Gaetano Chiaveri

An Italian late-baroque architect who worked in Russia from 1718 to 1727, Chiaveri later found greater fame in Warsaw and Dresden. His major projects in St. Petersburg included work on the Kunstkammer (1724-27), where he rebuilt the central tower, on the Palace of Tsaritsa Praskovya Fyodorovna (on the site of the modern Zoological Museum), and on the Grand Theatre at Strelna. In 1722, Empress Catherine I ordered Chiaveri to build a church in her patrimonial estate in Korostin, Novogrod Province, but Chiaveri's design, influenced by Francesco Borromini's Chiesa di Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome, was considered too foreign. In August 1727, Chiaveri was dismissed from his post, and in April 1728 he left Saint Petersburg.

Works: Kunstkammer