Description of the attraction
The Intercession Cathedral is an Orthodox church located in Gatchina. The history of this church began when the merchant Karpov once won a large sum of money in the lottery. Wishing to beg for the recovery of his wife, the merchant decided to invest the money he accidentally received in a charitable cause. Karpov turned to John of Kronstadt for advice, and he blessed the construction of the church of the Pyatogorsk convent for women, which was located next to Karpov's estate.
First, Karpov provided a wooden house at the corner of Mariinsky and Hospitalnaya streets for the monastery compound. On July 24, 1896, the foundation of a temporary church was made in this house, and on August 6, Bishop Nazariy Kirillov of Gdovsk, consecrated the main altar in it in honor of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos.
In 1915, in connection with the consecration of the stone courtyard church, the temporary church was abolished.
The development of the project of the stone church was carried out by the chief architect of Gatchina Kharlamov Leonid Mikhailovich and Baryshnikov A. A., an architect and engineer. When developing the project of the church, Kharlamov took the traditional scheme of the 17th-century churches of Muscovite Russia as a model. with a slender hipped bell tower and an indispensable five-domed. To oversee the construction of the temple, a commission was created, which included church ministers, contractors, the former chief architect of the city N. V. Dmitriev, architect E. P. Vargin. Karpov's capital was about half of the funds spent on the construction of the church. Donations to the temple came not only in money, but also in the necessary building materials. A land plot adjacent to the merchant Karpov's estate was donated to the church.
Construction work began in the summer of 1905. The ceremonial laying of the church took place on June 3, 1907, when the ground floor was erected. The church took 10 years to build. The result is a majestic structure, barely inferior in height to the Pavlovsk Cathedral. The size of the temple is emphasized by the adjacent one-storey buildings. A massive central dome rises amid four miniature onions on deaf drums. The main motive of the external appearance of the temple is large arched windows and arched walls repeating their shape. The northern part of the church, overlooking the marketplace, was to be decorated with a stained glass window depicting the walking Savior. The slender tent of the bell tower rose above the entrance to the temple.
Because of the outbreak of the First World War, it was not possible to plaster the brick walls. The belfry and drums of the domes also remained unplastered. They differ in color because they are made of reinforced concrete. It was supposed to plaster the inner walls as well, and then paint them in several tones, pulling scarves, frames and panels. In the niches, it was supposed to insert 32 pictorial images, the dome also had to be painted, and the images of the four evangelists were to be watched from the sails.
Most of the finishing work was carried out by the sisters of the Intercession Monastery of the Mother of God, incl. gilding of crosses, oak iconostases, and other church accessories.
The solemn consecration of the main chapel of the church - in the name of the Intercession of the Virgin - took place on October 8, 1914 by Gennady (Tuberozov), Bishop of Narva. On October 9, 1914, the southern side-altar of Alexander Nevsky was consecrated, and the northern one - in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker - on December 7, 1914.
The facade of the Intercession Cathedral remained unplastered until 2011. According to archival data, in the fall of 1918, a side-altar in the name of John the Baptist and Martyr Lydia was consecrated in the basement of the church.
Rector of the church from 1911 until his arrest in 1938.there was a priest Sevastyan Nikolaevich Voskresensky, later reckoned among the holy martyrs by the church.
In 1939, the Intercession Church was closed by order of the Presidium of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee, and its premises were transferred to the warehouses of Gatchintorg. The temple was returned to the Orthodox community in 1990, and in 1991. the first service was held here. In 1996, a lower church was built in the basement of the church in honor of St. John of Kronstadt.
The Intercession Cathedral is the largest church in the name of the Mother of God in the Leningrad Region.
