Presentation of the Holy Virgin Cathedral

Categories / Religion. Church/Places of Worship (see also Architecture and Urban Planning)
Categories / Architecture/Architectural Monuments/Religious Architecture (see also Religion.Church)
PRESENTATION OF THE HOLY VIRGIN CATHEDRAL, located on Zagorodny Avenue, is now the park between buildings 45 and 47, the regimental church (since 1913 a cathedral) of the Semenovsky Life Guard Regiment, constructed in 1837-42 in the Russian Byzantine style (architect K. A. Ton with the assistance of A. K. Rossi, N. L. Benois and K. K. Meisner). Financed by the treasury, construction cost one million roubles, Emperor Nicholas I donated two-thirds of the sum. The monumental five-domed cathedral is reminiscent of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. The three-tier iconostasis made according to Ton's drawings was done by Okhta engravers N. Tarasov, V. Bobkov and E. Skvortsov, the icons were painted by P. V. Basin, V. K. Shebuev, T. A. Neff and others. The exterior reliefs are by sculptors N. A. Ramazanov, I. I. Reimers, and M. G. Krylov; the sails were painted by A. T. Markov, and the cupola was decorated by V. K. Sazonov. The treasured relics of the cathedral were the regimental icons of Greek origin - the Icon of the Holy Face and the Icon of the Holy Sign, which accompanied the regiment in Lesnaya and Poltava battles (1709). The church treasured banners and plaques with the names of officers fallen in battle, regimental full-dress uniforms of Russian Emperors and the baton of Grand Prince, Field-Marshal Nikolay Nikolaevich. The tombs of Prince P. M. Volkonsky and Count V. P. Kleinmichel were placed in the west part of the Cathedral of the Presentation. In 1906 a side-altar was constructed in the crypt, where Regimental Commander G. A. Min and three soldiers of the Semenovsky Regiment were buried, killed in the suppression of the Moscow armed uprising of 1905; officers of the regiment who perished in the World War I were also interred there. In 1907, restoration was carried out. From 1873, the cathedral’s charitable society ran an almshouse and a school orphanage for girls. In March 1932 the Presentation of the Holy Virgin Cathedral was closed, and in March of 1933 it was demolished. A public garden was laid out on the land. A memorial sign was placed in the park on 1 June 2003.

Reference: Антонов В. В., Кобак А. В. Святыни Санкт-Петербурга: Ист.-церков. энцикл. СПб., 1994. Т. 1. С. 91-94.

S. V. Boglachev. Basin Peter Vasilievich
Benois Nikolay Leontievich
Bobkov Vasily
Kleinmichel Vladimir Petrovich, Count
Krylov Mikhail Grigorievich
Markov Alexey Tarasovich
Meysner Karl Karlovich
Min Georgy Alexandrovich
Neff Timofey Andreevich
Nicholas I, Emperor
Nikolay Nikolaevich (Sr.), Grand Prince
Ramazanov Nikolay Alexandrovich
Reimers Ivan Ivanovich
Rossi Alexander Karlovich
Sazonov Vasily Kondratievich
Shebuev Vasily Kozmich
Skvortsov Egor Mikhailovich
Tarasov Nikolay
Ton Konstantin Andreevich
Volkonsky Peter Mikhailovich, Duke
Zagorodny Avenue/Saint Petersburg, city, house 45-47, litera сквер м/у дд.
Антонов В. В., Кобак А. В. Святыни Санкт-Петербурга: Ист.-церков. энцикл. СПб., 1994 1842
1933