The building of the St. Petersburg Mutual Credit Society is a
monument of history and culture of federal significance, a specialized
banking building built in 1888-1890 according to the project of
architect P. Yu. Syuzor.
Located at the address: St. Petersburg,
Griboyedov Canal Embankment, 13.
As of 2009, it houses the
North-Western branch of Rosbank.
The initiator of the construction of a new building of the St.
Petersburg Mutual Credit Society was the board of the bank, headed by
Evgeny Lamansky. The architect was Count Pavel Syuzor. Together with a
member of the board of the bank, M. N. Kobyzev, he traveled to France,
Belgium and Germany to get acquainted with the principles of
construction of bank buildings.
The land for the construction of
the building was purchased in 1887 from the merchant F. Chopin for 205
thousand rubles. The laying of the building took place on August 15,
1888 in the presence of the Minister of Finance Ivan Vyshnegradsky, and
construction began on September 1, 1888.
The official opening of
the building took place on September 9, 1890, but the interior
decoration continued until 1900. In 1914, a memorial plaque was
installed in the lobby in honor of E. I. Lamansky and P. Yu. Syuzor.
In 1917, the Mutual Credit Society ceased to exist. The building
houses the workshops of artists and various government agencies. Since
1945, it housed the regional office of the State Bank of the USSR. By
1990, the building was in a deplorable state.
In 1990, the
building housed the commercial agro-industrial bank of St. Petersburg,
renamed in 1993 into Petroagroprombank. In 1995, the building was given
the status of a monument of history and culture of federal significance.
After the 1998 crisis, the building housed the First Mutual Credit
Society bank. In 2000, the restoration of the building began.
In
2006, the First OVK bank was merged with Rosbank, after which the
restoration work began to be financed at its expense. On June 26, 2009,
on the occasion of the completion of the restoration work, a
presentation of the building was held, which was attended by Vladimir
Golubkov, Chairman of the Board of Rosbank. An art gallery was opened in
the first floor gallery.
The four-story building combines various styles of European
architecture and is decorated with numerous sculptures, the creators of
which are A. M. Opekushin and D. I. Jensen.
At the foot of the
dome, which hides the exhaust pipe, there is a sculptural group "Nika":
at the feet of the goddess of victory Nike are the god of trade Mercury
and the god of the seas Neptune. In the risalit, the second and third
floors are decorated with an arched window, on both sides of which there
are female figures. Above the window is the inscription "The First
Mutual Credit Society". The balconies are supported by atlantes. Window
frames and frieze are richly decorated.
The building was also
well equipped from a technical point of view. It had its own power
plant, steam heating system, ventilation, elevators, plumbing, sewage,
alarm, telephone.
The main room of the building is the operating room, located on the
second floor. A front granite staircase leads to it from the oak
vestibule. In front of the entrance to the operating room is a white
marble bust of E. I. Lamansky.
The operating room is 32 meters
wide, 31.7 meters long and 10 meters high. It is decorated with 20 white
Carrara marble columns that serve as the bases of the arches. The hall
is illuminated by cast-iron chandeliers stylized as woven branches.
There are information boards on the walls, as well as an icon.