Multi-confessional Petersburg

What can you expect?

The route begins in the first and most important of the St. Petersburg monasteries - the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, founded personally by Peter the Great. You will get acquainted with seven churches, including the Annunciation Church, the oldest surviving church of St. Petersburg, built in 1717-1724 according to the project of Domenico Trezzini.

On Mirgorodskaya street, go to Fedorovsky Cathedral. This temple was built and consecrated in 1913 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, in the 1930s it was closed, decapitated and given over to a dairy factory, then restored and reopened in 2013 - to its centenary.

Take the metro or ground transport to Gostiny Dvor. Here you will see the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Catherine. It was built during the reign of Empress Catherine II according to the project of architect Yuri Felten.

A little further along the Nevsky is the basilica of St. Catherine of Alexandria. This is the oldest church of the Roman Catholic Church in St. Petersburg, also erected in the Catherine era, architects - Pietro Trezzini and Jean-Baptiste Wallen-Delamot. 

Behind the Kazan bridge is another outstanding monument of Western church architecture. This is Peterkirche, a Lutheran church built in the 1830s, its creator is Alexander Bryullov, the brother of the famous painter.

On the opposite side of Nevsky Prospect stands one of the main operating Orthodox centers of St. Petersburg and an outstanding monument of the 19th century - Kazan Cathedral. Unusual for Russian architecture, a single-dome church with an external colonnade was erected by the architect Andrei Voronikhin, who took St. Peter's Basilica in Rome as a model.

Opposite the Kazan Cathedral, take one of the buses heading towards the Mariinsky Theater. In 15 minutes you will reach the Great Choral Synagogue on Lermontovsky Prospekt - the center of religious and cultural life of the Jews of St. Petersburg.

From here it’s not far from St. Isaac's Cathedral, one of the symbols of the Northern capital, the great creation of Auguste Montferrand. The cathedral was being created for almost half a century and today combines the existing Orthodox church and museum. Climb the colonnade to see the panorama of St. Petersburg from a height of 43 meters.

You will again have to take a trip on public transport - to the Petrograd side. Get to Dobrolyubov Avenue, from where you can easily reach the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the oldest of the temples in St. Petersburg. It was built from 1712 to 1732 according to the project and under the guidance of the architect Domenico Trezzini.

After passing through the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress, then through the Alexander Park, you will come to the Cathedral Mosque. The magnificent Muslim temple was built in the Northern Art Nouveau style based on the model of the ancient Gur-Emir mausoleum in Samarkand.

The next point of your trip can be reached on foot in half an hour or in 15 minutes - by public transport. The current Ioannovsky Stavropegial Convent is located on the banks of the Karpovka River. The neo-Byzantine-style building was erected at the beginning of the 20th century; today the temple has become a pilgrimage site for many believers.

If you are tired, the route can be completed here, but without visiting the main temple of St. Petersburg Buddhists, acquaintance with multi-confessional Petersburg will be incomplete. Datsan Gunzechoynei - the first Buddhist temple in Europe. It was built in 1909 in the Art Nouveau style, in accordance with the canons of Tibetan architecture, and painted by a real Buddhist monk! Primorsky Prospekt, where the datsan is located, can be reached in half an hour by ground transport, the stop is Central park of culture and recreation.