Chapel (Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) description and photo - Russia - St. Petersburg: Peterhof (Topic)

Chapel (Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) description and photos - Russia - St. Petersburg: Peterhof. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

The Church of St. Alexander Nevsky is an inactive Orthodox church located in the Alexandria park of Peterhof. It is commonly known as the Capella. It is under state protection.

In 1829, after the completion of the construction of the Cottage Palace, there was a need for a house church. The site for the future house church in the western part of the park was chosen by Emperor Nicholas I. The plans and designs of the facades were carried out by the famous German architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and the architect Adam Adamovich Menelas was directly responsible for the construction of the church, after whose death, since September 1831, this function took over the architect Joseph Ivanovich Charlemagne. On May 24, 1831, in the presence of the monarch, the Emperor's confessor, Protopresbyter Nikolai Muzovsky, solemnly consecrated the foundation stone of the church.

In 1834, the construction of the Chapel was completed, and in the same year a solemn ceremony of consecration of the church in the name of the holy noble Grand Duke took place. Alexander Nevsky. The ceremony was conducted by the same Protopresbyter Nikolai Muzovsky in the Highest presence. The temple was the home church of the imperial family, and services were held in it only in summer.

In 1918 the Chapel was closed. In 1920, a museum was opened here, but soon it was closed. In 1933, after a major overhaul, an exhibition dedicated to the history of Alexandria Park was opened in the church. During the Great Patriotic War, the building was seriously damaged. In 1970-1999, restoration work was carried out here, and again a museum was opened in the church building.

The temple was consecrated, but services were not held there. In 2003, restoration work began again in the building, after which, at the beginning of June 2006, the church was solemnly consecrated by the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir (Kotlyarov). At the end of September 2006, a coffin with the body of Empress Maria Feodorovna, brought from Denmark for the purpose of subsequent reburial in the Peter and Paul Fortress of St. Petersburg, was exhibited in the Capella for several days.

The temple stands on an open, elevated place. It was built in the neo-gothic style. Hence its second name - Capella. The building is square in plan, has a 3-edged protrusion of the altar apse, at the corners there are 20-meter-high octahedral towers with cast-iron spiers topped with gilded crosses.

About 1000 artistic elements adorn the temple. They were cast from cast iron in 1832 at the Alexandrovsky Foundry after the models of M. Sokolov, and 43 statues of evangelists, apostles, angels, Mary and the Child were made from copper sheets based on the models of the sculptor Vasily Ivanovich Demut-Malinovsky. Above each portal is a round rose window with a stained-glass window made at the St. Petersburg Glass Factory. Above each window you can see the figure of an angel. Colored glass is inserted into the lancet windows.

Not far from the Capella is the grave of Peter Ivanovich Erler, a master gardener who took part in the formation of landscape parks in Peterhof. Erler died in Peterhof and was buried in the Holy Trinity cemetery. In 1970, Erler's ashes were transported to the territory of Alexandria.

The writer Yuri Nikolaevich Tynyanov mentions the Peterhof Chapel in his story "Young Vitushishnikov".

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Topic: Chapel (Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) description and photo - Russia - St. Petersburg: Peterhof.