Melensky, Andrei

Melensky, Andrei [Меленский, Андрей; Melenskij, Andrej], b 1766 in Moscow, d 1 January 1833 in Kyiv. Architect of the Empire style. He was trained in the drafting office of the Kremlin Building Expedition in Moscow (1786–7) and the palace design office run by Giacomo Quarenghi in Saint Petersburg (1787–92). He worked for a time as gubernial architect for Volhynia and then as chief architect of Kyiv (1799–1829) and director of the Kyiv gubernial drafting office (1802–32). He helped prepare the general plan for Kyiv (1808–9) and rebuilt the Podil district after it was destroyed by fire in 1811. Many government and church buildings in Kyiv were designed by Melensky, including the governor’s residence and building of the Nobles’ Assembly in the Pechersk district (1806–10), the first theater building (1806), the Nativity Church (1814), the buildings of the Kyiv Contract Fair (1800–1, 1817), the rotunda church at Askoldova Mohyla (1810), the new building of the Kyiv Theological Academy (1824), the Resurrection Church and hegumen’s residence at Saint Flor's Monastery (1824), and the monument to the restoration of Magdeburg law (1802–8). He also designed buildings in other towns of Kyiv gubernia and conducted a survey of architectural monuments in the region.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]