Brilliant architect of the provincial city

The architectural attractiveness of Mogilev has always been a subject of controversy among tourists and guests of the regional centre — some were completely satisfied with the quantitative and qualitative state of historical buildings, others found it boring and not particularly worth the time spent opening selfie sticks. However, those who are difficult to please are always easier in a dispute — they, as a rule, do not tire themselves with either preliminary preparation for the trip or the search for weighty arguments. Therefore, let’s talk about a person, thanks to whom there is always something to see in Mogilev and its environs. Moreover, at least three city buildings erected by him are  in the top 10 most popular among both tourists and local residents.

Mogilev. Peasants’ Land Bank. Early 20th century.

Architectural landmarks

In 1886, a young and still completely unknown 26-year-old Petr Georgievich Kamburov, graduate of the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, came to Mogilev at the invitation of the city authorities. He almost immediately received a contract for the design of the Mogilev Drama Theatre, which the provincial authorities had been dreaming about for a long time.
Mogilev Drama Theatre. Early 20th century.

The foundation for the future architectural gem was laid in the very centre of Mogilev at the intersection of Dneprovsky Prospekt (now Pervomaiskaya Street) and Dvoryanskaya Street (Komsomolskaya Street) even before Kamburov’s arrival. Thus, Petr Georgievich had to be engaged in the process, as they say, just-in-time. Competent and progressive Kamburov decided to implement a very ambitious project, choosing a pseudo-Russian style, which was just starting to come into fashion. In 1888, the theatre with an auditorium for 500 seats was opened with all the pomp appropriate to the moment and transferred to the city. As the legends say, neither the author of the idea nor his colleagues, the interior designer Chernyshev and the designer of the curtain and decorations Trenin, were invited to the box for honorary guests. However, from 1915 to 1917, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia constantly invited distinguished guests to the Mogilev Theatre. Vera Komissarzhevskaya starred on the stage, Feodor Chaliapin sang and Sergei Rachmaninoff played music here. The women’s diocesan school on Saltanovskaya Street (now Vorovskogo Street) was the next creation of Petr Kamburov. He finished it already in the position of the Mogilev provincial architect. Initially, the building in the neoclassical style was intended for the education of girls of the clergy, but later it housed the Red Commanders School in 1918, and after the end of the war, the Pedagogical School and the boarding school. In 1990, it was transferred to the regional lyceum at the Mogilev State Pedagogical Institute named after A. A. Kuleshov.
In 1895, Petr Georgievich accepted the post of Mogilev city architect and focused on managing other projects. But in 1904, he began work on the building of the State Bank, which was built in the neo-Renaissance style on Bolshaya Sadovaya Street (Leninskaya Street). Initially, the complex included two stone buildings and outbuildings, which, unfortunately, have not been preserved. In Soviet times, the regional departments of the State Bank of the USSR, Zhilsotsbank of the USSR, Agroprombank of the USSR resided there replacing each other one after another. Now the Main Department of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus for the Mogilev Region is located in this building.
Of all the projects of Petr Kamburov, the most interesting fate was destined for a two-story Art Nouveau building. It was built in 1914 on Officerskaya Street (now Mironova Street) for two financial institutions at once — the Peasants’ Land Bank and the Nobles’ Land Bank. 
At the time of construction and in subsequent years, it was considered the most beautiful and stylish in Mogilev. It had everything that in those days was considered the latest technology and domestic comfort, including even air conditioners. In addition, bank premises were equipped with the most reliable safe rooms for storing valuables. 

Mogilev. Red Cross Society building. Early 20th century.

In 1917, after the Bolsheviks captured the Stavka of the Supreme Commander, the Krasnaya Stavka newspaper moved to the house on Officerskaya Street for a short time, and then the financial department of the provincial executive committee and the Mogilev State Historical Museum replaced it. In 1929, the basement floor (the same one with armoured rooms) was occupied by the archives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia. Hundreds of national treasure artefacts were brought into its walls from Minsk, Polotsk, Vitebsk or other places located near the Soviet-Polish border. Among them was a cross made by Lazar Bohsha by order of Euphrosyne of Polotsk. There it, like all other unique artefacts, was seen for the last time. During the war, their trace was completely lost.
From 1991 to the present day, the building houses the Mogilev Regional Arts Museum named after P.V. Maslenikov, which presents the richest collection of Belarusian art of the 17th-19th centuries, modern masters of painting, works of the national school of icon painting, an exhibition of paintings by Pavel Maslenikov himself.
Unfortunately, another house of stunning beauty built by Petr Kamburov in 1915 for the Red Cross Society and located on Malaya Sadovaya Street (Pionerskaya Street) was destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, leaving no hope of restoration.     

Sacral architecture

With all the achievements in the secular field, Petr Kamburov still devoted most of his heart and remarkable talents in the construction of churches, especially since he was a Mogilev diocesan architect for a long time and had a hand in more than forty places of worship in addition to the posts of the provincial and city head of the architectural department. 

Mogilev. A bell tower in the Moscow suburb. Early 20th century.

Churches built according to his designs — wooden and stone — adorned the villages and small towns of the current Mogilev, Vitebsk, Gomel and Smolensk Regions. However, especially among them stood out St. Nicholas Church in Chausy, built on the personal instructions and with funds allocated by Nicholas II of Russia (who was touched by a letter from parishioners addressed to the Emperor), as well as a bell tower in the Moscow suburb of Mogilev. The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the village of Plutovka (now Red Partizan) in the Dobrush Region (1889) is an excellent example of wooden church architecture in the neo-Russian style. St. Nicholas Church in the village of Blagovichi was built already at the beginning of the 20th century from clay on the site of the temple of 1797. It impresses with its quiet beauty, brevity, elegance of lines and gives the most complete picture of the capabilities and talent of the outstanding architect of his time — Petr Kamburov.  

By Sergei Nikolaev, Vladimir Likhodedov
Photos from the personal collection of Vladimir Likhodedov