Church of the Annunciation

Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built by architect N.N. Nikonov in 1889-1893 in the Neo-Russian style. The appearance of the compound of the Old Athos St. Andrew’s male monastery in St. Petersburg on the corner of 5th Rozhdestvenskaya (Sovetskaya) and Degtyarnaya streets was associated with the construction of the St. Andrew’s monastery on Mount Athos in Greece. The temple represented the Holy Mount Athos in the capital of the Russian Empire and was called: Old Athos Compound in St. Petersburg.

The two-story church was erected in the traditions of Moscow and Yaroslavl architecture of the XVII century. The construction was crowned by a five-domed, uneven-domed system with a tented main drum and a high tented bell tower with two side chapters above the narthex. The walls, heads and apse were richly decorated with ornamental belts, columns, kokoshniks.

The church had two iconostases: oak in the lower church and gilded in the upper. The author of the iconostasis was also the architect Nikonov, and the icons were painted by Athos monks.

The temple was closed in 1933, the building housed the storage of the Leningrad State Archive.

In 2016, the administration of St. Petersburg decided to return the building of the church of the St. Petersburg Diocese, the restoration of the temple began. In the same year, the first service was performed here. In 2017, the bells were returned to the temple, its dome is again crowned by the Orthodox cross.