Andrei Stackenschneider

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andrei Ivanovich Stackenschneider (Андрей Иванович Штакеншнейдер) (1802-1865), also spelled Stuckenschneider, was a Russian architect who is credited with having turned Russian architecture from Neoclassicism to Romanticism.

Born into a prosperous family, Stackensneider was trained at the Imperial Academy of Arts, helping Auguste de Montferrand to supervise the construction of Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Stylistically he was a revivalist, using Greek, Renaissance, Baroque, and Gothic for his inspiration. His first independent work was a Neo-Gothic castle at Keila-Joa, a residence of Count Alexander von Benckendorff near Tallinn.

In the late 1830s, Snackensneider emerged as the chief court architect of Nicholas I of Russia. For this monarch and his children he designed the Marie Palace (1839-44), Nicholas Palace (1853-61), New Michael Palace (1857-61), as well as the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace (1846-48) for Princess Kochubey. In Peterhof he was responsible for the Farm Palace (1838-55), the Belvedere Palace (1853-56), and numerous garden pavilions.

Shtakenschneider overhauled some interiors of the Winter Palace and applied the Greek Revival idioms to the imperial palace in Oreanda, Crimea (1842-52, burnt 1882).