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Cathedral of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul (Peterhof)

32 Sankt-Peterburgsky Avenue, Peterhof, tel.: +7 812 427-92-68.

Constructed in 1905, the Cathedral of Saint Pre-Eminent Apostles Peter and Paul is Peterhof's most significant church that has survived. Created to a design by the architect Nikolay Sultanov, this church can be seen from a long distance, beyond the city limits. A perfect view of the Cathedral is provided both from the Gulf of Finland and from the side of the railway. Since Peterburgskoye Highway passes by the Cathedral itself, tourist buses stop virtually next to it.

For many years, the Cathedral was covered with scaffolding. Tourist guides had to answer baffled questions, coming from tourists from Russian and other countries, by mumbling something about delayed restoration works. Only as late as 1 January 1990, works on cleaning the Cathedral from half-a-century old rubble and debris started, and on 19 January, before a vast assembly of people, the first church service was celebrated.

The decision to create the Cathedral was taken in 1892. As early as the spring of 1893, Emperor Alexander II approved the design prepared by Professor Nikolay Sultanov, a civil engineer. Like most churches of the time, the Cathedral was constructed in the Kievan Russian style; its general features resemble those of Moscow's Cathedral of Saint Basil. The Cathedral embodied the forms of the Neo-Russian style in a quite unique way. According to Sultanov, "the facade is based on the forms of the 16th and 17th century Russian churches, which are scattered in great numbers around central Russian regions and which in Moscow and Yaroslavl are distinguished with special richness and beauty of their forms."

The Cathedral's foundation stone was laid on 25 July 1895, in the presence of a delegation of court clergy led by Archpriest John Yanyshev (since the Cathedral was managed by the Ministry of the Imperial Court). The carcase of the building was constructed within four years, followed by three years of works on plastering, a heating system and a ventilation system. Two years were spent on wall-painting, creating an icon-stand, furniture, church plate and robes. A park was laid out around the Cathedral. The Cathedral was constructed at the expense of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, costing it 850,000 roubles (which was a lot, considering the level of prices in 1905).

The Cathedral is over 60 meters high. Its five spires have the shape of a tent. They form a kind of attics that have dormer-windows cut in them. This is what was written about these windows by the architect Sultanov himself: "Apart from providing light, the dormer windows of the main tented dome have another good quality: they provide a wonderful view of the surroundings. Your eyes see a huge area with the diameter of around 30 kilometres (18 miles): you may see Petersburg, Baby-Gon, Kronstadt, etc. Most probably, after the church is consecrated, quite a few tourists will be ascending to the windows of the main dome." These words show that even long before the 1917 Russian Communist Revolution many church architects and clergymen believed that it was quite acceptable from the Orthodox point of view to partially use churches for the so called cultural tourism.

In general, despite its historical appearance, the Cathedral features many constructive and technical innovations. They give us a hint on the great advances that Russian church architecture would have seen had its evolution not been forcefully interrupted after 1917.

The church is surrounded by a high, warm and well-lit gallery designed for performing processions of the cross in bad weather, "without any harm to the health of the participants." It is there that there are also special places for consecrating eggs and Easter cakes. For each of the four entrances, the design even included an anteroom where one could leave his or her outdoor clothes.

There are three icon-stands in the Cathedral. The central one is unique in that it is made of maiolica, while the two side ones are made of white Carrara marble. The icon-stands holds icons painted on gilt bronze panels by the painter Guryanov. The Cathedral was painted based on Sultanov's sketches by Moscow masters and iconographers from the famous village of Palekh. All the church decorations and utensils (chandeliers, wall lamps, sanctuary lamps, etc.) were also made based on Sultanov's sketches.

The Cathedral's solemn consecration took place in 1905, in the presence of the imperial family. Soon after, numerous advantages of the new Cathedral became apparent: the comfortable sacristy and the library, both having their own entrances and connected with the altar; the confessional; the rooms for burial services; the chapels of the already mentioned covered gallery for processions of the cross. The Cathedral boasted wonderful acoustics.

The church was shut down in 1935. Soon after, the icons as well as the unique decorations and utensils disappeared. During the Second World War, the domes and walls were smashed. After the war, the Cathedral was used as a container warehouse. It was during that period that the white-marble icon-stands of the side altars disappeared, and the Cathedral was close to its final demise.

Further destruction was avoided when the company "Restavrator" was charged with the reconstruction of the Cathedral's appearance. However, serious reconstruction works started only after the Cathedral was handed over to the community of believers. Now the Cathedral is a fully functioning church. The tourists are also taken care of. They are offered to survey Peterhof's surroundings from the viewing point under the central "tent".

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Cathedral of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul



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