St Sampson's Cathedral (Rus. Сампсониевский собор) is the oldest surviving

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. It stands on the northern outskirts of the city and gives its name to Sampsonievsky Avenue. Rumor has it that it was in St. Sampson's Church that

Catherine II of Russia Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

secretly married

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 ...

in 1774. The original wooden church was built in 1710 to honor

Sampson the Hospitable Sampson the Hospitable (, ; died 530 AD) was a citizen of Constantinople who devoted his time to serving the poor of the city. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Churches as well in the Catholic Church. Life Sampson (or Samson) was ...

. It was on the feast day of that saint that

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

defeated

Charles XII of Sweden Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII () or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.), was King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of the House of ...

in the

Battle of Poltava The Battle of Poltava took place 8 July 1709, was the decisive and largest battle of the Great Northern War. The Russian army under the command of Tsar Peter I defeated the Swedish army commanded by Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld. The battle would l ...

.The Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg
The existing church was built under

Empress Anna Anna Ioannovna (; ), also russified as Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, served as regent of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Much of her administration ...

to a design by Pietro Antonio Trezzini. It was consecrated in 1740. The tent-like

belltower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church (building), church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many ...

was built at a later date. The original church had only one dome; the four subsidiary domes were added in 1761. The church was considerably renovated as part of the battle's bicentennial celebrations. A

Rastrelli Rastrelli may refer to the following persons: * Antonio Rastrelli (politician) (1927–2019), Italian politician * Antonio Rastrelli (born 1945), Italian Olympic swimmer * Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1675–1744), Italian sculptor who emigr ...

esque chapel was constructed on the grounds, and Peter I's address to his soldiers at Poltava was inscribed on the wall. It was at that time that the church was elevated to

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

status. The parish was disbanded by the Soviets in the 1930s, and the building was converted into a warehouse. It was restored in the late 1970s and reopened in 2000 as a museum attached to St. Isaac's Cathedral. The grave yard which surrounds the church has been filled for centuries. Some of the city's first foreign architects, including

Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond (1679 – 10 March 1719) was a French architect and garden designer who became the chief architect of Saint Petersburg in 1716. Career in France He was the son of Jean Le Blond, painter in ordinary to the king, a ...

and

Domenico Trezzini Domenico Trezzini (; – 1734) was an Italian Swiss architect who elaborated the Petrine Baroque style of Russian architecture. Biography Domenico was born in Astano, Landvogtei of Lugano (at that time a condominium of the Old Swiss C ...

, were buried there. The tomb of

Artemy Volynsky Artemy Petrovich Volynsky (; 1689–1740) was a Russian Empire, Russian statesman and diplomat. His career started as a soldier but was rapidly upgraded to ambassador to Safavid Iran, and later as Astrakhan Governorate, Governor of Astrakhan duri ...

and

Pyotr Yeropkin Pyotr Mikhailovich Yeropkin (ca. 1698–1740) was a Russian architect credited with replanning Saint Petersburg after Peter the Great's death. It was Yeropkin who designed the famous Trident of the Nevsky, Voznesensky, and Gorokhovaya thoroughf ...

(both executed exactly 31 years after the Poltava victory) is by

Alexander Opekushin Alexander Mikhailovich Opekushin (Russian: Александр Михайлович Опекушин; 16 November 1838, Svechkino, Danilovsky Uyezd - 4 March 1923, Rybnitsa, Danilovsky Uyezd) was a Russian sculptor, known primarily for his monumen ...

(1885). The statue of

in front of the cathedral was designed by

Mark Antokolsky Mark Matveyevich Antokolsky (; 2 November 18409 July 1902) was a Russian sculptor of Lithuanian–Jewish descent. Biography Early life Mordukh Matysovich Antokolsky was born in Vilnius ( Antokol city district), Lithuania (at the time part of ...

. It was removed by the Soviets and restored in 2003 as part of the city's tercentenary celebrations. On 5 February 2017 the cathedral was transferred from the state to the Russian Orthodox Church at a ceremony in the cathedral. During the ceremony, which started with Divine Liturgy, the director of the Museum Complex of St. Isaac's Cathedral, which managed St. Sampson's Cathedral, officially handed the keys of the cathedral to Archimandrite Seraphim, noting that it was "with a feeling of deep satisfaction". The Archimandrite called the transfer a historic day and said it was the beginning of a new page in the cathedral's history, and he thanked the museum complex for preserving the cathedral.

References

{{reflist Cathedrals in Saint Petersburg Russian Orthodox cathedrals in Russia History museums in Saint Petersburg Religious museums in Russia Churches completed in 1740 Baroque church buildings in Russia Baroque architecture in Saint Petersburg Vyborgskiy_District_of_Saint_Petersburg Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg