Tolstoy House

The Tolstoy House is a large and well-known apartment building in St. Petersburg, located at 15-17 Rubenstein Street and 54 Fontanka Embankment. The building was designed by Fyodor Lidval in the “Northern Modern” style.

The building was constructed in 1910-1912 under the aegis of Major-General Count Mikhail Pavlovich Tolstoy, nephew of the 1812 war hero P. A. Tolstoy. After Tolstoy's death in 1913, ownership devolved to his widow Countess Olga Tolstoy (born a princess of the Vasilchikov family, daughter of Prince Alexander Illarionovich Vasilchikov, a second in the famous 1841 duel between Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolai Martynov).

The building design shows elements typical of the creative work of Fydor Lidval: high Renaissance arches, balconies on the upper floors, restraint and refinement of decorative elements, respect for comfort, and an eye for natural lighting.

From the first, the building was provided with a laundry, plumbing, and elevators. The structure was conceived as a home for all classes, with apartments for people of all incomes, from modest to luxurious.

The complex layout of the building includes a sequence of three connected arched courtyards leading from Rubinstein Street to the embankment of the Fontanka River. The facades of the three main courtyards are decorated as carefully as the front of the building (although on either side of the building are less decorated courtyards into which the back doors of the apartments open). The facades use hewed limestone, brick, and stucco.

In the central courtyard there was a Roman-style fountain designed and built by Lidval. This fountain was in place until the 1950s but was completely lost by the 1990s.

Initially, there were passages in the center of the courtyards, and a small lawn which occupied only a very narrow strip along the original streets. In Soviet times, the appearance was significantly alterered: in the middle of the yard, driveways were made, the lawns were planted with poplars, and a statue was installed in the fountain. Thus was lost Lidval's original concept of an internal street.

In 2008, the house was made a protected art and cultural monument under the aegis of the HOA. In 2009, Marina Kolotilo was made chairman of the HOA Tolstoy House. HOA is making efforts to repair, restore, and preserve the Tolstoy House. Kolotilo has begun an effort to establish a museum in the Tolstoy House and is preparing a program celebrating its 100th anniversary.

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