The building that launched architectural competitions in Russia

From February 17 to March 2, the Exhibition Hall of the Building of the Twelve Collegia at Saint Petersburg State University (SPbU) hosted the "Memory and Progress" exhibition. Organized by SPbU, the Worldwide St. Petersburg Club, and the Organizing Committee of the International Golden Trezzini Awards, the exposition was dedicated to projects in the restoration, reconstruction, and adaptation of architectural monuments and cultural heritage sites across Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.

One of the exhibition’s displays highlighted the historical connection between the Building of the Twelve Collegia and the Golden Trezzini Awards.

Peter the Great not only founded Saint Petersburg but also organized Russia's first international architectural competition. The project in question was the Building of the Twelve Collegia. The Emperor personally supervised the process, issuing a special decree on the matter:

The construction of all twelve collegia, including the audience chamber and the senate, is to proceed; the foundations shall be laid level with the ground, but no façades [original: fatchaty] shall be raised above the earth until His Imperial Majesty sees fit to choose from various drawings and sign them with his own hand; and to produce those drawings, the measurements shall be given to the architects, so that each may create his own invention with ornaments..."

The competition saw participation from Italians Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli, Gaetano Chiaveri, and Nicola Michetti; the Dutchman Stefan van Zwieten; the Frenchman Nicolas Pineau; the German Leonard Theodor Schwertfeger; and the Swiss architects Nicolaus Gaerbel and Domenico Trezzini.

The Russian Emperor proved to be a stern arbiter: not a single project was approved in its entirety. Peter ordered the first floor to be built according to Trezzini's design, while the upper floors were to follow Schwertfeger’s plan. However, since Schwertfeger effectively evaded the task (it turns out one could be "too busy" even for the Emperor!), Domenico Trezzini began constructing the building based on his own project, incorporating and refining some of Schwertfeger’s ideas. After Trezzini's death in 1734, the work was continued by his nephew and son-in-law, Carlo Giuseppe Trezzini.

The great paradox of this competition was that it was officially announced only after work had already begun according to Trezzini's initial plan. Nevertheless, this does not diminish its historical significance as the first attempt at an expert selection process for the best architectural idea.

The decree establishing the Twelve Collegia, which sparked this massive urban development saga, was signed by Peter I on December 23, 1718. Exactly three hundred years later, in 2018, the first architectural and design competition named after the building's architect was established in Saint Petersburg: the Golden Trezzini Awards.

Text: Pavel Chernyakov

Chairman of the Golden Trezzini Awards Organizing Committee, Member of the Worldwide St. Petersburg Club

Illustration: The Building of the Twelve Collegia, built by Domenico Trezzini. Engraving by E. T. Vnukov (1750–1751) based on a drawing by M. Machaev (1749–1750). "Prospect of the State Collegia with a Part of the Gostiny Dvor from the East Side.