This mansion has changed many owners and all of them were people with famous surnames: Naryshkin, Osterman-Tolstoy, Vorontsov-Dashkov... Here was the ball, to which Alexander Pushkin and his wife Natalia Nikolaevna were invited. And so was Georges Dantes, with whom a few days later an outstanding Russian poet had a fateful duel. So many things connected Pushkin and The English Embankment. He gladly visited dance balls and friendly meetings, and read his creations such as “The Bronze Horseman” at different literary evenings. He also worked here in the College of Foreign Affairs. There was a period when he lived nearby on the Galernaya Street. Pushkin was often seen walking with Natalia Nicolayevna along the embankment. Perhaps under the impression of these places the following lines of “The Bronze Horseman” were born:
I love you, Peter’s great creation,
I love your view of stern and grace,
The Neva wave’s regal procession,
The grayish granite – her bank’s dress.
The English Embankment was the best place for a walk. If the Nevsky Prospect was not popular and was suitable only for business meetings and trips, the English Embankment was an ideal place for festivals and celebrations. Here, in the noblest mansions, perhaps the most famous balls were arranged. People waited and prepared for them carefully. There were even instructions on the ball procedure and a befitting dress. There was a period when house owners made it a rule to invite nobody but to welcome anyone who comes. There always were a lot of guests: prominent dignitaries, socialites, beauties, Petersburg celebrities... By the way, specialists in literature believe that the writer Leo Tolstoy, representing the first ball of Natasha Rostova, the heroine of his famous novel "War and Peace", was referring to house №10, owned by Osterman-Tolstoy.
But let’s move on. After two houses we will see a beautiful pink mansion which was built in Classical Era.
Photo Дом Нарышкина А. Л. (Воронцовых-Дашковых) Английская наб., 10 7 by Надежда Пивоварова is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
