Tsarskoe Selo Cathedral

Turning from the Kuzminsky Gate along the boulevard, one should follow it till one comes to Leontievskaya Street, and notice at the corner the building of the Tsarskoe Selo Red-Cross Community, built in 1907 from sketches of the architect Danini.

Along the boulevard near the Red-Cross Community stand several buildings, belonging to philanthropic institutions. First is a wooden house occupied by the local branch of the Red-Cross, which is under the patronage of Her Imperial Majesty Alexandra Fyodorovna. The local committee of the Red-Cross was founded in 1899. It has a free ambulance and an operation hall as well as separate rooms for paying-patients and convalescents. In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Tsarskoe Selo the committee of the Red-Cross intends to build a hospital this year. The second stone building is the town's almshouse Demidov Shelkov for aged women. It was built in 1902 by the architect Danini. Part of the money for building the almshouse was left by the widow of a rich merchant, Pelagia Demidov; the rest was given by Alexandra Shelkov, a tradesman's daughter. The almshouse is carried on under the direction of a special committee of the Tsarskoe Selo's town council. 55 aged women are taken care of there. Five of the vacancies are at the personal disposal of Shelkov's relatives. The poorest old women of Tsarskoe Selo and Pavlovsk (over 55 years of age) have the right of being admitted. The almshouse was opened on the 22nd of October 1904. In 1908 was temporarily moved here the Court almshouse for aged women, kept up by Their Imperial Majesties. This institution is primarily intended for aged women, who themselves, or whose husbands or fathers, have been in the service of the Minister of the Imperial Court. A stone building, at the corner of the boulevard and of Orangereynaya Street, is the Tsarskoe Selo Infants' School of the Institutions of the Empress Maria, in memory of Nicholas, Elisabeth, and Olga Adamovich, with a home for orphans, in honor of the Tsarevich Alexis Nicholaevich. The building was constructed in 1905 by the architect A. Drucher.

The school is under the jurisdiction of the St. Petersburg committee for Infants' Schools. It was founded in 1842. Up to 1905 it occupied a hired house and was only for day scholars, but since that time boarders have also been taken in. It now accommodates 110 day scholars of both sexes; and 40 boarders (all boys), 35 of which are admitted free of expense. The fee for day-scholars is 1 ruble 20 kopecks, and for boarders 120 rubles a is year. The school is managed, according to the general regulations for Infants' schools, founded by the Empress Maria.

 

Coat of Arms of Tsarskoe Selo

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna's Infants' School, in commemoration of the war of 1877, occupies its own house on the left hand side of Leontievskaya Street. It was founded in 1877, and is supported on money, given by its August Patroness and by its Curatress, Countess Vera Borisovna Perovsky. 12 orphan girls, chiefly the daughters of soldiers, are taken care of there.

The first cross street is the Magazeinaya, which, partly, still keeps the character of ancient days. Here in 1808 small pieces of land were distributed among palace servants and at the cost of the Ministry of the Imperial Court cottages were built, each to accommodate two families. Only a few of these cottages still stand; one will see several of them near the large store yard, where building materials were kept. The wooden gate of the yard, with its typical tower and spire still exist.

The avenue, which ran down the middle of Magazienaya Street, was damaged by the severe winter in 1907-8. A new one is being planned.

At the corner of Magazeinaya and of Konushennaya Streets, a Girls College of the department of the Ministry of Public Instruction is temporarily situated. It was founded in 1904, and is supported by the tuition fees (100 rubles a year), and by grants from the Ministry of Public Instruction (1,500 rubles), from the town (1,500 rubles), and from the district Zemstvo (1,000 rubles). The school has eight principal, and one preparatory class. Opposite to the college and also hiring the house, is a parish girls' school, with a four years' course. This school was opened in 1897. It has a class for handiwork. The pupils pay 6 rubles a year. The school is supported by equal grants of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, and of the Ministry of Public Instruction. In the same house there is also a one class parish elementary school for boys. Each boy pays 4 rubles a year. The school is supported by the Ministry of Public Instruction. Another similar school, for children of both sexes, occupies N 29 on the Boulevard Street.

A little farther, along Magazeinaya Street, is the treasury of the district, with a Savings' Bank.

Passing the buildings of the store-yard (Materialny Dvor) and following Leontievskaya Street, one comes to broad Cathedral Square. At the corner, part of the land, belonging to the material store-yard, has lately been graciously given by the Emperor as a site for the Tsarskoe Selo Girls' College of the Ministry of Public Instruction. The plans for the building, which is to be in the empire style, are made by the architect Bach.

To the right of Cathedral Square on Kolpinskaya Street , nearly on the corner of Leontievskaya Street, in the house belonging to the clergy, are the St. Catherine's and the Hospital churches' parish schools, supported by grants from the Holy Synod, and from the Tsarskoe Selo branch of the St. Petersburg Orthodox Diocesan Brotherhood of the Name of the Holy Virgin. They are superintended by the local division of the St. Petersburg Diocesan school council. The number of pupils in each school is about 180.

The sanatorium of the Community of the Holy Trinity for convalescents occupies its own wooden house, at the corner of Kolpinskaya and of Kuzminskaya Streets, next to the school of the Roman Catholic Philanthropic Society. It was opened in 1907. It takes in, for a small payment, persons in need of rest after uninfectious illnesses.

Beyond the buildings of the store-yard, at the corner of the Orangereynaya and of the Kolpinskaya streets, is an immense four-storied building, which contains lodgings for the small functionaries of the court police. This house was built in 1900 by the architect Bach.

Further, along the Kolpinskaya, facing the Real-school Square, stand wooden buildings belonging to the Tsarskoe Selo Philanthropic Society. This society has existed since the 5th of October 1863 and from 1875 has been under the August patronage of Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna.

The aims of the society are, to give help to the poor people of Tsarskoe Selo, to take care of those, who are unable to work, and to teach children reading and writing.

The society matters are managed by a committee, the president and vice-president of which are appointed by the August patroness of the society, while the members and secretary are elected at a general meeting of the members.

The society supports:

• The Alexander Nevsky Home for 32 aged women.
• The Mariinsky Home for 25 orphans of both sexes.
• A workhouse for 100 paupers, with a lodging house and a kitchen for any pauper, who may come to the town
• A house with cheap flats (there are 12 flats).
• An infants' asylum for 50 children, from 2 to 7 years of age of both sexes, where they are looked after, while their mothers are at work.
• A free public reading-room.
• A school of handiwork.
• Free lodgings (corners) for 20 poor women.

Besides this, the society provides with money the poor children in several schools and helps the poor inhabitants of the town with money, medicine, clothing, wood, and food.

The homes, free lodgings, and the handiwork school are in buildings, belonging to the society at the corner of Hospitalnaya and of Kolpinskaya Streets; but the workhouse and the infant asylum, the cheap flats, and kitchen are in buildings also belonging to the society built on town land on Orangerevnaya Street.

The right side of the Cathedral Square is occupied by buildings, belonging to the Police. Here are the town police master's offices, the first police station, the address office and the town fire station. The central block was built in 1908 by the architect Danini, while the two side ones are still in the same condition as they were, when they were built in 1821 by the architect Geste.

In the center of the square stands the town Cathedral of St. Catherine, it was built 1835-40 in the style of the ancient Cathedrals of Suzdal by the architect K. V. Thon. The five gilded domes glitter brightly in the sunlight. In front of the Cathedral is a large macadamized square, in which on certain days church parades take place. Originally the interior of the Cathedral was painted in a light tint, but at its restoration in 1894 by the architect Danini (after the fire of 1862, which destroyed the old wooden "Gostini Dvor" (Shops), and damaged the gilded domes), the interior was repainted in a dark color. The sacred vessels and vestments were presented to the Cathedral, by His Imperial Majesty.

The interior of the Cathedral is 126 feet long and 84 feet wide, and is estimated to accommodate 2,000 worshipers. The High Altar is raised on 5 steps and has a gilded wooden "iconostasis" in front of it, erected by private subscriptions. The fittings of the altar are of silver, and the altar itself was given in 1863 by a tradesman, named Domashev. At the sides of the High Altar are two chapels, built in 1851-2. The one on the right is consecrated in honor of the Holy Grand Duke, Alexander Nevsky; the chapel on the left in honor of the Saints Constantine and Helen.

The choir gallery is situated over the porch. To the right of the entrance, near the wall, is, the grave of General-of-Artillery J. V. Zacharyevsky. Near the right pillar is fixed the ikon of the Holy Martyr Pantelemon, and part of his relies, which were given in 1871 by the widow of one of the court lackeys, Agath Konstantinov. After Divine Liturgy on Thursdays the Akanthist is read in front of this ikon.

In the vestry are the cross and relics of St. Theodore Tiron, and of the Martyr Barbara, the ikon and part of the relics of St. Abraham, a shrine containing part of the relics of the Holy Martyr St. George the Victorious, a piece of the Wood of the Holy Cross and part of the Garment of the Holy Virgin. There is a shrine, given by the Georgian Prince, Tsarevich Heraclius, in memory of the Tsarevna Helen Farnabazovna, who died at Tsarskoe Selo in 1867. The silver chalice and paten, the cross and gospels, which are kept in the vestry, are the gifts of the Empress Catherine II to the Cathedral of the town of Sophia in 1783.

Among the ikons in the Cathedral let us notice the image of the Saviour and of the Virgin, of the Archangels Gabriel and Michael and of the 12 prophets, which are the work of the academician Theodore Brullov; the ikon of the Martyr St. Catherine, and the Tsarina Alexandra, which are the work of the professor Bruni: the 6 ikons on the Holy Gate and the altar picture, representing the Resurrection of Christ, which are painted by Professor Egorov. From, the archives of the Palace Administration it is seen that the Bruni was paid 10,000 rubles for a picture of the "Agony in the Garden", which is hung in the same Cathedral. The ikons of the Archangels, painted by Egorov, are said not to have pleased Emperor Nicholas I, and were replaced by the above mentioned work of Brullov.

In addition to the relics and ikons, which have been mentioned, special attention should be paid to the picture of the Crucifixion, by Van Dyck, and the Glorification of the Virgin by Paul Veronese.

The whole of the south side of the Cathedral Square is taken up by the "Gostini Dvor" (Shops). It has, occupied this spot ever since 1818, when General Zacharyevsky, allowed the temporary market stalls (which since 1808 had been near the church of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin Mary, the Znamenskaya church), to be brought here. In 1818, too, the Konstantinovskaya Fair, which was instituted at the same time as the town of Sophia, and which took place annually from the 21st of May for one month, was also moved here. In 1825 a Gostini Dvor of wood was built by the architect Geste, instead of the old wooden stalls and the next year the Alexandrovskaya Fair was instituted; it began on the 30th of August, and lasted three weeks. This fair existed till the erection of the Cathedral, when all the wooden constructions which occupied the square were taken away, with the exception only of some small shops along the Cathedral enclosure utterly destroyed by the fire, which burnt the wooden Gostini Dvor. Immediately after the fire, in August 1863, plans for a stone Gostini Dvor by the architect Nikitin were approved by the Emperor. The building was opened for trade in 1866. In 1898 the Gostini Dvor was thoroughly restored by the architect Bach, the facade was slightly altered, and a broad terrace was added in front of the covered gallery, which faces the Cathedral.

Just beyond the Gostini Dvor in Leontievskaya Street, is the building of the Mariinsky Girls' College, which was opened in 1864. It occupies a house, belonging to the town, in which were formerly the offices of the Chief Director of the Palace Administration, the General Zacharyevsky.

In 1908 the building was completely restored by the department of the Institutions of the Empress Mary. The college is supported by the department just mentioned '.and by the tuition fees (80 rubles a year). It has seven classes.

It you go along Leontievskaya Street and turn at the corner of Srednaya Street to the left side you will come to the house now belonging to N. A. Tiran, where, at the end of the reign of the Emperor Nicholas I, the Tsarskoe Selo Social Club was founded. Its directors were General Zacharyevsky, Patkoul, the fellow pupil of the Tsarevich Alexander Nicholaevich and one of the Counselors of the Palace Administration. The Tsarevich was an honorary member of the club, and occasionally used to be present at the evening parties which were held there. On these occasions the ladies came in high dresses, and the officers in frock coats with epaulets, only the directors were in full dress.

Once Emperor Nicholas complained to Patkoul that he had not been invited to become a member of the club, although he was a Tsarskoe Selo landowner. The next morning all three directors solicited the honor of an audience and asked the Emperor to become an honorary member. His Majesty consented, and on the eve of one of the evening parties, announced his presence for the next day, inquiring at the same time about the dress usually worn at these parties. Patkoul informed him, that everybody came in frock coats, forgetting to add that the directors wore full dress.

"In the morning the Tsarevich sent word, that His Majesty would arrive with him after the Empress' evening. "Sasha and I (Patkoul and his wife) went early and warned everyone, that the Tsar intended visiting our "family" circle. Although we began to dance as usual, everyone was listening with strained ears for the bell to resound thrice. At last came one bell, then another, and a third. General emotion followed. The directors ran downstairs to receive the August visitors and I waited for them in the vestibule."

"But what was the general dismay, when the Tsarevich entered alone, and informed us that the Emperor, having seen the officials meeting him in full dress, had got angry with my husband and said to him - 'Thou hast deceived me. Thou saidst, that frock coats were worn and you met me in full dress!' Not wishing to listen to any explanations, His Majesty put on his cloak, and with the parting words 'take care not to deceive me another time', departed. The whole evening was spoilt".

If one follows Orangereynaya Street as far as Sadovaya and walk along the park one will come to the gate called "To my dear war companions", which has already been described. Here, beyond the junction of Sadovaya, the broadway of Pavlovsk, the boulevard and Volkonskaya Street, begins the second part of the town Sophia.

A considerable portion of it is taken up by military quarters; on the broadway of Pavlovsk, on Stesselskaya, Zacharyevskaya, and Veliovskaya Streets are a great number of private villas. Opposite Stesselskaya Street a magnificent villa was built by the architect Monighetti in 1856 for Princess Yussupova. A little farther on, opposite the buildings of the 2nd police and fire stations, which were erected in 1830, is a gate, leading to a building erected in 1907 by the architect Danini. It is the Maternity Hospital for Women of M. A. Droiyin, which was opened on the same year and is free of charge for the poor women of Tsarskoe Selo and of the neighborhood. The hospital has 25 beds and is beautifully organized. It was built, and is kept up, with the money, of the rich merchant Droiyin and his widow.

Beginning at the road of Pavlovsk, Zacharyevskaya Street crosses the Veliovskaya and joins Cadets Boulevard, which leads from the Cadets Gate of the park towards the village of Gummolosara. At the corner of the boulevard and of Cuirassirskaya Street a church was begun in 1899 by the architect Kuritzin for the regiment of His Majesty's Life Guard Cuirassiers; the church was finished and ornamented by the architect Danini. It was built in the style of the Russian churches of the 17th century with funds presented by the merchant Savinkov. In the higher chapel,which is dedicated to St. Julian of Tarsus, there is an interesting ikonostasis composed entirely of different colored glass set in lead - the ornamentation and holy pictures in it were done in Munich from drawings of Professor Koshelev. The same artist has also painted two immense images which adorn the walls of the middle of the church and represent the Marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the Miracle of St. Julian. In the lower chapel there is a marble ikonostasis in the same style as the church and a marble tomb containing the remains of Savinkov and his wife. The ikons and inscriptions are the work of the artist Volkov.