User:Kmitchell2015/sandbox

Domenico Trezzini
Domenico Trezzini was born in Italian controlled region of Switzerland in 1670. The architects that surrounded him in his youth were responsible for the development of the Baroque style in southern Germany. Trezzini's architectural style has visible influences from this German Baroque style along with the northern style of Baroque architecture that he picked up during his time living in Copenhagen. From 1703 until his death in 1734, Trezzini lived in St. Petersburg during the rule of Peter I. Trezzini began many of the building projects that formed the basis of the city. Due to the many projects that Trezzini worked on, he was given the title of "Lieutenant-Colonel of Fortification and Architect" in 1710.

Some of Trezzini's major additions to the city include: Peter I's Summer Palace, the Alexander-Nevskii Monastery, the Twelve Colleges, and the Peter-Paul Church. Trezzini and his team designed the layout of the developing St. Petersburg including the streets of the anticipated city center of Vasilevskii Island. The layout of the city was arranged in a grid format with perpendicular streets and canals. Trezzini's design of the city did not follow the European ideal at the time because of its lack of compactness and grid organization rather than the traditional ringed layout. In 1714, Peter I declared that all houses in St. Petersburg should be constructed after Trezzini's model home. Different versions of the home were created for different classes of citizens based on their rank. Peter classified all citizens into 14 different classes, all of which had different residential areas in Trezzini plan. The size of the citizen's home directly corresponded to their standing in this social ranking. Several engravings of the model homes exist and while they are often accredited to Trezzini himself, his assistant Le Blond is responsible for creating them. These plans dictated the ornamentation style of the homes and the materials that they would be built with belonging to each class of citizens. In the city center proper, these guidelines were adhered to strictly. On the outskirts of town, there was a little bit more flexibility with the design of homes. Despite the effort put into maintaining a regulated city design, after Peter's death, the system that Trezzini designed fell to the wayside.

Trezzini established the St. Petersburg Chancellery of Construction and became its first director. This school was the first institution to offer formal training for architects in Russia. Among those who trained at the Chancellery was Mikhail Zemtsov who continued Trezzini's legacy.


 * Giovanni Maria Fontana
 * Andreas Schlüter
 * Gottfried Schädel
 * Mikhail Zemtsov