Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands on Konyushennaya Square (Savior-Konyushenny Church) is a parish Orthodox church on Konyushennaya Square in St. Petersburg. It is part of the Central Deanery of the St. Petersburg Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The original wooden building of the church, designed by Domenico
Trezzini, was consecrated in 1737. At the behest of Anna Ioannovna, the
Image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, the Shroud and the Icon of the
Sign were transported from Byzantium. In 1746, the temple, on the
instructions of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, was rebuilt in stone, and in
1747 it was re-consecrated.
By the beginning of the 19th century,
the old temple no longer met the new requirements for the appearance of
the city. Therefore, in 1816-1817, the reconstruction of the church
began at public expense according to the project of the architect Vasily
Stasov, which lasted until 1823. The facade of the building was
decorated with bas-reliefs "Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem" and
"Carrying the Cross" by Vasily Demut-Malinovsky. The interior of the
church was decorated by artists Stepan Bezsonov and Fyodor Bryullov. The
sculptor was N.P. Zakolupin, and the carved iconostasis was made by the
sculptor Vasily Kreitan.
In 1826, a “sad chariot” was installed
on the ground floor, on which the body of Alexander I was delivered. The
church is also known for the fact that on February 1, 1837, the funeral
of Alexander Pushkin took place in it. On March 2, 1857, the first
memorial service in Russia for Mikhail Glinka, who died in Berlin, was
served here.
In 1849, the church on Konyushennaya Square became a
parish church.
In 1862-1863, after repairs by Mikhail
Troshchinsky, new murals were made. In 1878, a chapel with an
iconostasis of four images appeared in the entrance hall of the first
floor, where the “sad chariot” had previously stood, which by that time
had been transferred to the museum. In 1916, the throne of the temple
was decorated with silver reliefs.
After the 1917 revolution, the
church was closed and desecrated. In 1923, it housed a mounted police
club, and a few years later, a branch of the Hydroproject Institute.
There was a toilet at the altar.
In 1990 the church was returned
to the Russian Orthodox Church. The first service was held on July 12,
1991. In the 1990s, the church was renovated, and a Sunday school and a
church library were created.