Savva Ivanovich Chevakinsky (; 1709 – aft. 1774) was a Russian architect of the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

school. He worked in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and

Tsarskoye Selo Tsarskoye Selo (, , ) was the town containing a former residence of the Russian House of Romanov, imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the center of Saint Petersburg. The residence now forms part of the Pushkin, Saint Peter ...

. Chevakinsky was born into a noble family in the village of Veshki in the Novotorzhsky Uyezd of

Tver Governorate Tver Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 until 1929. Its seat was in Tver. The governorate was lo ...

. In 1729 he entered the

Naval Academy A naval academy provides education for prospective naval officers. List of naval academies See also

* Military academy {{Authority control Naval academies, Naval lists ...

in Saint Petersburg, from whence he was assigned to the Izmaylovsky Life Guards Regiment in 1734. At the request of the

Admiralty Board The Admiralty Board is the body established under the Defence Council of the United Kingdom for the administration of the Naval Service of the United Kingdom. It meets formally only once a year, and the day-to-day running of the Royal Navy is ...

he was discharged for unauthorized absence from the Academy and apprenticed to the architectural company of , under whose direction he worked for seven years. In 1739 Chevakinsky began his independent career. From 1741 to 1767 he was chief architect for the Admiralty Board. From 1745 to 1760 he was an architect at Tsarskoye Selo, supervising the reconstruction of the

Catherine Palace The Catherine Palace (, ) is a Rococo palace in Tsarskoye Selo ( Pushkin), located south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars. The palace is part of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Re ...

and surrounding

Catherine Park The Catherine Park () is the large landscaped area to the south of the Catherine Palace, located in the town of Tsarskoye Selo ( Pushkin), 25 km south-east of St. Petersburg, Russia. The park has two parts: a formal 18th century Dutch-style g ...

. Here Chevakinsky erected two buildings (a church and a hall) connected by galleries to the central part of the palace, erected the (which housed palace officials), and participated in the creation of the . Italianskaya Street 25

Chevakinsky's largest building in Saint Petersburg was the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral (1753–1762) with a separate tiered bell tower (1756–1758). He also rebuilt the

Kunstkamera The Kunstkamera (, derived from German ''Kunstkammer'' lit. "art chamber") formally organized as the Russian Academy of Science's Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (, ''Muzey antropologii i etnografii imeni Petra Velikogo R ...

, the museum of anthropology and ethnography established by

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

. Chevakinsky also designed large private homes. For the Sheremetev family, he built the Fountain House (1750–1755) on the

Fontanka Embankment The Fontanka Embankment () is a street in Saint Petersburg that follows the course of the Fontanka from its origin as it diverges from the Neva River up to its confluence with the Great Neva River, Great Neva. In 1762–1769 the general plan of c ...

, which now houses the

Anna Akhmatova Literary and Memorial Museum The Anna Akhmatova Literary and Memorial Museum is a literary museum in St Petersburg, Russia, dedicated to the poet Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966). It opened in 1989 on the centennial of Akhmatova's birth. The palace The museum is located in the ...

. For the Shuvalov family, he built at the corner of Malaya Sadovaya Street and Italyanskaya Street (1749–1756, rebuilt in the 19th century), which later housed the Imperial Ministry of Justice (1802 to 1917) and is today home to the . Chevakinsky also constructed the Cavalry Houses, a project commissioned by Empress Elizabeth centered on building houses that differentiated Pushkin, Saint Petersburg from the area surrounding the palace. Construction took place between 1752 and 1753. From 1755 to 1758 Chevakinsky was an architect for the Imperial Academy of Sciences. During those years he taught

Vasili Bazhenov Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov (; or 1738 – ) was a Russian neoclassical architect, graphic artist, architectural theorist and educator. Bazhenov and his associates Matvey Kazakov and Ivan Starov were the leading local architects of the Russian En ...

and

Ivan Starov Ivan Yegorovich Starov (; 23 February 1745 – 17 April 1808) was a Russian architect from Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg who devised the master plans for Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Pskov, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, and many other towns in Russia and Ukr ...

. According to some sources, Chevakinsky died between 1774 and 1780; according to other sources, he died in 1783.

External links

Savva Chevakinsky article at Tsarskoe Selo Museum

Savva Chevakinsky article at the ''Tver Caravan''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chevakinsky, Savva People from Tver Oblast Russian Baroque architects Architects from the Russian Empire 1709 births 18th-century deaths Year of death uncertain Naval Cadet Corps alumni