Arzhanov Hospital

Brief information

Arzhanov Hospital was built as a small hospital for 25-30 patients, but it looks not like a utilitarian box, but like a carefully assembled public building. The money was provided by the Samara merchant L. S. Arzhanov, the design competition was won by the St. Petersburg architect A. I. von Gauguin, and during construction the local architect P. V. Shamansky changed details of the facade: the number of windows and the design of the pediment on the side facing Lev Tolstoy Street.

The main thing about this building is the rare continuity of its function. In 1914 it opened as a children's hospital; later, throughout the Soviet period, medical institutions were housed here, and as of 2026 City Polyclinic No. 13 operates in the building. Therefore, the facade can be read not as the shell of a long-vanished institution, but as the outer layer of a building that for more than a century has barely changed its primary purpose. The original interiors have survived only fragmentarily, so it is the exterior details that take on the role of the main testimony to the past.

What to notice first

On the main facade facing Lev Tolstoy Street, it is worth comparing the strict symmetry with the details that make the medical building almost ceremonial. The central stepped pediment pulls the composition together: it contains a large three-part Venetian window, pilasters, stucco bas-reliefs with angels, and two small octagonal windows at the edges. Below, rusticated pilasters extend across two floors and emphasize the center of the facade, while the keystones above the first-floor windows add a classical accent.

The side risalits with entrances show how the facade organizes movement: each entrance is framed by a portico, and the second-floor windows above them are highlighted with small pediments on decorative brackets. On the Nikitinskaya Street side, the principle is different: the facade is composed of three volumes; the side ones stand on the building line, while the central one is set back. This helps reveal that the building was designed not only for a beautiful frontal view, but also for the handling of the street corner.