Grand Church of the Winter Palace

Coordinates: 59°56′26″N 30°18′56″E / 59.94056°N 30.31556°E / 59.94056; 30.31556
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Cathedral of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image of Our Saviour in the Winter Palace, by Eduard Hau (1866).

The Grand Church of the Winter Palace (

State Hermitage Museum.[1]

History

Alexei Tyranov
.

Construction of the church began on 14 October 1753 (Julian calendar). Six years later, the interior design was executed by the Italian artists Carlo Zucci, Francesco Martini, Giovanni Antonio Veneroni and the sculptor G. B. Gianni. Rastrelli was personally in charge of the three-tier iconostasis where the icons were painted by Ivan Ivanovich Belsky and Ivan Vishnyakov. The Italian Francesco Fontebasso painted the evangelists in the church's spandrels and the "Resurrection of Christ" plafond in the vestibule.

The Grand Church was one of the final parts of the palace to be completed. When the palace was first inhabited on 6 April 1762, the cathedral was not yet completed, so a temporary Church of the

Novgorod
.

On 12 July 1763, Archbishop Gavriil Kremenetsky of St Petersburg consecrated the Grand Church in the name of the Image of Our Saviour Not-Made-by-Hands. This eponymous icon, painted by Feodor Ukhtomsky in 1693 and lavishly decorated with gold and diamonds, was placed near the sanctuary.

Architecture of the Grand Church

Portrait by Laurits Tuxen of the wedding of Tsar Nicholas II and the Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, which took place at the Chapel of the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, on 14/26 November 1894.[2]
Location of the Grand Church within the Winter Palace.

The Grand Church and the palace's

Jordan Staircase are one of the few parts of the palace to retain the original rococo decorative scheme devised by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. This was faithfully copied by Vasily Stasov when he was commissioned to rebuild the palace following the disastrous fire that destroyed most of the original palace interiors in 1837. However, the new intricate decoration was mostly made of moulded papier-mâché, rather than wood.[1]

As before the fire, the church is sub-divided by

Filaret (Drozdov)
of Moscow.

The cathedral was the repository of multiple relics and memorabilia related to the

declaring war on Germany
in 1914.

The Grand Church today

In May 1918, the cathedral was officially closed for worship. It is now used as an exhibition hall of the Hermitage Museum.[3] Restoration work undertaken from 2012 until 2014 is described by the State Museum as a "recreation of the original design of the Court Cathedral" and "The icons, the candelabra, the standard lamps and pieces of the iconostasis, the pulpit, the lantern and the altar canopy were returned to their original place".[4]

Gallery

  • The Great Church of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg
    The Great Church of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg
  • History as described by the State Hermitage Museum
    History as described by the State Hermitage Museum
  • Dome interior
    Dome interior
  • Ceiling
    Ceiling
  • Western wall (entrance)
    Western wall (entrance)
  • Southern wall
    Southern wall
  • Southern wall decoration
    Southern wall decoration
  • The pulpit
    The pulpit

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d "The Grand Church", The State Hermitage Museum, archived from the original on 29 August 2008
  2. Prince Heinrich of Prussia (son of Kaiser Friedrich III). Today, this portrait hangs at Buckingham Palace
    .
  3. ^ Собор СПАСА НЕРУКОТВОРНОГО ОБРАЗА с церковью СРЕТЕНИЯ ГОСПОДНЯ при Императорском Зимнем дворце From the Encyclopedia of St.Petersburg. Retrieved 10 November 2008
  4. ^ Cathedral of the image of the Saviour (sign in display case). Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum. 2015 – via WikiMedia Commons.

59°56′26″N 30°18′56″E / 59.94056°N 30.31556°E / 59.94056; 30.31556

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