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

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

in St. Petersburg. 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 , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

secretly married

Grigory Potemkin Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (, also , ;, rus, Князь Григо́рий Алекса́ндрович Потёмкин-Таври́ческий, Knjaz' Grigórij Aleksándrovich Potjómkin-Tavrícheskij, ɡrʲɪˈɡ ...

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

Sampson the Hospitable Sampson the Hospitable ( el, Σαμψὼν ὁ φιλόξενος, ; 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 C ...

. It was on the feast day of that saint that

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

defeated

Charles XII of Sweden Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII ( sv, Karl XII) or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 O.S.), was King of Sweden (including current Finland) from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of t ...

in the

Battle of Poltava The Battle of Poltava; russian: Полта́вская би́тва; uk, Полта́вська би́тва (8 July 1709) was the decisive and largest battle of the Great Northern War. A Russian army under the command of Tsar Peter I defeate ...

.The Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg
The existing church was built under Empress Anna to a design by

Pietro Antonio Trezzini Pietro Antonio Trezzini (Пётр Трезин; 1692 – after 1760) was a Swiss architect from the Trezzini family who worked primarily in St. Petersburg. After several years of training in Milan, Trezzini arrived in St. Petersburg (1726), p ...

. It was consecrated in 1740. The tent-like belltower 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 emigrat ...

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 that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

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 Saint Isaac's Cathedral or Isaakievskiy Sobor (russian: Исаа́киевский Собо́р) is a large architectural landmark cathedral that currently functions as a museum with occasional church services in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is ...

. 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 (Russian Андрей Якимович Трезин, ''Andrey Yakimovich Trezin''; c. 1670 – 1734) was a Swiss architect who elaborated the Petrine Baroque style of Russian architecture. Domenico was born in Astano, L ...

, were buried there. The tomb of Artemy Volynsky 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 thoroughfa ...

(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 monume ...

(1885). The statue of

in front of the cathedral was designed by

Mark Antokolsky Mark Matveyevich Antokolsky (russian: Марк Матве́евич Антоко́льский; 2 November 18409 July 1902) was a Russian Imperial sculptor of Lithuanian Jewish descent. Biography Mordukh Matysovich Antokolsky''Boris Schatz: The ...

. 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