About

The Polovtsov Mansion — the late-19th-century central-Petersburg residence of the state councillor Alexander Polovtsov — is one of the few remaining private aristocratic interiors of the imperial period whose state halls approach the palace-level decorative programme. The house is currently the seat of the Petersburg House of Architects (Dom Arkhitektora), which has preserved the surviving 19th-century interiors. This tour access one of the least-visited yet most opulent central-Petersburg private interiors. The state halls retain their original 19th-century materials — genuine silk, marble, gilt — and the atmosphere of a private residence rather than a museum walk-through. One of the few Petersburg mansions whose decorative programme approaches Hermitage-level substance while remaining in private-house scale. In Russian; the interior detail is a substantial part of the experience.