Description of the attraction
The first stone structure in Perm was built in 1757 at the mouth of the Yegoshikha River, on the territory of a copper smelter. The building in the Russian Baroque style was erected for the Peter and Paul Cathedral to replace the wooden church built in 1724 by the chief manager of the state plant. Priests for the church in the name of the holy apostles Peter and Paul were sent from the capital by order of the Empress Catherine herself. In 1781, the expanded working village in a solemn atmosphere at the behest of Catherine II became the provincial city of Perm.
The Peter and Paul Cathedral with a tetrahedral dome and octahedral turrets (Russian five-domed) served as a kind of city center and occupied a special place in the development of Perm, around which the most important events took place for two centuries. For decades, the services of the leading clerics of the Perm diocese were held in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, building the Perm temple into the religious center of the Kama region. Fires in 1759 and 1842, which burned the city to ashes, miraculously did not touch the cathedral, preserving to this day all the beauty and spirit of old Perm.
In April 1929, the cathedral was closed, wooden sculptures and icons were transferred to an art gallery, and the building was transferred to the department of public utilities. At different times, the cult building housed: a gym, a railway club and restoration workshops.
Today, restored and returned to believers after religious oblivion, the Peter and Paul Cathedral is a rare monument of the provincial baroque.
