Widows' House

Categories / Social Life/Charity
WIDOWS' HOUSE, charitable establishment for widows and their children. It was opened in 1803 on the initiative of Empress Maria Fedorovna on Vyborgskaya Side, in October 1809 it moved to the former Smolny Convent (today 1 Smolnogo Street), the former Monastery Church of St Catherine and Church of SS. Zachariah and Elizabeth passed to it. In 1865 a Lutheran Chapel was arranged in the Widows' House (from 1900, the Lutheran Church). In 1814 the Widows' House Organisation of Compassion was established to take care of the ill in hospitals for the poor, later departments for widows' children, orphanages for children whose parents suffered from the flood of 1824 and died of cholera in 1831, Mariinsky Orphans' Department for Children of the Nobility (1835) and the Care House for Poor Girls of Noble Birth (1851) appeared. The Widows' House formed a part of Empress Maria's Establishments Department, was financed from the treasury and private donations. The Widows' House Administration was performed by a board of trustees, an honorary guardian, a mother superior and an inspector. The number of widows under care increased from 30 (1804) to 665 (1903). After October 1917, Widows' House was abolished; its building now houses the offices of the Chancellery of St. Petersburg Governor.

Reference: Знаменский К. И. С.-Петербургский вдовий дом с филантропическими отделениями, 1803-1903. СПб., 1903.

M. V. Shkarovsky. Maria Fedorovna, Empress
Smolnogo St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 1
Выборгская сторона
Знаменский К. И. С.-Петербургский вдовий дом с филантропическими отделениями, 1803-1903. СПб., 1903 Smolny Architectural Ensemble
Empress Maria's Department of Institutions