Description of the attraction
One of the first and most important churches in the city of Luga is the famous Catherine Church. The temple was built in honor of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria, who was reputed to be the heavenly patroness of Catherine II.
The Empress issued a decree of September 10, 1779 on the beginning of the work of the economic collegium on the construction of the Pskov governorship in the designated city of Luga in the form of a stone cathedral church; the decree ordered to issue to the post of the ruling city governor - lieutenant general by the name of Sievers - six thousand rubles, setting the date for the execution of the order in two years, starting in 1780. To date, not only the project of the cathedral, but also the estimate, unfortunately, has not been found. Based on the timing of funding, the construction of the church was finally supposed to be completed in 1781, but the construction was never completed.
Soon, the question of building a temple in Luga was again raised. The authorities decided to build a wooden temple. On September 30, 1782, the newspapers published announcements of tenders for the construction of a wooden church, but soon they decided to choose stone as the main building material. In 1784, almost 24 thousand rubles were allocated from the treasury, and in 1786 a stone church was built. Information about the consecration of the temple has not reached our days, as well as the name of the architect.
The famous lyricist of the 19th century K. Sluchevsky, traveling through the northwestern part of Russia in 1877, wrote a historical essay in which he described the Catherine Church in Luga. The poet was struck most of all by the rather modest appearance of the cathedral, despite the fact that it was the most important in the city. The Cathedral of the Great Martyr Catherine is a stone church with one throne. As for its appearance, it is especially similar to a Protestant cathedral, which is why it did not quite fit into the general ensemble of buildings in the city. The temple is built on the banks of the river, towering over the city buildings in Luga. On the plan of 1841, risalits are shown on the facades of the building, and on the western facade there were four-column porticoes with a small bell tower. The church portico has a rather impressive shape with some thickening in the lower part.
In 1858, a fire broke out in the Catherine Church, after which it was necessary to strengthen the load-bearing functions of the western wall due to the presence of a bell tower. The cathedral was separated by a quadrangular fence, equipped with stone pillars.
The appearance of the church in the middle of the 19th century is shown in the drawings of V. Bolotov, where the temple appears after a big fire that broke out on July 27, 1858. Soon after the fire, it was decided to reconstruct the church, including the construction of a new bell tower. V. A. Bolotov was appointed responsible for the project. The drawn up project was approved by the Novgorod Metropolitan Isidor, but the General Directorate of Public Buildings rejected it due to the inconvenience of the location. Then the facade acquired a more majestic appearance, and on August 2, 1863, the project was approved and approved. According to the drawings, the temple volume was expanded due to small extensions, but this was never done, because the temple was located too close to the river.
Most likely, due to the weak soil, the Cathedral of the Great Martyr Catherine was originally erected small, as a result of which they decided to focus on the external architectural design. That is why the temple is not at all devoid of expressiveness, which was achieved by a monumental portico with large columns, a semicircular apse and classical plastics of the pediment.
It is known that the church had a valuable icon of the Mother of God of the Caves, which was transferred from a wooden chapel located five miles from the city of Luga, namely in the Smeshinsky district. The most famous clergyman of the temple was Laskin Andrey Filippovich, who served for the good of the temple for about 60 years, and also conducted the liturgy in the church in the presence of Maria Alexandrovna - Empress and Alexander II.
After a while, during the years of Soviet rule, the Catherine Church was transformed into one of the cultural institutions, which housed the Rodina cinema for children. In 1993, the temple was consecrated again and became operational.
