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SPEETH, Peter - b. 1772 Mannheim, d. 1831 Odessa - WGA

SPEETH, Peter

(b. 1772 Mannheim, d. 1831 Odessa)

German architect. He worked in Frankfurt from 1788-94 under Nicolas de Pigage (1723-1796), in Heidelberg from 1797, and from 1804 at Amorbach for the Prince of Leiningen. In 1807 he moved to Würzburg in the service of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, where he designed the Women’s Penitentiary (1811), an early and striking Neo-Renaissance design, as well as the Zeller Torhaus guard house (1814) which resembles Claude-Nicolas Ledoux’s barrières for Paris, and the Gerichtsdienerhaus (House of the Court Usher, 1811-13).

His employment for the Grand Duke ended in 1815, and in 1826 he moved to Russia. He died in Odessa in 1831.

Exterior view
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Exterior view

Peter Speeth designed the prison in W�rzburg below the castle on the principle of “speaking” architecture: it is a three-story cubic block with a heavily rusticated plinth. The door, set in a semi-circular arch, tapers towards the ground, producing an oppressive feeling on entering. The ten columns over the doorway are popularly said in W�rzburg to represents the Ten Commandments.

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Exterior view
Exterior view by

Exterior view

Peter Speeth designed the prison in W�rzburg below the castle on the principle of “speaking” architecture: it is a three-story cubic block with a heavily rusticated plinth. The door, set in a semi-circular arch, tapers towards the ground, producing an oppressive feeling on entering. The ten columns over the doorway are popularly said in W�rzburg to represents the Ten Commandments.

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Exteror view
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Exteror view

This guard house resembles Claude-Nicolas Ledoux’s barri�res for Paris.

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