Saint Peter's Church (Saint Petersburg)

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St. Peter's Church (2012)

The St. Peter's Church in St. Petersburg is the largest Lutheran church in Russia and was in the style of a classical basilica built in the first half of the 19th century.

Today it is the episcopal church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia and the church of the German Evangelical Lutheran St. Anne and St. Petri Congregation.

Geographical location

St. Peter's Church is centrally located on Nevsky Prospect (No. 22–24) in Saint Petersburg.

history

Predecessor churches

The first Lutheran church - a small wooden church with a tower and bell - in Saint Petersburg was built in 1704 on the Peter and Paul Fortress as a place of worship for the foreign military of the Protestant faith serving in the fortress .

In addition to this group of Evangelical Christians, another group formed on the other, the left bank of the Neva, in the house of the Russian fleet. It included members of various nationalities, among which the Lutheran Germans formed the largest group. In 1710 they received a chapel in his courtyard as a gift from the Vice-Admiral, the Dutchman Cornelis Cruys (1655–1727) - about where the Hermitage is now.

Former Peter and Paul Church

By decree of December 27, 1727, Tsar Peter II then gave the growing community a piece of land on "Newskaya Perschpektiva", today's Nevsky Prospect . A church, a church school and a pastorate were to be built here. The building plans were drawn up by the patron saint of the community, Count Burkhard Christoph von Münnich (1683–1767). On June 29, 1728, the feast day of the apostles Peter and Paul , the foundation stone was laid for the church, which was consecrated as the Peter and Paul Church on June 14, 1730. At the beginning of the 19th century the number of parishioners had risen sharply, while the church became increasingly dilapidated and too small for the congregation. It was demolished in 1833.

Today's St. Petri Church

The demolition did not take place without having had a plan for the new building beforehand: In May 1833, at a meeting of the church council, the design by Alexander Brjullow for the construction of today's St. Peter's Church was accepted. The foundation stone was laid on August 21, 1833. After five years of construction, the new church was inaugurated on Reformation Day (October 31), 1838. The new building was built under the supervision of Georg Ruprecht Zollikofer .

In 1917, the year of the October Bolshevik Revolution , the church was nationalized. While services could initially still take place in it, it was completely blocked under Stalin : on Christmas Eve of 1937 of all places, so that Christmas Eve services could no longer be held. The interior was confiscated and stolen.

In the following period the church stood empty or was used for purposes other than intended. In the 1940s and 1950s, the church housed various camps. Then the church was converted into a swimming pool in the Khrushchev era , which opened in 1962.

It took 30 years before a new beginning was possible: On Reformation Day 1992 the Petrikirche was reopened and in June 1993 it was handed over to the newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia (ELCRAS). An extensive renovation was necessary until it was finally re-consecrated on September 16, 1997 by Bishop Georg Kretschmar .

Building description

St. Peter's Church in 1900.
Interior in 1900.

St. Peter's Church, consecrated on October 31, 1838, has been preserved to this day. It was built according to the plans of Alexander Brjullow and harmoniously combines the scheme of a Romanesque basilica with the formal language of Russian classicism. With 3000 seats back then it was and with its 700 seats it is now the largest Protestant church in Russia .

The church is an elegant building that is set back from Nevsky Prospect street , but thanks to its size it immediately catches the eye. The church has two towers, which appear in a white color image.

Among the many art treasures that adorned the church, two altarpieces were particularly valuable: the painting by Hans Holbein the Elder. J. (1497–1543) "Jesus with the unbelieving Thomas and his disciples", which was given to the community by the court painter Johann Friedrich Grooth , and the large painting "Jesus on the Cross" by the famous Russian painter Karl Brüllow (1799–1852 ).

In the years 1895 to 1897 the interior of the church underwent a thorough restoration under the direction of the architect Maximilian Messmacher .

After the church, which had meanwhile been misappropriated and even used as a swimming pool, was returned in 1993, the building had to undergo extensive renovation. The swimming pool, however, is still there: structural engineers determined that demolishing the concrete pool would endanger the stability of the entire structure. Therefore the pool was only covered with a new floor. There are now benches and the altar . The church interior is about ten meters lower than before.

The choir of the church is located under the square where the diving platform formerly stood. A small prayer room has been created here, designed by the Russian-German painter Adam Schmidt. He himself witnessed the scenes depicted there and thus reports in an authentic way, for example from the Vorkuta camp in Siberia . The prayer room is to become the center of a memorial.

The painting "Jesus on the Cross" by Karl Brüllow , which was hanging here before 1917, has been hanging above the altar since the 1st of Advent 2006 . However, it is only a copy that Sergei Griwa made. The original has been in the Russian Museum since the church was desecrated and can be viewed there.

window

The church was decorated with stained glass windows until 1938. These were considered lost until it became known in 2019 that some had been preserved in the Hermitage depot , albeit partially with damage. These include

  • St. Peter and St. John and St. Mark and St. Paul (1864), based on Dürer's The Four Apostles by Stephan Kellner , Nuremberg
  • Jesus on the Mount of Olives and Moses in the Desert with the Snake (1866) by Stephan Kellner , Nuremberg
  • Holy Family with Adoring Shepherd (1871), W. Martin, Royal Institute for Glass Painting, Berlin
  • Go and make disciples of all nations (1866), unknown artist, donated by Wilhelm Poehl, the father of Alexander Wassiljewitsch Poehl

organ

The church received in 1840 Walcker - organ with three manuals and 63 registers . About the difficult transportation of the grinding shop there is a contemporary travelogue -Instruments to St. Petersburg on the waterway and its incorporation into St. Peter's Church. On this instrument, Peter Tschaikowsky received organ lessons from the then organist Heinrich Stiehl . 100 years later, in 1940, the organ was moved to the newly built Tchaikovsky concert hall in Moscow . Because of the severe damage it had suffered during transport, it was replaced by a new instrument in 1959.

Today there is only one positive organ in the Petrikirche .

Parish

Dismantling of the swimming pool facilities in 1994
Interior with positive organ (2014)

In 1710 - the year the Petri parish was founded - the Vice-Admiral Cornelis Cruys made a court chapel as a gift to the Protestant Christians. At that time the Lutheran congregation was small in number. Many community members came with the first tsars as new German-speaking citizens, mainly soldiers, many of them of Baltic origin, but also merchants from the northern German Hanseatic cities and craftsmen from Pomerania and East Prussia .

The community grew as did the city. This growth was reflected in the construction of the new church, which was consecrated in 1838. In 1862 the Petri community had 17,606 members. In 1909 there were still 15,000, from all walks of life - from court nobles to craftsmen. Until the middle of the 19th century, the pastors of the Petri congregation were of German origin, then came pastors of Russian descent and graduates from the University of Dorpat (Tartu) in Estonia .

A major turning point in the life of the Petri community came in 1917 with the October Revolution . Most of the parishioners fled. The church buildings were nationalized. The anti-church reprisals increased more and more, persecutions and arrests were the order of the day.

Under Stalin this came out of the parish: in 1937 the church was closed and used for purposes other than intended. The pastors of the Petrikirche, Paul Reichert and his son Bruno Reichert , were arrested and shot in 1938.

In the Khrushchev era, the church was converted into a swimming pool.

A new beginning for the congregation was only possible after 50 years: A small group of remaining Christians have been gathering in Pushkin near Saint Petersburg since 1988 to celebrate their services here.

Today the small Petri congregation with 350 members is alive and well again. Many of the parishioners are Germans from other parts of the former Soviet Union: Russian Germans who came to Saint Petersburg after 1990, mainly from Kazakhstan and Siberia . This also includes Christians from Germany who live here as business people or diplomats. Many, however, are also Russians, for whom the Orthodox Church appears too narrow and nationalistic and who seek proximity to Lutheranism . The services in the St. Petri Church are therefore held bilingually in German and Russian.

After the loss of St. Anne's Church , the Evangelical Lutheran St. Anne and St. Petri Congregation was formed here, which became the Saint Petersburg provost in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia in the network of the Evangelical Lutheran Church heard in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia .

Pastors (selection)

  • 1704–1710: Wilhelm Tolle (1674–1710)
  • 1711–1751: Heinrich Gottlieb Razzius (1687–1751)
  • 1732–1740: Johann Friedrich Severin (around 1700–1740)
  • 1740–1766: Ludolf Otto Trefurt (1700–1766)
  • 1752–1754: Nicolaus Bützow (1674–1710)
  • 1754–1758: Kaspar Friedrich Lange (1722–1758)
  • 1758–1760: Johann Wilhelm Zuckmantel (1712–1760)
  • 1761–1765: Anton Friedrich Büsching (1724–1793)
  • 1766–1770: Hermann Harksen (1732–1770)
  • 1770–1801: Martin Luther Wolff (1744–1801)
  • 1783–1813: Johann Georg Lampe (1749–1813)
  • 1801–1834: Hieronymus Heinrich Hamelmann (1773–1845)
  • 1813–1832: Johann Friedrich August Volborth (1768–1840)
  • 1834–1865: Gustav Reinhold Taubenheim (1795–1865)
  • 1840–1865: Carl Frommann (1809–1879; also active as general superintendent at the church from 1868–1876)
  • 1860–1884: Adolf Stieren (1813–1884)
  • 1865–1902: Alexander Wilhelm Fehrmann (1835–1916)
  • 1866–1900: Otto Armin Findeisen (1831–1903)
  • 1902–1918: Wilhelm Kentmann (1861–1938)

See also

literature

  • Casimir Lemmerich: History of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation St. Petri in St. Petersburg. Volume 1. St. Petersburg: Haessel , St. Petersburg 1862 ( digitized ).
  • The St. Petri Congregation: Two Centuries of Protestant Congregational Life in St. Petersburg 1710-1910. St. Petersburg: Ehrlich 1910 ( digitized version )
  • Adolf Grau: "I want to build my community on this rock". 300 years of Petri congregation in St. Petersburg 1710–2010. In: Lutherischer Dienst , Volume 46, 2010, Issue 3.
  • Hans Joachim Moser: Organ Romance - A walk through organ issues from the day before yesterday and the day after tomorrow. Verlag EFWalcker & Cie, Ludwigsburg 1961, with illus. Console and disposition of the organ in St. Petri Church

Web links

Commons : St. Petri Church  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The on this in the literature (e.g. The St. Petri Community: two centuries of Protestant community life in St. Petersburg 1710-1910. St. Petersburg: Ehrlich 1910, p. 44, fig. Ibid. P. 42) to Finding the year 1707 cannot be correct, probably 1770
  2. ↑ Lidia Afanasjewa: Die Fenster der Petrikirche , in Lutherischer Dienst 55 (2019), Heft 3 ( digitized version ), p. 9.
  3. ^ Gerhard Walcker-Mayer: 0031 Petersburg. In: walcker.com. May 31, 2020, accessed on August 30, 2020 (disposition, drawings, details on the organ).
  4. ^ Gerhard Walcker-Mayer: A water trip to St. Petersburg in 1840 . ( online [PDF] Johannes Spaich's travel report edited by Gerhard Walcker-Mayer about the delivery of the Walcker organ to St. Petersburg).

Coordinates: 59 ° 56 ′ 12 ″  N , 30 ° 19 ′ 26 ″  E