In the Fontanny Dom (Fountain House) Anna Akhmatova, an outstanding Russian poet of the 20th century, has lived for 30 years. This house was a character of her poems, became for the poet a personification of Saint Petersburg and the pre-revolutionary history of Russia. In this very house she got threw the terrible post-revolutionary years, arrests of her son and husband, the years of Stalin terror.
Before the Revolution of 1917 the Fontanny Dom was a mansion of Counts Sheremetevs. The ground on the bank of the Fontanka River was granted by Peter the Great to his associate, count Sheremetev, in 1712. For two centuries the manor had been owned by five generations of the famous aristocratic family Sheremetevs. Soon after the revolution the last proprietor of the palace, great-great-grandson of Field-Marshal S. Sheremetev, handed the keys over to the representatives of the Soviet authorities. In the palace, that is a unique architectural monument of early baroque, the Museum of Life of Russian Nobility was opened. It existed up to 1931. Then the palace housed different research institution. Undoubtedly this contributed to the development of science in the country but didn't contribute to the preservation of the original interiors. In 1989 the Sheremetev Palace was handed over to the Museum of Theatrical and Musical Art and reconstruction works, that were aimed to recreate the original interiors of the 18th century halls and chambers, started. Today some halls are still being restored. Nowadays the Sheremetev Palace houses state collection of musical instruments that is to form the basis of the future Saint Petersburg Museum of Music.
Anna Akhmatova moved to the northern wing of the Fontanny Dom in autumn 1918. There she lived with her husband, poet and specialist on Assyrian culture, Vladimir Kazemirovich Shileyko for two years. They broke apart and Anna Akhmatova left the house for to return there two years later - in the middle of the 20s. Her new husband, Nikolai Nikolayevich Punin, a famous art historian, lived in the flat on the third floor of the southern garden wing. At the beginning of 1920s the flat was inhabited only by members of Nikolai Punin's family. In the 30s the socialistic mode of life rushed into the flat that for many years had stayed the refuge of prerevolutionary Russia: several families more settled in the flat and it turned into typical soviet communal flat. In 1938 Anna Akhmatova separated with Punin but didn't leave the flat - she moved into another room. The memories of the contemporaries about Anna Akhmatova's room are rather contradictory. Some of them remember "disarray and poverty" surrounding Anna Akhmatova, for others the room was illuminated with "magic light" of beautiful things that remained from previous non-socialist life. Anyway, after World War II the fitting of the room became very ascetic - the majority of the things had been sold or stolen during the Siege. In 1952 the family had to leave the Fontanny Dom and moved to Krasnaya Konnitza Street.
In the flat in the Fontanny Dom Anna Akhmatova wrote lots of her most famous poems. Many of them were not "written" in the full sense of this word: being afraid of repressions Akhmatova didn't keep manuscripts but memorized them and entrusted her closest friends to learn them by heart. Thus "Requiem" and "Poem without a Hero", poems that turned into the symphony about the fate of her generation, have been preserved.
The Anna Akhmatova Museum was opened in the southern wing of the Sheremetev Palace in 1989. Its exposition demonstrates personal belongings of the poets, portraits of Anna Akhmatova by outstanding artists (O.L.Della-Vos-Kadrovskaya, Z.Serebryakova, K.Petrov-Vodkin (study), N.Tirsa, A.Tishler and others), books with autographs, manuscripts, photos taken by her husband N.N.Punin. The visitors can walk about the flat, where Anna Akhmatova lived from 1927 to 1952. Each of the rooms was connected for Anna Akhmatova with a certain period of her life, symbolized some important event. These events have been turned into plots coming real in the settings of the rooms.
On the ground and first floors of the museum thematic exhibitions, devoted to the culture of the 20th century, are held regularly. The Fontanny Dom often houses literary and musical evenings, scientific conferences and festivals.
The museum not only familiarizes visitors with the life and creativity of Anna Akhmatova, but also picture the life of the whole generation - poets, writers, artists, - talented people of the Silver Age, whose lifetime fell on the years of Stalin's repressions.