Armenian Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Saint Petersburg)
29 Smolenka River Embankment, Saint Petersburg, Metro station: "Primorskaya".
In 1791, a decree by Catherine the Great allowed Ivan Lazarev, the head of the Armenian community, to construct "a small stone church for burying deceased Armenians" together with a almshouse, to a design of the architect Georg Friedrich Veldten, near the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery.
This Church was conceived by Lazarev as a family vault. Soon, a chapel was constructed; there, Lazarev's son Artemy, who served as an adjutant of Duke Grigory Potyomkin and was killed in early 1791 in a Russo-Turkish war, was buried first, followed by Lazarev himself, who died in the autumn of 1801.
In the chapel, a superb double tombstone was installed; the tombstone was made in 1802 by Academician Ivan Martos. In 1808, Lazarev's brother Mina commissioned from the contractor Kuzma Vasilyev a church, decorated with a portico and a large dome; the Church was constructed to a design by Luigi Ruska on the site of the chapel and was consecrated on 5 October 1808, receiving the name of the Resurrection of Christ.
In the 19th century, the Church's interior was decorated with painting. By the early 20th century, the Church contained around 30 tombs of the Lazarev family and other noble families of Armenian descent and related to the Lazarevs: Abamelik, Delyanov and Sumbatov.
In the 19th century, the Lazarev Cemetery formed around the Church; it was an Armenian cemetery, which later became a section of the Smolensk Cemetery. In time, the Church turned into a parish church, and a charity society, associated with it was opened. To mark the 100th anniversary of Lazarev's death, in October 1901, the architect Aleksandr Kochetov constructed a house in the Armenian style, for the almshouse and the flats of the church clergy.
In 1931, the Church was shut down by a decree by the Praesidium of Leningrad City Council (as of 9 May 1931) and was handed over to the Directorate for Geological Surveying. The following year, Martos' works were moved to the Museum of Urban Sculpture.
In 1939, burring was completely stopped at the cemetery. After the Second World War, the building was used as a workshop by the sculptor Veniamin Pinchyuk.
In September 1988, the Church was handed over back to the Armenian community, and on 8 October the same year, the Church hosted its first service. In 1989, after a restoration, the Church was consecrated.
At the same time the civil shipyard on the banks of the Fontanka River was being built, a chapel was erected along the riverside. A wooden wattle church was built here in 1722. Its consecration took place on 2 September, 1722, in the absence of the Emperor Peter I. Having been in Astrakhan at that time, he sent an order to consecrate the church in ...
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According to the legend, working people were among the first who were buried on the banks of the Chornaya River (eng.: Black River), the Smolenka River now. Construction of a huge city demanded many hands. Those, who were called upon to St. Petersburg by the Monarch, settled in Vasilievsky Island. However, there were no houses for them to live in. ...