The locals call this luxurious mansion ‘Irene Adler's house’, because this was the house of Irene Adler, a heroine of the Soviet iconic ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson’ TV series (episode ‘The Treasure of Agra’, 1983).
Igor Maslennikov/Lenfilm, 1983
The house and its original porch have also featured in other Soviet cinema. For example, the TV adaptation of the operetta ‘Die Fledermaus’ (1979) was filmed there.
Jan Fried/Lenfilm, 1979; Lawerta (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Soviet viewers also saw the mansion in the movie ‘Don César de Bazan’ (1989) and many others.
Jan Fried/Lenfilm, 1989; Ekaterina Borisova (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The cottage was built in 1898 for Eugenia Hauswald, by order of her bakery entrepreneur husband (whose identity has since been lost). But, soon, the house was bought by a rich businessman named Anatoly Demidov and the exterior of the building was slightly changed.
Archive image
The architecture of the building is a typical example of the Art Nouveau style fashionable at the turn of the 20th century. It's marked by a semicircular porch and window arches, towers and asymmetrical forms.
Myope ann (CC BY-SA 3.0)
In Soviet times, the house was used as a children's penal colony and then as a sanatorium. Because of its “European” appearance, the St. Petersburg mansion became a favorite place for filming for ‘Lenfilm’ studio productions. It was the setting for scenes that that were set in Spain, England, Austria and other countries.
Anastasia Galyamicheva (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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