The first Petersburg Public Assembly was founded in 1790. It was kind of a leisure club that gave its members, their families and guests the opportunity to spend their free time with pleasure and benefit. For this purpose, lectures, musical evenings, literary soirees, theatre parties, balls and masquerades were arranged. Before the revolution, it was an exclusive membership club.

In 1903, a piece of real estate located on the corner of Srednyaya Podyacheskaya street and Catherine Canal embankment was put up for sale. In March 1904, the first Petersburg Public Assembly became the ultimate owner of this property, as well as the land plot. On March 3, 1906, the Assembly was renamed the “Catherine Assembly in St. Petersburg”. The house is a joint project of well-known St. Petersburg structural architects – engineer Smirnov and designer architects Muntz and Feleisen.

From the very beginning, the building was supposed to accommodate a theatre, which could function autonomously and was expected to be rented out. Since 1908, the famous “Crooked Mirror” theatre was located here. The building existed in this guise until 1917. In the same year, the People’s Bank Workers’ Club moved into the house, and in 1919, the Political Directorate of the Baltic Fleet was placed here. Since 1939, the “Baltsudoproekt” Central Design Bureau, which existed until 1999, was located in the building.

The Catherine Assembly became one of the centres of cultural life of St. Petersburg and forever remained associated with the names of F. Chaliapin, S. Diaghilev, A. Pavlova, M. Fokine, V. Nijinsky, T. Karsavina, N. Evreinov, K. Chukovsky and other people of art. Many prominent representatives of Russian culture of the early 20^th century were involved with the history of the Catherine Assembly.

The building has two auditoriums: the Chamber Hall and the Great Hall. The Chamber Hall has an Italian stage with wings and a curtain, while the Great Hall looks more like a loft, which has excellent transformation capabilities, modern sound and lighting equipment, as well as a large LED screen.

Additional information

Theatre performances, concerts, excursions, musical evenings are available at the venue. They are organized by the following companies: “Petersburg-Concert” (concerts), the “Open City” project (free tours available with prior registration), tour operator “Walks” (guided tours of the building interior).

Tours of the Catherine Assembly are held before some concerts; information about the tours is indicated in the concert description; guided tours are included in the ticket price. You can find more information here: https://catherineassembly.ru/repertoire

Entrance to the Catherine Assembly is from the Griboyedov canal embankment

Acessibility

Not available for people with limited mobility

Not available for visually impaired people

Not available for people with hearing impairment

On separate expositions there are specialists working with people with mental disabilities