Andrei Stackenschneider

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Andrei Ivanovich Stackenschneider (Андрей Иванович Штакеншнейдер) (1802-1865), also spelled Stuckenschneider, was a Russian architect. His eclectic approach and confidence in period styles shows in ten palaces built to his design in St. Petersburg. He is often credited for turning 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 Mariinsky 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).

His also designed his own mansion at Millionnaya Street in St. Petersburg, just one block from the Hermitage.