He was the first engineer that Betancourt invited to Russia. Raphael was admitted to the Corps of Engineers of Ways of Communication on October 26th, 1816, thirty-eight years old and with the graduation of Lieutenant Colonel. He began to work directly at the service of Lieutenant General Betancourt.
Rafael Bauzá was a well-educated person and an expert in the science of engineering, due to this Betancourt could trust and rely on him completely for several projects and works. He did so upon receiving the request for the building of the new Mint in Warsaw, a city that belonged to Russia at that time.
In the course of two years Rafael Bauzá undertook the necessary work for the new mint, focusing on the construction of the steam engine of the establishment. He also collaborated with Betancourt in the works of the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where he obtained the post of Executive Director of the building of the shopping arcade of the fair, and he worked on the construction of a system of locks, canals, and government buildings.
Rafael Bauzá lived in Russia with his wife, Josefina, who left the country in 1826 due to the bad weather, settling in Paris. The engineer never saw her again. In the spring of 1828, during the inspection of the works at the fair after the floods caused by the overflowing of the river Volga, the Spaniard, caught pneumonia and died on May 6th. He was buried at the Monastery of the Ascension of the Cross, in Nizhni Novgorod.
