Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow

Joseph Bové was a Russian neoclassical architect with Italian roots who supervised reconstruction of Moscow after the Fire of 1812. Bove was born in St. Petersburg in the family of Vincenzo Giovanni Bova, a painter from Naples who settled in Russia in 1782. An oldest son in the family, he... had two junior brothers, Michaele and Alessandro, who also trained in architecture and later became his associates. Soon after Joseph's birth, the family moved to Moscow. In 1802–07 he attended the school of architecture at Expedition of Kremlin construction. Since 1807 he worked as an assistant to Matvei Kazakov and Carlo Rossi in Moscow and Tver. As a full-time employee of the Expedition, he was involved in various Kremlin maintenance jobs. In 1813, after the Fire of Moscow that razed most of the city, Bove was hired by the Moscow Building Commission and assigned to lead the "Facade Department", responsible for approval of new facade designs and enforcing that new buildings are placed exactly at the new street lines according to the new master plan.
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