In the center of the Peter and Paul Fortress is the Peter and Paul Cathedral - the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Its laying took place on May 30, 1712. Construction of the cathedral lasted 20 years. The temple is a rectangular “hall” type building stretched from west to east, characteristic of Western European architecture. The length of the building is 61 meters, width is 27.5 meters.
Both the external appearance of the cathedral and the interior are unusual for traditional Russian religious architecture. Its main decoration is a carved gilded iconostasis and an altar canopy - a gift to the temple from Peter I and Catherine I.
The program for the iconostasis was drawn up by Peter I and Archbishop of Novgorod Feofan Prokopovich. The composition of the iconostasis includes five large icon cases. They contain 43 icons painted in 1726-1729. The temple has two altars. The main one is consecrated in the name of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. The second altar is located in the southwestern corner and is consecrated in honor of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine.
In front of the altar there is a pulpit for delivering sermons. Symmetrically to the pulpit there is a royal place - a platform where the emperor stood during the service.
The main part of the cathedral is a multi-tiered bell tower. The bell tower houses 103 bells, 31 of which have been preserved since 1757. At the very top there is a figure of an angel with a cross in his hands, the height of the cross is about 6.5 meters.
The height of the figure is 3.2 meters, the wingspan is 3.8 meters, and the weight is about 250 kg.
The cathedral is connected by a gallery to the Grand Ducal Tomb, built for the burial of the Grand Dukes - members of the Imperial House of Romanov. The custom of burying members of the ruling dynasty in temples was based on the idea of the divine origin of their power. The founder of the city, Peter I, was buried in it. Subsequently, almost all the emperors and empresses until Alexander III were buried in the tomb.
To the Great Patriotic War The Peter and Paul Cathedral was badly damaged. The facades were restored in 1952, and the interiors in 1956-1957. In 1954, the building was transferred to the City History Museum.
Despite its strict forms, the cathedral leaves an impression of lightness and general upward direction.
The tomb of the uncrowned members of the Russian imperial house is located in the Peter and Paul Fortress next to the Orthodox Peter and Paul Cathedral. The traditional name “Grand Ducal Tomb” is not entirely accurate: in addition to persons who had the title of Grand Dukes and Princesses, the tomb was also intended for princes of imperial blood and members of the Beauharnais family related to the Romanovs, who had the title of Dukes of Leuchtenberg and His Serene Highness Princes of Romanov.
TO end of the 19th century V. the possibilities for new burials in the Peter and Paul Cathedral were exhausted. In 1897-1906. The Grand Ducal Tomb was built nearby according to the design of architects D. I. Grimm and A. O. Tomishko.
According to the design, the northern side of the cathedral is adjacent to the volume of the front vestibule, from which a covered gallery leads east to the tomb. The royal rooms were located next to the gallery.
Construction began in April 1897. After the death of D. I. Grimm in 1898, and then in 1900 of A. O. Tomishko, L. N. Benois was appointed builder of the tomb. By that time, the walls and pylons had been built up to the base of the vaults. Benoit revised the project, which was re-approved on May 27, 1901. The use of a parabolic vault shape led to a change in the silhouette and an increase in the height of the building to 48 m. Construction was largely completed in 1906.
The space of the front courtyard in front of the lobby is separated by a lattice built in 1905. By the will of Nicholas II, Benois designed it based on the lattice of the Summer Garden.
The building is richly decorated, designed in the traditions of the late Renaissance and French classicism. The facades are plastic with clearly drawn details. The dome is covered with dark slate, the dome and cross are covered with gold leaf. The inside walls are lined with Serdobol granite and white Italian marble. The columns are made of dark labradorite.
In the eastern part of the tomb there is a marble iconostasis. The image for him was painted by N. A. Bruni. Based on his sketch, G.I. Kuzik made the altar stained glass window “The Resurrection of Christ” in 1906 in Darmstadt. In the same year, in the mosaic workshop of V. A. Frolov, four icons were created on thin cardboard. N. N. Kharlamov: for the facades - images of the Iverskaya, Kazan and Fedorovskaya icons of the Mother of God and the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands - above the entrance to the lobby.
Under the floor of the tomb, 60 two-chamber concrete crypts were built, each 2.2 m deep.
Church of St. Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky was consecrated on November 5, 1908. The building was considered not as a church, but as a necropolis. Only memorial services were served there in the presence of members of the imperial family. In November 1908, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich was buried in the tomb; the design of his grave determined the design of subsequent tombstones. By 1917, thirteen burials had taken place.
After the revolution, all the graves in the tomb were destroyed. The bronze decorations of the tombstones were melted down. The building was used by the Museum of the Revolution, then by the State Central Book Chamber and the State Public Library, then there was a warehouse for a paper factory. The iconostasis was destroyed, and an entrance was punched in the center of the altar wall. During the blockade, the altar stained glass window was destroyed.
In 1954, the building was transferred to the Museum of the History of Leningrad (now the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg). In 1964, a partial restoration was carried out according to the design of the architect I. N. Benois, after which the exhibition “History of the Construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress” was opened here, which was dismantled only in 1992.
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the tomb of the Russian Tsars. February 6th, 2014
Today, as every time I visit St. Petersburg, I visited the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the resting place of members of the Romanov dynasty.
I think this is Holy place for every Russian person, for here are the ashes of those who built our country, its cities, ports, roads, and created the basis of its industry. The ashes of those who created Russia in the understanding and idea familiar to everyone. Those who for centuries defended Christianity and Orthodox peoples from foreign enslavement.
The current Russian Troubles began exactly at the moment when the Russian monarchy ceased to exist, and there is very little left to wait until the centennial anniversary of this event.
Orthodox Russian tsars built and protected our state for centuries, collected new lands, making the Russian Empire, or simply Russia, the most big country in the world. In the end, it was the monarchical form of the state that existed in our history by an order of magnitude more than all other forms of Russian statehood
Hymn Russian Empire.
Gate to the fortress.
Peter and Paul Cathedral. Until the year before last, the tallest building in St. Petersburg. It was finally built by 1733.
Interior decoration of the temple.
It was unpleasant that when visiting excursion groups, guides and caretakers do not make comments to men who do not take off their hats, but there were some, especially among foreigners. Unfortunately, many perceive the cathedral not as a sacred temple, but as a museum exhibit.
Catherine's Chapel, where the remains of the family of the last Russian Tsar, who were brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg in 1918, rest.
Russian Orthodox Church already in our time they were canonized.
Burial of the founder of the Russian Empire and the city of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great.
The burial of the greatest Russian Empress Catherine the Second, thanks to whose actions, including the current state of Ukraine, owns a third of its territory.
Photos of other members of the dynasty who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The winner of Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Alexander the First.
Nicholas the First, who successfully suppressed the first in history Russian state liberal rebellion - the Decembrist uprising.
Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, mother of the last Emperor Nicholas II, who escaped death only because she was in Kyiv in 1917.
She died in Western Europe and was reburied here in 2006.
In Kyiv, in her honor, in 1916, the current Petrovsky railway bridge was named. In general, she did a lot of useful things for our city, she sincerely loved it and always stayed in it for a long time.
Later, in Soviet Russia, her memory was of course consigned to oblivion.
Her husband, Emperor Alexander III, who died suddenly in Crimea from illness in 1894. After him, power passed to their son Nicholas, who was destined to become the last Russian Tsar.
The builder of Kyiv is Emperor Nicholas I. It was thanks to his personal participation that Kyiv, from a city of monasteries and pilgrims, began to turn into a large provincial center with developed industry and transport infrastructure. Under him, most of the streets in the center of Kyiv were laid out, as we can see them to this day.
Alexander II - Tsar Liberator. He freed the peasantry from serfdom and the Balkan peoples from the Turkish yoke.
He was killed in 1881 in St. Petersburg by Narodnaya Volya terrorists. This is how the predecessors of the current enemies of the Russian state called themselves in those years, from pro-Western liberals to Trotskyists and Islamic militants.
Family of the last Russian Tsar.
Trinity Bridge of St. Petersburg, built in 1903 for the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg. Under the USSR it was called Kirovsky.
And the frozen Neva.
View of the Peter and Paul Cathedral from the Trinity Bridge.
Peter-Pavel's Fortress.
Grand Ducal Tomb
Architectural monument
1897-1908 - architect. Grimm David Ivanovich, Tomishko Anthony Iosifovich, Benois Leonty Nikolaevich
By the end of the 19th century. the possibilities for new burials in the Peter and Paul Cathedral were exhausted. In 1906, the Grand Ducal Tomb was built nearby according to the design of architects D. I. Grimm and A. O. Tomishko.
According to the design, the northern side of the cathedral is adjacent to the volume of the front vestibule, from which a covered gallery leads east to the tomb. The royal rooms were located next to the gallery.
Construction began in April 1897. After the death of D. I. Grimm in 1898, and then in 1900 of A. O. Tomishko, L. N. Benois was appointed builder of the tomb. By that time, the walls and pylons had been built up to the base of the vaults. Benoit reworked the project, which was re-approved on May 27, 1901. The use of a parabolic vault shape led to a change in the silhouette and an increase in the height of the building to 48 m. Construction was largely completed in 1906.
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After the revolution, all the graves in the tomb were destroyed. The bronze decorations of the tombstones were sent for melting down. The building was used by the Museum of the Revolution, then by the State Central Book Chamber and the State Public Library, then there was a warehouse for a paper factory. The iconostasis was destroyed, and an entrance was punched in the center of the altar wall. During the blockade, the altar stained glass window was destroyed.
In 1954, the building was transferred to the Museum of the History of Leningrad. In 1964, a partial restoration was carried out according to the project of architect. I. N. Benois, after that the exhibition “History of the Construction of the Peter and Paul Fortress” was opened here, which was dismantled only in 1992.
In May 1992, the great-grandson of Alexander II, the head of the Russian Imperial House, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, who died in Paris, was buried here. In the same year, restoration of tombstones at historical burial sites began.
Mosaic icons are located on all four facades of the tomb, one on each. On three large round panels you can see images Mother of God: Kazanskaya on the southern facade, Iverskaya on the northern and Feodorovskaya on the eastern. The fourth panel - at the exit from the tomb - is the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands. The mosaics were installed in 1907 at the suggestion of the architect Leonty Benois, and were made in the famous St. Petersburg Mosaic Workshop of the architect Frolov. The panels with images of the Mother of God, about two meters in diameter, consist of thousands of pieces of smalt of many colors and shades, and each piece is a centimeter cube. The image of the Savior Not Made by Hands is smaller in size.
All four mosaics were badly damaged. The panels began to crack and became very dirty. There were many areas where the smalt had completely fallen off, or where it was split or gouged out. The panels were created more than a hundred years ago, and now it is no longer possible to find exactly the same mosaic that was made then. The Italians have a large palette of mosaics, but even in the Italian collection they could not find all the fragments that were necessary for the restoration of the icons. The missing part of the material was found in the workshops of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. In total, during the restoration of the mosaic panels, hundreds of pieces of smalt and about four kilograms of precious glass were replaced. All work was done by two St. Petersburg specialists.
(From the article by O. Ermoshina “The inner light was returned to the ancient mosaic” in the newspaper “Evening Petersburg” No. 186 (25455) dated 10/12/2015)
Grand-ducal tomb in the Peter and Paul Fortress. JSC "Arsis" 1993
The Grand Ducal Tomb, officially called the Tomb of the Members of the Imperial Family (or New Tomb) at the Peter and Paul Cathedral, was built in 1896-1908. designed by architect D. I. Grimm with the participation of A. O. Tomishko and L. N. Benois. Its construction was caused by the fact that by the end of the 19th century. The possibilities for new burials in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which served as the necropolis of the Romanov dynasty, had practically already been exhausted.
Under the floor of the Tomb, 60 graves were built, each of which is a two-chamber concrete crypt with a depth of 2.2, a width of 1.3 and a length of 2.4 meters. Each chamber was tightly closed with three stone slabs. The crypts are separated by concrete walls 12 centimeters thick. The graves are located in rows along the walls from east to west. Unlike the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where the graves were prepared only after the death of a member of the imperial family, here they were made all at once.
According to the original project, approved by Alexander III in 1887, the construction of an altar (chapel) in the Tomb was not intended. In the eastern part there should have been only a small crucifix. But in the summer of 1905, Nicholas II, at the request of his wife Alexandra Feodorovna and her sister Elizabeth, ordered an altar with an iconostasis to be built in it. True, the building was considered not as a church, but as a necropolis-mausoleum. Only funeral services were held in it in the presence of members of the imperial family.
On November 5, 1908, the newly built building of the Tomb was consecrated, and three days later the first burial took place - the son of Alexander II, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, was buried at the southern altar.
As in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, all burials in the Tomb were carried out according to ceremony. For one or two days, the coffin with the body under a special canopy stood in the center of the cathedral. After the funeral service, he was transferred to the Tomb and lowered into a copper ark that stood in the grave. The Ark was locked with two locks, the keys to which were kept in the Ministry of the Imperial Household. At a special signal, at the moment the coffin was lowered, rifle and gun salutes were fired from the walls of the fortress, and bells were rung.
The grave was covered flush with the floor with a white marble slab, on which the title, name, places and dates of birth and death, and date of burial were engraved.
In February 1909, his brother, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, was buried next to Alexei Alexandrovich. In the same year, the ashes of his son Alexei Vladimirovich were transferred from the Peter and Paul Cathedral. And in 1911 - 1912 - the remains of several more members of the royal family. At the same time, the reburial took several days, since the crypts in the Tomb were smaller than the transported arks.
In 1916, there were thirteen burials in the Tomb. eight of which were transferred from the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
During the years of Soviet power, the fate of the Grand Ducal Tomb was rather sad. In December 1926, the Glavnauka commission, which examined the building, came to the conclusion that all the bronze decorations on the tombstones, as well as the bars of the altar, “are subject to melting down as they do not represent historical and artistic value.” In 1932, the building was transferred to the State Central Book Chamber. On the marble floor, damaged by the flood of 1924, wooden flooring was made, on which shelves with books were placed in three tiers. Tombstones were crushed. The passage to the cathedral was sealed with a brick wall. The book depository remained there until the end of the Great Patriotic War.
After the war, a paper mill warehouse was located in the Tomb for some time. In 1954, the building was transferred to the Museum of the History of the City, and in the first half of the sixties, after repair and restoration work was carried out, it housed the exhibition “The History of the Peter and Paul Fortress.” It was dismantled in May 1992 in connection with the burial of the great-grandson of Alexander II, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, and the start of restoration work. Once completed, the building will be returned to its original appearance.
- 1. Grand Duke Alexey Alexandrovich. Born in St. Petersburg on January 2, 1850. Died in Paris on November 1, 1908. Son of Alexander II. Admiral General, Adjutant General, Admiral. Chief head of the fleet and maritime department, member of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. Buried November 8, 1908
- 2. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. Born in St. Petersburg on April 10, 1847. Died there on February 4, 1909. Son of Alexander II. Adjutant General, Infantry General. Commander-in-Chief of the Guard Troops and the St. Petersburg Military District, member of the State Council, President of the Imperial Academy of Arts. Buried February 8, 1909
- 3. Grand Duke Alexander Vladimirovich. Born in Tsarskoe Selo on August 19, 1875. Died in St. Petersburg on March 4, 1877. Son of Vladimir Alexandrovich. Buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on March 7, 1877. Reburied in the Burial Vault on February 14 -17, 1909.
- 4. Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna (nee Alexandra-Friederike-Elisabeth-Henrietta-Pauline-Marianna, Princess of Saxe-Altenburg). Born in Altenburg on June 26, 1830. Died in St. Petersburg on June 23, 1911. Wife of Konstantin Nikolaevich. Chairman of the Imperial Russian Musical Society and the St. Petersburg Council of Orphanages. Buried June 30, 1911
- 5. Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna. Born in Tsarskoe Selo on June 12, 1825. Died in Tsarskoe Selo on July 29, 1844. Daughter of Nicholas I, wife of Prince Friedrich-Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on August 4, 1844. Reburied in the Burial Vault on September 23-28, 1911.
- 6. Grand Duke Vyacheslav Konstantinovich. Born in Warsaw on July 1, 1862. Died in St. Petersburg on February 15, 1879. Son of Konstantin Nikolaevich. Buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on February 18, 1879. Reburied in the Burial Vault on September 23-28, 1911.
- 7. Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. Born in St. Petersburg on September 9, 1827. Died in Pavlovsk on January 13, 1892. Son of Nicholas I. Admiral General, Adjutant General, Admiral. Chief Administrator of the Fleet and Maritime Department, Chairman of the Admiralty Council, Chairman of the State Council, Member of the Committee of Ministers. Chairman of the Imperial Russian Geographical, Musical and other societies. Buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on January 15, 1892. Reburied in the Burial Vault on September 23-28, 1911.
- 8. Princess of Imperial Blood Natalya Konstantinovna. Born on March 10, 1905. Died on May 10, 1905. Daughter of Konstantin Konstantinovich. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on May 12, 1905. She was reburied in the Burial Vault on September 23 - 28, 1911.
- 9. Prince Georgy Maximilianovich Romanovsky, Duke of Leuchtenberg. Born in St. Petersburg on February 17, 1852. Died in Paris on April 20, 1911. Son of Maria Nikolaevna, grandson of Nicholas I. Buried on April 28, 1912.
- 10. Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna. Born in Pavlovsk on August 6, 1819. Died in St. Petersburg on February 9, 1876. Daughter of Nicholas I, wife of Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg. President of the Imperial Academy of Arts, Chairman of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on February 13, 1876. Reburied in the Burial Vault on June 13 - 14, 1912.
- 11. Prince Sergei Maximilianovich Romanovsky, Duke of Leuchtenberg. Born in St. Petersburg on December 8, 1849. Killed on October 12, 1877 near Jovan Chiftlik in Bulgaria. Son of Maria Nikolaevna, grandson of Nicholas I. Captain of the Life Guards Horse Regiment. Buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on October 24, 1877. Reburied in the Burial Vault on June 13-14, 1912.
- 12. Princess Alexandra Maximilianovna. Born in St. Petersburg on March 28, 1840. Died in Sergievka on July 31, 1843. Daughter of Maria Nikolaevna. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on August 5, 1843. Reburied in the Burial Vault on June 13-14, 1912.
- 13. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich. Born in St. Petersburg on August 10, 1858. Died in Pavlovsk on June 2, 1915. Son of Konstantin Nikolaevich, grandson of Nicholas I. Adjutant General, Infantry General, Inspector General of Military Educational Institutions. President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, poet, academician of fine literature. Buried June 8, 1915
- 14. Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich. Born in Borgo on August 30, 1917. Died in Miami (USA) on April 21, 1992. Grandson of Vladimir Alexandrovich, head of the imperial house of Romanov. Buried May 29, 1992
- (Text by V. B. Gendrikov
- 1. Grand Duke Alexey Alexandrovich. Born in St. Petersburg on January 2, 1850. Died in Paris on November 1, 1908. Son of Alexander II. Admiral General, Adjutant General, Admiral. Chief head of the fleet and maritime department, member of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers. Buried November 8, 1908
Western façade.
Architect" 1898,
Issue 11 L.54
Plan.
Architect" 1898,
Issue 11 L.54
Cross section.
Architect" 1898, Issue 11 L.55
(added)
Old postcard.
Tomb of the Grand Dukes
in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Photo 1911
Internal view of the tomb
members of the Imperial
Surnames. L.N.Benoit
Internal view of the tomb dome
members of the Imperial Family.
L. N. Benois.
OAH Yearbook,
Vol. 2, 1907., pp. 11-13
(added)
Description
Let's continue our walk through the Peter and Paul Fortress towards the cathedral. By right hand From us there is a one-story building of the Artillery Workshop, which was erected according to the design of the military engineer A. M. Briskorn in 1801 - 1802, for storing weapons and military equipment. In 1865, a fire station was located here. In 1887, a manege for garrison drill exercises was set up in the workshop premises.Nowadays, the building is used for exhibitions, part of it is reserved for office space.
Opposite is the Engineering House, built in 1748 - 1749 on the site of wooden warehouses for storing weapons (tseykhauza). At first the premises were used for the same weapons warehouses, later in late XVIII century, the building became an Engineering business yard with workshops. The buildings housed drawing workshops, a storage facility for engineering equipment, an archive, and part was allocated for living quarters for the families of lower-ranking employees.
Next we will see the Peter and Paul Cathedral with the Grand Ducal Tomb attached to it. But before we go out onto the cathedral square, let’s pay attention to the chamber statue of Emperor Peter the Great sitting on the throne.
The monument to Peter the Great, the work of the artist and sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin, was erected opposite the Peter and Paul Cathedral on June 7, 1991. The history of the creation of the monument is interesting. In the artist’s workshop there was a copy of the death mask of Peter the Great, made in the 18th century by the architect B. K. Rastrelli. The idea to use this mask in creating a sculpture was given to Mikhail Shemyakin by his friend, Vladimir Vysotsky. After the death of Vysotsky, the artist, in memory of his friend, created this original monument to Peter the Great.
But let's return to the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
During the construction of the fortress, in its center, on July 12 (June 29, old style) 1703, the day of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, a wooden church was founded, which in 1712 - 1733 was rebuilt by the court architect Domenico Trezzini into a stone one. The great architect erects the cathedral, deviating from Russian church canons of construction, in the European style, giving the building a baroque architectural appearance. The bell tower attached to the general volume is completed by a gilded spire with an angel with a cross hovering on it; The cathedral is crowned with only one dome, and not the usual five domes.
Subsequently, the architectural style of this time was called Peter's Baroque. Both the external appearance of the cathedral and the interior are unusual for traditional Russian religious architecture. The interior of the temple is divided into three wide naves by powerful pylons painted to resemble artificial marble. The vaults are decorated with paintings and gilded moldings, and the walls, dome and drum are decorated with paintings on scenes from the New and Old Testaments.
The interior decoration of the cathedral also differs from the canonical one. The main decoration of the cathedral is the carved gilded iconostasis - an unsurpassed example of Russian carving from the Baroque era. It was created in 1722-1727 in Moscow by masters of the Armory Chamber according to a sketch by Domenico Trezzini and under the guidance of the artist and architect Ivan Zarudny. The iconostasis was installed in the cathedral in 1729.
The bell tower of the cathedral is decorated with chimes (tower clock). During the construction of the cathedral, Peter I specially ordered a tower clock from England, which was installed on the bell tower. But the fate of the chimes turned out to be unenviable - they burned down in a fire. There was no money to restore it, so the modern clock on the tower is only superficially similar to the original.
The angel crowning the spire has an interesting story. In the 19th century, the figurine of an angel tilted from the wind and threatened to collapse. It is expensive and impractical to erect scaffolding sufficient to carry out the work, and climbing to such a height is impossible without special equipment. In 1830, roofing master Pyotr Telushkin volunteered to carry out repair work on the cathedral spire. With the help of ropes and his own skill, he climbed to the top of the spire, secured the rope ladder and carried out all the work to restore the angel.
From the first years of its existence (long before the complete completion of construction), the Peter and Paul Cathedral became the tomb of the Imperial House of Romanov; under its arches rest Russian emperors from Peter I to Nicholas II (with the exception of Peter II and John VI) and members of the imperial family.
Later, the Grand Ducal Tomb was added to the cathedral, due to the fact that the burial possibilities in the Peter and Paul Cathedral had been exhausted. In April 1897, construction work began according to the design of architects D. I. Grimm and A. O. Tomishko. Due to the death of the architects, the construction of the tomb was completed by the architect L. N. Benois. According to the revised project, the building was completed in 1906. On November 5, 1908, the necropolis was consecrated as the Church of St. Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky. Only funeral services were served there in the presence of members of the imperial family.
The Grand Ducal Tomb is a vivid example of architectural stylization trends in Russian architecture at the turn of the 19th – early 20th centuries. The architectural design of the building traces motifs of the French Renaissance, classicism and Italian baroque.
The interior decoration of the Grand Ducal Tomb was richly decorated - the walls were lined with Serdobol granite and white Italian marble, the columns were made of dark labradorite. A small iconostasis made of white marble with bronze royal doors was installed in the tomb.
The iconostasis and other elements of church decoration were lost after 1917.
From 1908 to 1915, 13 members of the imperial family were buried in the tomb, including 8 burials that were moved from the cathedral. Over the next 76 years, no burials were made in the tomb. The interrupted tradition was resumed in 1992, when the great-grandson of Alexander II, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, was buried here. In 1995, the ashes of his parents were transported to the tomb from the city of Coburg (Germany): Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna. In 2010, the wife of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich was buried Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna.
Be sure to visit the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which offers interesting excursions. Tickets can be purchased on the square in front of the cathedral; tickets to the Grand Ducal Tomb are also sold there.
