Дом-музей Набокова
The Nabokov Museum is located in St. Petersburg, on Bolshaya Morskaya Street, in house No. 47, where Vladimir Vladimirovich was born and spent his childhood years. The Nabokov Museum was opened in 1998 and is currently owned by St. Petersburg State University.
Highlights
The chamber collection is housed on the first floor of the building and covers an area of 230 m². Researchers of Nabokov’s work have restored the furnishings of the library, dining room and living room from the beginning of the last century in three rooms. Objects, books, photographs, original furniture, household items and personal belongings have appeared in the V. V. Nabokov Museum. V. Nabokov Museum thanks to relatives and friends of the writer. A lot of exhibits were donated to the museum from foreign collectors.
.
In the halls you can see an issue of Time magazine with the portrait of the writer on the cover, as well as other foreign newspapers and magazines with articles about Nabokov’s novels. The showcases display editions of Nabokov’s works in different languages, photographs of the writer, his family and friends. Nabokov was passionate about entomology and spent his life studying butterflies, so the museum exhibits one of the collections of butterflies collected by the writer. The rooms are beautifully and stylishly decorated in the Rococo and French Renaissance traditions. The windows above the front door and in the stairwells of the old building have stained glass windows made of colored lozenges. On the second floor one can see the room of the writer’s mother, Elena Ivanovna, finished with mahogany and walnut panels.
.Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov called the house on Bolshaya Morskaya Street “the only house in the world”. And for the writer this was not an exaggeration, as Nabokov’s family never owned any other housing after leaving St. Petersburg on November 15, 1917.
.
Twice a year the international conference “Nabokov Readings” is held here, the schedule of which is posted in advance on the website of the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. In addition, the museum often hosts mono-performances, seminars, literary evenings and presentations of book novelties.
.
The Old Mansion
The history of the house, which today houses the Nabokov Museum, begins in the 1730s, when Bolshaya Morskaya Street was laid out. The old mansion changed its owners and was rebuilt many times. The Nabokov family owned it in 1897.
On April 22, 1899, the future writer Vladimir Nabokov was born here. A few years later, the third floor was added to the house, the facades were remodeled in the early Art Nouveau style, and a new outbuilding was added to the courtyard, in which apartments were rented out. The Nabokov family left their home in November 1917 and never returned here again.
.
The facade of the mansion is decorated with a picturesque frieze of mosaics made in the famous workshop of V. A. Frolov, and the metal decor is made at the factory of Karl Winkler. In addition, many stucco decorations can be seen on the building. In memory of the writer, a memorial plaque was placed on the house.
Since then, the external appearance of the house has not changed much, and its number has remained the same. Moreover, Bolshaya Morskaya Street was called Herzen Street for a long time, but it was returned to its original, “Nabokov’s” name.
.
A movie about the writer
In a small auditorium visitors are shown a half-hour movie about Nabokov’s life and work, made by director Leonid Parfenov for the 100th anniversary of the writer. This movie is interesting not only by telling about Nabokov’s biography. The director managed to interview the writer’s son and sister. Parfenov’s movie can be seen online, but watching the film in the Nabokov Museum gives it a special charm.
.Information for visitors
The doors of the Nabokov Museum are open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Saturdays from 12 noon to 5 p.m.. Entrance to the museum is free of charge. There are paid excursions in Russian and English for visitors.
.How to get there
The Nabokov Museum is housed in a three-story building near St. Isaac’s Cathedral, at 47 Bolshaya Morskaya Street. From the metro stations “Admiralteyskaya”, “Spasskaya” or “Sennaya Ploshchad” it is easy to walk to the museum in 15 minutes. If you use ground transportation, you can get to the house-museum by buses № 3, 22, 27 (stop “DK Svyazi”) or № 10 and 70 (stop “Isaakievskaya Ploshchad”).
.
