Iosif Langbard

A talented architect, one of the outstanding European people of art of the 20th century, whose life and work are closely connected with Belarus. He was born in Bielsk, Grodno Governorate, into a Jewish family in 1882. Langbard played a special role in creating the image of Minsk. He built the Government House, the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of Belarus, the House of the Red Army and Navy (Officers' House), and the main building of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, that became the gems of the city. In 1937 Iosif Langbard was awarded the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris for his Minsk buildings. In 1938 he reconstructed the facade of the Yanka Kupala Theater. In 1950, together with Mikhail Baklanov, he designed the Pobeda Cinema. Moreover, the general pre-war and post-war plans of Minsk with its wide avenues, squares and parks were also part of Langbard's projects, though not fully realized. In 2012, the National Art Museum of Belarus held an exhibition to mark Langbard's 130th anniversary, which for the first time showed Iosif Langbard not only as an outstanding architect, but also as an artist.