Viktor Aleksandrovich Schröter (full German name: Viktor Johann Gottlieb Schröter; April 27, 1839, Saint Petersburg – April 16, 1901, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian architect who worked mainly in Saint Petersburg in the second half of the 19th century. Upon graduating from the Berlin Building Academy, Schröter was awarded a gold medal, a rare honor for foreigners.[3] His most significant building in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate is the Nizhny Novgorod Drama Theater on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street.[1]

Nizhny Novgorod Drama Theater

In 1894–1896, a three-story theater building was erected in Nizhny Novgorod to Schröter's design, at 13 Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street. Construction began in July 1894 and was completed in May 1896. The building has survived to the present day and is occupied by the Gorky Nizhny Novgorod State Academic Drama Theater.[1]

Other buildings

Schröter's main creative activity was concentrated in Saint Petersburg, where he designed apartment buildings, mansions, and buildings for credit institutions. Schröter was the initiator of the Saint Petersburg Circle of Architects (1862), a founding member of the Saint Petersburg Society of Architects, editor of its journal Zodchy, and also a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architects' Association of Berlin (from 1895).[5] Among his best-known works are the building of the City Credit Society on Ostrovsky Square (1876–1879), the apartment building of V. A. Ratkov-Rozhnov on Zagorodny Avenue, built jointly with L. N. Benois (1884–1886), his own mansion on the Moyka Embankment (1890–1891), and the scenery warehouse of the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters on Pisarev Street (1900).[1]

Outside Saint Petersburg, Schröter designed theater buildings: the Irkutsk Academic Drama Theater (1894–1897), the City Theater in Kiev on Vladimirskaya Street (1897–1901, jointly with other architects), and the Opera and Ballet Theater in Tbilisi (1896). Besides the cities listed, Schröter also designed theater buildings in Rybinsk and Tula, and also took part in the reconstruction of the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg (1883–1886, 1894–1896).[4] Schröter became one of the first architects in Russia to abandon stucco and begin cladding facades in fired brick and natural stone, establishing the so-called "brick style," which anticipated Art Nouveau.[2] In Samara, a three-story residential building on Alexei Tolstoy Street was built to his design (1878–1881). Viktor Aleksandrovich Schröter was buried at the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery in Saint Petersburg in the family plot; an obituary was published in the journal Zodchy.[3][1]

Sources

  1. spbgasu.ru — Schröter was one of the first architects in Russia to abandon plaster and begin facing facades with fired brick and natural stone, establishing t
  2. spslc.ru — Upon graduating from the Berlin Building Academy, Schröter was awarded a gold medal — a rare honor for foreigners.
  3. walkspb.ru — Besides the theaters in Irkutsk, Kiev, Tbilisi, and Nizhny Novgorod, Schröter also designed theater buildings in Rybinsk and Tula, and also took part in the reconstr
  4. rah.ru — Schröter was the initiator of the founding of the St. Petersburg Circle of Architects (1862), a founding member of the St. Petersburg Society of Architects, and the editor of its journal "Zodch
  1. photobuildings.com — Viktor Aleksandrovich Schröter (Viktor Johann Gottlieb Schröter) — List of Buildings