Silvio Danini, architect of the Tsarskoe Selo palace administration
I read the book by V. Bertazzoni “The Fate of the Mantuan family of Danini in Russia.” - St. Petersburg, 1996. Most of the book by the Italian publicist, poet and translator is dedicated to Ambrogio Danini, a native of Mantua, a famous opera singer of the 19th century. Ambrogio interested me because he was the father of Silvio Danini, the last architect of Tsarskoe Selo. This post is an attempt to briefly talk about his fate, based on the knowledge gleaned from this book.
Silvio Danini was born in Kharkov in 1867, when his father was 60 years old. Left an orphan at the age of five, he and his family moved to Poltava, and then in 1886 he went to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts. Upon completion, Danini is awarded the title of “Class Artist of the 1st degree”. The first order - he helps the architect Alexander Krasovsky rebuild the north-west wing Winter Palace for the future Emperor Nicholas II - opens up the path to a brilliant career for the young architect. In 1892, he was invited to rebuild the Znamenskaya Church in Tsarskoe Selo.
In 1893, Silvio married Vera Stukenberg from a Lutheran family. They had four children. In 1894, under the leadership of Danini, the restoration of St. Catherine's Cathedral was carried out. This work was highly appreciated by the emperor - and in 1896 Danini was invited to take the position of architect at the Imperial Palace Administration of Tsarskoye Selo, a suburban summer residence Russian autocrats. During Danini’s time, the city’s population was about 30 thousand people; in the summer it increased by 7 thousand people. There were 20 Orthodox churches, as well as Catholic, Lutheran churches, synagogues; 5 pharmacies, two public baths, three banks, three libraries, 15 charitable institutions; five Imperial Guard regiments; eight medical institutions; 20 schools and institutes; two printing houses, a cinema, a hotel, restaurants. In the 90s of the last century, the first water towers, the first water pumps, the first power stations appeared in Tsarskoye Selo, and in 1917 - a powerful government radio station. In a word, all the best that exists in Russia at that time is concentrated here. In 1905, the imperial family made the Alexander Palace their permanent residence.
The trace of Danini's twenty-five years of fruitful activity (1896-1917) still remains in Pushkin's architecture a hundred years later, despite the destruction caused by the war. The architect's style is very easily recognizable: almost all of his buildings are faced with brick. He belongs to the trend of rationalist architects, who, in addition to the aesthetic aspect, were concerned with the functional, technical, and utilitarian side of the matter.
Danini's first work as chief architect was the building of the city power plant (corner of Tserkovnaya and Malaya streets), built in the Anglo-Gothic style.
This power plant, together with the one located in the Singing Tower, also rebuilt by Danini, completely supplied the city with electricity. In 1899, the architect completed the Church of St. Julian of Tarski, begun by the architect Kuritsyn. Together with Ioss, he is implementing the project of the Real School (now School No. 500), which completed the prospect of the Moscow Highway. In 1904, Danini designed the building of the School of Nannies - the first institution of its kind in Russia. Now this building is occupied by school No. 409 at the address: Krasnoselskoye Shosse, building 9. In addition to government work, the architect carries out private orders. Among the latter, at least two mansions should be mentioned - for the multimillionaire V. Gudovich and the wealthy merchant A. Kokorev - respectively, the addresses: Parkovaya Street, building 18; Moskovskaya street, house 55.
For Kokorev’s mansion, Danini uses his favorite material, light brick, and uses goic motifs to decorate the facades, and also erects a “fortress wall” in the same style - a fence separating the estate from the street.
The interiors of the mansion were a combination of volumes of different heights, reflecting the whims of the customer.
For a long time, inside the building there was a dormitory for the Agrarian University, but since the university is going through difficult times, the building has now been sold. It is assumed that various offices will be located here. Immediately at the entrance there is a marble floor with this inscription, a marble staircase.
An original staircase leads to the second floor. At one time, the walls in the mansion were decorated with expensive imported types of wood, covered with silk, ceramic panels, and frescoes.
The main works of 1907 included the building of the Tsarskoye Selo Red Cross community. The Red Cross community was under the patronage of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The building is in the style of English cottages - wooden, two floors, with a sparse façade decoration, decorated with an asymmetrically located hipped turret. Now this building is occupied by organizations, in particular "Reef". The condition is good, the landlords take care. Address: Leontyevskaya, 33.
In subsequent years, Danini built another building for the Red Cross community (at Leontyevskaya, 35) - now made of stone - intended for an outpatient clinic and almshouse. A church is also built there, which was consecrated in 1914 in the presence of the imperial family. In 1914-1917 the complex was used as an officers' hospital. IN Soviet time - children's sanatorium"Friendship". Now there is a church and something else incomprehensible. Let's go around it.
The first photo shows the building from behind. On the second there is a fresco under the cornice (view from the street).
The mother and child home was built by Danini in 1907. He could receive 25 needy women for free. The establishment was built and maintained with money bequeathed by the honorary citizen of Tsarskoe Selo Drozhzhin and his widow. It was equipped with the most modern equipment. Nowadays, passing through the gate overlooking Pavlovskoye Highway - house 14 - we find ourselves in a large overgrown garden in which a tuberculosis hospital is located.
Pavlovskoe highway, house 28. I’m confused with this house and the next one. Based on the book: Architecture of wooden houses. Sos. Gruzdeva A.G., Semenova G.V. - St. Petersburg, 2006. - this rather nondescript house belongs to Danini - as his personal dacha, built according to his design. The same information is given in the book: Historical buildings St. Petersburg. A great number of newly identified objects of historical, scientific, artistic or other value. -St. Petersburg, 2001: Sverchkov’s dacha is houses 30 and 32, and Danini’s dacha is house 28. And according to Bertazzoni’s book, Danini’s dacha is Pavlovskoe Highway, house 32. And you don’t know who to believe - you need to figure it out further. On the other hand: houses 28 and 30 are located on the same site, and house 30 is the Sverchkov dacha of the architect Kolb, about whom I wrote a previous post. (see polinadorofeeva.livejournal.com/11244.ht ml)
In any case, the building at 32 Pavlovskoe Highway was rebuilt by Danini.
Architect with children: Virginia, Valentino and Oreste. After the revolution of 1917, workers who respected Danini helped him with food and protected him in every possible way. In 1923, he moved with his family to St. Petersburg: to Fontanka, 102. In the 30s, he designed locks and dams along the Svir River. Until the last years of his life, Danini maintained an amazing capacity for work, vigor of mind and - even in the most dramatic moments - great fortitude. Danini died in Leningrad on January 11, 1942 during the siege. His wife, who lived with him for 48 happy years, and her daughter managed to get out of hungry Leningrad on foot on ice Lake Ladoga.
To this day, the descendants of Silvio Danini live in St. Petersburg.
On April 25, the exhibition “Silvio Danini. Architect. Artist. Builder". It is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the last court architect of the Romanov dynasty.
The exhibition features more than 50 items from the Danini family collection. Among them are a card table, an armchair, writing instruments, as well as photographs taken by the architect, and a mandolin that belonged to the architect. The family was musical: Danini’s sons played the piano, their father played the mandolin; in the evenings they organized concerts - often in the presence of friends and relatives.
A rare exhibit is a Red Cross badge. Silvio Danini received the right to wear it on November 14, 1914. This award has been given since 1899 to “those who have especially worked for the benefit of the Community.”
From the collection of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve, Danini’s building projects are presented, reflecting the main periods of the architect’s work. The most significant are the drawings of the House of the Tsarskoe Selo community of nurses of the Red Cross. In addition, there is a chair designed by the architect, which comes from the suite of the Semicircular Hall of the Alexander Palace. The item was made at the furniture factory of Fyodor Meltzer, whose craftsmen created most of the furniture in the Alexander Palace in the 1900s. Of the two proposed options, the realized sketch of the chair was approved by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
Silvio Ambrosievich Danini (1867–1942) fell to become the last court architect of the Romanovs, who made a great contribution to the development and preservation of Tsarskoye Selo. Danini lived and worked in the era of historicism: fulfilling the wishes of customers, the master continued to work in different historical styles, but under the influence of new trends he paid great attention to the rationalistic foundations of his buildings.
Since 1896, Danini has held the position of architect at the Palace Administration of Tsarskoe Selo. During this period, he designed the Palace Power Plant, as well as the wrought iron gates at the entrance to the park to the Alexander Palace (which remain to this day). Participates in the remodeling of the right wing of the Alexander Palace, where the personal apartments of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna were arranged. According to Danini's design, this wing was connected to the Kitchen wing of the palace by an underground tunnel.
Danini built and rebuilt a lot in different areas of Tsarskoe Selo on private orders. His buildings include such buildings as the Demidovo-Shelkovskaya almshouse (1902–1904), the School of Nannies (1904), the buildings of the House of Charity for Crippled Warriors (1906, 1916), Charitable institutions of D.A. and M.A. Drozhzhinykh (1905–1916), buildings of the Community of Red Cross Sisters (1907–1908, 1914), Palace Hospital, Acutely Infectious Pavilion (1911–1913), estate of A.V. Kokoreva (1902).
In 1917, the Palace Administration was renamed the Administration of Children's Village Art Property of the Republic. Danini worked here until January 1919, and then, due to staff reductions, he was transferred as a research assistant to the Gatchina Palace Museum.
In 1923–1938, Danini worked in various positions at Petrotok (later Elektrotok, then at Lenenergo). In Petrograd, later Leningrad, Danini worked as an engineer laying heating networks, as an architect for power plants on Svir, participated in the construction of Podporozhye, and in designing interiors for the House of Soviets on Moskovsky Prospekt in Leningrad.
The last court architect of the Russian emperor died in besieged Leningrad on January 11, 1942 at the age of 74 in complete obscurity.
Silvio Danini
Tsarskoye Selo. School of nannies. 1903–1905
Tsarskoye Selo. A house of charity for crippled warriors. 1906–1906
Congratulations to experts and connoisseurs of the history of Russian architecture on the publication of A. V. Kozlov’s book “Silvio Danini - Architect of Tsarskoe Selo. Materials for a creative biography." The publication represents the most complete collection of information to date about the Danini family, the service of the architect himself, and his work in Tsarskoe Selo and St. Petersburg. The story is complemented by a rich illustrative series - photographs from family archive, architectural graphics from the collections of major museum and archival institutions in St. Petersburg. The book was published with the support of the Committee for Press and Interaction with Mass Media of the Administration of St. Petersburg. We express our deep gratitude to all institutions and all individuals who contributed to this publication. The essay by the famous architectural historian B. M. Kirikov, complementing the biographical narrative, analyzes the features of the style of Silvio Danini.
In the year of the three hundredth anniversary of Tsarskoe Selo, it is especially appropriate to remember the name of the master who made a significant contribution to the formation of the architectural appearance of the city - the former summer residence of the last emperor.
The book represents the experience of a creative biography of Silvio Amvrosievich Danini (1867–1942), a Russian architect of Italian origin. Having graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1893, after several years of work as an assistant to the architect Academician A.F. Krasovsky, he was appointed to the position of architect of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Administration (from 1904 - architect of the Supreme Court), in which position he remained from 1896 th to 1917.
During this time, Danini built about 40 public and private buildings in Tsarskoye Selo and St. Petersburg - charitable and medical institutions, industrial buildings, churches, dachas, participated in the creation of interiors in the Alexander Palace, etc.
During the last anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo, S. A. Danini was responsible for holding the All-Russian Anniversary Exhibition of 1911. By this time, under his leadership, restoration repairs of many historical buildings in the parks were carried out.
Today, the architect’s huge archive - architectural graphics and photographs - is partly stored in the family of his descendants, and partly in state storage facilities: in the archive State Museum-reserve "Tsarskoe Selo", in the funds of the State Museum of History of St. Petersburg, the Scientific Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts (NIMRAKH). Design drawings of Danini's buildings in St. Petersburg were collected at the Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg. Plans for some buildings of the Palace Administration are also presented in the RGIA.
The author sees the goals of his work as “systematizing all the materials known to him about the biography of the architect Silvio Danini, as well as the publication of the most significant graphic and photographic documents from the architect’s archive and state archives ‹…› The experience of describing (cataloging) this material will finally introduce it into scientific circulation , will introduce it to professional researchers - historians, restorers, art historians, as well as amateur local historians, everyone who is interested and dear to the architectural originality of Tsarskoe Selo and St. Petersburg.”
In two weeks the centenary of the assassination of Nicholas II and his family will be celebrated. Nobody promises cultural events on a national scale dedicated to the date (at least not yet), but museum projects related to it are already appearing. Thus, the Shchusev Museum of Architecture opened the exhibition “Architect Silvio Danini - the last court architect” in the “Apothecary Prikaz”. I studied the architectural tastes of the autocrat Sergei Khodnev.
The phrase “court architect of Nicholas II” does not sound deafening. Partly the point is that the ancient situation, when an architect creates an architectural face, a representative facade of a particular reign - the situation of Elizabeth Petrovna and Rastrelli, Catherine II and Quarenghi or Nicholas I and Konstantin Ton - has noticeably lost its relevance. But still, it was not lost everywhere and not always: even the old Kaiser Franz Joseph, even with a wince, gave official orders to Otto Wagner; and in our post-revolutionary state of workers and peasants, an architectural figure has become a very necessary thing, and, you see, “Stalin’s court architect” is already quite eloquent.
There were, of course, Shchusev and Shekhtel, Pomerantsev and Lidval, but they never became “architects of the highest court” - but Danini did. By and large, what comes to mind first when talking about the architectural tastes of the last imperial couple is the Feodorovsky town in Tsarskoe Selo, an intoxicated reconstruction game of pre-Petrine antiquity. Silvio Danini, who took up his court post in 1911, also worked in Tsarskoe Selo. But this, as it turns out, was a completely different architecture and a different game.
His first works for august customers were not about facades at all: literally in the last months of the reign of Alexander III, he furnished chambers in the Winter Palace for the then Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich (some of these interior projects are on display). Nikolai and the Russified Italian Danini were the same age - in 1918 they both turned fifty. Only Danini miraculously survived in the Council of Deputies and even worked in his profession (he managed, in particular, to work for the Leningrad House of Soviets: interiors again), but disappeared during the blockade. With the future emperor he apparently found mutual language; he called Danini “our architect” and from the moment of his accession appointed him to the Tsarskoye Selo palace administration.
First of all, Tsarskoye Selo Danini is very practical things. Partly decorative: a sketch of a balcony, a sketch of curtains, a sketch of chairs in the style of Louis Seize (this architect rebuilt the Alexander Palace, trying to act in the spirit of his compatriot Quarenghi). Some are functional: here is the imperial garage, here is an elegant building in Gothic style - a power plant, by the way, and here is the underground corridor between the palace and the kitchen wing, drawn as carefully as a subway tunnel.
But then other private orders appeared, and the imperial family began to establish or rebuild charitable institutions in the same Tsarskoe Selo - and these orders became more and more numerous: the war began. And Danini designs a new Palace Hospital, an Institute of Experimental Surgery, a House of Care for Crippled Warriors - and also a Mother and Baby House, and also a school for nannies.
Neat facades, well-mannered red-brick decor, multi-gable roofs, a few turrets and half-timbering, but very moderately, very symmetrically, so as not to give the impression of excessive elegance. All this doesn’t really look like some special version of northern modernity: too measured, too ordinary. The crowned customers accepted this as an Anglo-Saxon style - and were quite pleased with it: after all, the Windsors, aka the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family, were relatives, and in the home circle of the last king they really valued “Englishness” as disciplined simplicity.
If the exhibition had been limited to this, it would have been a generally understandable story about the mutual love of the autocrat and his architect for modesty, gentlemanliness, charity, neatness and gemut. But the central exhibit stands out from this story with its unbridled aestheticism - even though this is not an epoch-making project, the “cave” church of the Palace Hospital. However, they decided to consecrate the church in honor of Saints Constantine and Helen, timing this event not with anything, but with the 1600th anniversary of the Edict of Milan by this very saint. Constantine, who legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire. And therefore the temple had to look in the early Christian spirit.
Having duly studied the Ravenna capitals, early Byzantine mosaics and catacomb art, Danini ended up creating one of the most amazing church interiors of the early twentieth century. There is no iconostasis - only two white marble pillars with local icons and a low barrier, on the walls - “catacomb” doves, palm trees, lambs and vials, bronze candlesticks - like antique tripods (some of the lamps have been preserved and are now on display at the exhibition). Yes, of course, this is an honest exercise in artistic erudition - but also an echo of the symbolist parachurch quests of the times of the Religious and Philosophical Meetings, and even something like a proclamation of church reforms: in the temple there were two symbolic thrones, the “chair of the emperor” and the “chair of the patriarch” (and not the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod). This could become a programmatic, milestone and, in any case, noticeable work for the religious art of our Art Nouveau. But it turned out to be a hidden candle - more precisely, a cave under the palace hospital.
I read the book by V. Bertazzoni “The Fate of the Mantuan family of Danini in Russia.” - St. Petersburg, 1996. Most of the book by the Italian publicist, poet and translator is dedicated to Ambrogio Danini, a native of Mantua, a famous opera singer of the 19th century. Ambrogio interested me because he was the father of Silvio Danini, the last architect of Tsarskoe Selo. This post is an attempt to briefly talk about his fate, based on the knowledge gleaned from this book.
Silvio Danini was born in Kharkov in 1867, when his father was 60 years old. Left an orphan at the age of five, he and his family moved to Poltava, and then in 1886 he went to St. Petersburg and entered the Academy of Arts. Upon completion, Danini is awarded the title of “Class Artist of the 1st degree”. The first order - he helps the architect Alexander Krasovsky rebuild the north-western wing of the Winter Palace for the future Emperor Nicholas II - opens up the path to a brilliant career for the young architect. In 1892, he was invited to rebuild the Znamenskaya Church in Tsarskoe Selo.
In 1893, Silvio married Vera Stukenberg from a Lutheran family. They had four children. In 1894, under the leadership of Danini, the restoration of St. Catherine's Cathedral was carried out. This work was highly appreciated by the emperor - and in 1896 Danini was invited to take the position of architect at the Imperial Palace Administration of Tsarskoe Selo, the suburban summer residence of the Russian autocrats. During Danini’s time, the city’s population was about 30 thousand people; in the summer it increased by 7 thousand people. There were 20 Orthodox churches, as well as a Catholic, Lutheran church, and a synagogue; 5 pharmacies, two public baths, three banks, three libraries, 15 charitable institutions; five Imperial Guard regiments; eight medical institutions; 20 schools and institutes; two printing houses, a cinema, a hotel, restaurants. In the 90s of the last century, the first water towers, the first water pumps, the first power stations appeared in Tsarskoe Selo, and in 1917 - a powerful government radio station. In a word, all the best that exists in Russia at that time is concentrated here. In 1905, the imperial family made the Alexander Palace their permanent residence.
The trace of Danini's twenty-five years of fruitful activity (1896-1917) still remains in Pushkin's architecture a hundred years later, despite the destruction caused by the war. The architect's style is very easily recognizable: almost all of his buildings are faced with brick. He belongs to the trend of rationalist architects, who, in addition to the aesthetic aspect, were concerned with the functional, technical, and utilitarian side of the matter.
Danini's first work as chief architect was the building of the city power plant (corner of Tserkovnaya and Malaya streets), built in the Anglo-Gothic style.
This power plant, together with the one located in the Singing Tower, also rebuilt by Danini, completely supplied the city with electricity. In 1899, the architect completed the Church of St. Julian of Tarski, begun by the architect Kuritsyn. Together with Ioss, he is implementing the project of the Real School (now School No. 500), which completed the prospect of the Moscow Highway. In 1904, Danini designed the building of the School of Nannies - the first institution of its kind in Russia. Now this building is occupied by school No. 409 at the address: Krasnoselskoye Shosse, building 9. In addition to government work, the architect carries out private orders. Among the latter, at least two mansions should be mentioned - for the multimillionaire V. Gudovich and the wealthy merchant A. Kokorev - respectively, the addresses: Parkovaya Street, building 18; Moskovskaya street, house 55.
For Kokorev’s mansion, Danini uses his favorite material, light brick, and uses goic motifs to decorate the facades, and also erects a “fortress wall” in the same style - a fence separating the estate from the street.
The interiors of the mansion were a combination of volumes of different heights, reflecting the whims of the customer.
For a long time, inside the building there was a dormitory for the Agrarian University, but since the university is going through difficult times, the building has now been sold. It is assumed that various offices will be located here. Immediately at the entrance there is a marble floor with this inscription, a marble staircase.
An original staircase leads to the second floor. At one time, the walls in the mansion were decorated with expensive imported types of wood, covered with silk, ceramic panels, and frescoes.
The main works of 1907 included the building of the Tsarskoye Selo Red Cross community. The Red Cross community was under the patronage of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The building is in the style of English cottages - wooden, two floors, with a sparse façade decoration, decorated with an asymmetrically located hipped turret. Now this building is occupied by organizations, in particular "Reef". The condition is good, the landlords take care. Address: Leontyevskaya, 33.
In subsequent years, Danini built another building for the Red Cross community (at Leontyevskaya, 35) - now made of stone - intended for an outpatient clinic and almshouse. A church is also built there, which was consecrated in 1914 in the presence of the imperial family. In 1914-1917 the complex was used as an officers' hospital. In Soviet times - the children's sanatorium "Druzhba". Now there is a church and something else incomprehensible. Let's go around it.
The first photo shows the building from behind. On the second there is a fresco under the cornice (view from the street).
The mother and child home was built by Danini in 1907. He could receive 25 needy women for free. The establishment was built and maintained with money bequeathed by the honorary citizen of Tsarskoe Selo Drozhzhin and his widow. It was equipped with the most modern equipment. Nowadays, passing through the gate overlooking Pavlovskoye Highway - house 14 - we find ourselves in a large overgrown garden in which a tuberculosis hospital is located.
Pavlovskoe highway, house 28. I’m confused with this house and the next one. Based on the book: Architecture of wooden houses. Sos. Gruzdeva A.G., Semenova G.V. - St. Petersburg, 2006. - this rather nondescript house belongs to Danini - as his personal dacha, built according to his design. The same information is given in the book: Historical development of St. Petersburg. A great number of newly identified objects of historical, scientific, artistic or other value. -St. Petersburg, 2001: Sverchkov’s dacha is houses 30 and 32, and Danini’s dacha is house 28. And according to Bertazzoni’s book, Danini’s dacha is Pavlovskoe Highway, house 32. And you don’t know who to believe - you need to figure it out further. On the other hand: houses 28 and 30 are located on the same site, and house 30 is the Sverchkov dacha of the architect Kolb, about whom I wrote a previous post. (cm. )
In any case, the building at 32 Pavlovskoe Highway was rebuilt by Danini.
Architect with children: Virginia, Valentino and Oreste. After the revolution of 1917, workers who respected Danini helped him with food and protected him in every possible way. In 1923, he moved with his family to St. Petersburg: to Fontanka, 102. In the 30s, he designed locks and dams along the Svir River. Until the last years of his life, Danini maintained an amazing capacity for work, vigor of mind and - even in the most dramatic moments - great fortitude. Danini died in Leningrad on January 11, 1942 during the siege. His wife, who lived with him for 48 happy years, together with her daughter managed to get out of hungry Leningrad on foot on the ice of Lake Ladoga.
To this day, the descendants of Silvio Danini live in St. Petersburg.
