Transfiguration Cathedral (Saint Petersburg) - History

History

The cathedral was ordered to be built by empress Elizabeth of Russia and was built from 1743 to 1754, and was designed by architect Mikhail Zemtsov. The cathedral was built in the place of an old barracks, that of the grenadier division of the Preobrazhensky regiment in honor of the Empress's ascension onto the throne with the help of some of the soldiers and officers of that regiment. The cornerstone was laid on June 9, 1743. After the death of Mikhail Zemtsov, Pietro Antonio Trezzini headed construction. Trezzini slightly changed the project, changing the style to Baroque. The cathedral was blessed by archbishop Sylvester 16 August in the presence of the empress, on the eve of the holy day of the Transfiguration of Christ. The iconostasis and the altar canopy were completed by Kobilinsky woodcutters from Moscow from the drawings of architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The figures were painted by M. L. Kolokolnikov.

On the November 12, 1796, during the reign of the emperor Paul I, the regimental Transfiguration Cathedral received the honorary title "of all the Guards."

On August 8 (August 20, New Style), 1825, a fire started and the first Transfiguration Cathedral burned down, although all of the essential sacred objects were saved. All that remained of the cathedral were the walls.

Between 1825 and 1829 it was rebuilt by the architect Vasily Stasov in the Empire style, just as it can be seen today. The rebuilt cathedral was dedicated by Metropolitan Serafim on the August 5 (August 17, New Style), 1829. The main altar was dedicated in honor of the holy day of the Transfiguration of Christ, the right (southern) side chapel in honor of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, and the left (northern) side chapel in honor of the martyrs Pope Clement I and Pyotr Aleksandriysky, both of whose feast day is marked on November 25 (Old Style).

Starting in 1871 a parish charitable society was active at the cathedral, maintaining an almshouse, a children's shelter, a cafeteria, a school for children of soldiers, and free living quarters. Starting in 1912 a Brotherhood of Sobriety and Chastity operated out of the cathedral. On the holy day of the Transfiguration of Christ (popular name - the Apple Savior), falling on the 6th of August (Old Style), a fruit bazaar has traditionally been held there.

After the 1917 October Revolution the cathedral remained open for worship. In 1918 it became a parish church, and the banners, ordnance, and war trophies being kept there were removed and transferred to the Artillery Museum; since 1950 those relics have been part of the Hermitage collection. Also during the 1920s many valuable icons were removed.

From 1922 to 1926 (under Antonin Granovsky's Union of Church Regeneration) and from 1935 to the spring of 1944 the cathedral was in the hands of the Renovationists; and from 1939, after the closing of the Church of the Savior on the Sennaya, it was the main Renovationist church in Leningrad. During the Siege of Leningrad an air-raid shelter capable of holding 500 people was constructed in its basement, where first aid was given to the wounded.

A restoration of the facades and the interior was carried out between 1946 and 1948.