Bazen P.P.(D.), (1786-1838), architectural engineer

Categories / Architecture/Personalia
BAZEN (Bazaine) Peter Petrovich (Pierre Dominiq) (1786-1838), architectural engineer, mechanic, mathematician, pedagogue, fellow (1817) and honorary member (1827) of the St. Petersburg Academy of Science, lieutenant general (1830). Native of France, from 1810, in Russian service. In 1815-20, he worked as a professor of the College of the Corps of Railroad Engineers, in 1824-34, was its director. Since 1816, he was a member, and in 1824-34, the head of the Committee on buildings and hydraulic works. He is the author for the plans of about 30 bridges in St. Petersburg and in outskirts (most of them, implemented), he designed embankments, slipways, harbours, highways, among other projects. He projected the construction of ceilings of the Winter Palace and Alexandrinsky Theatre (not implemented) and of the Holy Trinity Cathedral. He directed the excavation of Obvodny Canal, Senate and Synod buildings, Schlisselburg locks and hydraulic works of Okhtinsky Gunpowder Factory. In 1824-27, he developed the plan of protection of St. Petersburg from floods, which included the construction of five dikes; waterworks, navigation route with a total length of about 24 kilometres, on the route Gorskaya - Kotlin Island - Oranienbaum (not implemented). He was the first to suggest that cyclones were among the main reasons for seasonal flooding in St. Petersburg. He is the author of works on mathematics, transportation and construction. Until 1824, he lived on 28 Galernaya Street; later, in the building of the Institute (115 Fontanka River Embankment). From 1835, he worked in France, although remained in the service of the Russian government. In 1839, the bust of Bazen was installed in the building of the College of Railroad Engineers (lost).

References: Гузевич Д. Ю., Гузевич И. Д. Петр Петрович Базен, 1786-1838. СПб., 1995.

Д. Ю. Гузевич, И. Д. Гузевич. Bazen Peter Petrovich
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 115
Galernaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 28
Гузевич Д. Ю., Гузевич И. Д. Петр Петрович Базен, 1786-1838. СПб., 1995 Russian Academy of Sciences
Winter Palace
Alexandrinsky Theatre
Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Izmailovsky Life Guards Regiment