The intricacies of the church life in St. Petersburg time of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The history of the construction of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God

Abstract

The article deals a few episodes of the 18th century St. Petersburg church history through an analysis of documents on the history of the construction of three churches of the Nativity of the Mother of God. The first of these churches was to be built on Vasil’evsky Island, where Peter the Great had planned to move the center of the capital. The earliest documentary evidence about the beginning of realization of ideas of Peter dates from 1723. On the basis of written sources the article traces the sequence of events from the choice of construction site until the end of the construction of church. It clarifies the reasons for changing the name of the church, consecrated in the year 1732 not in honor of the Nativity of the Mother of God, but in honor of the Apostle Andrew. Community wooden Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God of the Petersburg Island initiated the construction of a new stone church. The construction site was chosen near the old church, but the building has not begun. Monetary fund accumulated for the construction of this church was confiscated by the Empress Anna Ioannovna and spent on the creation of the third church of the same name, built in the year 1737 on Nevsky Prospect. History of the design and construction of churches has been reviewed in the context of church life in St. Petersburg in the first half of the 18th century. Many of the archival documents are used for the first time. Refs 39.