This old building at Zhukovsky Street, 53 in St. Petersburg is known to many as the "House of the Sad Angel." The facade of the building features a winged girl with a halo, which is how it got its name. According to legend, the daughter of the owner, merchant Panteleimon Badaev, jumped out of the window of this house, and in her memory, he allegedly ordered the installation of this bas-relief. However, this is just a myth, as Badaev had no daughter, and the angel is not an angel at all.

The story unfolded as follows. In 1904, Panteleimon Badaev purchased a plot on Zhukovsky and planned to build a tenement house, commissioning the project from architect Semyon Kirillov. The architect envisioned the building in the Art Nouveau style with elements of eclecticism but did not manage to complete the project due to his untimely death. The owners had to look for another architect, and the choice fell on Georgy Kosiakov, a graduate of the Imperial Academy of Arts. The idea to decorate the house with original bas-reliefs came to Kosiakov after a trip to Italy, where he saw the villa of Pope Pius IV with an image of the goddess Aurora and a solar disc above her head. This bas-relief inspired him to create unusual elements for the house.

As a result, much was done in the antique style. The Sad Angel is actually Aurora, and the halo is a zodiac circle symbolizing the continuity of life. On the other side of the building, Kosiakov depicted Helios, thistle, and a sunflower that turns towards the sun god. Unfortunately, much of this was lost when a bomb fell on the house in 1941, severely damaging it.

Until the 1970s, residents ascended to the upper floors using an old oak elevator, which was later replaced with a metal one. In the 1990s, the building became a refuge for drug addicts, alcoholics, and the homeless. It was said that prostitutes from the Moscow Railway Station worked here.