Domenico Trezzini (; – 1734) was an Italian Swiss

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who elaborated the Petrine Baroque style of

Russian architecture The architecture of Russia refers to the architecture of modern Russia as well as the architecture of both the original Kievan Rus', the Russian principalities, and Imperial Russia. Due to the geographical size of modern and Imperial Russia, i ...

Biography

Domenico was born in Astano, Landvogtei of Lugano (at that time a condominium of the Old Swiss Confederacy), in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

-speaking

Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...

. He probably studied in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Subsequently, as he was working in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, he was offered by

Peter I of Russia Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. From this year, ...

, among other

architects An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, to design buildings in the new

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n capital city, St. Petersburg. From 1703, when the city was founded, he substantially contributed to its most representative buildings. The

Peter and Paul Fortress The Peter and Paul Fortress () is the original citadel of Saint Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early ...

with the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the

Twelve Collegia The Twelve Collegia or Twelve Colleges () is the largest Petrine Baroque, edifice from the Petrine era remaining in Saint Petersburg. It was designed by Domenico Trezzini and Theodor Schwertfeger and built from 1722 to 1744.300 years of Saint Pe ...

Building (now the main building of Saint Petersburg University) as well as Peter's Summer House count among his many achievements. He also helped found and design

Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...

and the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Perhaps he participated in the construction of the main attraction in the south of the Moscow region,

Znamenskaya Church in Dubrovitsy The Church of the Theotokos of the Sign (Dubrovitsy), or The Church of the Holy Sign of the Mother of God in Dubrovitsy, () is a Russian Orthodox church in the village of Dubrovitsy, Podolsk Urban Okrug, Moscow Oblast, Russia. Dubrovitsy is lo ...

, built in 1704 by boyar Boris Alexeyevich Golitsyn. Domenico Trezzini was very important for another aspect of Russian architectural history: in founding a school based on the European model, he laid the foundations for the development of the Petrine Baroque. As a testimony of the cordial relationship that linked Domenico Trezzini with the

tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

, his son Pietro (who also became a noted architect, not to be confused with Pietro Antonio Trezzini) had

himself as a godfather.

References

External links

Domenico Trezzini
at SwissWorld.org (archived 9 May 2012) {{DEFAULTSORT:Trezzini, Domenico 1670 births 1734 deaths Russian Baroque architects Italian Baroque architects Architects from Ticino 18th century in Saint Petersburg 17th-century Swiss artists 18th-century architects from the Russian Empire * 18th-century Swiss architects