St. Petersburg has something to surprise tourists with. Drawbridges, granite embankments and the cold ripples of the Neva created for him the glory of Northern Palmyra. There are many different architectural monuments in the city. The northern capital, unlike Moscow, cannot boast of a history that goes back centuries, but it also has its own antiquities. The focus of this article will be St. Sampson Cathedral in St. Petersburg. This is one of the most ancient churches that have survived to this day. In addition to interesting architecture, the cathedral also attracts the attention of sincere believers, because there you can venerate the relics of St. Sampson. This is an active cathedral, the rector of which was appointed Archpriest Alexander Pelin. But the church also functions as a museum. The unique iconostases of the cathedral are not only valuable for Orthodox Christians, but also of a certain historical and cultural interest. The monument to Peter the Great was also not accidentally placed next to this church. After all, the cathedral is closely connected with the history of ourFatherland and its glorious victories.
Backstory
In Russia, churches dedicated to significant events have long been built. And these cathedrals were dedicated to the saints, on the day of which this date happened according to the Orthodox calendar. As an example, we can cite the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon. The day of veneration of his memory is celebrated by the Orthodox on July 27. It was on this day in 1714 and in 1720 that Peter the Great won the battles of Gangut and Grengam. According to the same logic, the St. Sampson Cathedral in St. Petersburg was founded. But the victory won by the troops of Peter the Great on the day of the Battle of Poltava (June 27, according to the old style - July 8) in 1709 was much more significant. In fact, it turned the tide of the entire Russian-Swedish war. This is how historians assess the significance of the battle of Poltava. And since Orthodoxy commemorates the Monk Sampson the Hospitable on June 27, the name for the temple was already a foregone conclusion long before its construction. Peter the Great did not wait for the completion of work and the consecration of the temple that we see today. It was completed during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna.
History of the Cathedral
Peter the Great rightly believed that the memory of the Battle of Poltava should remain in the memory of the entire Russian people. Therefore, immediately after the victory, he ordered the construction of St. Sampson Cathedral. The place for it was chosen with a hint. A year later, on the side of the highway leading to Vyborg - towards Sweden, a wooden church was erected. In the same 1710, it was consecrated and named afterSampson the Hospitable. Now on the site of this original church is the chapel of the cathedral. Since it was located outside the city of the eighteenth century, it was decided to establish a new cemetery there. Eighteen years later, in 1728, the construction of a new stone building began. However, as often happens in Russia, there was not enough money allocated for the construction of the building. Construction was frozen and continued only under Anna Ioannovna. The building was consecrated in 1740.
Sampson Cathedral-Museum
Before the October Revolution, the building of the temple was repeatedly repaired. So, in the 1830s, the interior of the church was reconstructed, during which the cast-iron floor was replaced with stone. The cathedral complex was damaged during the revolution. In 1933, all the bells were removed from the belfry, with the exception of one, which suffered later, in February 1942, due to a shell hit. In 1938 the cathedral was closed. For a long time there was a ready-made clothing store. In 2000, the Sampson Cathedral memorial museum was finally opened. For the next two years, the restorers worked on restoring the decorative painting on the walls of the main nave. We have already mentioned that St. Sampson Cathedral is a functioning Orthodox church. The first liturgy was held following the re-consecration of the church on May 21, 2002. Now services are held there daily.
Sampson Cathedral: how to get there
One way or another, the church built outside the city has become one of the oldest surviving churches in St. Petersburg. She, aalso the monument to Peter the Great, located nearby, is one of the ten "must see" objects of the Northern capital. What is the address of this attraction? Where is St. Sampson Cathedral located on the map of the city? St. Petersburg, Bolshoi Sampsonievsky Prospekt (as the Vyborgsky Trakt is now called), 41. It is very easy to get to the church, which has long since become a city, and not a suburban one. The easiest way to get there is by metro. You need to get off at the Vyborgskaya station. This is the northwest direction from the center. At this time, the Sampson Church is administratively part of the museum at St. Isaac's Cathedral. It is a whole architectural complex. It includes the cathedral itself, a bell tower, a chapel and a mass grave - all that remains of the once vast cemetery.
Stone Church
The entire architectural complex is painted harmoniously in light blue. However, the buildings were built at different times and in different styles. The stone building of St. Sampson Cathedral and the bell tower were completed in 1740. The architect remained unknown. Scientists can only assume that the author of these structures was either Mikhail Zemtsov or Giuseppe Trezzini. The uniqueness of the cathedral building lies in the mixture of styles. It traces both pre-Petrine architectural forms and elements called by experts "Annensky baroque" (after the name of Empress Anna Ioannovna). Initially, the temple was crowned with one large dome on a faceted high drum. But in 1761 four small cupolas were stuck to it. Such a roof - five onion domes -look pretty unusual. The building was built of brick on a limestone foundation. The height of the cathedral to the cornice is eight meters, and to the crusade crowning the dome is thirty-five meters. A refectory adjoins the temple.
Belfry
She is most likely the brainchild of the same architect who built St. Sampson Cathedral. The bell tower is unique for St. Petersburg, as it carries elements of the Russian style of the pre-Petrine era. The building is divided into three tiers. The lower one seems wider thanks to two side outbuildings. It has an opening in the form of an arch. The upper tiers are made in the Tuscan style. On the second floor there are decoratively decorated "false windows". In the third tier of the belfry there is a bell of the 18th century. The whole building is crowned with a tent with eight sides. It also shows false windows, above which rises an onion dome with a cross. This bell tower is absolutely atypical for St. Petersburg, but very familiar to residents of ancient Russian cities - Yaroslavl, Moscow, Solikamsk and others.
Chapel
It stands on the site of the original St. Sampson Cathedral of 1710. When the wooden building fell into disrepair, and the population of the diocese increased so much that it could no longer fit in a small church, it was decided to build a stone church. The wooden cathedral was dismantled, and the site was cleared. But only in 1909 a chapel was erected on it. This building differs markedly in style from the cathedral and the bell tower. It was built by the architect A. P. Aplaksin,which the work of F. B. Rastrelli served as a model. Experts call this style the Elizabethan Baroque and note that it was applied much later than its time. The bell tower looks older than it really is. The appearance of the building of the eighteenth century is given to it by a pair of corner columns, a rounded pediment with the "All-Seeing Eye of the Lord", a lucarne and a lantern with an onion dome. Perhaps such a fake "antique" was dictated by the need to place the chapel directly next to the cathedral of the eighteenth century.
Cemetery
Since the temple dedicated to Sampson was located outside the city, it was reasonable to establish a cemetery there. Previously, people were buried around their parish church. The parish of the suburb was small, and the place was empty. Then it was decided to bury the foreigners who died in Russia there. After all, they are a kind of wanderers who left this world in a foreign land. So they must be under the care of Sampson the Hospitable. Thus, famous craftsmen who built and decorated St. Petersburg found their last refuge here. St. Sampson Cathedral became the resting place of the architects Giuseppe Trezzini, A. Schluter, G. Mattarnovi, J.-B. Leblon, sculptor C. Rastrelli, painters S. Torelli and L. Caravaca. Unfortunately, this cemetery has not been preserved. In 1885, by decree of Empress Catherine II, it was liquidated, and in its place was left only the mass grave of Biron's opponents executed on June 27, 1740 - P. Yeropkin, A. Khrushchov and A. Volynsky. A monument with a bas-relief by architect M. Shchurupov and sculptor A. Opekushin was erected at the place of their burial.
Iconostases
The mixture of styles, characteristic of the external decoration of the temple, is also observed in its interiors. "Annensky Baroque" can be traced in three iconostases of St. Sampson Cathedral. Of particular value is the main one, located in the central nave. It is an amazing masterpiece of Russian icon painting from the early eighteenth century. The main frame is made of pine, and the decor details are made of linden. In the southern aisle (Michael the Archangel) and the northern one (John the Theologian) there are small four-tiered iconostases. They have more modest dimensions, but are not inferior to the main one in terms of artistic value. Visitors wonder how such iconostases could have been preserved near a cathedral with a complicated history, which has been a warehouse of vegetables and a clothing store. Almost two thirds of the paintings for the church gates were returned to the temple by the A. Suvorov Museum.
Monument to Peter the Great
On the day of the celebration of the bicentenary of the Battle of Poltava (1909), it was decided to open the sculpture to the winner in this battle. For this, the remains of the cemetery of Sampson Cathedral were cleared. The monument to Peter the Great was made by the sculptor M. M. Antokolsky and architect N. E. Lansere. At the same time, memorial plaques were opened on the southern and northern facades of the temple, where the words of the king to his soldiers before and after the Battle of Poltava were carved. However, in 1938 the monument to Peter the Great was dismantled. And only many years later, in May 2003, this landmark of St. Petersburg was again cast according to the author's model and erected in its original place - opposite the bell tower. The museum "St. Isaac's Cathedral" allocated money for this.
Interior decoration
In addition to the iconostases, interesting wall paintings of the temple have been preserved. The brightest picture is in the main nave. She depicts Peter the Great as the winner of the Poltava battle. Also of interest are the pictorial compositions "God Sabaoth" and "Symbol of Faith", located on the eastern and western walls of the refectory. These paintings date from the end of the eighteenth century. Until the end of the nineteenth century, fragments of the icon of the Sampson Cathedral could be seen here, in which particles of the Lord's Robe, a stone from under His feet and the relics of saints were placed. These shrines were placed in silver shrines. And the shrine was crowned with an icon, which depicted the faces of those whose relics are kept in the temple.
