Mikhail Grigorievich Zemtsov was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n architect who practiced a sober, restrained Petrine Baroque

Petrine Baroque

Petrine Baroque is a name applied by art historians to a style of Baroque architecture and decoration favoured by Peter the Great and employed to design buildings in the newly-founded Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, under this monarch and his immediate successors.Unlike contemporaneous Naryshkin...

 style, which he learned from his peer Domenico Tresini. He has been described as "the first [professionally trained] Russian architect in history".

Peter the Great put Zemtsov in charge of implementing designs by foreign architects such as Trezzini (in whose house Zemtsov took up residence) and Niccolo Michetti (also serving as interpreter for him). In 1723 he travelled to Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 in order to hire the most highly skilled masons for the tsar.

During the early part of his career, Zemtsov participated in designing the Summer Garden

Summer Palace of Peter the Great

The Summer Palace is a diminutive residence of Peter the Great that was built in 1710-14 in his new capital, St. Petersburg, on the bank of the Fontanka River, in what is now the Summer Garden. The design was by Domenico Trezzini...

 in St Petersburg and the park in Peterhof Palace

Peterhof Palace

The Peterhof Palace in Russian, so German is transliterated as "Петергoф" Petergof into Russian) for "Peter's Court") is actually a series of palaces and gardens located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great. These Palaces and gardens are sometimes referred as the...

. The other project in which he was involved was the design of Catherinethal palace and park in Tallinn

Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...

 (1718-25). His Italian Palace on the Fontanka

Fontanka

Fontanka is a left branch of the river Neva, which flows through the whole of Central Saint Petersburg, Russia. Its length is 6,700 meters, its width is up to 70 meters, and its depth is up to 3,5 meters. The Fontanka Embankment is lined with the former private residences of Russian nobility.This...

 Embankment (1726-28) was demolished, and his Anichkov Palace

Anichkov Palace

Anichkov Palace is a former imperial palace in Saint Petersburg, at the intersection of Nevsky Avenue and the Fontanka.-History:The palace, situated on the plot formerly owned by Antonio de Vieira, takes its name from the nearby Anichkov Bridge across the Fontanka...

 (1741-50) was later rebuilt.

Zemtsov was appointed one of the principal architects of the Russian capital in 1737, working on the Transfiguration Cathedral

Transfiguration Cathedral (Saint Petersburg)

Transfiguration Cathedral is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral belonging to the Diocese of St. Petersburg. It is located on Transfiguration Square , just off Liteyny Prospekt near the Chernyshevskaya metro station...

 in St. Petersburg along with Pietro Antonio Trezzini

Pietro Antonio Trezzini

Pietro Antonio Trezzini was a Swiss architect from the Trezzini family who worked primarily in St. Petersburg. After several years of training in Milan, Trezzini arrived in St...

. He completed his work on the Russian Building Code two years before his death.

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