The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Catherine (, , ) is an
Evangelical Lutheran church located at Malaya Konyushnaya Ulitsa 1 in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. The building was built in 1885. As it was built by and for Swedish expatriates in Saint Petersburg, it is usually called the
Swedish church. The adjacent building is occupied by the Swedish General Consulate.
History
The church has a 300-year history since the beginning of Saint Petersburg. Many Swedes and Finns worked in
Peter the Great's construction of Saint Petersburg. Finland had been a part of Sweden from the early 13th century till 1809 when it became a Duchy of Russia. The Swedish people not only worked as laborers, but also worked in the new Russian government, as Peter the Great is said to have modelled it after the Swedish government.
From 1703, a Swedish-Finnish Evangelical Lutheran church had been organized, and in 1730 a church was built on the land on Malaya Konyushnaya Street, which
Anna Petrovna had donated, and was called the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Anna. Next to this land was the Swedish Embassy, now a Swedish General Consulate's office.
In 1745, the Finnish people left the church, became independent and completed a church building on Bolshaya Konyushnaya Street, which later became known as the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Mary. In 1789, the Swedish people built a new church building, which later came to be known as the "Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Catherine".
In 1885, the current church building was completed, designed by Carl Andersson (1826–88) who was born in Sweden, but worked in Saint Petersburg. Prominent Swedish families such as those of
Immanuel Nobel and
Johan Patrik Ljungström[S:ta Katarina i S:t Petersburg AI:3 (1831-1840) uppslag 134] belonged to this church. The church membership reached 7,000 at its peak and was 5,000 just before the
Russian Revolution of 1917.
During the
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
time, the church was closed completely in 1936 and was used for
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
and other sports activities. Following the collapse of Soviet power, the building was returned to the church in 1991.
Worship
The Sunday worship is held every second and fourth Sunday from 5:00 pm, in Swedish and Russian. Other church groups use this church for English (
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
) and Korean (
Presbyterian) services.
Churches in the neighborhood
Near this church on or near
Nevsky Prospekt, are:
*The
Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (also called the German church)
*The
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Mary (also called the Finnish church)
On the opposite side of Nevsky Prospekt is:
*The
Kazan Cathedral (
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
)
Nearby, also on Nevsky Prospekt, toward east, are:
*The
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church () is the Autocephaly, autocephalous national church of Armenia. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christianity, Christian churches. The Armenian Apostolic Church, like the Armenian Catholic ...
*The
Catholic Church of St. Catherine (
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
)
See also
*
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
*
Protestants in Russia
References
External links
Lutherans in Russia(2003)
{{coord, 59.9384722322, N, 30.3256944544, E, source:ruwiki_region:RU_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title
Churches completed in 1885
19th-century Lutheran churches
Lutheran churches in Saint Petersburg
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg