Another Vasilievsky Island gem, the Forostovsky Mansion was built in 1900-1901 by the famous architect Carl Schmidt for merchant Pavel Forostovsky. It is one of the city’s first buildings designed in the Art Nouveau style. There was a conservatory with a glazed roof in the right-side single-story part of the building. The artificial stone reliefs and on the building's stained glass windows display whimsical plant-inspired motifs. Architecture enthusiasts will undoubtedly see similarities with French and Belgian Art Nouveau thanks to the light-colored granite facing tiles from Europe and the forms of the window entablatures and arches. This mansion is widely recognized as one of Carl Schmidt’s finest works. During the Soviet times the mansion housed a children’s hospital. Today, it is used as a government office.
