User:RefBug/Chevakinsky

Savva I. Chevakinsky (1709 - 1774 to 1780)

Originated from an impoverished ancient noble ancestry. Was at first sent to Moscow to a school of navigational sciences, and in 1729 to the Maritime Academy in St. Petersburg. In 1732 was a pupil of N. K. Korobow - architect of St. Petersburg Board of Admiralty. From 1739 was officially installed in the position of assistant apothecary [druggist] in the Admiralty administration. In 1745 architect in the rank of major. In the same year was installed by the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna [more commonly known as Empress Elizabeth, and was Peter The Great’s daughter] as architect of Tzarskoe Selo [“Tsar’s Village”, was the Tsar’s private estate, and now a suburb of St. Petersburg]. From 1755 to 1757 was also appointed as architect of the Academy of Sciences, where he was in charge of the architecture class. Among the students of Savva Chevakinsky were V. I. Bazhenov, I. E. Starov and others. In 1767 Chevakinsky retired and left for his estate in Novotorzhsk in the province of Tver. Thirty five years of continuous labor did not result in a comfortable retirement for the architect. He was in need and approached the Board of Admiralty with a request for reimbursement for his works which benefited the government, but were not paid for. The board procrastinated its decision and in 1774 S. Chevakinsky was obliged to sell part of his estate. It is not known exactly when the talented, forgotten by all, architect departed from this life. Researches approximate it to have happened between the years of 1774 and 1780. The greatest, after F. B. Rastrelli, representative of Elizabethan Baroque [style]. Principal works in St. Petersburg; St. Nicholas Maritime Cathedral, construction of the palace of Count I. I. Shuvalov on Italian Street, the palace of Count Sherementiev on the Fontanka (together with F. S. Argunov), reconstruction of the Kunstkamera after the fire, and also the lumber depot/warehouses “New Holland” (with the cooperation of Valen-Delamot and I. K. Gerand). On May 5, 1745 Savva Chevakinsky was appointed to Tzarskose Selo instead of Giuseppi Trezini in charge of construction work of the Great (Catherine) Palace, which was undergoing according to the project/plan of assistant architect Andrei Vasilevich Kvasov. In this role S. Chevakinsky was not only the manager but also the author of projects. Into the plans of Andei Kvasov he brought numerous significant alterations. By the winter of 1749/50 the finishing touches/decoration of the interior and church, which S. Chevakinsky joined to the palace, was almost completed. By 1751 the work on the facades of the Great [Catherine] Palace were completed. Later the palace was remodeled according to the plan of Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. In 1749-1750 the relationship between F. B. Rastrelli and S. Chevakinsky became one of close creative partnership, which involved the new reconstruction of the Great [Catherine] Palace. It was carried out hand in hand by F. B. Rastrelli and S. Chevakinsky, in whom he had a dependable assistant/helpmate to the very completion of the work in 1756. In 1746 the construction of the Stone Hall was began, according to the plan of S. Chevakinsky, on the island of the Big Pond in the Catherine Park. This hall did not retain its original appearance. In 1794 it was remodeled by Jacomo Quarengi. In the Alexander Park, according to the plan of S. Chevakinsky (1747) the Baroque pavilion Mon Bejou, or “Stone House in the Zoo”, as it was called in the 18th century, was built. To this work of his the architect attached great significance. F. B. Rastrelli participated in the completion of the project. The final construction and decorative work was completed in 1754. In the beginning of the 19th century the pavilion was remodeled by Adam Menelaus in the Gothic stile and was named “The Arsenal”.