Description of the attraction
The Temple of Elijah the Prophet has a long history. Back in 1715, on the site where the church now stands, far from the city of Peter, it was decided to establish powder factories. On the territory of the Okhta factories in 1717, a wooden chapel was erected and consecrated in the name of St. Prophet Elijah.
The chapel was dismantled in 1721, and the construction of a wooden church began. The church was consecrated in 1722. Subsequently, the wooden church was expanded and put on a stone foundation, a warm winter border was added, which was consecrated in the name of St. Dmitry Rostovsky, founded a small cemetery in the church fence. The construction of the church in the form in which it appears to us now was begun in 1782 by the project of the architect N. A. Lvov. The construction was completed in 1785 and consecrated in the same year.
According to the project of the architect Demertsov, at the beginning of the 19th century, a warm side-chapel was added to the Church of Elijah and consecrated in honor of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky. The main volume of the temple and the warm side-chapel were built close to each other, although they did not make up one whole. Ionian columns adorn the facades of the chapel: north and south. In 1875-1877. the side-altar was united with the main building by building a vestibule in the western part of the church, and a ledge near the side-altar in the eastern part. At the beginning of the 20th century, the temple was once again rebuilt, the bell tower was built on one tier and the shape of the dome was changed.
In 1923, on May 8, the Church of Elijah received the status of a cathedral. But in July 1938, the cathedral was closed, the building of the cathedral was transferred to a part of the local air defense (MPVO). The building of the temple survived a fire in 1974.
The church was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church at the end of the last century, in 1988. The first service after his return was celebrated on December 22 of the same year, in the aisle of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, the next year, in August, the main church was consecrated. Since then, the temple has been leading a full liturgical life. The small and main chapels make up the temple complex. The main chapel is consecrated in honor of St. Prophet Elijah, small - in honor of the saints Martyr Paraskeva and the great prince. Alexander Nevsky.
Archpriest Alexander Budnikov was at the head of the beginning of the revival of the temple. It was he who gave a new life to the temple after half a century of oblivion. As in September 1988, at the time of the opening, and now, Father Alexander is the rector of the temple.
The majority of the parishioners of the church are residents of the Rzhevka-Porokhovy microdistrict of St. Petersburg, but, as before, the townspeople from all districts of St. Petersburg and its environs love to visit the temple. Pilgrims from foreign countries and Russian cities constantly come to worship the shrine of the St. Petersburg outskirts.
Currently, in the Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg, one of the largest deaneries is the Bolsheokhtinskoe Deanery. It is the temple of the holy prophet Elijah that has been the center of the deanery since 1977. The Bolsheokhtinsky Deanery District includes 23 parishes with twenty functioning churches, eight attributed churches and six attributed chapels.
For everyone, without exception, there is a library in the church, which has about 9 thousand works of Orthodox creativity. For adults and children, there is a Sunday school open at the church, which is one of the best in St. Petersburg in terms of the organization of the educational process and in scale. Thanks to the pilgrimage service at the temple, holy places abroad and in Russia are constantly visited.
The Church of Elijah the Prophet was built in the spirit of early Russian classicism and is a round rotunda framed by a colonnade of 16 Ionic columns. The walls are yellow. Round windows - above and arched - below are located between two columns. A round balustrade runs along the edge of the roof. On the roof, closer to the center, there is a black squat dome on a low drum. A lantern with a cross crowns the dome. The hall, symbolizing the sky, is painted in blue. The image of the Savior is painted in the center of the ceiling.
