Red brick and white stone façades of Bazhenov’s Opera House in Tsaritsyno

ARCHITECTURE / RUSSIAXVIII CENTURY

1737 — 1799

Vasily
Bazhenov

A visionary of
Russian architecture

Opera House
Tsaritsyno, Moscow

01 / THE ARCHITECTLIFE & EDUCATION

European training shaped
his architectural ideas.

Vasily Bazhenov at the centre of a family portrait by I. Nekrasov

1758

St. Petersburg

He continued his studies at the
Imperial Academy of Arts.

1761

Paris & Italy

He trained in Paris, then studied
the architecture of Italy.

1765

Return to Russia

He brought new ideas about
classical architecture to Moscow.

02 / ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGEORDER & EXPERIMENT

He combined classical order
with bold experiments.

Balanced window rhythms and white columns on the Opera House façade — 01
Classical order
Symmetry, columns and repeated
forms create a balanced design.

Pointed arches and decorative white stone above the red brick of the Opera House — 02
Gothic inspiration
Pointed arches, red brick and white
stone give Tsaritsyno its character.