In the front yard of the huge Stroganov Palace there is a pair of sphinxes, which are said to be the very first to appear in St. Petersburg. They look more naive and archaic than the Egyptian patriarchs, which is not surprising - these are the works of an unknown Russian sculptor of the late 18th century, who was mastering a new tradition. In 1796, the sphinxes were installed on the pier of the Stroganov country estate on Bolshaya Nevka. At the same time, four sphinxes appeared at the dacha of Chancellor Bezborodko in Polyustrovo (modern Sverdlovskaya Embankment), lost, but recreated according to the Stroganov model in the 1950s. At the beginning of the 20th century, the sphinxes were moved to the former front entrance to the Stroganov Palace.