SPEETH, Peter
(b. 1772, Mannheim, d. 1831, Odessa)

Biography

German architect. He worked in Frankfurt from 1788-94 under Nicolas de Pigage (1723-1796), in Heidelberg from 1797, and from 1804 at Amorbach for the Prince of Leiningen. In 1807 he moved to Würzburg in the service of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, where he designed the Women's Penitentiary (1811), an early and striking Neo-Renaissance design, as well as the Zeller Torhaus guard house (1814) which resembles Claude-Nicolas Ledoux's barrières for Paris, and the Gerichtsdienerhaus (House of the Court Usher, 1811-13).

His employment for the Grand Duke ended in 1815, and in 1826 he moved to Russia. He died in Odessa in 1831.