Benjamin House (Riga)

In 1876, in the territory vacated after the demolition of fortifications and the implementation of the plan for the reconstruction of the central part of the city , a rich private house was built for the merchant Nikolay Elert Pfab . The authors of the mansion are two architects from Berlin : Wilhelm Beckmann and Gerhard Ende (1829-1907), who arrived from Germany to Livonia for the construction of a building commissioned by the Pfabs.

In the frame of the mansion were used elements of the Florentine ornament. There was a terrace, and a garden in the courtyard. A building of this type - a private townhouse in the center of the boulevard ring - was the first in the history of Riga. Balcony balustrade decorated with two lions with shields in their paws - a symbol of aristocratic, noble birth. Sculptures of two girls are located above the main entrance: one of them holds a bundle of flax, and the other - spinning wheel, symbolizing wealth, prosperity and pointing to the homeowner's trade activities. In the niche of the facade is a statue of a vestalka , who is the keeper of the hearth.

The sculptural framing of the mansion was made by the young enterprising sculptor Augustus Voltz , who arrived in Riga from Berlin with his senior mentor and teacher Gerhard Ende. After successfully designing the fashionable exteriors of the Pfabs house, Foltz gained a reputation as a fashionable sculptor and began to receive well-paid orders from the well-to-do stratum of Livland homeowners who bought land in the center of Riga on the site of old pastures and gardens. The artist and sculptor Wilhelm Timm worked on the interior decoration of the mansion, drawing his young nephew Wilhelm, the future well-known Riga architect Wilhelm Georg Nikolay Bokslaf, to work . Work on the premises of the mansion Pfabov was the first in his rich creative biography.

In 1928, Pfab went bankrupt and had to think about selling its luxurious private property. The mansion was bought by the owners of the newspaper “ Atpūta ” Anton and Emilia Benjamin , who opened in the new house a popular literary and artistic salon, a widely known center of culture and recreation for journalists, publicists and representatives of the Russian and Latvian creative literary intelligentsia of the city. Often on literary, bohemian evenings, ministers of the Latvian government, government officials, members of diplomatic missions, and members of the Seimas came to Benjamin.

A very popular architect in the interwar Latvia, Eugen Laube , who began his career before the war, received an order to rebuild the interior decoration and change the layout of the building. Later in his memoirs, Laube noted that he often had to make concessions to the whims of new homeowners, although in a conversation with them he argued that a radical restructuring of the interiors could damage the architecture of the mansion.

Up until 1954, the house of Benjamin was decorated, first in the Benjamin collection, and then in the ownership of the Writers' Union of the Latvian SSR, the most famous version of the Princess and the Monkeys , the most famous painting by the Latvian artist Janis Rosenthal .

The lobby is decorated with columns of artificial marble. The walls of the reception were decorated with carved wooden panels. Four windows overlook the garden, which are decorated with stained glass windows depicting the picturesque ruins of the feudal castle of Kokenhausen (Koknese) , the urban landscapes of Bauska , the Kuldīga arch bridge and Staburags . After the appearance of central heating, the fireplaces in the house began to perform a decorative function. According to the Laube project, the reception and the study were combined. Laube also created a wood-carved fireplace for the interior of the cabinet. In the Soviet tradition, this building was called the “Cabinet of Andris Upits ”, an authoritative Latvian writer who worked here for many years. The highlight of the house was the largest Venetian chandelier in the Baltics, which adorned the mansion hotel - it eventually turned into a symbol of prosperity and prosperity of the owners of the house. The dining room is also a very richly furnished room: luxurious tables were decorated with Sevres porcelain, and stained glass windows, which were made according to Timm’s sketches by order of former homeowners, were replaced by new ones - according to drawings made in Paris . Most often in Latvian everyday life the house is called by the name of Benjamin.

In 1940, the house was nationalized, and its owner Emilia was deported in accordance with the exact prediction of the Riga photographer and soothsayer Aizhen Finck . In 1945, the building housed the Society of Writers, Artists and Composers of the Latvian SSR. Exhibitions of Latvian and Soviet artists, conferences on the history of visual culture, modern painting trends, literary lectures, poetry evenings, and musical presentations were constantly held in the building. Renowned film director Janis Streych created Julia Lambert’s apartment in Benjamin’s house during the filming of the 1978 two-part feature film “ Theater ”.

Now the building houses the hotel and the Benyamin Restaurant.