Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs (Saint Petersburg)
11 6th Line Street, Vasilievsky Island, Saint Petersburg (tel.: +7 812 323-34-18), Metro station: "Vasileostrovskaya".
In 1740, St. Andrew's Cathedral was still constructed of wood and not heated at that time. Parishioners thoroughly explained how inconvenient it was to hold services at the church during the winter and asked Empress Anna of Russia to build a heated, stone church near the existing one.
By imperial order, the foundations of the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom, was laid on 2 July 1740. Construction of the Church, designed by Carlo Giuseppe Trezzini, was under-funded and thus took longer than expected.
In 1743 by petition of Jacob Tikhonov, who was priest of St. Andrew's Church, Empress Elizabeth of Russia ordered the Senate to not ask for money to build the new church, because the Church of St. Andrew had no funds.
The construction was finished in 1745, and church services began shortly after. The Church, with a side-chapel dedicated to the Annunciation, was consecrated as late as 17 September 1760.
The Church had three entrances: a northern, southern, and western. From the east side, the Church had a big trihedral apse. A low drum crowned with a small dome rose above the ridge roof. The Church's interior was separated into three naves with massive pillars. These pillars supported the large vault of the middle nave and small cross vaults of the side naves.
All of the Church's icons were painted in ancient times. There are several legends surrounding the Church. According to one, the Church was originally "pocky" because it used to perform requiem services over those who had died of smallpox. According to another legend, there was a protestant church first, but was later reconstructed into the orthodox one.
In 1827, a wooden two-tiered iconostasis of the Church was relocated there from a family chapel of Major General Titov. In its turn, it was brought there from a family chapel of Prince Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov. In 1830, St. Nicanor, the Bishop of Reval, consecrated the side-chapel and dedicated it to the Annunciation. Before the 20th century, the services were held by a clergy of St. Andrew's Cathedral. The Church included a sacristy, a library, and archives.
An ancient marble plaque, a former gravestone with an epitaph in Georgian, survived on the wall near the western, main entrance. The epitaph is in remembrance of Princess G. Amilakhvari, buried in 1745, who was a daughter of N. Giorgadze (Georgazev), the Cahetian Prince and Marshal of the Court.
In November 1916, the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs was temporarily given to the Georgians to hold services. There were approximately 6,000 Georgians in St. Petersburg at the time. In January 1917, bishops Cyril and Antony opened a Georgian parish at the Church.
The parish was then shut down in the spring of 1918. In the Soviet times, the Church suffered the same fate as most of the cult constructions did in Russia. In the 1930s, it was closed and a knitting factory occupied the building.
After World War II, the Church housed a hydrotechnic laboratory. And since the 1970s, a Lenbithim production facility operated on its grounds.
On 15 July 1991, the building was gratuitously returned to the St. Petersburg diocese for use in perpetuity. The Georgian Orthodox Community, who also would have liked to have the building in its possession, was offered another church.
The Church's cupola and small domes were repaired with parishioners' donations. Later, they were crowned with crosses. An abat-jour above the central entrance was reconstructed and the interior rooms were also restored. The updated heating system was rearranged and the Church was floored. In addition to the reconstruction, a big four-tier lamp was added and many other church utensils were purchased.
On 12 February 1999, the day of the Three Holy Hierarchs, church services resumed. The iconostasis was filled with both old and new icons painted specially for the Church. A bronze altar cross and a chandelier, manufactured in Sofrino workshops, adorned the Church.
The guides on St. Petersburg that mention St. Isidore's Church usually emphasise that the Church is an Estonian one. Historically, it is true. In the early 20th century, St. Petersburg's Estonian Orthodox diaspora numbered around 4,000 people, becoming increasingly united. Two events in 1898 contributed to this: the final canonisation of Hieromarty...
The wooden Church of the Annunciation was built here in 1738. Many historically interesting parishioners attended the Church. Quite high-ranking government employees, officials, and military men were among them. They included Major General Pyotr Shipilev, Lieutenant General Mikhail Vakhrushev, Brigadier Ivan Maslov, Infantry Officer Artemy Shishkov...
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