Kotomin House. Literary Cafe, St. Petersburg

Kotomin House is a historic Neoclassical building associated with the literary and social life of the nineteenth century. Originating in the mid-eighteenth century, it was substantially rebuilt in 1812-1814 for merchant Konon Kotomin by architect Vasily Stasov.

During the nineteenth century, part of its ground floor housed the Wolff and Béranger confectionery, a meeting place for writers, journalists, and other members of the educated public. The confectionery is particularly remembered for its connection with Alexander Pushkin. On January 27, 1837, according to the Old Style calendar, Pushkin met his second, Konstantin Danzas, there before leaving for his fatal duel with Georges d’Anthès at the Black River. Literary figures associated with the establishment included Mikhail Lermontov, Vissarion Belinsky, Ivan Panaev, Taras Shevchenko, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. Shortly after Pushkin’s death, Lermontov’s poem Death of the Poet was also read there. Following later changes of use and restoration in 1978-1981, the Literary Café opened in 1985. The restaurant draws on the building’s literary associations through period-inspired interiors, portraits, and references to Pushkin and other writers. It also hosts literary and musical events.

The present café does not preserve an unchanged nineteenth-century interior, but it occupies premises associated with Wolff and Béranger’s establishment, preserving the memory of Pushkin’s final afternoon and the writers who once gathered there.