Yury Felten

Young Yury Felten studied on a Russian State scholarship at the Gymnasium of the Academy of Sciences.

Felten wrote a letter to Empress Elizabeth, and she extended her hospitality and a scholarship, so he completed his studies at the Russian Academy, graduating in 1752 as an architect.

From 1752 to 1762 Felten worked as assistant to the celebrated architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli during the construction of the Winter Palace and other buildings in and around St. Petersburg.

In the 1760s and 1770s he designed a complex ensemble enclosing the south side of Palace Square, now partially incorporated into the present buildings of the General Staff.

Arguably his best-known work is not a building but the cast-iron railing (1783) on the Neva side of the Summer Garden in St. Petersburg.