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More numerous were those who searched for a
new Russian style, among whom we can mention A. M. Gornostaev, I. A. Monigetti,
I. S. Bogomolov, V. A. Hartman, I. P. Ropet, A. A. Parlanda, A. A. Semenov, V.
A. Sherwood, A. N. Pomerantsev, D. N. Chichagov and V. V. Suslov. Imitating the
Cathedral of Saint Basil in Moscow, Parlanda designed the Church of the
Resurrection in Saint Petersburg, which was built in 1883 at the spot where
Alexander II was assassinated two years earlier. For the building of the State
Historical Museum in Moscow,
1874-1883, Sherwood, a sculptor and architects of British origin took care of
the outside decoration, and Semenov of the design and construction. To make it
look Russian in style, Sherwood decorated this massive brick building, opposite
Saint Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin, with all sorts of Russian elements
that he borrowed from the Kremlin's towers or the Church in Ostankino, and even
dug some details out of old books. The building has 48 halls in which the
history of the people from the earliest days until the revolution is shown. The
government, the emperor and many prominent Russian families donated their
collections to the museum to make it one of the richest of its kind. It has
more than four million items. Another item left by Sherwood in Moscow is the
monument commemorating the liberation of the Bulgarian city of Plevna by the
Russian army, in the form of a tower crowned with a large cross, beneath which
is a crescent, a sign of the victory over the Turks. The monument was erected
in 1887 and the tower itself would not be of interest if it were not for the
few sculptures that decorate it. Obviously, Sherwood the sculptor was better
than Sherwood, the architect.
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