"Keeper of ancient behests". Presidential Library’s materials illustrate architect Carlo Rossi

December 29, 2020 marks the 245th anniversary of the birth of Carlo Rossi (1775-1849), an outstanding architect, one of the creators of the classic look of St. Petersburg. The collection of the Presidential Library contains a variety of materials dedicated to his life and career: digital copies of historical documents, images of the architect's architectural masterpieces made at different times, and much more.

The artist, restorer, art critic Igor Grabar in his History of Russian Art describes the reign of Alexander I, during which Carlo Rossi's talent manifested itself: “Having happily ended all the wars <...> the Emperor wanted to indulge in some of his favorite peaceful pursuits. He wanted to make Petersburg more beautiful than all the capitals of Europe he visited”.

Carlo Rossi, a student of the architect Vincenzo Brenna, was promoted to architect in 1806 and initially served on the Expedition of the Kremlin Building. His talent, impeccable sense of style and diligence were noticed. Then Rossi was sent to the newly formed Committee of Structures and Hydraulic Works, chaired by the military engineer Augustine de Bettencourt. The task of the department was "exclusively the artistic side of the city ... in order to give regular St. Petersburg an even more uniform and at the same time austere look", - writes Igor Grabar in the History of Russian Art.

Finally, there was a serious order: Rossi was entrusted with the project of rebuilding the Yelagin Palace for the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna - largely thanks to a letter of recommendation from the sister of Alexander I, Ekaterina Pavlovna, for whom he built a traveling palace in Tver. The Presidential Library’s portal features the inventory of the Tver Travel Palace case, which contains three building plans.

During the construction of the Mikhailovsky Palace, Rossi for the first time did not reconstruct someone's building, did not redraw someone else's project - it was a matter of honor for him to establish his own style. Large-scale construction in the very center of St. Petersburg took six years; In order to enter the palace from the Catherine Canal to the Fontanka, the architect built another street, Inzhenernaya. In the garden of the palace, Rossi built a pavilion with a facade facing the Moika. He was rushed to complete the construction - but Rossi was not inclined to compromise his professional principles and wrote angry letters in response, for example, he stood up for painters who were instructed to paint the ceilings in all the halls of the palace in an obviously unrealistic time frame.

It was Rossi who was commissioned by the emperor to build the General Staff building on Palace Square. The task was not easy - the dominant feature of the square was to remain the Winter Palace, Rastrelli's masterpiece. And then, according to History of Russian Art, Rossi “took the simplest solution - the correct semicircle for the square with a monumental arch cut in the center for the passage to Morskaya Street. Here, in the solution of this arch, Russia has shown itself to be that genius of architecture who needs to build not houses, but streets and cities". 

When Carlo Rossi was commissioned in 1828 to erect the building of the Alexandrinsky Theater, he was simultaneously implementing a grandiose project for the development of the Teatralnaya Street (now the Architect Rossi) and the Chernysheva Square (Lomonosov Square).

Almost simultaneously with the creation of the Alexandrinsky Theater, the elderly Rossi took up the project of the buildings of the Senate and the Synod. This is again almost a whole block with a colossal arch that opens the passage to the Galernaya Street.

Today, the historical building of the Synod houses the Presidential Library. On the ground floor, visitors are greeted with a portrait of the architect. Here one can also learn about the project of the facade of the buildings of the Holy Synod and the Governing Senate, approved on July 5, 1832.

In the same year, 1832, Rossi, completely ill and prematurely aged, asked to resign. From then until his death in April 1849, the architect no longer built anything.

“With the death of the last great architect of Europe, Carlo Rossi, the last fanatic of the classical idea, a true keeper of the ancient behests, went to the grave”, - concludes Igor Grabar in History of Russian Art.