The Gate Church (), or formally the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow () is a

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

church 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 ...

. It is in the and is part of the

Alexander Nevsky Lavra Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra or Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery was founded by Peter I of Russia in 1710 at the eastern end of the Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, in the belief that this was the site of the Neva Battle in 1240 when Alexa ...

. Prior to the building of the church, from 1725, the gate from the

Nevsky Prospect Nevsky Prospect ( rus, Не́вский проспе́кт, r=Nevsky Prospekt, p=ˈnʲɛfskʲɪj prɐˈspʲɛkt) is a main street ( high street) located in the federal city of St. Petersburg in Russia. Its name comes from the Alexander Nevs ...

included a two-tiered bell tower with clock. Between 1753 and 1754, a new wooden bell tower was erected and the bells and clock from the old tower were installed in it.

Design and construction

The church was built as part of the development of the main entrance to the monastery from

. Designed by architect

Ivan Starov Ivan Yegorovich Starov (; 23 February 1745 – 17 April 1808) was a Russian architect from Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg who devised the master plans for Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Pskov, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, and many other towns in Russia and Ukr ...

in 1783, it envisaged a wall marking the boundary of the monastery, with access through a gate church, decorated with Doric

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s and topped with a low dome. Construction of the church took place from 1784 to 1785 under the auspices of M.E. Melentyev, with the interior finishing carried out between autumn 1785 and spring 1786. By one account, the

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

s were brought from the private chapel of Prince

Grigory Potemkin Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (A number of dates as late as 1742 have been found on record; the veracity of any one is unlikely to be proved. This is his "official" birth-date as given on his tombstone.) was a Russian mi ...

. The church was consecrated on 15 July 1786, dedicated to the

of the

Mother of God ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are or (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer ...

" Joy of All Who Sorrow". Two two-storey residential buildings, today Nevsky Prospect Numbers 177 and 190, and a one-storey

poorhouse A poorhouse or workhouse is a government-run (usually by a county or municipality) facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy. Workhouses In England, Wales and Ireland (but not in Scotland), "workhouse" has been the more ...

, were built on the western side of

Alexander Nevsky Square Alexander Nevsky Square (), formerly called Red Square, is a city square in Tsentralny District, Saint Petersburg. At the east end of Nevsky Prospekt, linking the street with the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, it is named after medieval Russian Prince A ...

between 1788 and 1789, completing the ensemble. On 1 July 1800, the decreed that the church would function as a parish for artisans serving the Lavra, and for those who rented space along the Kalashnikovskaya Embankment from the monastery.

Latvian parish and Soviet period

In 1806, the church’s walls were painted; and in 1860, repairs were carried out under the supervision of . In 1904, by authorisation of the

Most Holy Synod The Most Holy Governing Synod (, pre-reform orthography: ) was the highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church between 1721 and 1917. It was abolished following the February Revolution of 1917 and replaced with a restored patriar ...

, the Gate Church hosted a Latvian parish. Services and ceremonies were performed in the

Latvian language Latvian (, ), also known as Lettish, is an East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Indo-European language family. It is spoken in the Baltic region, and is the language of the Latvians. It is the official language of Latvia ...

, and the church hosted a library of books and periodicals, until the Latvian parish was dissolved in 1918. The church was closed in October 1931, and in the 1930s, housed the district council of the , abbreviated as OSOAVIAKHIM (). The church underwent restoration after the

siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

, between 1949 and 1950, and was used as offices by the directorship of the .

Post-Soviet period

The building was returned to the Orthodox Church on 15 April 1994. In September 1997, Bishop consecrated a chapel in the left wing of the church in the name of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow". On 23 September 2014, the church was re-consecrated by the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Varsonofy Sudakov, and the first

Divine Liturgy Divine Liturgy () or Holy Liturgy is the usual name used in most Eastern Christian rites for the Eucharistic service. The Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Lutheranism, Eastern Lutheran Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Church believe the Divi ...

was held.

References

External links

Gate Church at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
{{coord, 59, 55, 23.5, N, 30, 23, 11.3, E, type:landmark, display=title Churches completed in 1786 Vasily Stasov buildings and structures Russian Orthodox churches in Saint Petersburg Tourist attractions in Saint Petersburg Churches in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra 18th-century churches in Russia Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg