Staircase in a nineteenth-century tenement house

While walking along the Fontanka River embankment, I noticed the door ajar. Repair work was being done on the stairs, and the door was open for ventilation. I decided to go in, looking for artefacts. Old fireplaces, doors, window fittings and other artefacts often look unusual and are an important element of the architectural concept.

The floor was decorated with a mosaic pattern, and the greeting "Salve" welcomed all visitors just outside the threshold. I climbed a few steps and saw an old wooden door. Doors and windows have suffered the most in the early twenty-first century. Iron doors with intercom systems were installed everywhere. The old wooden doors went to waste. Only a few doors have been saved by enthusiasts.

This door has a rather modest appearance, with a symmetrical pattern decorating its lower part. Sometimes you can see amazing doors with intricate plant ornaments, popular in the heyday of the Art Nouveau style. I took a few photos, and went up further.

The stairs were decorated with cast-iron railings with beautiful ornaments. Some of these railings have been lost and replaced by simple wickerwork. At first glance it would seem that the metal railings are the last thing to be destroyed, but cast iron is a rather brittle metal.

This house was built in 1880 as an apartment building and I wasn't expecting to see anything very special, unique. The most unusual and interesting architectural details can be found in Art Nouveau houses, but it came into fashion a little later. This house is built in a more restrained eclectic style. However, I did see one very unusual detail.

An old door with a slot for letters and newspapers has miraculously survived on one of the floors. Such slots are no longer in use, as are personal letterboxes near the doors to the flats. The mailboxes are now installed downstairs on the ground floor, and the postman no longer walks from floor to floor, delivering the latest printed news directly to the flat entrance.

The outer door is iron, but the second doors are also old, with a distinctive pattern.