John von Collas born Jean de Collas (11 November 1678 – 16 June 1753) was a late

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

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 ...

of the 18th century.

Biography

Collas was born in Sedan to Antoine de Collas (died 1693) and Elisabeth née de Vilain (died 1681). He was a French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

, his father was a counsellor of William III of Orange, the later

William III of England William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of County of Holland, Holland, County of Zeeland, Zeeland, Lordship of Utrecht, Utrec ...

. After the

Edict of Fontainebleau The Edict of Fontainebleau (22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to practice their religion without s ...

of 1685 the family was forced to flee from France and moved to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and further to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1688. Collas grew up at the estates of

William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford KG PC (August 1616 – 7 September 1700) was an English nobleman and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he inherited his Peerage as 5th Earl of Bedford and removed to the ...

and became a Page of Russell’s Granddaughter Mary Butler (1646–1707), he carried the train of

Mary II of England Mary II (30 April 166228 December 1694) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England, List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland, and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III of England, William III & II, from 1689 unt ...

(1662–1694) at her coronation in 1689. Aged 22, John von Collas was a member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and started a journey to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. Initially on his way through he arrived in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

in autumn 1701 and decided to stay in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

. He became a

Royal Prussian The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German states, German Monarchy, kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the ...

Engineer, counsellor, director of the

Geometer A geometer is a mathematician whose area of study is geometry. Some notable geometers and their main fields of work, chronologically listed, are: 1000 BCE to 1 BCE * Baudhayana (fl. c. 800 BC) – Euclidean geometry, geometric algebra * ...

and respected scholar. He was involved in the design of the

Wesel citadel The Wesel citadel is the largest intact fortification system of the Rhineland and was built 1688–1722 in Wesel according to plans by Johan de Corbin, in the form of a pentagonal star, with each point of the star being a bastion. The citadel was ...

. He was mentioned as a member of the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

in 1704.

Collas became the landlord of several estates in East Prussia like Dommelkeim (1703–1753), Naujeninken (1703–1731), Brandwehten (1703–1731), Perkuhnen (1717–1731), Sauerwalde (1720–1731), Laugallen (1718–1731), Kraupischkehmen, (1718–1731), Weißenstein/ Gutenfeld (1721–1753) and owned houses in

Wehlau Znamensk (; ; lt, Vėluva; pl, Welawa) is a rural locality (a settlement) in Gvardeysky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Pregolya River at its confluence with the Lava River east of Kaliningrad. Populati ...

(1721–1753) and Borchersdorf (1724–1753), in total he possessed about 2,720

Hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

. Collas was a successful architect and projected the baroque palaces of Finckenstein, Friedrichstein, Dönhoffstädt and Jäskendorf. Collas married Charlotte Pelet (27 February 1700 - 29 December 1751), daughter of the merchant Pierre Pelet, owner of Weißenstein-Gutenfeld manor, and Maria Elisabeth née Salomon on 30 April 1716 in Königsberg. He died at his manor at Weißenstein.

External links

Finckenstein Palace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collas, John Von 1678 births 1753 deaths 18th-century German architects German Baroque architects People from Sedan, Ardennes People from East Prussia

Biography

See also

External links