Description of the attraction
St. John's Church was built in 1778 in St. Petersburg at the Kamennoostrovsky Palace by the architect Yu. M. Felten in an architectural style of pseudo-Gothic, unusual for an Orthodox church. Working on the creation of the architectural style of the temple, Yu. M. Felten followed the fashion trend at the time for English landscape parks and neo-Gothic. When Paul I headed the Order of Malta, the church was handed over to the Order, in which the cavaliers took the oath, they were buried in the churchyard. After Alexander I ascended the throne, the cemetery was closed.
Preserved historical evidence that in 1834-1836 A. S. Pushkin baptized his children in St. John's Church - Gregory and Natalia. According to legend, the poet visited this particular church before the fatal duel.
In 1923-1924, the church was transferred to the Renovationist Church, but from 1925 to 1938 it was returned to the Orthodox community. During the Soviet era, the temple was closed in 1937. All church utensils disappeared without a trace. While the temple was inactive, it housed various organizations (a sculptor's workshop, RZhU, a military sanatorium, a gym). Part of the church property was seized and transferred to Moscow in 1917, the other part was plundered and irretrievably lost. One of the fires destroyed the wall frescoes.
St. John's Church was returned to the parish in 1989 and at the same time was included in the Petrograd Deanery. Services resumed in 1990. The feast day in the church - July 7 (Christmas of the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John). The rector of the temple is Archpriest Vadim Nikolaevich Burenin. Not so long ago, a prayer room was opened on the territory of the City Clinical Oncology Center. The clergy of the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist, led by Fr. Vadim will take care of the patients and staff of this institution.
Given the unusual architectural style of the church, from afar it can be mistaken for a church - the same pointed red brick walls, lancet gray domes, bell tower with a belfry, columns and barred lancet windows, typical of Catholic churches. In terms of the church, like all churches, it is cruciform. Inside there are classic Gothic-style vaults. Even the wooden iconostasis is somewhat stylized in the Gothic style.
Not far from the church is the chapel of the icon of Our Lady "The Tsaritsa", originally it was the watch of the Ushakovsky bridge, rebuilt in a pseudo-Gothic style, creating a single ensemble with the church. The chapel is a round red brick building on a stepped base with Gothic windows. Instead of a dome at the chapel, there is a flat gray roof topped with a dome with a cross.
There is a Sunday school (for children and adults) at the church, catechism courses are held, and various educational and social activities are carried out by the parishioners. There is a parish library of spiritual literature, made up of books donated by parishioners and many donors. In the library, parishioners can get books and other carriers on basic theology, catechism, Church history, asceticism, dogmatics, hagiography, church art, and pedagogy.
In connection with the trends of our time, much attention is paid to the accumulation of information on digital media: DVD and CD. More than 250 media stores various information (descriptions of pilgrimage routes, temple chants, the history of the Church and the state, films on Orthodox themes, training courses, talks, lectures).
