Heinrich Karl Scheel ( lv, Heinrihs Kārlis Šēls; 17 May 1829 – 13 April 1909) was a

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who lived and worked in Riga, Latvia. He is considered one of the greatest 19th century Riga architects and has designed more than 40 public and private buildings there.

Biography

Heinrich Scheel was born 17 May 1829 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. In 1847, he started studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. After graduation in 1851 he became assistant of the architect and academy professor Ludwig Bohnstedt. In 1853, Scheel supervised the construction of the Riga Great Guild building (architect K. Beine). From 1860 to 1862 he, together with F. Hess, supervised the construction of the First Riga German Theater (architect Ludwig Bohnstedt) In 1862 Scheel became lecturer at the St. Peterburg Academy of Arts although his main workplace was Riga. In the second half of 19th century Heinrich Scheel designed buildings in Riga,

Ventspils Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It ...

and also

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. He has also restored many rooms at the

Jelgava Palace Jelgava Palace ( lv, Jelgavas pils) or historically Mitau Palace ( lv, Mītavas pils, german: Schloss Mitau) is the largest Baroque-style palace in the Baltic states. It was built in the 18th century based on the design of Bartolomeo Rastrelli a ...

. In 1899 he, together with Friedrich Scheefel, created their own building office ''Scheel&Scheefel'' which became one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau architecture in Riga. Heinrich Scheel died on 13 April 1909 in Riga and he is buried at the Riga Great Cemetery.

Architecture

Heinrich Scheel mostly worked in

Eclectic Eclectic may refer to: Music * ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014 * ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996 * Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act * Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...

styles. Most buildings are designed in

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range ...

forms, but he also used

Neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

or mixture of them both. In the beginning of the 20th century he was one of the first architects who started to work in Art Nouveau style.

Gallery

File:Deutsche Botschaft Riga.jpg, Building on Raiņa Blvd. in Riga. Today Embassy of Germany. File:Smilšu iela 8 a.JPG, The building Smilšu Street 8a in Old Riga, built in 1902. Today Embassy of Slovakia. File:Dome square in Riga - old building.jpg, Bank on the Dome Square, Riga. Built in 1887 File:Nometņu iela 45-3.JPG, The building Nometņu Street 45, Riga, built around 1903. Together with F. Scheefel. File:RigaTerbatas86.jpg, Building on Tērbatas street 86 (together with F. Scheefel), Riga. (1900). File:Schellhorn - Kapelle Sophienhof - S.JPG, in

Schellhorn Schellhorn is a municipality in the district of Plön, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Rus ...

, Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheel, Heinrich Baltic-German people Architects from Hamburg Architects from Riga 1829 births 1909 deaths Art Nouveau architects