Smolensk cemetery

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Aerial view of the cemetery, with the Neva in the background

The Smolensk Cemetery ( Russian Смоленское кладбище ) was established in the first half of the 18th century, making it the oldest continuously used cemetery in Saint Petersburg , Russia . The facility is centrally located on Vasilyevsky Island and is divided by the Smolenka, a branch of the Neva , into the larger Russian Orthodox cemetery and the smaller Lutheran and Armenian departments in the north on Decembrist Island .

Russian Orthodox Cemetery

The Orthodox cemetery is known to have existed since 1738, but was not officially recognized until 1758. Due to the high groundwater levels, the construction of drainage channels was necessary. The cemetery has two churches. The older church is dedicated to Theotokos of Smolensk. The building was constructed between 1786 and 1790. The church was closed by the [Bolsheviks] between 1940 and 1946, then restored and reopened between 1960 and 1987. It is the only evidence of the Naryshkin Baroque in Saint Petersburg. The church is known for its dazzling neo-baroque architecture. Other buildings on the site included the first wooden church, the Archangel Michael Church, which was destroyed by a flood in 1824.

The cemetery was a traditional burial place for the professors of the Imperial Academy of Arts and the St. Petersburg University , both of which were on Vasilyevsky Island.

Famous people buried in the cemetery include:

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, local authorities announced that they would demolish the cemetery by 1937 and replace it with a public park. Entire graves or their sculptural details were moved to museums. The graves of Kozlovsky, Zakharov, Martos, Bortniansky, Karatygin, Kramskoi, Shishkin and Kuindzhi were later reburied at the instigation of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Alexander Blok's grave was the last to change location in 1944. The consequences of the Second World War postponed further plans. The cemetery finally reopened for selected burials in the early 1980s.

Lutheran cemetery

It is known about the Lutheran cemetery on Decembrist Island that it has existed since 1747 and that many St. Petersburg citizens of German origin are buried there. The small Smolenka River separates it from the Orthodox cemetery of the same name. This cemetery contained the burials of the parishioners of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Katarina and the Catholic Church of St. Catherine . The following graves of famous people can be found: Germain Henri Hess , José de Ribas , Wassili Dokutschajew , Woldemar Hau , Moritz von Jacobi , Agustín de Betancourt , Jean-François Thomas de Thomon , Fjodor Nikolajewitsch Litke, Xavier de Maistre , Ludvig Nobel , Georg Friedrich Parrot , Karl Robert von Nesselrode , Wladimir Nikolajewitsch Graf Lamsdorf and Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger , whose drama Sturm und Drang gave a name to an entire literary trend. Olga Maria Sievers , an aunt of Thomas Mann , is lying in the cemetery at the side of her husband Gustav Sievers, who entered the novel Buddenbrooks as Pastor Sievert Tiburtius . The cemetery was nationalized in 1919 and later closed. After the graves were excavated and reburied in the territory of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, a fire station and a gas station were built on the desecrated areas. The other graves are now under state monument protection. These include Heinrich Witte's grave, an inspector at the Petri School. A few gravestones also remind of the goldfinch bankers.

Armenian cemetery

In the Armenian section of the cemetery is the Armenian Apostolic Church from 1797. The architecture is attributed to Georg Veldten .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gennady Vasilyevich Pirožkov, Evgeni Gennadjewitsch P irožkov: Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery in St. Petersburg . Sirius Verlag 1995, pp. 1-60
  2. ↑ books.google.de
  3. ↑ Robert Leinonen: Germans in St. Petersburg: a look at the German Evangelical-Lutheran Smolensky cemetery and European cultural history . Nordostdt. Kulturwerk, Lüneburg 1998.
  4. ↑ sylter-spiegel.de
  5. ↑ Peter Landowsky: Olga Maria Mann Sievers. In: Find a Grave . July 20, 2015, accessed June 11, 2019 .
  6. ↑ de.rbth.com

Web links

Commons : Smolensk Cemetery  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 59 ° 56 ′ 36 ″  N , 30 ° 14 ′ 55 ″  E