Kazan Cathedral (Saint Petersburg)
The Kazan Cathedral ( Russian Казанский собор ) is a large, Russian Orthodox sacred building on Nevsky Prospect in Saint Petersburg . It was built from 1801 to 1811 on the model of the Roman St. Peter's Basilica and is one of the most eye-catching buildings in Saint Petersburg. Its name goes back to an icon of the type of Our Lady of Kazan , which is venerated here.
architecture
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Shortly before his assassination, Emperor Paul I gave the order to build a church in the style of St. Peter's Basilica. The builder Andrei Voronichin modified this heavily with elements of contemporary classical architecture, so that today only the colonnades and the dome are reminiscent of the Roman model, but without fully achieving their monumental effect.
The barrel vaults of the central nave, choir and transept arms extend from the central dome in the form of a Latin cross . Their vault base is level with the flat ceilings of the aisles.
In order to combine the eastern orientation of the choir, which is traditionally common in Christian churches, with the imperial desire for a representative orientation towards Nevsky Prospect, Voronikhin placed the entrance axis on the north side. Here the four-fold rows of columns in the colonnades encompass the semicircular forecourt, which is wider than in Rome, and end in monumental gateways on Nevsky Prospect. All three entrances are designed as strictly classical portico columns . The bronze doors of the north entrance are copies of Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gate of Paradise at the Baptistery in Florence.
use
After Napoleon's defeat in the Russian campaign in 1813, the church developed into a memorial church commemorating this victory. The cathedral houses the grave of the victorious Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionowitsch Kutuzov - allegedly at the place where he prayed before the campaign against Napoléon Bonaparte . Flags and trophies captured by the French surround the grave of the man who was buried here in 1813, for example the keys to the conquered fortresses of Bremen , Geertruidenberg and Avesnes .
The incompletely preserved iconostasis also contains a copy of the icon of Our Lady of Kazan . Marian icons of this type are considered by the faithful as the protector of the Russian nation.
The first social revolutionary demonstration on Russian soil took place in the square in front of the church on December 6, 1876 , organized by Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov , among others .
During the Soviet period, from 1932 to 1990, the house of God housed a museum for the history of religion and atheism , then renamed the Museum for the History of Religions . Today the building is used again for church services.
Web links
- Images and description of the Church (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Löhr: The Bremen Keys in St. Petersburg , in: Bremisches Jahrbuch 95, 2016, pp. 11-18.
- ↑ Walter Euchner (ed.) Classics of Socialism ; Munich: CH Beck, 1991; ISBN 3-406-35089-5
Coordinates: 59 ° 56 ′ 4.2 ″ N , 30 ° 19 ′ 29.2 ″ E