August and September in History

August

3 This is the 230th birthday of the Russian architect Vasily Stasov (1769-1848), who created many historical monuments in Moscow in St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg, he reconstructed the Court Stables and built the Barracks of the Pavlovsky Regiment, the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior and the Cathedral of the Trinity. He also redesigned the interior of the Winter Palace after the fire of 1837. In Moscow, Stasov is famous for the white Food Depot building on Krymskaya Ploshchad, near Park Kultury metro station, and for a number of ancient hotel buildings on the boulevard ring. By the age of 34, this son of a clerk was one of Russia’s most prominent architects. By 1816 he was one the four main architects in St. Petersburg. At the age of 70, he was overseeing construction of the New Hermitage—the building adjacent to the Winter Palace. Appropriately, his motto in life was: “A man is worth his name when he is useful both to himself and to others.”