Description of the attraction
The Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral of St. Michael is a church in St. Petersburg run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria. It is located on Sredny Avenue, on Vasilievsky Island, where during the time of Tsar Peter I the Germans settled, who came to serve the Russian autocrat. It was this place that was supposed to be the center of the city of Peter.
In 1731, a cadet corps was located here, in one of the premises of which a separate community was created for Lutheran pupils. Three years later, in 1734, she was consecrated and began to bear the name of the Archangel Michael.
During the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, the church was moved to another building, which was rented from private owners. However, by order of the king, the money collected from the community for rent was reimbursed from the treasury. At the same time, the Lutheran community was divided into Estonian and German. Those who belonged to the Estonian visited the Church of St. John. About two thousand German parishioners began to gather in the house on the 3rd line with Mrs. Tiblen. In August 1842, the consecration ceremony of the church in the name of St. Michael the Archangel took place there. The building was small and could not accommodate everyone who wanted to attend the services. Therefore, after the reconstruction carried out in the cadet corps, the Lutheran church was again placed there. It was consecrated in 1847 in November.
Both churches on Vasilievsky Island formed one parish until the 60s of the 19th century. Later, after the corresponding permission was given to the church in the cadet corps, its own parish was created under it, which began to be called the Church of St. Michael on the Cadet line. At the same time, believers began collecting funds for the construction of a new church on Vasilievsky Island. It began on October 23, 1874 on Sredny Prospekt, and the consecration ceremony took place in December two years later.
The cathedral was designed so that 800 people could be there at a time. It was erected by the engineer Karl Karlovich Bulmering. The facade was rebuilt in 1886. The new project was developed by the architect R. B. Bernhard. It was after this reconstruction that the building began to look the way it looks now.
The cathedral was built in a pseudo-gothic style. On the building is a gabled tent with a high drum, decorated with lancet windows and turrets. Sandstone wall cladding.
After the 1917 revolution, the parish was abolished, and the building itself was given over to a factory. There was a major reconstruction and redevelopment, including the nave, which was divided into three floors.
In 1992, the building of the Cathedral of St. Michael was returned to the believers and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria. In 2002, serious restoration work began there. And only in 2010 the scaffolding was finally removed from the building. However, the work is not finished yet. The Gothic lattices and pintacle turrets have not yet been restored. This requires serious material investments.
An important role in the revival of both the church and the parish was played by the rector, the bishop's vicar and the head of the Russian probation, Sergei Preiman. After his sudden death, the reorganization of the Russian probation took place and the parish became part of the St. Petersburg probation.
Most of the parishioners of St. Michael's Cathedral are Russians. Now the parish holds services on a regular basis, and representatives of other confessions are also allowed to hold services there - Seventh-day Adventists, Methodists, followers of the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard churches. Father Sergei Tatarenko is currently the rector and head of the St. Petersburg probation.
