14 Facts About Adam Menelaws

Adam Menelaws was an architect and landscape designer of Scottish origin, active in the Russian Empire from 1784 to 1831.

Except for this final, properly evidenced, stage, life story of Adam Menelaws remains scarcely documented and has been reconstructed by biographers based on sketchy archive data and circumstantial evidence; Menelaws still "belongs to the category of almost unknown".

In 1803 Adam Menelaws asserted that he hails from a noble English family, but Russian authorities refused to honour his claim.

Adam Menelaws signed for a three-year contract to build the Cold Baths near Saint Petersburg, agreeing to train a class of Russian craftsmen.

Apparently the number of Scottish professionals was too big for Cameron, and one year later Adam Menelaws left him and joined the service of Nikolay Lvov.

In 1786 Adam Menelaws found commercial-grade coal near Borovichi; by 1790 the coal research team increased to 10 professionals.

Adam Menelaws married Elizabeth Cave in 1792; the ceremony was attended by Lvov, Alexey Olenin and numerous members of the English and Scottish diaspora.

In 1795 Adam Menelaws began gradually separating from Lvov's service after the construction of the Saint Joseph cathedral in Mahilyow, but the two remained in contact until Lvov's sudden death in 1803.

Meanwhile, Adam Menelaws remained a Russian state servant of a small rank since his arrival.

Adam Menelaws was instrumental in operations of the Maryino school established by the Golitsyns in 1819, teaching the peasants the craft of cob construction.

The new plan proposed by Adam Menelaws created an illusion of a completely novel design, yet carefully preserved the structure of a regular park shaped in the previous century; according to Lvov, Adam Menelaws "merged the art of Kent and Le Notre".

Adam Menelaws designed and built 12 structures, including the Egyptian Gates and three park pavilions: the large Arsenal built on the site of Mon Bijou built by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1750s, the White Tower, a house for the young Grand Dukes and the Chapel, a folly providing living quarter to the palace chaplain.

The work started with landscaping the territory and digging two large artificial pools; after Alexander's death, Nicholas commissioned Adam Menelaws to build his summer residence, the asymmetrical Cottage.

Adam Menelaws died in Saint Petersburg during the cholera epidemic of 1831.