Peter and Paul Fortress, a monument of Peter the Great's Baroque architecture. Built in 1712 33 (architect D. Trezzini) on the site of a wooden church built in 1703. Its dominant feature is a multi-tiered bell tower on the western façade, crowned with a tall gilded … St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Peter and Paul Cathedral- Peter and Paul Cathedral (to Peter and Paul) ... Russian spelling dictionary

Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg- A monument of Russian Baroque architecture of the 18th century and the tomb of the House of Romanov, the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg was erected in the period 1712-1733 according to the design and under the leadership of the architect Domenico Trezzini on the site of the same name... ... Encyclopedia of Newsmakers

Peter and Paul Cathedral are cathedrals of the Russian Orthodox Church, named after the holy apostles Peter and Paul. Peter and Paul Cathedral, a cathedral destroyed in 1935 in the city of Barnaul. Peter and Paul Cathedral cathedral in the city of Gomel.... ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Peter and Paul Cathedral (meanings). architectural monument (federal) Orthodox ... Wikipedia

The request "Peter and Paul Cathedral" is redirected here. See also other meanings. Orthodox Cathedral Peter and Paul Cathedral ... Wikipedia

Landmark Peter and Paul Cathedral Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul ... Wikipedia

Landmark Peter and Paul Cathedral ... Wikipedia

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Cathedral Cathedral in the name of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul ... Wikipedia

Books

• Peter and Paul Cathedral. Tomb of the Imperial House of Romanov, V. B. Gendrikov, S. E. Senko. This album aims to highlight the history of the Peter and Paul Cathedral as a tomb. The album consists of three sections, each of which opens with a brief historical sketch.…
• Peter and Paul Cathedral (80076), . Prefabricated wooden model. To ensure strong connections, it is recommended to use PVA glue. For children from 5 years old. Number of parts: 112. Size of the finished model: 24.2 x 13.8 x 35.5 cm. Diagram…

Well-preserved architectural monuments of the early 18th century. When Peter decided to build a fortress in 1703, first of all he ordered the construction of a wooden church on this site as a sign of his intention. Ten years later, according to the design of the architect Trezzini, invited by the Tsar, they began to rebuild it in stone. At first, Trezzini intended to work on the banks of the Neva for only a year, and then only if “the climate would not be too cruel to his health,” but, having begun this work, he became carried away by it and was imbued with Peter’s daring plans. This is probably why the silhouette of the cathedral he built looked like a ship ready to sail with a high mast and raised sails.

Peter and Paul Cathedral bell tower.

First of all, at the request of the king, a high bell tower with a spire was erected. Peter needed it as an observation deck from where he could see the approaching Swedes. In addition, its construction also had a political meaning - it was supposed to become dominant and approve the return of the Neva lands to Russia. Peter I personally often went up with foreign guests to the bell tower that stood in the woods and showed them from there a panorama of the city under construction. The bell tower spire was crowned with the figure of an angel with a cross, soaring in the heights.

Angel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

The angel over the city, according to the creators, was supposed to protect the new Russian capital from the vicissitudes of fate. The construction and decoration of the cathedral was completed only by 1733. Peter did not live to see this significant moment. That year, on the Day of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (June 29), the consecration of the cathedral was already attended by Empress Anna Ioannovna, who, as the St. Petersburg Gazette wrote, “received congratulatory compliments from all foreign and local ministers.”

Peter and Paul Cathedral.

For almost a quarter of a century, the cathedral retained its appearance unchanged. But in the middle of the 18th century. The bell tower spire caught fire from lightning. Therefore, during the construction of a new spire, Catherine II ordered the construction of an “electric outlet to ward off the shock and flow from the lightning of what is happening.” Although the lightning rod had the desired effect, “great storms” often broke out over the city, which bent the spire and spoiled the figure of the angel with the cross. So, in 1829, during one such storm, the angel tilted menacingly. Roofer Pyotr Telushkin, without scaffolding, deftly using devices made only from ropes, managed to climb to the top of the spire and make the necessary repairs. This feat was later repeated by professional climbers, who during the Great Patriotic War camouflaged the gilded spire so that it could not serve as a reference point for fascist aviation.

Spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

In the 19th century The destruction of the wooden frame of the spire began to be felt more and more. It was decided to dismantle the old spire and replace the wooden structures with metal ones. At the same time, the total height of the cathedral increased by 16 m and reached 122.5 m. To this day, the Peter and Paul Cathedral is the tallest architectural structure and one of the leading dominants in the panorama of the Neva banks. The only thing above it is a modern television tower.

While traveling around Europe, Peter I drew attention to the chimes that were on some European churches. He wanted to have the same ones in Russia. The chimes played the church and monarchical anthem; in Soviet times, their mechanism was redesigned to play the anthem of the Soviet Union, but now they again play the national anthem of the Russian Empire, “God Save the Tsar.” There was also a carillon (a bell instrument played by a musician). The original carillon was removed back in the 19th century, and in 2001 a new one was installed, reproduced for the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Holland. There, 51 carillon bells were cast using sponsors' funds. On one of them there is an inscription: “Let this bell ring for the glory of Russia.” So now you can hear bell concerts here again.

Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

The cathedral built by Trezzini differs from traditional ancient Orthodox churches. It clearly shows the influence of Italian and Northern European architecture. Instead of the usual five domes, the cathedral is completed by only one dome. In plan, the building has the shape of an elongated rectangle and is a non-traditional “hall” type structure for Russia at that time. If the external appearance of the cathedral is quite simple and modest, then its interior decoration, on the contrary, is distinguished by pomp and solemnity. Huge windows that provide a lot of light, modeling, massive columns painted like marble, captured enemy banners - all this makes the interior of the cathedral more like a richly decorated state hall than a temple for prayer. Under the vaults there are 18 paintings of gospel scenes - this was also an innovation; before that, the walls of Orthodox churches were decorated with frescoes. The paintings were entrusted to be painted by “a foreigner from the Dutch land” Georg Gsell, whom Peter met in Amsterdam, and two Russian “masters of painting” - Vasily Ignatiev and Andrei Matveev.

Peter and Paul Cathedral iconostasis.

The wooden gilded iconostasis of baroque forms, made according to a drawing by the architect Zarudny, is also unusual. It has the shape of a magnificent triumphal arch and is a kind of monument in honor of the conclusion of the Nystadt Peace. The iconostasis is filled with many carved arches, sculptures, raised shields and crossed swords, reminiscent of Russia’s military exploits in the Northern War. It was brought from disassembled, assembled in the cathedral itself and covered with gold here.

In the center are the royal doors with figures of the apostles, on both sides of them are sculptures of the good news of Archangel Gabriel with a lily in his hands and the patron saint of the army, Archangel Michael with a sword. Behind the gate is an altar canopy supported by carved helical columns. 43 icons for the iconostasis were created in St. Petersburg by an artel of Moscow artists. The commission that accepted their work recognized: “These holy images were painted with good icon art and good colors.” Two large icons on both sides of the royal doors depict the Mother of God and Child (according to legend, having a portrait resemblance to Peter’s wife Catherine I) and Jesus in patriarchal clothes and the miter of the Moscow kings.

Peter and Paul Cathedral interior.

Opposite the iconostasis is a carved gilded pulpit, unconventional for Orthodox churches, intended for delivering sermons. It is decorated with statues of the apostles Peter and Paul. At the opposite pylon there is a royal seat - a low platform, upholstered in crimson velvet with gold embroidery and crowned with a gilded carved crown. During the service in the cathedral, the emperor stood there. There was never a chair here; the king did not sit down during services.

Imperial Cathedral.

According to tradition, emperors came to the cathedral after their coronation to ask for blessings on their kingdom, and when leaving the capital, to say goodbye to the graves of their parents. The temple combined the functions of a court cathedral and a cathedral, and also served as a tomb for Russian emperors and members of their families. The idea of ​​turning the cathedral into an imperial tomb belonged to Peter himself. The first tomb was installed in the still wooden Peter and Paul Church when the Tsar’s two-year-old daughter, Catherine, died. Then, even before the completion of the stone temple, the wife of Tsarevich Alexei, Crown Princess Charlotte, the sister of Peter I, Maria, and Tsarevich Alexei himself, who died in the casemates of the fortress, were buried here. They are buried at the entrance under the stairs to the bell tower.

Peter and Paul Cathedral interior.

The cathedral was not completed even by the time of Peter’s death in 1725. Under the ringing of bells and cannon fire, the coffin with his embalmed body was transferred across the ice of the Neva from the Winter Palace to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Here he was temporarily placed in a “wooden extension deliberately built inside the cathedral,” upholstered inside with black cloth, where he stood for six whole years. After the construction of the cathedral was completed, the coffin was moved to a place chosen by the emperor during his lifetime near the iconostasis. Peter's grave is the rightmost in the first row, it is marked with a bust of the Tsar, flowers and the St. Andrew's naval ensign. His wife Catherine I, who survived her husband by only two years, is buried next to him. The third in the same row is the grave of their daughter Elizaveta Petrovna.

For two centuries, Russian emperors and empresses, as well as many members of the Romanov family, were buried in the cathedral. Each of them was buried in a separate crypt, initially marking the burial place only with marble slabs. Identical white marble tombstones appeared here later. The tombstones of crowned heads are decorated with gilded double-headed eagles. All Russian tsars, from Peter I to Nicholas II, with two exceptions, are buried in the cathedral. Young Peter II died and was buried in Moscow, and as an infant, Anna Ioannovna’s grandnephew John VI, dethroned from the throne and imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress, was killed by guards while trying to be released from prison and interred there.

Peter and Paul Cathedral is the tomb of the Romanovs.

It is also worth noting that Catherine the Great’s husband Peter III, who was killed as a result of a palace coup, was initially buried not here, but in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. And only 34 years later, after the death of Catherine herself, their son Pavel ordered the remains of his father to be transferred to the Peter and Paul Cathedral and both parents, who did not particularly like each other during their lifetime, be buried side by side. Their graves are located behind those of Elizabeth and Catherine I.

Peter and Paul Cathedral is the tomb of the Romanovs.

The burial places of Alexander II and his wife Maria Alexandrovna differ from others. Above them are massive tombstones made of monoliths of green Altai jasper and pink Ural orlets (rhodonite). Each weighs about 5-6 tons. Thus, on the eve of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty in 1913, tribute was paid to this tsar, who became famous for the liberation of peasants from serfdom, but, despite this, fell at the hands of terrorists and was therefore also considered a martyr tsar.

In Soviet times, no one was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. In 1922 it became a museum. A new grave appeared here only in July 1998, but not in the cathedral itself, but in the chapel of St. Catherine, located to the right of the entrance, where in former times the funeral services of the great princes were held. The remains of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his family and close people, who were shot in 1918 in Yekaterinburg, were solemnly buried there. But the Orthodox Church, despite all the examinations carried out, has doubts about the authenticity of these remains, so this side chapel was chosen as their burial place.

Peter and Paul Cathedral in modern times.

In 2006, the last will of Nicholas II’s mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, was fulfilled. She died in exile in Denmark in 1928 and was buried there. But she left a will in which she asked, when such an opportunity arises, to transfer her ashes to the Peter and Paul Cathedral and bury them next to her husband Alexander III, which was done after agreeing on all the details between the Russian and Danish governments.

Peter and Paul Cathedral in the fortress.

Thus, another grave appeared in the cathedral. It is easily recognizable by its shiny new marble and gold decorations. The cathedral is connected by a covered gallery to the Grand Ducal Tomb, where uncrowned members of the imperial family were supposed to be buried. It was built next to the cathedral at the beginning of the 20th century. at the request of the last Russian Tsar (the authors of the project are architects D Grimm, A Tomishko and L. Benois). Thanks to skillfully found proportions, the building of the tomb and the cathedral from the outside are perceived as a single whole. The inside of the tomb was decorated with marble and gilded bronze; it also had its own altar with an iconostasis and a wonderful stained glass altarpiece “The Resurrection of Christ.”

In Soviet times, the fate of the Grand Ducal Tomb was rather sad. It was severely damaged by the flood of 1924, after which its building and interior were declared to have no artistic value. Bronze decorations were removed and sent for melting down, tombstones were broken. Later, the building housed a book depository, a paper factory warehouse, and a museum exhibition dedicated to the history of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The tomb in modern times.

In 1992, the tradition of burials in the tomb was resumed: the great-grandson of Alexander II, Vladimir Kirillovich, was buried here. The ashes of his parents, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, who died in the 1930s, were also transferred there. in exile. In 2010, next to Vladimir Kirillovich, his widow, Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna, who formerly lived in Madrid, found her last peace. In connection with the resumed burials, restoration work began in the tomb. A magnificent stained glass window from the Resurrection of Christ tomb, destroyed by a blast wave during the war, has been recreated by modern St. Petersburg craftsmen. Temporarily, while the tomb was being restored, it was displayed in a separate room at the exit of the cathedral.

), but there was always one place that seemed inaccessible - the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

1. View towards Vasilyevsky Island

As you understand, we still climbed the Petropavlovka, I want to tell you how we managed to do it.

Walking through the fortress with Olya and tankizt "oh, we decided to go to the museum of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, but we were refused, they said that the museum was closed, they offered to come another time. Then it was decided to look for other methods of entering the Peter and Paul Cathedral tower. What would happen inside, we did not know what the road to the spire would be like Same.

Quite simply and imperceptibly, Olya and I first found ourselves on the roof of the cathedral, and then went through an open window in the tower. Then there was a series of spiral and not so spiral staircases, several doors that, to our surprise, were open! We passed by a bunch of bells, a clock mechanism and other interesting things in the hope that the final door to the inside of the spire would not be closed. We were lucky and got to the last spiral staircase, which was already part of the spire. First thoughts - now there will be a hatch, we’ll climb out of it, and then along the external stairs to the Angel! But our hopes were dashed when we heard voices just above us.

It turned out that the watchmaker gave his friends a tour of the spire. People, two at a time, climbed to the very top of the hatch, admired it for several minutes and were replaced by others. Everyone came down happy and talked about their impressions. We decided that we wouldn't lose anything if we went up too. Having waited our turn, we were the last to go up to the watchmaker, said hello and immediately began photographing the views from the hatch. The watchmaker was surprised at us and asked who we were and how we got here. We said briefly - “We are photographers!” This was enough to hear the answer: “I don’t know who you are and how you got here, but you only have five minutes, then I have to leave, I’m already late.”

There was little time, and there was only one lens - 10-20mm, so I was able to shoot little, which I regret - there are beautiful views from there that can be photographed for a long time on a telephoto camera.

2. Frame down

After the spire, we went down with everyone and filmed everything that happened on the way down. Below is a historical background.

3. Towards the Trinity Bridge

May 16, 1703 On the island of Lust-Eland (Yenisaari, Zayachiy) in the Neva delta, the fortress of St. Peter was founded - St. Peter-Burkh.
It was intended to protect lands conquered during the Northern War with Sweden. The fortress was built according to a plan drawn up with the participation of Peter himself. According to the rules of fortification art, bastions were erected at its corners. Kronverk became defense from land. By the end of 1703 The earthen walls of the fortress were erected, and in the spring they were made of stone. They received their names from the names of the dignitaries who oversaw the construction. During the reign of Catherine, 2 walls facing the Neva were lined with granite.

4.

In 1712 on the site of the wooden church of the Apostles Peter and Paul, Trezzini founded a stone cathedral in the name of the first supreme apostles Peter and Paul (Petropavlovsky), which became the tomb of the Russian Emperors. All the emperors and empresses from Peter I to Alexander III inclusive were buried in the tomb, with the exception of Peter II, who died in Moscow in 1730, and Ivan VI, who was killed in Shlisselburg in 1764.

Based on the name of the cathedral, the fortress began to be called Peter and Paul, and its first name, which sounded in German, St. Petersburg, was transferred to the city.

5. Golovkin Bastion and across the river the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Corps.

In the entire history of the fortress, not a single combat shot was fired from its bastions (although this statement is controversial... during the Great Patriotic War, anti-aircraft guns, machine guns and searchlights were placed on the territory of the fortress and they repelled enemy air raids). But the fortress was always ready to repel enemies.

On the territory of the fortress in the Trubetskoy Bastion, the main political prison of Tsarist Russia was located, it functioned from 1872 to 1921. Also in Petropavlovka there is one of the oldest industrial productions in the city - the Mint.

6.

If we talk about the cathedral itself in modern times:

The height of the cathedral is 122.5 m, the spire is 40 m, the hatch from which we filmed is located at a height of just over a hundred meters. The cathedral was consecrated on June 28, 1733, services are held according to a special schedule (since the 1990s, memorial services for Russian emperors have been regularly held in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, since 2000 - divine services, since Christmas 2008 services have been held regularly), the rest of the time it functions as a museum.

7. We start to go down

The spire was damaged several times by storms, the first time in 1777, the second in 1829

For the first time, the correction was carried out according to the drawings of the architect. P. Yu. Paton. The new figure of an angel with a cross, based on a drawing by A. Rinaldi, was made by master K. Forshman.

The second time, roofer Peter Telushkin carried out repairs without erecting scaffolding. The repairs carried out in October-November 1830 went down in the history of domestic technology as an example of Russian ingenuity and courage.

8.

In 1856-1858 According to the design of engineer D.I. Zhuravsky, instead of a wooden one, a metal spire was built. Inside the spire, a spiral iron staircase leads to a hatch in the casing, located at a height of 100 m above the apple; a six-meter cross with an angel (sculptor R. K. Zaleman) The weather vane angel rotates around a rod installed in the plane of the figure itself. The volumetric parts of the angel are made by electroplating, the remaining parts are stamped from forged copper. Gilding was carried out under the leadership of the chemist G. Struve by the Korotkovs’ artel of merchants. The height of the angel is 3.2 m, the wingspan is 3.8 m.

9. Behind the windows there is a dial with arrows

10. Clockwork

At a height of 16 m, the clock mechanism shaft begins, going up 30 m. Until the 20th century, weights were raised and lowered inside the shaft, ensuring the clock was wound.

The clock-chime for the cathedral was made by the Dutch master B. Oort Crass in 1760. With the help of bells, the clock played various melodies.

Now in the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral there is a unique set of bells in terms of quantity and variety; authentic Dutch bells of the 19th-20th centuries, modern Flemish bells. In total, there are about 130 bells in the bell tower.

11.

12. The clock is a chime. It plays 2 melodies, every hour (How glorious is our Lord in Zion) and a melody (God Save the Tsar) at 6 and 12 o'clock. The drum in the photo sets the melody.

During the Great Patriotic War, the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral was painted over with gray paint. The camouflage of the spire deprived the fascist artillery of a reference point for conducting aimed fire at the most strategically important objects.

According to the memoirs of M.M. Bobrov, a participant in camouflage work in the winter of 1941-1942, the museum has a “Corner of Besieged Leningrad”, which shows the conditions in which climbers lived in the cathedral under the stairs to the bell tower.

14. Let's go even lower

17. I don’t know where the museum begins and ends, but these and the following photographs were probably taken on its territory.

18. Tower design

19. On the left is how the ascent to the angel was implemented in 1830

20. When we went down to the first floor, we were met by a policewoman who told us at the very beginning that the museum was closed. This time she said smiling, “Well, are you done yet?”, we answered, “That’s it!” and went out to meet the upset Tankman (on the left in the photo). Upset because he didn't climb with us. (But today I saw photos on VKontakte that he also climbed the other day, for which I congratulate him.)

That's all. The last photo is for those who don’t know what the Peter and Paul Cathedral looks like from the outside.

21.

Thank you for your attention.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Baroque style in the city on the Neva is part of the architectural ensemble of the famous Peter and Paul Fortress and belongs to the Church Diocese of St. Petersburg. For many years it has been considered an architectural monument. The cathedral houses the tomb of the royal families, dating back to the time of Peter I. The height of the temple is 122.5 m. Until the mid-20th century, the temple was considered the tallest building in the country, and in St. Petersburg a building of greater height was built only in 2012.

History of the construction of the cathedral

The biography of the cathedral begins from the time of Peter I. It was thanks to the order of this sovereign that it was decided to build a temple in honor of Peter and Paul.

Construction background

Peter I planned the construction of a new temple for a reason. In 1712, St. Petersburg became the capital of Russia, and it was necessary to emphasize the new status of the city. For this purpose, according to the sovereign’s idea, it was decided to build a temple on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress, which would be located in the center.

According to the preliminary design, the cathedral was supposed to rise higher than the Moscow buildings: the Menshikov Tower and the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great. The temple became an architectural expression of the ideas of that time.

Construction of the cathedral and its life

Initially, during the construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress in 1703, a wooden temple was built along with the construction of earthen ramparts. Its laying took place on July 10, Peter's Day. Eight months later, on April 1, the consecration of the temple took place. On May 14, ceremonial services were held in honor of the famous victory over the Swedes on Lake Peipsi.

The construction of a stone church on the same site began on May 30, 1712. However, the wooden church was not destroyed; it was located inside the new building. The cathedral was built according to the drawings of the Italian architect D. Trezzini, and construction management was also entrusted to him. Peter I ordered that work begin with the bell tower. The construction of the temple was delayed due to a lack of labor and building materials, and the main work was completed only in 1720. A master from Holland, Harman van Bolos, was invited to install the spire. A little later, its covering was finished with gilded copper. The idea of ​​Peter I came true: the height of the Peter and Paul Cathedral at its highest point was 112 m - this is 32 m more than the bell tower of the Moscow Kremlin. Construction and finishing work was completed after the death of the Tsar in 1733.

In 1742, the Peter and Paul Cathedral received cathedral status. Sixteen years later, this status was transferred to the newly built St. Isaac's Cathedral, and Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1769 was transferred to the department at the court of the sovereign.

In 1756, the cathedral was struck by lightning and a fire started. The temple received severe damage, significant damage was caused to the spire and the clock located on the facade. The restoration of the building lasted until 1772. In 1773, a new chapel to St. Catherine was built and its consecration took place. A new clock was installed in 1776, 20 years after the fire. The chimes were made to special order by the Dutch watchmaker B. Oort Kras. Residents of St. Petersburg had the opportunity to listen to the anthem of the Russian State every hour.

In 1777, a terrible storm occurred in St. Petersburg, during which the spire was damaged. Its restoration was entrusted to the architect Peter Paton, and a new figurine of an angel with a cross to replace the lost one was made by the Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi. 53 years later, in 1830, the need arose to repair the figurine: repair the cross and solder the wing to the angel. A truly heroic act was performed by roofing master Pyotr Telushkin. He climbed the spire with the help of ropes in his hands and completed the required work.

In 1857-1858, according to the design of the architect K. A. Ton, instead of wooden spire rafters, metal ones were installed. At the suggestion of engineer D.I. Zhuravsky, an octagonal pyramidal structure connected by rings was developed. After the completion of the new spire, the height of the building increased by 10.5 m.

In 1866, the replacement of the royal gates with new ones, which were made of bronze according to the design of the architect A. Krakau, was completed. In 1877, painting of the new lampshades was completed, which lasted two years. The work was carried out by the Italian painter D. Boldini.

Members of the royal family often attended divine liturgies in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Some memorial services were honored by the sovereign himself. When Peter the Great died, it was decided to build a tomb inside the temple, where his body was laid to rest. Since then, all members of the royal family began to be buried there. In 1865, the tombstones were replaced with slabs made of white marble. Gilded crosses were carved on top of them.

In 1919, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was closed. Since 1924, a museum has been opened in the building. Many valuable relics were transferred to other museum institutions.

Significant damage to the cathedral was caused during the war. The façade was renovated in 1952. In 1954, the temple was transferred to the Department of the City History Museum. In 1957, the restoration of the building's interior was completed.

Current state

In 1990, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was again returned to the Orthodox Church, and at the same time memorial services for the Russian tsars began to be held. In 2000, services and liturgies began to be held. Now the head of the temple is Arch-P Alexander. In a separate hall of the cathedral there is a museum where unique collections of church utensils are collected.

Features of the architectural ensemble

The architecture of the Peter and Paul Cathedral differs sharply from the tented churches and churches with domes of that time. The temple is made in the style of Western European architecture: a building in the form of a rectangle, located in length from east to west. The length of the building is 61 m, width –27.5.

The general appearance of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is modest. The window frames are decorated with cherubs, and the walls are decorated with columnar pilasters. 6 similar pilasters decorate the main entrance on the west side. The façade on the eastern side is painted with a fresco made by artist. P. Titov. A small drum with a dome crowns the pre-altar part.

On the western side of the temple there is a bell tower built in several tiers. A smooth transition from the main building to the bell tower is provided by the first two tiers, which gradually expand. The third tier has a gilded eight-pitched roof, on which there are round windows framed with white stone on four sides. The final element is a drum with narrow window openings. The dome of the drum is made in the form of a crown, on which is mounted an elegant golden turret. Next comes a 40-meter-long spire, at the top of which there is a figurine of an angel holding a cross in his hands. From a distance it can be hardly seen, but in fact it weighs 250 kg and has a wingspan of 3.8 meters and a height of 3.2 meters.

Interior of the cathedral

The interior of the Peter and Paul Cathedral amazes with its splendor. Large marble columns divide the main hall into 3 naves. The floor is made of limestone slabs. Rhodonite, jasper and marble were used to decorate the walls. The columns and walls are decorated with elegant stucco moldings made by masters A. Quadri and I. Rossi. When painting images from the Gospel on the walls, the artist Andrei Matveev supervised the work; under his supervision were the famous painters of that time D. Solovyov, I. Belsky, V. Ignatiev, M. Zakharov, V. Yaroshevsky, G. Gzel. Pyotr Zybin decorated the ceiling lamps of the central vault. The walls were painted by artists Negrubov and Vorobyov.

The cathedral is illuminated by 5 bronze chandeliers decorated with crystal and Venetian glass of various colors. Four chandeliers are exact copies made in the post-war period, the fifth is an original dating back to the 18th century.

Charity wall newspaper for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg “Briefly and clearly about the most interesting things.” Issue No. 72 (Curious Petersburg, part 5), February 2015

Peter and Paul Cathedral

Wall newspapers of the charitable educational project “Briefly and clearly about the most interesting things” (site site) are intended for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg. They are delivered free of charge to most educational institutions, as well as to a number of hospitals, orphanages and other institutions in the city. The project's publications do not contain any advertising (only founders' logos), are politically and religiously neutral, written in easy language, and well illustrated. They are intended as informational “inhibition” of students, awakening cognitive activity and the desire to read. Authors and publishers, without pretending to provide academic completeness of the material, publish interesting facts, illustrations, interviews with famous figures of science and culture and thereby hope to increase the interest of schoolchildren in the educational process. Send feedback and suggestions to: pangea@mail.. We thank the Education Department of the Kirovsky District Administration of St. Petersburg and everyone who selflessly helps in distributing our wall newspapers. Special thanks to Olga Vladimirovna Skorobogataya, head of the public relations department of the State Museum of History of St. Petersburg, for her invaluable assistance in creating this issue.

Dear friends! We dedicated the fifth issue of the “Curious Petersburg” series to the “heart” of our city – the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Employees of one of the largest historical museums in Russia, the State Museum of History of St. Petersburg, helped us prepare this newspaper (as well as the previous issue of the series dedicated to Hare Island). Its main “exhibit” is a unique monument of history, architecture and fortification art of the 18th-20th centuries - the Peter and Paul Fortress.

XVIII century

The “St. Petersburg” fortress (as the Peter and Paul Fortress was originally called) was founded on May 27 (May 16, old style) 1703 on the small Hare Island in the Neva delta. The fortress was built “with great haste” to defend Russian lands captured by Sweden in the 17th century and recaptured during the Northern War of 1700–1721.
The legend set out in the manuscript “On the conception and building of the reigning city of St. Petersburg” (the name of our city was then written in one word) describes this significant event as follows: “May, 14. The Tsar’s Majesty deigned to inspect the seaside of the mouths of the Neva River and the islands and found it convenient island to the building of the city (this island was then empty and overgrown with forest, and was called Luistrand, that is, Jolly Island). When I entered the middle of that island, I felt a noise in the air, saw an eagle soaring, and the sound of its wings soaring was heard. Taking a baguinet (bayonet) from the soldier and cutting out two turfs, he laid the turf on the turf in a cross shape and, making a cross out of wood, deigned to say: “In the name of Jesus Christ, in this place there will be a church in the name of the Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul.”
It is further indicated that on May 16, the king, having dug a ditch, placed a stone box in it and “deigned to place in that ditch a golden box containing the relics of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, and cover it with a stone lid, on which was carved: “After the incarnation of Jesus Christ 1703, May 16, the reigning city of St. Petersburg was founded by the great Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, Autocrat of All Russia.” Peter I dreamed that, under the patronage of the Apostle Andrei, the new Russian capital would receive the same glory as Rome - the city of the Apostle Peter, Andrei's brother.

One of the first images of the fortress on Hare Island (from the educational tables of the “Navigation School” in Moscow; compiled by Vasily Kipriyanov, 1705). “In the middle of the fortress, close to the canal, there is a small but beautiful wooden Russian church.”

On June 29, the day of Saints Peter and Paul, Peter I founded a wooden church in the center of the fortress. On April 1, 1704, Metropolitan Job of Novgorod and Velikolutsk consecrated it in the name of the holy apostles Peter and Paul (their memory is celebrated on the same day, and for their special merits in the matter of Christian preaching, only they received the title of “first-supreme”). Thus, like the new city itself, the temple received the name of St. Apostle Peter, the king’s heavenly patron.
One of the first descriptions of the church dates back to 1710: “In the middle of the fortress, close to the canal, stands a small but beautiful wooden Russian church with one elegant pointed tower in the Dutch style. At the top of the tower hang several bells, which, touched by the hand of man, perform a harmonious bell ringing every hour... Man, in the absence of a clock mechanism, manually strikes a certain bell in accordance with the number of hours, indicates the time.”
In 1709–1710, after the victory in the Battle of Poltava (1709), the decisive battle of the Northern War that ended in the complete defeat of the Swedish army, the temple was expanded by adding two chapels topped with spiers. The temple was painted “to look like a stone with yellow marble.”

Peter and Paul Cathedral (center) and two of its several prototypes - St. Nicholas Church in Copenhagen (left) and St. Peter's Church in Riga (right).

On June 8, 1712, on Trinity Day (the same holiday to which the foundation of the fortress was dedicated), Peter laid the stone Peter and Paul Cathedral next to the wooden fortress. Since St. Petersburg became the capital of the Russian state in 1712, the cathedral from the very beginning of its construction was perceived as one of the main churches in Russia. The cathedral was built according to the design of the outstanding St. Petersburg architect, Swiss Domenico Trezzini. This building is one of the most significant monuments of the Peter the Great era, a symbol of the establishment of a new capital on the shores of the Baltic. The cathedral is the most expressive example of early Russian baroque, which is also called “Petrine baroque”. This style was formed together with St. Petersburg, absorbing European architectural traditions. Before Peter, such Orthodox churches were not built in Russia. Interestingly, the construction was carried out in such a way that the original wooden church remained inside the new building. It was dismantled only in 1719 and moved to the St. Petersburg side in the soldiers' settlement, where it stood until 1806.

"Facade of the wooden church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul 1703”, unknown artist. Illustration from the book: Novoselov S.K. Description of the cathedral in the name of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul. St. Petersburg, 1857

Peter I attached particular importance to the construction of the bell tower. A bell tower in church tradition is a tower attached to a temple (or located nearby) and specifically designed for bells. In ancient Rus', instead of bell towers, stone walls-belfries were built; later they were replaced by free-standing tiered bell towers. Only in the 18th century in Russia did bell towers become part of the temple. Peter strove to erect a building of unprecedented height and solemnity in the young capital as quickly as possible. It was from the bell tower, topped with a high pointed spire, that the construction of the Peter and Paul Cathedral began. “The bell tower,” Peter hurried the builders, “will be finished as quickly as possible, so that next year it will be possible to put a clock on it, and build the church little by little.”

One of the first images of the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Fragment of the Panorama of St. Petersburg. Engraving by Alexey Zubov, 1716.

By 1719, the wooden spire of the bell tower soared to a height of 106 meters, significantly surpassing the most significant structure of this type in Russia (and throughout the Orthodox world) - the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Moscow Kremlin. It is known that Peter I even thought about creating an elevator in the bell tower. By 1724, the supporting structure of the spire was completely sheathed on the outside. “A fortress church,” wrote an eyewitness, “with a bell tower in a new style, covered with copper, brightly gilded sheets, which are unusually beautiful in sunlight.” The wooden structures of the spire were installed by Harman van Bolos, a master invited by Peter I from Holland. The word “spire” itself is of Dutch origin. At the very top there was a ball made of gilded copper, similar to a large apple. This decorative detail that completes the spire or dome of a building is usually called an apple. According to Trezzini's drawing and model, a copper cross with the figure of an Angel was executed and installed on the spire, which became one of the most important symbols of the northern capital.

Angel on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Drawing by Domenico Trezzini, 1722. This was the first angel hovering over St. Petersburg from 1724 to 1756.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral was created during one of the most important periods of Russian history in modern times. In 1721, the Northern War ended, the Peace of Nystadt, victorious for Russia, was signed, and Peter I was solemnly presented with the title of Father of the Fatherland and Great Emperor. These historical events determined the special splendor and grandeur of the interior decoration of the temple, which is as unusual for traditional Russian church architecture as its external appearance. For a long time, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was a kind of monument to the glory of Russian weapons: captured banners, keys to cities and fortresses taken by Russian troops were kept here (at the beginning of the 20th century, these relics were transferred to the Hermitage, and in the cathedral there were copies of Swedish and Turkish banners, which can be seen and Today).
In 1720, a chiming clock and a carillon with 35 bells, purchased by Peter I in Amsterdam for a fabulous sum at that time (45 thousand rubles), appeared on the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Chimes are a clock with a musical mechanism that plays a simple melody. The word “chime” arose from the name of the French dance “danse courat,” which was very popular in the old days. This melody sounded from the tower clocks of town halls in European cities. In Russia, chimes first appeared in the 15th century on the towers of the Moscow Kremlin, and in St. Petersburg - on the bell tower of the Trinity Church (destroyed in 1933). “Greenly cunning” chimes “played by themselves every half hour, driven by a large iron machine with a copper shaft,” and emitted a chime unheard of in Russia.
A carillon (from the French word for chime) is a musical instrument consisting of a set of bells and a keyboard resembling an organ keyboard, “a machine that is controlled by the hands and feet.” Each key (more like a handle) is connected to the tongue of “its” bell with a long wire. In Western Europe, “bell music” became most widespread in the Middle Ages. The first carillon in Russia was placed in the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. A specially trained “bell player” performed musical pieces on the carillon every morning.
In 1725, on the second tier of the bell tower (at a height of 42 meters), in addition to the carillon, a Russian belfry was installed. This open area with bells is a mandatory feature of an Orthodox church. The ringing of bells calls believers to prayer. Such a ringing is called “blagovest” - it announces the good news about the beginning of the divine service. Under Peter I, when the Peter and Paul Cathedral was the main temple of St. Petersburg, the bell sounded from its bell tower served as a signal for the start of bell ringing in all St. Petersburg churches. The ringing of bells also expresses grief for the deceased on the day of the funeral. Since the Peter and Paul Cathedral became the tomb of the House of Romanov during the life of Peter I, the ringing of bells always sounded during the burial of Russian emperors and members of the reigning dynasty.

Iconostasis of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

In 1729, a wooden gilded iconostasis was installed in the cathedral, giving its interior a particularly solemn character. It is rightfully considered an unsurpassed example of Russian carving of the Baroque era (the sketch of the iconostasis was supposedly made by Domenico Trezzini himself). Under the leadership of the outstanding Russian artist and architect Ivan Zarudny, it was made in Moscow by craftsmen of the Kremlin Armory, transported in parts to St. Petersburg and installed in the cathedral in 1729. The iconostasis is a special partition with icons (“wall for icons” in Greek), which separates the altar from the rest of the Orthodox church and symbolizes the border between the earthly world and the heavenly world. Tall multi-tiered iconostases, consisting of five or more rows of icons, became widespread in Russian church architecture of the 16th–17th centuries. However, the iconostasis of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is not similar to the iconostasis of pre-Petrine times. In its composition, it is close to the triumphal buildings erected under Peter I in honor of the victories of Russian weapons. There are no horizontal rows of icons here, and the central part is designed in the form of a majestic triumphal arch, which is thrown over the central doors of the iconostasis - the Royal Doors - and rises into the under-dome space to a height of almost 20 meters.
Above the royal doors, located in the very center of the iconostasis, are crossed keys. These attributes of the Apostle Peter - the keys to heaven, as well as an element of the coat of arms of Rome (the city of St. Peter) - remind us that St. Petersburg is the “third Rome”. In the Peter the Great era, such an image could be interpreted as symbolic keys to the Baltic and the new capital of Russia, which became its sea gates.
The icon cases (special cabinets) house 43 icons painted between 1727 and 1729 by Moscow masters. The icons form a single artistic cycle, the thematic program of which was most likely developed by Archbishop Feofan (Prokopovich). Among the main themes of this program is the glorification of the acts of Peter I and the idea of ​​​​the triumph of Russian statehood.

The figure of St. Apostle Peter on the iconostasis of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Shortly before the consecration of the cathedral, a pulpit was installed near one of the pylons (a pillar that serves as a support for the vaulted ceilings). It should be noted that in Orthodox churches the practice of reading sermons from special pulpits did not exist before Peter I. The pulpit is decorated with paintings from the Old and New Testaments, and gilded wooden sculptures of the apostles Peter and Paul.
At the opposite pylon there is the Royal Place - a low platform upholstered in crimson velvet, where the emperor prayed during the service. Above the platform are images of the imperial regalia - a crown, a sword and a scepter. According to tradition, Russian emperors came to the Peter and Paul Cathedral after their coronation to ask for blessings on the kingdom, and when leaving the capital, to say goodbye to the graves of their parents.

The burial place of Peter I. On the tombstone there are commemorative medals, on the wall there is a sculptural group “Lamentation of Christ”, donated to the cathedral by the wife of the Emperor Catherine I as a sign of grief for her deceased husband. Her grave is in the foreground.

Peter I did not see the Peter and Paul Cathedral in all its splendor - on January 28, 1725, the emperor died suddenly after catching a cold during a flood. The coffin with his embalmed body was placed in a temporary wooden chapel built by Domenico Trezzini inside the temple under construction, where it stood for six years, surrounded by candles, coats of arms and banners. Later, a coffin with the body of his wife Catherine was placed nearby. In 1731, upon completion of the construction of the temple, Peter I and Catherine were buried near the southern wall in front of the altar. Even during the life of Peter I, his children who died in infancy, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich and his wife (Princess Charlotte-Christina-Sophia), sister of Peter I (Maria Alekseevna) and his daughter-in-law (Tsarina Marfa Matveevna, wife of Peter's half-brother) were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral I - Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich). Thus, even before the completion of construction, the cathedral became a necropolis. Necropolis in Greek means “city of the dead.” This was the name given in ancient times to a large burial complex, a large cemetery. Over time, this word acquired another meaning - a place where famous people are buried. The Peter and Paul Cathedral contains the ashes of many representatives of the Romanov dynasty, primarily Russian emperors and empresses, with the exception of Peter II (buried in Moscow) and John VI (burial location unknown).
At the eastern wall of the cathedral there is another necropolis - the Commandant's Cemetery. The commandants of St. Petersburg and the Peter and Paul Fortress (until 1796 this was a single position) who died in office were buried here.

"The Great Fire in the City of St. Petersburg in 1737." German engraving. On the left side of the engraving is the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

The fire element has always been no less a threat to St. Petersburg than floods. The fire destroyed palaces and temples, residential areas and living quarters, factories and barges, and claimed human lives. So, in 1737, a fire broke out on the Admiralty Side, turning more than a thousand residential buildings from the source of the Moika to the Green Bridge into ashes. In 1756, during a night thunderstorm, the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral caught fire. The tallest building in St. Petersburg was built at a time when lightning rods had not yet been invented, and more than once suffered from lightning strikes. The summer thunderstorm of 1756 turned out to be fatal; not only the wooden spire with the figure of an Angel and a clock burned down, but also the roof of the cathedral. The bells melted. Unable to withstand the heat, the upper tiers of the bell tower and the dome collapsed. The iconostasis, thanks to its collapsible design, was removed in parts.
Restoration work dragged on for several decades. In 1757, instead of the original wooden dome, a new brick one, topped with an onion dome, was erected above the altar. The new gable roof was made of iron rafters laid on brick arches.

In 1764, by decree of Empress Catherine II, a competition was announced for the project of restoring the bell tower. In particular, outstanding Russian architects Yuri Felten and Savva Chevakinsky took part in it. However, having considered the projects they proposed, the Empress ordered the construction of the bell tower “exactly as it was, since all other plans are not so beautiful.” The work was carried out under the direction of engineer Harman van Bolos. A new wooden spire, covered with gilded copper sheets, was recreated by 1773, and the figure of the second Angel, recreated in its previous form, was installed on its top.

View of the city through the dial of the tower clock.

A new clock mechanism and carillon, to replace the burned ones, were manufactured and delivered to St. Petersburg by the famous Dutch master Ortho Crass. Their assembly at a height of 62 meters was carried out only in 1776 by the watchmaker I. Roediger. At the same time, beautiful round dials with Roman numerals were installed on the four cardinal points. The diameter of each dial is two meters! The word dial is German and refers to any panel with numbers. The dial can be found not only in watches, but also in other devices, for example, in scales. In the old days, time accuracy was not as monitored as it is now, so the clock dials on the bell tower had only one hour hand. The new carillon chimes already had 38 bells, which made it possible to perform more complex melodies.
By 1777, the first lightning rod appeared on the bell tower. Back in the 1750s, it became known in Russia about the experiments of the American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin in creating lightning protection. In 1772, Catherine II ordered the construction of an “electric outlet to avert the impact and burning of lightning events.” How to install it was decided by scientists from the Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Academician Leonhard Euler. Finally, in the summer of 1775, metalsmiths and blacksmiths began to work. An iron rod was laid along the spire and wall of the cathedral, from the cross to the ground, the end of which was lowered into the water of the canal.
In 1777 there was a “great storm”. From the onslaught of the hurricane wind, the Angel's figure bent and his wings were torn off. To avoid such troubles in the future, they decided to reduce the weight of the Angel and position it so that the center of gravity of the figure coincides with the axis of the spire. The new sketch was developed by the architect Antonio Rinaldi according to the principles of classicism. This third Angel, the one we are familiar with, was installed on the spire in 1778 and hovered over the city for forty years.

19th century

The ascent of Pyotr Telushkin to the spire of the bell tower. From an engraving from the early 1830s.

In 1829, a storm again severely damaged the cross, and the Angel’s wing broke off (which almost fell on the commandant of the fortress). In order to carry out repairs, it was necessary to build expensive scaffolding around the bell tower. The talented Yaroslavl roofer Pyotr Telushkin decided to take on the repairs. He managed to climb the spire without erecting scaffolding, but only by “the ingenious use of complex rope loops and resorting to very resourceful tricks.” In 1830, for six weeks, to the cheers of onlookers, he climbed a rope ladder every day to the top of the spire and single-handedly returned the figure of the Angel to its correct position and attached the wing. This repair went down in history as an example of Russian ingenuity and courage.

"View of the Neva and the Peter and Paul Fortress." Watercolor by Vasily Sadovnikov, 1847.
The spiral staircase inside the spire, gradually narrowing, rises to 2/3 of the height of the spire and ends with a small door “to the street”. Further to the Angel you can only climb the external stairs.

In 1834, the cross tilted again. It turned out that the wooden structures of the spire began to rot. Restoration work was delayed for a long time. Finally, in 1856, Emperor Alexander II expressed his consent to the construction of a new spire. Engineer Dmitry Zhuravsky was appointed its chief builder. He designed an unusually light metal frame in the form of an octagonal pyramid for such a massive structure. The supporting structures were installed in 1858. The supports of the eight ribs of the frame were reinforced in the brickwork of the bell tower. The outside of the spire was covered with copper sheets, gilded by the mercury-galvanic method under the guidance of the famous St. Petersburg chemist, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences Heinrich Struve. A spiral staircase was built inside the spire. Above the apple (its diameter is 1.6 meters) a six-meter cross with a new figure of an Angel rose (height - 3.2 meters, wingspan - 3.8 meters). This fourth figure of the Angel has survived to this day. After the installation of the new spire, the total height of the bell tower increased to 122.5 meters. The Peter and Paul Cathedral acquired its modern appearance.

Cherub figurines on the bell tower.

At the very top of the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, under the dome with a clock, you can see interesting decorations in the form of the heads of plump babies with wings. These are cherubs - a decorative motif that appeared in Western European architecture in the 15th century and later became widespread. Cherubs can also be seen inside the Peter and Paul Cathedral. According to Christian beliefs, cherubs are guardian angels. According to popular beliefs, cherubs are the souls of dead children. Decorations for Christmas trees or Easter willows are sometimes made in the shape of cherubs.
Simultaneously with the alteration of the spire in 1858, the restoration of the tower clock was carried out. Moscow masters, brothers Nikolai and Ivan Butenop, repaired the tower clock and modernized the mechanism, adding minute hands to the dials (there were none before). The carillon, which had worn out and fell silent by 1840, was not restored. The chimes were set to play the church hymn by Dmitry Bortnyansky, “How Glorious is Our Lord in Zion.” >

XX century

This is what the “playing mechanism” of the chimes looks like.

In 1906, the repertoire of the tower clock of the Peter and Paul Cathedral was replenished with the national anthem of the Russian Empire, “God Save the Tsar,” written by composer Alexei Lvov. The chimes sounded the anthem twice - at noon and at midnight, and every quarter of an hour they performed “How Glorious is...”. At the same time, 27 new bells, cast at the Gatchina plant, were installed on the Russian belfry (the third tier of the bell tower, height 42 meters from the base of the cathedral). The largest of them weighed 4.8 tons; 400 soldiers from the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress took part in its lifting.

Bronze hour bell before ascending to the belfry of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Photo by Karl Bulla, “the father of Russian photo reporting,” 1905.

In 1897-1908, the Grand Ducal Burial Vault was built next to the cathedral (since there was no more space left for burials in the cathedral itself). The word “tomb” is associated with the attitude towards death as sleep and transition to another world. In the Christian world, there was a widespread custom of burying representatives of ruling dynasties in temples. Until the 18th century, when Moscow was the capital of Russia, the tomb of the great princes of Moscow, and later the Russian tsars, served as the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. With the transfer of the capital to St. Petersburg, the Peter and Paul Cathedral became the imperial tomb. In the Grand Ducal Tomb, it was decided to bury only uncrowned members of the imperial family - brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren of the emperor. Before the outbreak of the First World War, eight burials from the cathedral were moved there and five more grand dukes were buried. There are 60 crypts in the tomb. The traditional Orthodox funeral rite was supplemented by secular mourning ceremonies, mostly borrowed from the Protestant German states. In the new ritual, a special role was assigned to the solemn funeral procession, which accompanied the coffin with the body of the deceased to the Peter and Paul Cathedral, accompanied by the ringing of bells from all the churches of the city and incessant cannon fire from the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Grand-ducal tomb.

In 1900–1907, a separate entrance to the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Grand Ducal Tomb was built, intended for the imperial family. It was built during the construction of the gallery connecting the cathedral and the tomb, according to the design of Leontius Benoit. He was also the author of the metal fence installed in front of the Tsar's entrance from the Cathedral Square. The famous lattice of the Summer Garden was chosen as a model on the personal instructions of Emperor Nicholas II. The artist Nikolai Kharlamov created four mosaics that decorated the facades of the Grand Ducal Tomb - images of the Iveron, Kazan and Feodorovskaya Mothers, as well as the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, located above the entrance to the gallery of the Grand Ducal Tomb. The stained glass window “The Resurrection of Christ” was made based on a drawing by artist Nikolai Bruni.

Lithograph “Peter and Paul Fortress” from the album “Petersburg in 1921”. Artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, 1923.

In September 1917, still under the Provisional Government, 31 boxes containing cathedral property were taken from Petrograd to Moscow: utensils, icons, church vestments, gold and silver wreaths, and books. Many values ​​disappeared irrevocably after the Bolsheviks came to power. Nowadays, only individual items stored in the Peter and Paul Cathedral are in museum collections in Moscow (Armory Chamber) and St. Petersburg (Hermitage, Museum of the History of St. Petersburg). The interior decoration of the Grand Ducal Tomb was destroyed, the marble tombstones were broken.
Divine services were stopped, in 1919 the cathedral was closed, in 1922 it was transferred to Glavnauka, and in 1926 to the Museum of the Revolution. The chimes and bells of the Peter and Paul Cathedral fell silent for a long time. An attempt made in 1937 to configure them to perform the Internationale failed; some of the bells were subjected to mechanical processing and were damaged. In the 1930s, there was even consideration of replacing the angel of the bell tower spire with a ruby ​​star. They managed to draw up documents for this project, but due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, this work was never completed.
Although back in 1918 the cathedral was taken under state protection as a historical and cultural monument, the building was not heated or repaired, and by 1939 its condition became “threatening for visiting by working people.”
During the Great Patriotic War, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was badly damaged. Despite the fact that the spire was painted over by climbers with gray ship's paint, and the Angel was covered with burlap, the bell tower was a noticeable landmark for fascist artillery and aviation. One of the bombs that exploded on the territory of the fortress damaged the spire of the cathedral with fragments, and the dials were blown out of their nests by the blast wave. The altar stained glass window of Nikolai Brunya was knocked out by the blast wave.

The bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, marked in the photograph as a target for fascist cannons.

Restoring the destruction caused by the Great Patriotic War took decades. In 1954, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was transferred to the State Museum of the History of Leningrad (now the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg) in a deplorable state. Since then, a huge amount of work has been carried out to restore the original decoration of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
In 1957, chimes began to play again - this time the first measures of the anthem of the Soviet Union. The clock had to be almost completely restored. Their plant was automated, and the mechanics no longer had to raise lead weights to a 30-meter height daily. The Russian belfry was restored in 1988. Currently, it includes 22 bells on which Easter ringing, bell music concerts and a blessing are performed before services in the cathedral.
The interrupted tradition of burials in the Grand Duke's tomb resumed: in 1992, the great -grandson of Alexander II, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, buried. In 1998, in the Catherine’s aisle of the cathedral, the burial of the remains of Emperor Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra and the Grand Duchess Olga, Tatyana and Anastasia, as well as Libyan Medical Evgeny Botkin and three servants who were shot by the Bolsheviks together with the royal family, took place in the Catherine's aisle of the cathedral.

XXI Century

Only in 2002, after an 85-year break, from the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the melodies “God, keep our Lord in Zion” again sounded. The angel underwent several serious repairs, including the capital in 2002-2003, during which he was removed from his seat and was taken to a restoration workshop. Like a flood, the St. Petersburg angel rotates on the inner rod, which favorably obeying the direction of the wind. Until 2012, the Peter and Paul Cathedral remained the highest building of St. Petersburg, losing to the skyscrapers “Prince Alexander Nevsky” (124 meters) and “Leader Tower” (140 meters). In addition, of course, a 326-meter television tower. But it is not a “building”, but a “structure”.
In 2006, the project reserved in the funds of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg was recreated by the resource of the Resurrection of Christ. Now he is in his old place - in the eastern window of the Grand Duke's tomb. In the same year, the remains of Empress Maria Fedorovna, the wife of Alexander III and the mother of Nicholas II were reburied in the cathedral. Since 1992, for the first time in post -revolutionary times, worships began to be held in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. And in 2009, an agreement was signed between the St. Petersburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and the museum on regular services on weekends and holidays.

The current carillon on the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Bells and keyboard.

In 2001, a carillon was installed on the first tier of the bell tower - a gift to St. Petersburg from the government of Flanders (a historical region in northwestern Europe) and 350 donors. It consists of 51 bells with a range of four octaves (total weight 15,160 kg). Playing the carillon in the Peter and Paul Fortress has resumed thanks to Jo Haasen, a professor at the Royal Carillon School from the Belgian city of Mechelen. This city is home to the famous carillon of St. Rombald's Cathedral. You may have heard the expression “raspberry ringer.” Legend has it that Peter I called the roll call of Mechelen bells this way (the French name for the city of Mechelen is Malin). Every summer, the Peter and Paul Fortress hosts a traditional carillon festival, bringing together performers from different countries.
Thus, a unique complex of 103 Dutch and Russian bells was formed on the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The oldest of them date back to 1757 - this is the surviving part of the second Dutch carillon.

Peter and Paul Cathedral today.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral is a unique historical and architectural monument of the 18th century, one of the most important symbols of the northern capital. The world-famous gilded spire of Peter and Paul Fortress, crowned with the figure of an Angel, dominates the panorama of the central embankments of the city. According to an ancient legend, as long as the Angel proudly soars over the Neva, St. Petersburg is not afraid of any troubles.

What to read about the history of the Peter and Paul Cathedral?>

History of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Booklet. – St. Petersburg: GMI St. Petersburg, 2014, – 20 p.: ill.
Peter and Paul Fortress from A to Z. – St. Petersburg: GMI St. Petersburg, 2011, – 72 p.: ill.
Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Grand Ducal Tomb. Album. – St. Petersburg: GMI St. Petersburg, 2007, – 160 p.: ill.
Symbols of St. Petersburg. Booklet. – St. Petersburg: GMI St. Petersburg, 2004, – 20 p.: ill.