109. Chesme Church & Chesme Palace
Chesme Palace and Chesme Church are located in a residential neighborhood in southern St. Petersburg, a short walk from Moskovskaya Ploshchad. The church is one of the most interesting and unusual religious buildings in St. Petersburg, but not one that most tourists are aware of due to its location well away from the main tourist areas.
Chesme Palace was built in the late 18th century by Catherine the Great so that she would have a place to hang out and rest on her way from the royal residences in the city center to her large palace in Tsarskoye Selo. You know you have money to burn when you decide to build a palace halfway between your other palaces because you don't want to travel the 30 kilometer distance all at once. The palace itself is not open to tourists - it is currently used by the Institute of Aviation Technology.
Just across the street from the palace is Chesme Church, also known as the Church of the Birth of St. John the Baptist. It was consecrated in 1780 in honor of Russia's 1770 naval victory over the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Chesme in Chesme Bay, Turkey (part of the 1768-74 Russo-Turkish War). The Gothic Revival architecture and pink color are both unusual for St. Petersburg churches. Although the small interior is not especially noteworthy, the amazing exterior puts this near the top of my list of favorite churches. Like many other churches, the building was not used for religious purposes during the Soviet period, but was handed back to the Russian Orthodox church in 1991.
The church has been used for hundreds of years as a location for military burials. The main evidence of that today is the cemetery behind the church, which I believe is primarily filled with people who died during the Great Patriotic War and the Siege of Leningrad.
Chesme Palace was built in the late 18th century by Catherine the Great so that she would have a place to hang out and rest on her way from the royal residences in the city center to her large palace in Tsarskoye Selo. You know you have money to burn when you decide to build a palace halfway between your other palaces because you don't want to travel the 30 kilometer distance all at once. The palace itself is not open to tourists - it is currently used by the Institute of Aviation Technology.
Just across the street from the palace is Chesme Church, also known as the Church of the Birth of St. John the Baptist. It was consecrated in 1780 in honor of Russia's 1770 naval victory over the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Chesme in Chesme Bay, Turkey (part of the 1768-74 Russo-Turkish War). The Gothic Revival architecture and pink color are both unusual for St. Petersburg churches. Although the small interior is not especially noteworthy, the amazing exterior puts this near the top of my list of favorite churches. Like many other churches, the building was not used for religious purposes during the Soviet period, but was handed back to the Russian Orthodox church in 1991.
The church has been used for hundreds of years as a location for military burials. The main evidence of that today is the cemetery behind the church, which I believe is primarily filled with people who died during the Great Patriotic War and the Siege of Leningrad.
Comments
Post a Comment