Description of the attraction
The Church of Saints Equal to the Apostles Peter and Paul is an Orthodox church in Sestroretsk. The first church of Peter and Paul in Sestroretsk was built in 1722-1725. But in 1730 it burned down. A new stone church was built in 1781. For its construction, materials were used that remained from the collapsed imperial palace in an oak grove. But this church also burned down in 1868. All services were moved to a temporary barrack.
On July 24, 1871, a new stone Peter and Paul Church was laid in the center of Sestroretsk. The funds for the construction of the temple were partially allocated by Emperor Alexander II and the Synod, the rest was donations from parishioners. The temple was built according to the project of the architect G. I. Karpov. The solemn consecration of the temple took place on June 21, 1874. It was performed by the Metropolitan of Novgorod Isidor. In 1924 the churches of Peter and Paul were given the status of a cathedral. But in 1931 the temple was closed, in 1932-33. dismantled, and on this site a school was built, and next to it - a monument to Lenin.
The new Peter and Paul Church in Setroretsk was erected in a new place in honor of the previously existing church. The choice of location is not accidental. Here the craftsman Efim Nikonov in 1721 in the Sestroretsky Razliv lake demonstrated to Peter the Great the prototype of a submarine - his "hidden ship". The Emperor really liked the idea of “walking under water and knocking a warship to the very bottom”, but after the death of Peter I, work on the “hidden ship” stopped. To immortalize this place in 2000, on the initiative of the Sestroretsk submariners, a small wooden chapel was laid here in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Capsules were laid in its foundation, in which there was earth brought from different places of construction and basing of submarines in Russia: from Liinakhamari, Olenyaya Bay, Vidyaevo, Gremikha, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Sormov, Severodvinsk, St. Petersburg, Rybachiy (Kamchatka), Kronstadt, Magadan, Sevastopol, Gadzhiev and San Diego (where part of the K-129 crew, who died in the Pacific Ocean in 1968, is buried).
Today, everyone who comes to the temple can see the model of the "hidden ship" - the so-called Nikonov's barrel. On the church territory there are memorial plaques with a list of the submarines that have perished, and inside the church there is a computer information board with the names of all the submariners who have perished.
The site for the construction of the temple was consecrated on July 21, 2002, the laying ceremony took place on June 14, 2004. The author of the temple project is the architect E. F. Shapovalov. The process of project development and subsequent construction has been going on for almost 11 years. The construction of the temple was completed in 2009. The temple can be called national, since many people managed to participate in its construction for a long time, making their contribution to its construction.
The first service in the church was held on July 12, 2009, on the day of Saints Peter and Paul. The solemn consecration ceremony took place on October 11, 2009. It was performed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in the presence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and the Minister of Defense. A new temple was erected in honor of Russian submariners.
Memorable shrines of the temple are: the ark donated by the patriarch with particles of the relics of Peter and Paul, the image of the righteous Theodore Ushakov and a copy of the icon of the Port Arthur Mother of God; donated to V. I. Matvienko, the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, donated by S. V. Medvedeva's image of Peter and Paul in the second half of the 18th century.
The abbot of the temple, Father Michael, propose to depict on the external frescoes of the temple scenes of Peter's walking on the waters, Paul's shipwreck and the appearance of the risen Lord at the sea of Tiberias.
Near the Peter and Paul Church there is a monument to the perished submariners in the form of a stele with a belfry.
