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The last Italian architect who
distinguished himself in Russia was Domenico Giraldi, 1788-1845. He came to
Moscow with his architect father and like most others who preceded him, he
became assimilated. There is something in Russian traditions and heritage, in
the Russian soul, that cannot leave a foreigner indifferent. Many of those who
live there for a prolonged time must yield to the spellbinding influence of the
Russian people.
Geraldi's name has primarily been associated with the mansion and the other
buildings around it that he built in the beginning of the 19 Th century for the
wealthy family of Prince Golitsin. They purchased the estate, located in the
village of Kouzminki, near Moscow, from the Stroganovs, and kept it until the
revolution, when they were thrown out. The mansion burned to the ground in 1915
and it is the "Egyptian House" and the "Horse-Yard" that
make Giraldi's name remembered. He surrounded the yard with a stone wall and
built an entrance gate in a form of a bay-arch. Four double Doric columns
support within the arch a sculpture representing Apolla with the Muses. On the
sides of the entrance are two sculptures, copies of the horse tamers that
decorate the Anichkov bridge in Leningrad, the work of sculptor count N. K.
Klodt. It is this delicate combination of orders, sculptures and the arch that
attracts the attention.
Giraldi's other important works are his rebuilding of Moscow University in
1817-1819, after it burned in 1812, and his construction of the large Foundling
Hospital, 1823-1826, decorated with Vitali's bas-reliefs and sculptures.The
University was originally built by Kazakov. Giraldi preserved its basic forms,
but gave it a new facade and Doric instead of Kazakov's Ionic orders. In the
village of Sukhanovo, about fifteen miles south of Moscow, Giraldi designed the
chapel-mausoleum for the family of Prince P. M. Volkonskii. It was done in late
Russian classical style and with Giraldi's obligatory six Doric columns
carrying the portico. After the revolution the estate was confiscated and a few
years later given to the Union of Soviet Architects. They made a few slight
changes and turned it into their rest home. When I visited it, the mausoleum
was used for a cafeteria, and when I asked about the remains of the Volkonskis
which are buried there, I was told that: "The architects did not bother to
take them out." Giraldi built a similar mausoleum in 1832-1835 for count
V.G. Orlov-Davidov in his estate Otrada, about sixty miles south of Moscow.
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