Anglican Church of Jesus Christ (on English Embankment). Chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on the English Embankment Anglican Church of Jesus Christ English embankment 56

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In 2016 the object cultural heritage Federal significance "Anglican Church of Jesus Christ" at 56 Angliyskaya Embankment was transferred to operational management St. Petersburg State Theater"Music Hall" in order to create a new open cultural space- Concert Hall on the Promenade des Anglais.

It is planned that the symphony orchestra of the Music Hall Theater “Northern Symphony” under the direction of maestro Fabio Mastrangelo, the Chamber Choir under the direction of Honored Artist of Russia V.S. will perform in the new concert hall. Kopylova-Panchenko, as well as other musical groups of the city and country.

Today, the Chairman of the KGIOP Sergei Makarov and the director St. Petersburg State Music Hall Theater Yulia Strizhak inspected the condition of the building before starting the survey.

“Unfortunately, the previous owners did not take much care of this building,- said the chairman of the KGIOP. - N Finally, the building has a good user who has serious plans to bring the monument to a decent condition, of course, under the control of KGIOP. The stunning interior of the former prayer hall is surprisingly well preserved, but there is also a lot that needs to be seriously worked on, emergency ceilings, for example.”

“Of course, this will be a hall exclusively for classical music, - Yulia Strizhak emphasized. - We perfectly understand the historical purpose of this premises; it is, after all, a religious building, so we do not foresee any entertainment events. We hope that different groups from the city, country, and abroad will be able to perform here.”

In February 2017 upon request St. Petersburg State Theater "Music Hall" KGIOP prepared an assignment to carry out work to preserve the monument. The assignment defines a list of necessary research, design documentation and production work, based on the individual characteristics of the object.

“We would like the restoration of the hall to take place in several stages,- said the director of the Music Hall. - Firstly, restore and preserve what is extremely necessary, namely: eliminate traces of leaks, repair the roof, and inspect the floors. “Inspection of the building and priority emergency work are planned for the current year.”

His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent, during a visit to the Anglican Church building on 26 March 2017, privately expressed support for the decision to transfer the building to the theater for the creation of a concert hall.

As noted, during a meeting with representatives of the Anglican faith in St. Petersburg organized by the British Consul General in St. Petersburg Keith Allan, the management of the Music Hall Theater expressed their readiness to hold festive services in the hall.

“This will be a gift to the small Anglican community in St. Petersburg- the opportunity to hold services in a building restored at the expense of the city, - noted Sergey Makarov.

After Peter I's trip to England in 1698, the flow of British subjects invited by the Tsar to Russia sharply increased. At the beginning of the 18th century, the English formed their own congregation, and in 1723 the English Factory moved to St. Petersburg. At this time, an Anglican church appeared on Galernaya Street, with about 300 parishioners.

The three-story stone house on the site of house number 56 on the Promenade des Anglais was built between 1735-1738. and belonged to Prince Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev.

In 1747, through the English Consul General Baron Jacob Wolfe, the Factory informed the London Russian Campaign of its desire to build a new chapel and chaplain's house.

Empress Elizabeth assisted in the search for the site, and in 1753, the English Resident Minister and banker Baron Wulf announced the acquisition of Prince Sheremetev's house. After the necessary alterations to the building, the church was opened in March 1754.

Spacious prayer hall, decorated in Italian style, was located on the second floor of the house. Even then it was double-height, with two rows of windows, so from the front façade the building looked three-story. In front of a carved mahogany altar surrounded by railings stood four columns, a pulpit and an ornately carved wooden staircase leading to it. On the eastern (altar) wall of the nave hung marble slabs: in the center - the tablets of the Mosaic Commandments, on the left - the Lord's Prayer "Our Father", on the right - the Creed. Opposite the pulpit there were seats for the English envoy and his retinue.

The location of the new building of the English Church in the 1st Admiralty part on the banks of the Neva in the center of the capital city was very significant for the Factory. At the end of the reign of Empress Catherine II, Galernaya Embankment acquired the name English, since the houses of the most respected and eminent members of the English Factory were located here.

By 1790, the building on the Promenade des Anglais was already recorded as the English Church.

By the 1810s, the size of the Anglican community in the Northern capital had increased significantly, and the need arose to reconstruct the church building.

In 1814, according to designs drawn up by Giacomo Quarenghi, work began on rebuilding the building. Thanks to the drawings and engravings preserved in Italy, made from Quarenghi's drawings and published after the death of the architect by his son, one can judge the author's original plan. Using the building of the English Chapel, which faced the Neva River embankment and two small wings on Galernaya Street, the architect connected them with service buildings of different sizes located along the perimeter of the courtyard, and created a single magnificent complex of buildings from the English Embankment to Galernaya Street.

The façade of the building, facing the Neva, was designed in the usual manner for that time. The central risalit had a portico with 4 columns and 2 pilasters of the Corinthian order. The risalit ended with a smooth triangular pediment with three sculptural figures in the corners: “Faith”, “Hope”, “Mercy”. The central axis of the building was emphasized by a semi-circular window in the basement and two figures of sphinxes on pedestals on the sides of this window.

In 1824, the author of a pamphlet about the English Factory in Russia wrote: “...The Factory enlarged the church, the chaplain's residence, the library and other services and furnished it in a manner that reflects the honor of the English nation.” The chaplain's apartment was on the ground floor of the building, directly below the church hall.

The walls of the church hall were decorated with pilasters and columns of the Corinthian order. There was an altar on the east. The painting “The Crucifixion” was framed by a stucco portal with archangels at the top. A semicircular sole with marble steps was placed between two columns. To the south and north of the “Crucifixion” in the walls there were fireplace stoves with figures of saints above them.

In the center of the longitudinal northern wall there was a richly decorated wooden carved pulpit, opposite it in the southern wall was the seat of the English Ambassador with a canopy and the British royal coat of arms.

In 1860, academician of architecture Alexander Khristoforovich Pel built on the side wings of the second floor, and also made the main entrance to the church building from the embankment. A new decoration of the altar was a specially made copy of Peter Paul Rubens’s large-scale painting “The Descent from the Cross” (from the original, now in the State Hermitage).

In connection with the upcoming anniversary of Queen Victoria, who was the head of the Anglican Church, in 1876 the English community invited civil engineer Fyodor Karlovich Boltenhagen for the next reconstruction of the temple. Work under his leadership was carried out in 1877-1878. In general, he preserved Quarenghi’s plan, but removed the windows of the third tier from the main facade, accordingly increasing the height of the windows of the second and rusticating its facade, so that from the outside the building began to look not three-, but two-story.

The new design of the church hall - in the spirit of the Victorian era - is unusual for Christian churches. The pilasters and columns were painted with stylized flowers, leaves and fruits: lilies, laurel, pomegranate, apple tree, rose hip, olive, oak. The pilasters closest to the altar were decorated with grapevines, and the columns with ears of wheat.

During the same period, the temple was given two stained glass windows from the 1880s with images of the patrons of England - St. George and St. Elizabeth. To install them, window openings were made in the south wall of the nave. Together with them, 13 more stained glass windows decorated the windows of the northern and southern walls. They were made by the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne, where church commissions were carried out by stained glass artist Robert Bayne. He is probably the author of these monumental compositions. This is the only example of English stained glass art in Russia from the late 19th century.

In 1877, by order of the English colony, an organ was built by the English company Brindley and Foster. The company was opened in 1854 in Sheffield due to the increased need for organ building for large quantity churches under construction.

According to literary sources, it is known that 4 organs were made for Russia, but the only one preserved in the Anglican Church in St. Petersburg.

On the organ's playing panel is an inscription with the names of the donors, John Gellibrand Hubbard and William Edgetron Hubbard.

The body of the organ is made of oak, in accordance with the traditions of English organ building, and pipes decorated with painting (oil, gilding) are installed in the avenue. The gaming console is designed in the form of a cabinet at the bottom of the avenue; The upper part of the console is closed by two sliding wooden glazed doors. The white keys are covered with bone, the black keys are made of wood.

In the 1970s, the instrument suffered greatly: about 40 percent of the pipes were lost, mechanical structures were broken, and air channels were broken.

Finally, at the end of the 19th century, the temple was decorated with mosaic panels made using Roman techniques. They were created in 1894-1896. in the workshop of academician P.P. Chistyakov at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts at the expense of parishioners.

In 1919 the temple was closed. In the 1920-30s. the building with all its property (including the extensive library of the Anglican Church community) was under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR in Leningrad.

In 1939, the building was transferred to the Presidium of the Leningrad City Council.

In 1941, the wooden fence of the pulpit, the mountings in the floor of wooden benches for parishioners, and the bronze chandelier from the staircase were dismantled from the church hall.

During the Great Patriotic War 4 artillery shells hit the building.

In the middle of the last century, a complex of works was carried out: repair of the facade along the Promenade des Anglais, repair of the carriage sheds in the courtyard, restoration of stained glass windows, chandeliers, a picturesque ceiling, paintings, oak doors, the Grand Staircase in the main building, central heating was installed. The inlaid parquet floors were covered with new parquet floors.

In 1970-1999 the City Tour Bureau was located here, and the church hall of the temple was used as an assembly hall.

In the late 1970s, the crumbling statues from the pediment were removed. Even earlier (in the 1930s-1960s), statues of sphinxes disappeared from the pedestals at the front facade of the church.

Since the early 1990s. The administration of the City Excursion Bureau, having moved to the courtyard wing, began renting out the church hall and the adjacent premises on the second floor. One of the tenants set up a closed " outlet» for foreign tourist groups. The church had tall glass display cases with jewelry and souvenirs. Tour guides brought groups of foreigners here from cruise ships. There is a cafeteria in the room next to the prayer hall.

Unauthorized work was carried out to open the ceilings between the first and second floors of the right courtyard wing.

In the 1990s, under the KGIOP program, the restoration of seven stained glass windows in the Church Hall was carried out.

July 10, 2001 on the basis of a Government decree Russian Federation No. 527, the building of the Anglican Church of Jesus Christ was included in the unified state register of cultural heritage sites (historical and cultural monuments) of the peoples of the Russian Federation as an object of cultural heritage of federal significance.

Since 2001 the building has been under operational management St. Petersburg State Conservatory named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov.

In connection with the violation of the terms of the protective obligation, KGIOP filed claims to collect a fine and force the user to carry out the prescribed work to preserve the object, but the claim was denied.

In 2016, the building of the former Anglican Church of Jesus Christ was transferred to operational management St. Petersburg State Theater "Music Hall" as a dynamically developing musical theater, which covers all serious genres, in order to create a new open cultural space - the Concert Hall on the Promenade des Anglais.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I gave it to Field Marshal Boris Petrovich Sheremetev. After Sheremetev's death in 1719, ownership passed to his middle son Peter, who was then only six years old. Unlike his father, he did not achieve success in military service. Pyotr Borisovich’s career was facilitated by his marriage to Princess Varvara Alekseevna Cherkasskaya. Under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna he became chief general, under Peter III - chief chamberlain, under Catherine II - senator.

The house registered to Pyotr Borisovich in 1723 began to be rented out to English merchants, who then founded their own community in St. Petersburg. They adapted Sheremetev's mansion into a church, information about which can be found in the register of houses of 1738. In 1753, Pyotr Borisovich sold the mansion to the English consul. The first official service in the Church of England took place on March 6, 1754.

The main part of the Anglican church was occupied by a large double-height hall. In front of the carved mahogany altar were four columns, a pulpit and a staircase leading to it. Opposite the pulpit there were seats for the English envoy and his retinue. The hall was equipped with an organ. At the end of the 18th century, the place of envoy was occupied by the American John Adams, and then by his son. The elder Adams later became the second president of the United States, and his son the sixth.

By the 1810s, the size of the English community in St. Petersburg had grown significantly. The church building became necessary to reconstruct. For these works, the architect Giacomo Quarenghi was invited in 1815; the Anglican Church became his last project. Quarenghi completed the task in his own style. All buildings on the site, including those on the Galernaya Street side, were decorated in the style of strict classicism. The main church hall was also redesigned. Its decoration was a copy of P. Rubens' painting "The Descent from the Cross", now kept in the Hermitage. The first floor was adapted for servants' apartments.

Three statues were installed on the pediment of the main facade of the Anglican Church - "Faith", "Hope" and "Love". In the center of the building there are figures of lions on pedestals.

For his work, Quarenghi received a large monetary reward and a vase engraved with the date of completion of the work - “1816”.

Somewhat later, a small chapel was built in the courtyard of the Anglican Church by Quarenghi's son.

Half a century later, for the next reconstruction of the temple, the English community invited civil engineer Fyodor Karlovich Boltenhagen. His reconstruction project was approved in 1876. Boltenhagen retained Quarenghi's general plan. But he removed the windows of the third tier from the main façade and increased the height of the windows of the second, installing stained glass windows in them. Thus, the building began to look not three, but two stories. The walls were rusticated. The fence with a gate disappeared from Galernaya Street, and in its place a three-story residential building with a central entrance arch appeared. The main church hall was decorated with pilasters on both sides along its entire length. Columns were installed along the width of the hall.

The new design of the church hall has become unusual for churches in general, not only for Anglican ones. The lower part of the pilasters and columns, the upper part of the walls, and the ceiling were covered with paintings. The pilasters and columns are painted with flowers, laurel leaves, rose hips, pomegranates and other patterns. The pilasters closest to the altar are decorated with grapevines, and the columns with ears of wheat. This design probably symbolizes the Garden of Eden.

The stained glass windows for the Anglican Church hall were brought from England. They reproduce the images of the twelve apostles and English saints.

20 years later, the mosaic “Christ Pantocrator” appeared on the altar wall. On both sides of it are “Annunciation” and “Nativity of Christ”. On the other wall was placed the fourth image - “Myrrh-Bearing Women”. All mosaics are made using Roman techniques. Three of them are probably English work. “Myrrh-Bearing Wives” was probably created by the Russian master A. A. Frolov.

Almost simultaneously with the appearance of mosaics in the Anglican Church, two stained glass windows with images of the patron saint of England, St. George and St. Elizabeth, were presented to the temple. The gifts were made by wealthy parishioner A.F. Clarke (owner of house no. Promenade des Anglais) and “the parish of Charles Woodbine.” To install these stained glass windows, window openings were made on the south side of the church hall between the Myrrh-Bearing Women mosaic and the organ.

Not long ago it was possible to identify the author of the stained glass windows. It turned out that this is the only example of English stained glass art of the late 19th century in Russia. It was manufactured by Heaton, Butler and Bayhe. Apparently they were made by master Robert Turnhill Bayeux.

IN late XIX century, plaques began to appear on the walls of the Anglican Church hall in memory of the most honored or influential parishioners.

The church organ was made in 1877 by Brindley & Foster in Sheffield. It appeared here during the reconstruction of the temple by Boltenhagen.

Currently, the building of the Anglican Church belongs to the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 2000, a major restoration of the temple began, which has not yet been completed.

The temple was created with public donations as a monument to sailors who died in the Russo-Japanese War. The fundraising committee was headed by the Greek Queen Olga Konstantinovna, and the construction committee was headed by her brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov (better known as "K.R.").

302,888 rubles were collected for construction. 73 kopecks (surprisingly, during construction they met the estimate and even saved a little - construction cost 277,723 rubles 19 kopecks). On the initiative of Admiral I.K. Grigorovich (he soon became Minister of the Navy), the place for the temple was chosen on the territory of the Novo-Admiralty Plant.

The author of the project was the architect M. M. Peretyatkovich, who chose the Dmitrov Cathedral and the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl as prototypes. The walls of the temple were decorated with carvings, the author of which was the sculptor B. M. Mikeshin. S. N. Smirnov became the chief civil engineer. It is curious that A.G. Dzhorogov, known for his participation in , with his project of a crematorium in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, as well as .

There were two temples in the building - upper and lower. The lower temple was decorated with frescoes (author - M. M. Adamovich)

Mosaics were used to decorate the upper temple. In the altar part there was a mosaic based on the sketches of N. A. Bruni (made in Germany at the Puhl and Wagner factory), depicting Christ walking on the waters.

Three more mosaics were made according to the sketches of V. M. Vasnetsov by his daughter, T. V. Vasnetsova. Two of them, “Praying for the Cup” and “Carrying the Cross,” decorated the columns of the temple.

Another one, “The Savior Not Made by Hands,” was located above the belfry gate.

On May 15, 1910, on the anniversary of the Battle of Tsushima, the foundation stone ceremony for the temple took place. And on July 31, 1911, the temple was consecrated.

Inside the temple there were memorial plaques with the names of all the fallen sailors (there were about 12 thousand in total).

Unfortunately, in 1932 the temple was blown up, the clergy, as well as many members of the “twenty” were repressed.

In 1990, the executive committee of the Oktyabrsky District Council of Leningrad registered the charter of the Church Restoration Fund. People's donations were collected, for which the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was built on the site of the destroyed temple in 2000-2003.

The author of its project is architect D. A. Butyrin

In the pavilion near the temple you can now see preserved mosaics (they were kept in the Russian Museum).

P.S. On Saturday, September 28there will be an excursion"Vyborg side".
Among other things we will see:
Sampsonievsky Cathedral - a mansion, a people's house, apartment building and the Nobel residential colony - Baburinsky and Bateninsky residential areas - factory-kitchen of the Vyborg district - residential town of the Polytechnic Institute - house of specialists on Lesnoy Prospekt - school on Kantemirovskaya Street - industrial buildings built by leading Art Nouveau architects K. Schmidt, N. Vasilyev, V. Kosyakov .

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Anglican Church of Jesus Christ (English Embankment, 56)
An inconspicuous building with impressive interiors, it was built on the Promenade des Anglais in 1811 by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi. From the day of its opening until 1919, it served as a parish of the Church of England in St. Petersburg. Today it is one of many city buildings that have now lost their true purpose. In 1939, the church parish was closed to parishioners, and a little later the city excursion bureau was located in the building. Since then, the once church premises began to be used as an assembly hall.

Tower of Griffins (7th line VO, no. 16)
Another name for the structure is the Digital Tower. It was erected in the 18th century. Almost every brick of the tower is numbered. Researchers still cannot unravel the true purpose of these numbers. According to legend, Doctor Pel, who lived here at that time, practiced alchemy. He deduced the code of the universe and wrote it on the walls of the tower. The code was guarded by mythical creatures - griffins, which the doctor bred in the tower.

Tree of Love (Bolshoi Ave. VO, no. 106)
The tree “grew” in Opochinin’s garden. It is made in the shape of a heart, which consists of red metal leaves. The tree is popular among newlyweds: newlyweds hang locks on it as a sign of a strong marriage.

Carlson's House (Fontanka River Embankment, 50)
Surely in childhood everyone dreamed of finding that roof on which “a man in the prime of his life” lives. As it turned out, his attic is located in St. Petersburg - on the roof of the theater, which is called “Carlson’s House”.

Museum of Freud's Dreams (Bolshoi Prospekt Petrogradskaya Side, building No. 18A)

Tours are regularly held here, telling about the life of psychologist and seer Sigmund Freud, about the basics of psychoanalysis and dream interpretation. The museum exhibition is located in two small rooms, but this does not detract from its dignity - here you can spend a lot of time unraveling the secrets of mysterious objects.

Monument to iPhone (Birzhevaya Line, 14)
In January 2013, a memorial monument to Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, appeared in the ITMO courtyard on the Birzhevaya Line on Vasilievsky Island. The unusual monument is a 188-centimeter fourth-generation iPhone. The huge memorial is interactive; a variety of information and media materials are hidden in its depths. By the way, the monument gives out free Wi-Fi.

Bench of Health (Griboyedov Canal Embankment, 20)
St. Petersburg smokers will not be able to smoke a cigarette on this bench: it is so skewed that it is impossible to sit on it, let alone smoke. The bench was installed as part of an anti-smoking campaign: behind the bench hangs a convincing poster about the dangers of the habit.

Violin Square (Kamennoostrovsky Ave., 26)
There are eight stone violins in the park named after composer Andrei Petrov. Each violin is an artistic symbol:
The entrance to the park is guarded by a sphinx violin - a symbol of preserving the musical heritage,

- female violin - a symbol of inspiration, the composer’s muse,

- violin - chair - composer's throne

- violin-apple - a symbol of temptation by music

- the swan violin is a symbol of musical perfection

- violin-shoe - a symbol of experiment in music

- violin - gramophone - symbol of musical classics

In the 90s, when they wanted to build a square, the residents of the house invited famous people, and they planted young trees to save the square from development. Andrei Petrov also planted a tree. When the composer died, in 2006 the square was named after him. And in the fall of 2008, the square was solemnly opened after reconstruction - with installed violin sculptures.

Chess courtyard (Zagorodny pr., no. 28)
One of the children's playgrounds in St. Petersburg is designed in the form of a red and green chessboard. There are metal chess pieces on it.

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