Department store «Passage»

In the first half of the XIX century, this place was home to the famous Russian architect M.G. Zemtsov. In 1846 the plot together with the house was bought by Count Ya.I. Essen Stenbor-Fermor, for whom in 1846-1848 the architect R.A. Zhelyazevich built a trade building.

There were warehouses on the first floor, commercial premises on the second and apartments on the third. The central part of the building was occupied by a covered gallery-passage, glazed from above, called a passage (from the French “passage”).

In 1900 the Passage building was rebuilt under the guidance of architect S.S. Kozlov. The building became four-storeyed, the entrance double-ported portico was attached to the main facade. There are 64 trading rooms with a total area of more than 5,000 square meters and about 60 different trading establishments. From the Italian street was the entrance to the theatrical hall "Passage", where literature readings were held. Many outstanding writers of the XIX century participated in them, including N.A. Nekrasov, I.S. Turgenev, and F.M. Dostoevsky, who even has a story "Crocodile or Passage in the “Passage”". Today there is a drama theater named after V.F. Komissarzhevskaya.

The area of the premises of the department store "Passage", located on five levels, is a total of more than 13 thousand square meters.