“[The] Abaza Mansion was built in 1790. In the 1870s and ’80s, the building saw musical evenings held by Abaza’s wife, singer Yulia Abaza, during one of which Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s opera Yevgeny Onegin was premiered.” In 2007, the building was handed to a developer who wants to build a hotel on the site; a campaign to save the mansion has now begun.