In the first spring album I suggest a walk along Nevsky. If taking pictures of everything successive, a dozen of albums would not be enough, so we'll approach it according to thematic: during pre-revolutionary period in Russia (as well as the nowadays - after-perestroika period) there was only one church/religion - orthodox. Nevertheless there were and there are groups of believers which stick to other points of view on different reasons (often these are national reasons). Peter the I and Catherine the II, being interested in "brain-inflow" from abroad, apportioned dales for building foreign churches, of course with restrictions. So today we'll tell about some of these churches..
Church ( Roman-Catholic church) of Saint Catherine of Alexandria .
Though the idea of building the catholic church in this place belongs to Pietro Antonio Trezini, the project that was realized (in 1762-1783) was by Vallen-Delamot. Though, short, the building was finished by A. Rinaldi who according to the spirit of the times simplified the project. For example, two towers on the edges were not realized, appearance became more unpretentious.
Internal decoration of the temple perished in the fire but it's being restored now.
Interpretation of the clergy is quite interesting:
":The fire of 1984 yet can be regarded as the Providence: if the philharmonic society was placed in this building as it was intended, the building would have never been given back to the church :"
Apparently, it's possible to explain whatever one likes - all it requires is a desire of one:)
Stanislav August Ponyatovski - the last Polish king, and marshal Jean-Victor Moreau are buried in this temple.
J. Dantes married E.N. Goncharova (sister of Pushkin's wife) here.
Right in front of the cathedral there is usually plenty of artists found - selling pictures.
The sign above entrance (with a biblical reference) is translated as "My house shall be called a house of
prayer"
If you go into the archway to the right
from the entrance you'll see a small window. They say this window
refers to the apartment of the house sided with the cathedral
(entering there is through the house of course). Truth to say
according to other data there is a small room from where you can get
to garret (consultants' opinions differed:)
The other church - Armenian. It was built at the instance of Armenian community and with a permission of Catherine the II in 1770-1772 according to Y.M. Felten project. Generally speaking, even Peter the I gave instruction to the Senate:
"Still armenians must be fondled and facilitated where properly in order to give a rise to their better
coming."
The plot of this bas-relief is described in the book as:
"Catholicos Grigor the Enlightener is baptizing tsar Trdat the III
"
As very Catherine the II gave permission to build it, the church was called "St. Catherine" as well as the previous one.
The church was built on the means (30 thousands rubles) of courtier jeweler I.Lazarev (he was buying jewels for the court), on account of this community let him build a house on the church land (which cost him 50 thousands rubles:) In view of striking asymmetric they had to build a second house - on the right. In the new letter to Catherine the II it said:
"neglected ground of the other half of the church land will be ugliness in the symmetry of the beautiful capital, and if we proceed to improvement of that ugliness, considerable to all prospect decoration will
follow:"
Lutheran Peter and Paul's church is situated between Malaya and Bolshaya Konyushennaya streets.
It was built in 1833-1838 by architect Alexander Bryullov.
Apostle Peter, seemingly..
Since 1992 this building belongs to german lutheran community
Unfortunately, I don't know who is the author of the railing and what it symbolizes..
Koschei (deathless evil-magic miser) and two hares-mutants.
It's a joke. But it looks as if, is not it?!:-)
And this is a quite famous building on the corner of Moyka and Nevsky prospect. There is a Military Book shop in it in particular. By sight you would not say it is a church: But it is. Dutch reformatory church.
Built in 1831-1839 by architect P. Jacqeau.
Definitely speaking the church was situated only in the center, on the right and on the left there are outbuildings.
And finally, the last for this album church - Swedish. To say the truth, it's not quite at Nevsky, but nearby - at Malaya Konyushennaya street.
Evangelical church of Saint Catherine (yes, Catherine again!) was built in 1860s by architect Karl K. Anderson.
Until recently there was a sports school, the sign "/\" on the picture is the emblem of the sports club.
View on the Kazan (Kazansky) Cathedral from the Swedish church. However, it is a story for the other album (I don't know if I ever get around it when the light is right:)
Several more items are added into the "Panorama" section. By the way, according to them sometimes it is possible to identify what the future albums' thematic is about..
