Domenico was born in
Astano,
Landvogtei of Lugano (at that time a
condominium of the Old Swiss Confederacy), in the
Italian-speaking
Ticino. He probably studied in
Rome. Subsequently, as he was working in
Denmark, he was offered by
Peter I of Russia, among other
architects, to design buildings in the new
Russian capital city,
St. Petersburg. From 1703, when the city was founded, he substantially contributed to its most representative buildings. The
Peter and Paul Fortress with the
Peter and Paul Cathedral, the
Twelve Collegia Building (now the main building of
Saint Petersburg University) as well as
Peter's Summer House count among his many achievements. He also helped found and design
Kronstadt and the
Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Perhaps he participated in the construction of the main attraction in the south of the Moscow region,
Znamenskaya Church in Dubrovitsy, built in 1704 by boyar
Boris Alexeyevich Golitsyn. Domenico Trezzini was very important for another aspect of Russian architectural history: in founding a school based on the European model, he laid the foundations for the development of the
Petrine Baroque. As a testimony of the cordial relationship that linked Domenico Trezzini with the
tsar, his son Pietro (who also became a noted architect, not to be confused with
Pietro Antonio Trezzini) had
Peter I of Russia himself as a godfather. ==References==