Nevsky Prospekt 20.
The house of the Dutch Reformed Church or the Dutch Church is a former temple of the Dutch Reformed Church, an architectural monument of late Russian classicism, built in 1834-1839 according to the design of Pavel Petrovich Zhako. It is located in St. Petersburg at three addresses: Nevsky Prospekt, 20, Embankment of the Moika River, 44 and Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street, 31.
Immigrants from Western Europe, largely because of the sympathies of
Peter I, played a prominent role in the early history of St. Petersburg,
in connection with which at the very beginning of the 18th century. the
city housed a number of non-Orthodox religious churches, cathedrals and
communities (that is, confessions that differed from the Russian
Orthodox Church). Many were Protestant, among them the Dutch Reformed
Church. The issue of non-Orthodox services in private homes was given in
1721 by Peter I to the jurisdiction of the newly established Synod. In
1708, the Dutch of St. Petersburg acquired the opportunity to pray in a
small wooden Lutheran church at the court of Cornelius Kruys, who was
then Vice Admiral. In 1717, a certain H. G. Grube became the pastor of
this Dutch congregation of only 36 members.
Before the 1917
revolution
On October 5, 1725, this given to Major General Pyotr
Petrovich Lefort was issued from the Main Police to the courtyard
located in St. Petersburg, at the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the
Moika River Embankment. It shows that the widow of the architect J.-B.
Leblon Marfa and their son Ivan mortgaged their yard for three thousand
rubles to Peter Lefort, and then "conceded to him Lefort for the
aforementioned borrowed money for three thousand rubles forever."
(RGADA. Fund 265, inventory 1, file 41, 1725, sheet 182-rev.) In 1733,
P.P. Lefort sold his courtyard to the Dutch Reformed Church in St.
Petersburg.
In 1724, the Dutch community purchased the house of
Pierre Pusi, located on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and the Moika
River Embankment. A Dutch school worked in this house. Somewhat later,
the church itself was rebuilt into a one-story house, bought on April 6,
1733 for 1,500 rubles, a one-story house was purchased. Three years
later, in the summer of 1736, both buildings burned down.
A new
building for the church was erected only in 1742 with funds, most of
which came from the Netherlands. The new church already accommodated 250
people and had rather intricate interiors.
wooden carving is painted
in azure color, floral ornament is gilded ... Men sit on the right hand,
women - on the left
In 1771, the room intended for prayers was
expanded, and in 1772 an organ made by the master Gubkram was installed
in it. The headman and pastor of the community lived in a stone house
bought for them in 1778 at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and
Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street. Over time, despite its spaciousness and
spaciousness, the building no longer corresponded to its purpose and the
architectural ensemble of the avenue. In 1797, I. Kroeber proposed to
build a new church - much grander and larger than the old one, but his
plans were destined to remain on paper.
Since 1833, the bookstore
of F. Bellizar has been located in the building of the Dutch Church.
Part of the premises was occupied by the board of the Society for the
Encouragement of Artists, which organized here in 1837 the first art
lottery in Russia. In the house on Nevsky, 20 regular art exhibitions
were held. In 1839-1841, the editorial office of Otechestvennye zapiski
of A. A. Kraevsky was located here. Leading Russian writers of the
middle of the 19th century (V. F. Odoevsky, V. A. Zhukovsky, D. V.
Davydov and others) collaborated with the journal, in whose department
of criticism V. G. Belinsky worked.
From the side of Nevsky
Prospekt, the building stands out with a Corinthian portico with four
large white columns, between which there is an entrance. The church is
designed in the form of a rotunda topped with a gentle dome.
After the October Revolution of 1917, the church parish was
significantly reduced. In 1926, the cessation of worship was announced,
a year later, the building was nationalized, the Dutch Church was
closed. The church organ was dismantled and transferred to the Singing
Chapel. All the premises of the temple were transferred to the Leningrad
Puppet Theater. On November 19, 1933, the New Theater was opened here
with the play “Mad Money” based on the play by A. N. Ostrovsky (directed
by I. Kroll, who led the troupe until 1937). A fire that broke out in
the Dutch Church House in 1936 destroyed most of the theater premises,
the troupe moved to another building.
In 1936, the Dutch Church
was reconstructed (designed by architect B.L. Vasilyev), and the city
public library named after V.I. A. A. Blok. In 1969-1971, the church
interior was restored.
In the autumn of 1988, on the basis of the
library, the Leningrad Association of Free Artists (TSKh) was formed,
later renamed the Association of Free Artists of St. Petersburg (in
December 1991). TSH existed on Nevsky, 20 until a major fire on February
19, 2004, as a result of which the library lost part of its collections
(albums on the history of art, musical publications, records). The total
fire area (second and third floors + attic and roof) was about two
thousand square meters. After the repair, the halls were reopened in
February 2005, shortly after which the status and name of the library
were changed to: "Nevsky, 20" - the Center for Art and Music of the
Library. V. V. Mayakovsky. Until now, the Center for Art and Music has
been pursuing an active exhibition and concert policy. The main
exposition space of the center is the rotunda of the Dutch Church,
personal exhibitions of famous St. Petersburg artists, sculptors and
photographers were shown here, such as: Aron Zinshtein, Anatoly
Zaslavsky, Oleg Yakhnin, Robert Lotosh, Alexey Parygin, Andrey
Korolchuk, Artur Molev, Vadim Bo, Khachatur Bely, Natalia Manelis and
many others. Another, somewhat smaller exposition hall, is located on
the first floor of the Dutch Church.
In the 1960s-1980s, on the
first floor of the house from Nevsky Prospekt, there was a
cafe-automatic machine "Minutka", which sold pies (costing 6-20 kopecks)
with a variety of fillings (carrots, rice, onions, fish, meat, eggs,
blueberries, sausages and egg in the dough); tea, coffee and broths in
mugs.
For many years in the building of the Dutch Church
(entrance from Nevsky Prospekt) there was a bookstore "House of Military
Books" (founded in 1920). The store closed to visitors in 2012.
From 1994 to the present, on the ground floor of the house (in the
same place where the Minutka cafe was located in Soviet times), the
Subway fast food cafe has been open (interiors and redevelopment -
architects V. O. Ukhov, S. Nefedov); art space Biblioteka (combining the
functions of a restaurant and a youth cultural center).
In 2000,
the house was repainted from blue to gray.
At the end of January
2020, the historical grilles of the balconies on the facade of the
building were dismantled without the permission of the KGIOP, a criminal
case was initiated on the fact of violating the historical appearance of
the cultural heritage site.