The Fountain House is one of the most interesting sights of Saint Petersburg, almost of the same age as the city. The name “Fountain House” dates back to the 18^th century, when it was assigned to the estate of the Counts Sheremetevs, built on a vast area between the Fontanka River embankment and Liteyniy prospekt. Chevakinsky became the architect of the main manor house. From the side of the house number 34 on the Fontanka in the Sheremetev Palace, the Museum of Music is situated. And from another side there is a museum of Anna Akhmatova.

One of the most significant Russian poets of 20^th century Anna Akhmatova lived in apartment number 44 for almost 30 years, from the mid-1920s to the early 1950s. The apartment belonged to her third husband, Russian art scholar Nikolai Punin. The museum opened in 1989 on the centenary of Akhmatova's birth. At the time of its creation, it became the only echo of the Silver Age, telling about the life of the Russian creative intelligentsia, its fate and complex worldview. Anna Akhmatova belonged to the generation that lived at the turn of the century and the historical destinies of the 20^th century, reflected in her fate, are consistently revealed in the variety of museum exhibits. In 2003, the Anna Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House opened in a new look.

The new exposition solution reflects the architectural appearance of the apartment of the 1920-1930s of the XX century, and the literary and historical aspect. Akhmatova did not have her own room – the poet slept on a sofa in her husband's office. The first wife of Punin also lived in the apartment, his relatives regularly stayed here. In 1938, the couple broke up, and Anna Akhmatova was given a room that had previously served as a nursery: apartment number 44 became communal. Akhmatova did not like the room; she said that the most beautiful thing there was a tree growing outside the window. Such impressions are due to the fact that in this room Akhmatova experienced the most difficult moments of her life – the constant expectation of arrests.

Through the stair windows the garden of the Fountain House, the facade of the mansion with Maltese crosses, the outbuilding and the Liteyniy Theatre can be seen. The poet's apartment is on the third floor; a high wooden double door with an antique handle and a postbox leads inside.

Accessible environment

For visitors with limited mobility

To go up to the 2nd and 3rd floors of the museum, you must leave the stroller in the cloakroom and use the lift chair with seat belts. The lift is carried out by a museum employee. Then you can independently use comfortable museum wheelchairs to move around the exhibition hall or rooms of the memorial exposition.

To lift children to the 2nd and 3rd floors, it is recommended to use their own wheelchairs, since museum ones, unfortunately, are not equipped with seat belts.

To climb, you need to ask for help from a museum employee.

On the 1st floor of the museum there is a toilet for visitors with limited mobility.

For deaf and hard of hearing visitors

The museum is equipped with video screens with information about the services and events of the museum; they are located in the ticket office and the lobby on the 1st floor.

In the rooms of the memorial exposition there are printed illustrated explications to get acquainted with the museum space.

From September to June, on the last Sunday of the month, an excursion "Anna Akhmatova and the Fountain House" is held along the memorial exposition of the Akhmatova-Punin apartment in RSL (Russian Sign Language).

Duration: 1 hour

Participation is free.

To join the tour, you must register on the website https://www.akhmatova.spb.ru/

For visually impaired and blind visitors

For blind visitors, tactile schemes-plans of rooms with texts in Braille in Russian and English are placed on the territory of the museum:

• at the entrance to the garden of the Fountain House - at the gate on the right,

• in the lobby of the 1st floor - in front of security,

• on the landing of the 3rd floor in front of the entrance to the memorial exposition - on the windowsill.

To visit the memorial apartment of Akhmatova-Punin, museum staff provides a relief-graphic guide to the rooms.

On request, an interactive tour “Touch. XX century” can be organized.

Tour duration: 1 hour.

Participation is free.

During the tour, blind and visually impaired visitors will have the opportunity to tactilely examine some interior details, replicas of exhibits and listen to a thematic audio installation.

An application for a tour can be left by phone +7 812 579 72 39, +7 (812) 320-50-10 (ext. 120) or by mail ask@akhmatova.spb.ru (hospitality department).