page_title: Vasily Bazhenov
section_title: Tsaritsyno
hierarchical_section_title: Vasily Bazhenov / Biography / Tsaritsyno
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Панорама села Царицына. Проектный чертёж.
context_page_description: Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov was a Russian neoclassical architect, graphic artist, architectural theorist and educator. Bazhenov and his associates Matvey Kazakov and Ivan Starov were the leading local architects of the Russian Enlightenment, a period dominated by foreign architects. According to Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in the 1770s Bazhenov became the first Russian architect to create a national architectural language since the 17th century tradition interrupted by Peter I of Russia.
  Bazhenov's early success was followed by a tragic professional and private life. His two main construction projects were abandoned for political or financial reasons. His magnum opus, the neoclassical Grand Kremlin Palace, was cancelled shortly after groundbreaking. The imperial palace in Tsaritsyno Park fell victim to the Battle of the Palaces; Bazhenov's palace core was demolished on the orders of Catherine II. Another project, for the Moscow State University building, ended in a bitter conflict with Bazhenov's former benefactor Prokofi Demidov and led Bazhenov into bankruptcy. Before his death, Bazhenov implored his children to stay aside from the treacherous construction business.
context_section_description: Bazhenov, at least in the first half of Catherine's reign, perfectly understood her taste and stylistic program, that of Age of Enlightenment rather than of Neoclassicism. During the 1775 celebrations of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca on the Khodynka Field, Bazhenov "turned imitation of English Gothic Revival into an attempt to create a universal stylistic language for Russian architecture combining typical elements of medieval buildings of both East and West, motifs from Antiquity and pure fantasy." This ephemeral work paved way to Catherine's decision to build two imperial palaces in Moscow suburbs (in 1775 she lived in a temporary wooden building in Kolomenskoye). The lesser Petrovsky Castle on the road to Saint Petersburg was awarded to Kazakov, the larger Tsaritsyno to Bazhenov.
  In summer of 1775 Bazhenov designed the first draft of Tsaritsyno, now lost. It followed Catherine's affection to "peasant style", featuring numerous neo-Gothic, country style lodges scattered on a carefully planned "natural" landscape. The same approach was employed in the second, "completely non-classical" master plan approved by Catherine in spring of 1776. This time Bazhenov added a dominant main palace, designed as two identical buildings connected with a greenhouse. One wing was intended for Catherine, another for her son and heir Paul. Bazhenov planned to decorate Tsaritsyno with traditional Russian coloured tiles, izraztsy, but Catherine objected and insisted on a simpler red (brick walls), white (ornaments) and yellow (glazed roof tiles) colour scheme. Roof tiles did not last long in Russian winters and were soon replaced with sheet iron. 
  Bazhenov began construction with the "front row" of small buildings, gates and bridges. Their white stone inserts feature finely carved ornaments that disappeared in later buildings either due to shortage in skilled craftsmen or Bazhenov's own stylistic decision. In 1777 Bazhenov demolished the old wooden manor house of the Cantemirs, former owners of Tsaritsyno, and started construction of the main palace. Shortage of government funds plagued the project from the start; in fact, most of Bazhenov's written legacy consists of business letters pleading the state treasury for money, skilled labor, and counting his private debts incurred in Tsaritsyno. In 1783 he actively sought new jobs, writing that "he was now quite free in Tsaritsyno."
  The main palace, with an added central annex for Paul's children, was built in eight years. Governor Jacob Bruce, who inspected Tsaritsyno in 1784, was puzzled by the absence of a formal front courtyard, but nevertheless sent Catherine an enthusiastic report praising, in particular, bridges and landscaping. Catherine suddenly visited Tsaritsyno in June 1785, and left displeased by slow pace of the work; she scorned the palace in letters to Paul and Melchior Grimm as a "dark place with low vaults and narrow stairs, unfit for living."
  By 1785 Bazhenov's palace layout became politically incorrect: relations between Catherine and Paul irreversibly worsened, the empress entertained removing Paul from the order of succession completely, and twin palaces had to make way for a single one – her own. Catherine announced her will to demolish and rebuild the main palace, but Bazhenov was not fired immediately; he and Kazakov were ordered to submit independent redesign proposals. Bazhenov presented a new design in the end of 1785, but it was rejected and Bazhenov was dismissed from the project "to improve his health and household matters". In February 1786 Catherine finally awarded Tsaritsyno project to Kazakov; Bazhenov's palace was demolished in summer of 1786. Public opinion incorrectly connected her anger to Bazhenov's association with the Free Masons or his Gothic styling; in fact, Kazakov retained both Gothic and Masonic features and most of Bazhenov's auxiliary buildings survived to date.
caption: Bazhenov's 1776 panorama of Tsaritsyno
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