Victor Schröter

Victor Alexandrovich Schröter (Russian: Виктор Александрович Шрётер; 1839–1901) was a prominent Russian architect of German ethnicity.

Schröter was born 27 April 1839, in St. Petersburg of Baltic German ancestry. His father was Alexander Gottlieb Schröter.

From 1851 to 1856, he attended the Petrischule run by St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Saint Petersburg. He then attended the Imperial Academy of Arts, followed by the Berlin Academy of Art from 1856 to 1862. At the end of his training there he received a gold medal, a rare honor for a foreigner.

In 1858, Schröter was admitted to the Architect's Association in Berlin. He then traveled and studied architecture in Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. After returning to Saint Petersburg, he was invited to join the faculty of the Construction College.

In 1862, Schröter's work was submitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts, which awarded him the title of Artist, XIV Class. In 1864, for a project of ideas for the development of Saint Petersburg requested by the Duma, he was recognized as an Academician of Architecture. After that he occupied a prominent place among the architects of Saint Petersburg as both a theoretician and a practitioner, a champion of the rational direction of Eclecticism.

Schröter proved to be a master at designing structures of that were well-built but also economical. He designed many private houses featuring Russia's first use of facades built with natural stone and brick fired at high temperatures, without plaster - "Brick Style", a Russian variant of Art Nouveau - which influenced other architects and builders.

Schröter had in important role in the construction of the Palace of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (now the House of Scientists) on the Palace Embankment in 1867 - 1885). He designed theatres in Kiev, Irkutsk, Nizhniy Novgorod and Tiflis and the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre; the Orthodox Church of Saint Sergius in Bad Kissingen, a grand theater which was planned for the Campus Martius in Saint Petersburg, and a railway station in Odessa.

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