13 Facts About Matvey Kazakov

Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov was a Russian Neoclassical architect.

Matvey Kazakov's father was a government clerk and a former serf who earned his freedom by serving in the Navy.

When Matvey Kazakov was twelve years old, he joined the architectural school of Dmitry Ukhtomsky, where he worked and studied until 1760.

In 1768, Matvey Kazakov joined Vasili Bazhenov's Great Kremlin Palace project.

Matvey Kazakov stepped out of Bazhenov's shadow, receiving his first personal royal commission to design a temporary Prechistenka palace for Catherine II.

Matvey Kazakov's legacy remains in public buildings, country palaces and churches.

The descriptor of "Gothic" is not exactly appropriate here, since Matvey Kazakov borrows heavily from Naryshkin Baroque and earlier Russian themes like the oversized bottle-shaped pillars by the main entrance.

Blank was demoted in 1779, and Matvey Kazakov took the lead.

Matvey Kazakov envisaged the Governing Senate as the Temple of Law.

Pavlovskaya Hospital is the only work of Matvey Kazakov's that has remained unaltered over two centuries.

In 1802, Matvey Kazakov started to rebuild the main building in the strict Neoclassicist style; side buildings were added by Giliardi in the 1820s.

Matvey Kazakov died at Ryazan on October 26,1812 and was buried in Ryazan's Trinity Monastery.

Pavel and Vasily died young; Matvey Kazakov survived his father and died at age 39.