Description of the attraction
The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael is an Orthodox three-altar church located in the Petrodvortsov district of St. Petersburg, in the city of Lomonosov. The temple is run by the Russian Orthodox Church.
The building of the cathedral was built in the neo-Russian architectural style on the site of a previously functioning wooden church. The construction of the first church was initiated by the archpriest, famous philanthropist Gabriel Markovich Lyubimov (1820-1899). The wooden church was built on stone foundations in 1865 and was consecrated in 1866. The bell tower at the temple was also made of wood.
The authorship of the project belongs to the architect G. A. Preis. The temple was built on donations from private individuals in memory of the late Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich Romanov, the owner of Oranienbaum. Actually, in honor of his patron saint, the main chapel of the temple got its name. The side chapels were consecrated later, in 1867, in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.
Initially, the temple was a palace and belonged to the parish of the Panteleimon Church, but in 1895 it was transferred to the management of the Diocese and received its own parish, and in 1902 it was elevated to the rank of a cathedral.
Since the construction of the first building, through the efforts of the first archpriest, Fr. Gabriel (Lyubimov) the temple was the center of charity. During his reign there was a society for helping the poor residents of the city, the care of the "House of the poor" and the almshouse in Troitskaya Sloboda was carried out.
In 1905, it was decided to build a new stone three-tiered bell tower (the author of the project is the architect N. A. Frolov). In 1907, the construction was completed, but the new bell tower externally entered into a strong dissonance with the wooden building of the temple, which was the reason that the decision was made to start building a new stone cathedral.
In 1909, the collection of donations for construction began, in 1911 the Academy of Arts approved the project of the architect A. K. Minyaeva. At the same time, the wooden church was dismantled and the laying of a new stone building was made. Its construction took about four years, and was timed to coincide with the three hundredth anniversary of the reign of the House of Romanov. The consecration of the new building of the cathedral took place in February 1914 by Metropolitan Vladimir (Epiphany).
The first rector in the new building of the cathedral, until its closure, was now the Hieromartyr Archpriest John (Ivan Georgievich Razumikhin), who was shot in 1931.
A year later, in 1932, the temple was closed, its interior decoration (including the carved iconostasis made by the carver Polushkin) was probably irretrievably lost. In subsequent years, the temple was used as a warehouse and was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church only in 1988. The temple underwent lengthy restoration work. Secondary consecration took place in 1992.
Today the majestic white-stone building of the cathedral is a true decoration of the coast of the Gulf of Finland from the south. Built in the neo-Russian style, the building, closed on the east side by three large apses, has an impressive copper dome. The facades of the cathedral are completed by kokoshniks, and on its roof there are small onion domes. The inner vaults of the main dome are supported by four white stone columns - arches with an inner surface covered with paintings. Murals also cover the walls and vaults of the cathedral's three altars.
The height of the cathedral building is 36.5 meters, its length is about 37 meters.
Today, the rector of the temple is Oleg Alekseevich Emelianenko.
