Dutch builders and artists in Saint Petersburg in the first half of the 18th century according to the registers of Calvinist and Roman catholic parishes

Abstract

This article presents biographical information previously unknown to historians about Dutch builders, decorators, painters and other workers who participated in the creation of architectural ensembles of St. Petersburg in the first half of the 18th century. The data source is the littlestudied registers of the St. Petersburg Roman Catholic and Calvinist parishes. Using the method of “restoring family history”, the authors reconstruct the social circles, blood relations, and spiritual kinship of several masters, namely spire maker Herman van Boles, decorator Hendrik van Bronkhorst, court carpenter Willem Voetius, and gardener Jan van Rosen. They made a significant contribution to the urban environment of St. Petersburg in the first half of the 18th century. The article introduces new names of Dutch workers such as Franciscus Koffeus and Daniel Lodewig Vermeulen and finds that the Dutch were closely connected with other representatives of the Petersburg artistic and craft community. They drew closer in their Christian life to architects, carvers, builders, painters of different nationalities (Germans, Swiss, Italians) and faiths (Lutherans, Calvinists, Catholics). However, the Dutch builders and decorators were religiously isolated from Russian society and had weak Russian acculturation. This was probably due to the small number of Dutch natives, which prevented the establishment of broad ties with the Orthodox population.