Description of the attraction
The Annunciation Church is the oldest surviving church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, which is a 2-storey building and is located in the northeastern part of the monastery ensemble, near the bridge over the Monastyrka River. It was built in 1717-1725 by order of Peter I. The temple is the first stone church in St. Petersburg. The first construction manager was the architect D. Trezzini, who also developed the project of the church. Later, in 1718, Trezzini was replaced by H. Konrath, who was replaced in 1720 by T. Schwertfeger.
In 1720, it was decided to build a burial vault for 21 places in the church basement for the burial of members of the royal family and noble nobles. The first burial took place here in October 1723, when Tsarina Praskovya Fyodorovna, who was the widow of Peter the Great's elder brother, Tsar John V Alekseevich, was buried.
At the end of August 1724, the upper church was consecrated in honor of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky. The lower church was consecrated in the name of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos in March 1725. In the same year, near the iconostasis of the Church of the Annunciation, by order of Peter I, the remains of his sister, Princess Natalya Alekseevna and son, Tsarevich Peter Petrovich, were reburied from the Lazarevskaya tomb. In the eastern zone of the tomb, their floor tombstones are installed. The oldest carved gravestones made of white stone for the spouses of Rzhevsky (20s of the 18th century) have also survived in St. Petersburg.
In 1746, Anna Leopoldovna, the granddaughter of John V, was buried in the tomb, and in July 1762, Emperor Peter III, the grandson of Peter I.
In 1764-1765, a stone staircase extension was erected to the temple, probably according to the project of I. Rossi, who then supervised the construction. In 1791, the wooden floors in the church were replaced with stone slabs. Until that time, epitaphs that were placed on the walls were used as gravestones in the tomb. So, for example, in the tomb there is an epitaph for Princess E. D. Golitsyna, who died in 1761.
Count A. G. was buried here. Razumovsky is the favorite of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The count died in the same year as his brother's wife Kirill. They were buried nearby, and in 1779 the place of their burial was marked by the first architectural monument in the tomb: a strict portal of 2 columns with pilasters that support a large cornice. Applied reliefs with the personification of Time and Death (skull, scythe, hourglass and the like) are found on the pedestals of marble columns.
In 1783, Field Marshal A. M. Golitsyn and Count N. I. Panin. Their tombstones represent the ceremonial "mausoleums", which are decorated with sculpture. In addition, they are of great artistic importance.
In May 1800, the funeral of A. V. Suvorov. Above the burial place, by the will of the great commander, a stone slab was made with the words: "Here lies Suvorov." There is also an epitaph in the form of a gilded bronze medallion, in the frame of which there are cannons, banners, a laurel wreath and the club of Hercules, which are symbols of military glory and courage.
When there was not enough free space in the Annunciation tomb for tombstones, additional sacristy was added to it. True, they did not last long, and some graves were made outside, under the walls of the temple, as well as in the Spiritual Church, which was erected next to it.
In 1926, the Lavra churches were abolished. In February 1933, the Presidium of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee decided to equip the Annunciation Church as a necropolis museum. In the upper Alexander Nevsky church there was a department of geodetic surveys of the Giprogor Institute, which had nothing to do with the museum.
In November 1935, the last functioning church, Duhovsky, was closed. On this, services in the monastery were stopped for more than 20 years. It was decided to attach the hall of the Dukhovskaya church to the Annunciation. But in the summer of 1936, the premises of the Spiritual Church were transferred to the Lengorplodovosch enterprise, which began to smash crypts and cellars to accommodate a coal warehouse and a boiler room there. Then other organizations were located here, which, of course, did not care about the most valuable burials belonging to the church-tomb. Most of the tombstones and sculptural monuments that adorned them were irretrievably lost.
The restoration of the Annunciation tomb was begun during the war, when a military hospital was located on the territory of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In November 1942, the artists N. M. Suetina and A. V. Vasilyeva was put in order the grave of Suvorov. Soldiers came to her and went to defend Leningrad. Also, the decorative design of the vestibule in the Trinity Cathedral was made, in which until 1922 there was a shrine with the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky.
In 1948-1949, renovations were carried out on the second floor of the Annunciation Church, and in 1950 it was opened to the public. But in 1954, the building was again closed for renovation work due to the replacement of interfloor floors.
In 1989-1999, comprehensive work was carried out to restore the Annunciation tomb. Now in the upper hall you can visit the exposition of memorial sculpture "Signs of Memory", and in the lower hall - the Annunciation tomb - many tombstones have been restored.
