Silvio Danini: the Last Court Architect

Schusev State Museum of Architecture for the first time in Moscow presents the exhibition Architect Silvio Danini: the last court architect. This exhibition is dedicated to 150th anniversary since the birth of the Emperor Nikolay II, a century since the demise of the Tzar family and the 150th anniversary since the birth of the architect S. Danini.

The creative path of S.A.Danini is tightly related to Tsarskoye Selo. After an invitation by the academician of architecture A.F.Krasovsky he took part in the reconstruction of the Winter Palace for the young imperial couple of Nikolay II and Alexandra Feyodorovna. In 1896 Danini was appointed as the architect of the Tsarskoselsky palace administration and he was given the title of the architect of the Highest Court on 5 of October in 1911. At the turn of the century, was always occupied with the reconstruction and reparation in Alexandrovky Palace and managed to introduce many technological innovations. The Emperor Nikolay II greatly appreciated the work of Danini and called him “our architect.”

The majority of private mansions and cottages built by Donini in Tsarskoye Selo were made in the “Anglo-Saxon style”, as well as many other medical, educational and charitable buildings ordered by the Tsar family, for example, a School of Nannies, a hospital, the House of the Mother and Child, the Institute of Experimental Surgery, a charity house for injured soldiers and etc. In Danini’s creations this style with some intensification of decorative forms and emphasis on the entire composition became an original variation of Northern St. Petersburg baroque.
From 1920 to 1940 the architect was living and working in Leningrad. He didn’t stay away from the architectural search of the new age. In 1926 he designed and built an avant-garde styled building of the firefighting department GRES “Krasny Oktyabr” in St. Petersburg.

The exhibition will contain photos from the archive of the Museum of Architecture, drafts from the museum-reservation Tsarskoye Selo, as well as the materials that were left after the Blockade of Leningrad and presented by the family of the architect.