Artists and architects
Vikentiy Beretti
1781–1842
- Architect
Italian-born architect of the Red Building of Kyiv University and the Institute for Noble Maidens. He worked in Kyiv from 1837 until his death.
Biography
Vikentiy (Vincenzo) Beretti was born in Rome in 1781 and made his career as an architect in St Petersburg. In 1835 he won the competition to design the main building of the newly founded St Volodymyr University in Kyiv, and in March 1837 Emperor Nicholas I sent him to Kyiv as the city’s architect and a member of its building committee.
Beretti’s masterpiece is the university’s Red Building at today’s 60 Volodymyrska Street — a monumental classicist building erected in 1837–1843 and painted deep red. He also designed the Institute for Noble Maidens (now the International Centre of Culture and Arts, known as the October Palace), the astronomical observatory and the university botanical garden, and helped lay out Volodymyrska Street and University (now Taras Shevchenko) Boulevard and draw up Kyiv’s 1837 master plan.
Beretti died in Kyiv in 1842, before the Red Building was finished, and is buried at Baikove Cemetery. The work was completed by his son Oleksandr (Alexander) Beretti, himself a noted Kyiv architect who should not be confused with his father. In 2009 a memorial plaque to Vikentiy Beretti “from the grateful Ukrainian and Italian peoples” was unveiled on the Red Building’s façade.
Kyiv in their life
- Red Building of Kyiv University (60 Volodymyrska St; 1837–1843) — memorial plaque of 2009.
- Institute for Noble Maidens (1 Instytutska St) — now the International Centre of Culture and Arts.
- University Astronomical Observatory (3 Observatorna St) — design of 1840.
- Fomin Botanical Garden — conceived by Beretti as the university garden. See Fomin Botanical Garden.
- Baikove Cemetery — his grave.
