Olga's Gallery

Quarenghi was born in Bergamo, where he studied painting under G. Reggi, a student of Tiepolo, and P. Bonomini. While in Rome he became a student of Anton Raphael Mengs. In Rome Quarenghi got interested in architecture and studied it with S. Poudo. Quarenghi worked fruitfully in Italy and England. He was thirty when at the end of 1779 on the invitation of Catherine II, he came to Russia with his family. In Russia the architect stayed and worked till his death, he had 13 children, and some of them also stayed in Russia. In 1805 he became a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.  Between 1788 and 1800 he served as an architect of the capital order of St. John of Jerusalem (Maltese order). In 1814 emperor Alexander I granted Giacomo Quarenghi hereditary Russian nobility and the order of St. Vladimir of the First Degree.

His works in Russia made Quarenghi one of the most famous architects of the 18th century. Quarenghi worked in both capitals of Russia: Moscow and St. Petersburg. The main projects are fulfilled in St. Petersburg and its suburbs: e.g.
The Alexander Palace (1792-96) in Tsarskoe Selo, and the pavilions in the landscape part of the Catherine Park, including the Concert Hall (1782 - 1786), the Kitchen Ruins (1780s), the Hall on the Island (1794);

In Pavlovsk:
St. Mary's Hospital;

In St. Petersburg:
The Academy of Sciences on the University Embankment;
the Hermitage Theater;
the Raphael Loggia in the Hermitage;
the Collegium of Foreign Affairs on the English Embankment;
the Assignation Bank on Sadovaya Street;
the Silver Rows on Nevsky Prospect; the Yusupov house on Sadovaya Street;
the Main Apothecary on Millionaya Street;
the Saltykoff's House on the Field of Mars;
the Fitinhof house on Admiralty Prospect;
St. Mary's Hospital for the Poor on Liteiny Prospect;
the Catherine Institute on the Fontanka;
the "Chancellery of His Majesty" on Nevsky Prospect;
the Smolny Institute;
the Cavalry Manège;
the Anglican Church on the English Embankment.