Bruni, Julius Fedorovich

He came from a noble family of immigrants from Switzerland . Born in Rome on December 12, 1843 . His grandfather, Antonio Baroffi Bruni, was a famous painter, a member of the Academy of Milan , who served as captain of the Swiss troops in the army under the command of A.V. Suvorov and who left his homeland after Napoleon's victory. Antonio Bruni settled in Tsarskoye Selo , where he taught drawing at the Lyceum .

The son of Antonio Bruni, Fedor (Fidelio ^[1] ) (1800-1875), graduated from the Academy of Arts and taught in it; he was rector for painting and sculpture (1855-1871) and manager of the mosaic department (since 1866) ^[2] . Academician and professor of painting, author of the painting “The Copper Serpent ” (1835-1840) ^[2] , painted St. Isaac's Cathedral (St. Petersburg) and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow ^[3] .

Julius Fedorovich, the son of Fedor Bruni, graduated with honors from the course at the Imperial Academy of Arts and was awarded the title of class artist of the II degree. While still a student of the Academy, he went to Finland for art classes; also visited Berlin in 1865. He was appointed July 13, 1867 as a supernumerary technician in the construction department of the St. Petersburg Board. The duties of the technician included supervision of the correctness of the drawings and the quality of construction, as well as the safety of buildings or rebuilt buildings.

In the same year, 1867, on September 10, he was awarded the title of artist of the 1st degree and approved as a college secretary. After being awarded the gold medal of the Academy of Arts in Architecture (1867), the architect was awarded a trip abroad, which was supposed to last 4 years, but on December 29, 1868, Bruni fell ill for a short time; in his letter to the Academy of Arts, he indicated the countries where he managed to visit for improvement in art: North and South Germany , France and Italy (in Italy - Milan, where he prepared a sketch and drawing of the Cathedral of Milan , the city of Assisi , measurements of the church in the monastery as well as Rome).

Returning to Russia, despite his illness, Bruni drew up drawings for the repair of the houses of G. Romanov, G. Strubinsky, as well as the reconstruction and superstructure of two floors for the female half of the school at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Peter and two floors above the pastoral wing on Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street . On March 8, 1868, he was assigned to the Ministry of the Interior with secondment to the Technical Construction Committee; On March 13, 1868, the architect, awarded the gold medal, was dismissed due to his departure abroad for 4 years, "for further improvement in art" with the inclusion of this time in the term of active service.

Until November 3, 1871, Bruni was a supernumerary architect at the Board of Trustees of the Departments of the Empress Maria . In 1875, he was assigned to the IV Division of His Imperial Majesty's own Chancellery , to the Construction Committee - without salary, but with the rights of active service. On February 6 of the same year, he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav of the 3rd degree and presented to the Order of St. Anna of the 3rd degree. In 1879, Julius Bruni received the rank of college assessor , while he also served as a supernumerary technician in the Ministry of the Interior and architect of the Pavlovsk Institute . It is possible that the promotion in 1879, as well as the awarding of the Order of St. Anne of the 3rd degree in April 1878, was indirectly associated with the construction of the tomb for Prince Boris Alexandrovich. No archival documents or recollections of this fact were found. He was an architect of the St. Petersburg Palace. Most likely, the order emanating from Emperor Alexander II was sufficiently secret, so it was not listed among the acts of the archive of the Court of His Imperial Majesty, but was private. It is also possible that Princess Dolgorukaya herself acted as the customer, since she is considered the owner of the Chapel in the Historical and Statistical Information.

In 1881, on April 12, the architect was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav of the 2nd degree. In 1882, Julius Fyodorovich Bruni was a court adviser ; March 13, 1882 was determined (by reduction) to the post of architect of the St. Petersburg Commercial School . In 1884 he was awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 2nd degree.

Bruni was the architect of the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Krapivno, Pskov province, built on the banks of the Plyussa River in 1893 ^[4] .

Julius Fedorovich Bruni was not only an architect, but also a gifted watercolorist, worked in the field of applied art, a master of planning and interior decoration.

A member of the Imperial Society of Architects Yu. F. Bruni died on January 16, 1911 . He was buried at the Lutheran Wolf Cemetery in St. Petersburg .

Since April 9, 1870, Julius Fedorovich Bruni was married to Maria Alexandrovna Pel. Their son, George Yulievich, was a musician, and granddaughter Tatyana Georgievna became a theater artist.

• Architects-builders of St. Petersburg in the middle of the XIX - beginning of XX centuries (reference book). - SPb. : Pilgrim, 1996.
• Bibliographic dictionary of artists of the peoples of the USSR. XI-XX centuries. - SPb. : Academic project, 2002. - T. 2. - P. 84.
• Architect. - SPb. , 1898. - S. 82–83.
• Isachenko V.G. Architects of St. Petersburg of the 19th-early 20th centuries. - SPb. : Lenizdat, 2000 .-- S. 980.
• S. N. Kondakov. Anniversary Directory of the Imperial Academy of Arts. 1764-1914 . - St. Petersburg: Partnership R. Golike and A. Vilborg, 1915. - T. 2. - P. 298. - 454 p.
• Luti M.I., Merder E., Tarkhanova E.M. Swiss in St. Petersburg. - SPb. , 2002.
• Petrushevsky F.F. Bruni, Fedor Antonovich // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

Archived sources

• The river Plyussa. General information (unspecified) . Cadastre of the Pskov region. Pskov pskovgrad.ru (1997). Date of treatment June 22, 2015.