Mikhail Zemtsov

Mikhail Grigorievich Zemtsov (1688–1743) became the first Russian architect who was educated in Russia, not abroad. He worked in St Petersburg since 1709 under the guidance of the Swiss-Italian architect Domenico Trezzini. In 1737 Zemtsov became one of the principal architects of the Russian capital and substantially contributed to its most representative buildings including the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. He was the first architect commissioned to turn Catherine I’s small residence at Tsarskoye Selo into a spacious palace of her daughter Empress Elizabeth. Zemtsov started the construction in May 1743 but soon died in September, mourned by his widow and four children. The expansion of the palace was continued by Zemtsov’s pupil, Andrei Kvasov.