decorated with modillions and stucco rosettes.