VORONIKHIN, Andrey Nikiforovich - b. 1759 Perm, d. 1814 St. Petersburg

Russian architect. Born a serf on the Stroganov Estates near Perm, Russia, he received the patronage of his master, Count Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov (1734-1811 - possibly Voronikhin’s father), who arranged for his formal education and travel. A pupil of de Wailly, he became one of Russia’s most distinguished Neoclassical architects after his return to his motherland in the 1790.

His main works include the Stroganov Dacha, near St. Petersburg (1796-98), the remodeling of the State-Rooms of Rastrelli’s Stroganov Palace on the Nevsky Prospect, St. Petersburg, after fire damage (1790s), the Cathedral of the Virgin of Kazan, St. Petersburg (influenced by Soufflot’s Panthéon in Paris), and the severe Academy of Mines, with its huge dodecastyle Paestum Doric portico, also in St. Petersburg (1806-11).

Exterior view

From 1800 Voronikhin taught at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, and won the competition for the design of the Cathedral of the Virgin of Kazan. The exterior of the building is in an 18th-century style, but the architect was able to conceive a new design which integrated the cathedral into an urban ensemble, placing it in the context of surrounding streets and squares. In accordance with the wishes of Paul I, the building was provided with a colonnade in imitation of St. Peter’s in Rome. In front of the north fa�ade Voronikhin built a broad, arched colonnade of 96 fluted Corinthian columns in four rows, which form a great square and conceal the actual church itself. Thus the side fa�ade takes on the function of the building’s main frontage, an effect completed in the vertical plane by the monumental dome over the crossing. A second colonnade (on the southern side) as well as a square on the western side were never completed.

The photo shows the north fa�ade of the church.