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Updated 21 July 2008

Architecture

There is a legend that the Cathedral of St. Basil (officially The Cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God, (1554-1560) on Red Square in Moscow was designed by an Italian architect who afterwards was blinded by Ivan the Terrible so he could never create such a beautiful building again. There seems to be little truth in this story, as we know it was designed by one (or maybe two) Russian architects who are recorded as having designed other churches following St. Basil’s Cathedral.

		The root of this legend may lie in the fact that between 1475 and 1510 Italian architects were in fact employed to restore the Kremlin and two of its churches. The walls of the Moscow Kremlin were in fact rebuilt buy this group of Italian architects. It is also a fact that in the XV century an Italian architect was active in Vladimir, also in Russia.


The walls if the Kremlin in Moscow

Not only has the Italian architectural style been extensively used abroad, but very often the very buildings have been planned by Italians. The first example that comes to mind is Saint Petersburg, in Russia, which, though having a German name is full of references to Italy in both its buildings and gardens.

Two of the better-known architects who worked in St. Petersburg were Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771), who emigrated to Russia in 1715 and Carlo di Giovanni Rossi (1775-1849). Rastrelli designed the Winter Palace, in St. Petersburg, and the Catherine Palace, in Tsarskoye Selo. Rossi’s best-known work is the Palace Square, in St. Petersburg. Domenico Trezzini (1670-1734) was from the Swiss-Italian County Ticino and seems to have studied in Rome. He settled in St. Petersburg, where he worked as an architect, designing, among others, the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
	The Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye Tselo

Tsarskoe Selo Ca. 1855, watercolour by Luigi Premazzi

Some of the children and grandchildren of the composer Catterino Cavos (see Music, Cinema and Painting) were architects in Russia. Albert Catterinovich Cavos (1801 - 1863) made the projects for the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and rebuilt the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow, after it had burnt down. Albert's son, Caesar Albertovich Cavos (1824 - 1883), was the architect of the post office and was chairman of the commission for the building of the bridge for Alexander II in St. Petersburg. Catterino's daughter Camilla was the mother of the architect Leon Benois (1856-1928).

The Italian architect Torricelli, was active in Odessa in the late XVIII century.

Also on the Tsarskoye Selo estate is the Alexander Palace, built between 1792 and 1796 by the painter and architect Giacomo Quarenghi (1744-1817). He also was involved in the building of one of the wings of the Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg.

There is in Florence a Russian Orthodox Church, The Church of the Nativity, which is considered as a masterpiece of late XIX and early XX century Russian religious architecture. Another building connected to the Orthodox Church was located on the site and which was later demolished. The new building was began in 1899 and finished in 1903. In 1911, the Russian Emperor issued a decree stating that the temple was to be the official Russian Church of Florence. The architect, Preobrazhensky, was a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts and specialised in religious architecture of the region of Koluga. There are in reality two churches: an upper one: the Church of the Nativity, and a lower one, the Church of St. Nicholas. The Demidov family (see Aristocrats) contributed towards its construction.

The best-known contemporary Italian architect is Renzo Piano (1937), whose work, among others, includes the redevelopment of the Genoa Harbour and of Berlin’s Potzdamerplatz.

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