Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (St. Petersburg)

In 1892, several thousand Catholics who lived behind the Neva outpost decided to apply for the construction of a Catholic church in their area. The building permit was obtained in the fall of 1905. At the same time, a temporary chapel was built at the Obukhov factory , which had a subordinate status in relation to the church of St. Catherine of Alexandria . On November 18, 1906, a plot of land was allocated for the construction of the temple on the corner of the former Kladbischenskaya street and the road to the Porcelain colony. The design of the temple was developed by architect S.P. Galenzovsky . The laying of the first stone took place on September 8, 1907 . Due to financial difficulties, the work was soon stopped and resumed only in 1912, subsequently again periodically interrupted. Services in the Church of the Sacred Heart have been going on since 1914, in a still unfinished church. The church was finally completed and consecrated only in late 1917 - early 1918, and in the final project, in order to reduce the cost of construction, the bell towers had to be abandoned, as a result of which the church acquired an unusual appearance - a Gothic church without towers. Since 1914, the rector of the church was Blessed Theofilius Matulionis , in 2017, a memorial plaque was erected in the temple in memory of him ^[1] .

In July 1936, a fire broke out in the building, after which the church was sealed. May 23, 1937 the temple of the Sacred Heart was finally closed. The building initially belonged to the industrial complex, then to the Spetsstroy trust, it was heavily rebuilt; in particular, internal ceilings were built that divided the church into 4 floors.

After the restoration of the normal functioning of the Catholic Church in Russia and the revival of the Catholic parish of the Sacred Heart in 1993, the efforts of Monsignor Hartmouth Cania transferred part of the building’s premises to the parish. On June 6, 1996, the first service was held in the temporary chapel. In 2003, the whole building was handed over to believers. In 2009, the parish rector expressed a desire to complete the bell towers that were excluded from the original building design, but this intention provoked opposition from the Council for the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage and deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, who believe that this will distort the historical appearance of the building ^[2] . The most logical way out of the situation is to deprive the building of the status of a cultural monument of federal significance ^[3] .

However, the foundations of the towers (up to the historical level of the height of the roof), the roof level itself, the pediment (?), Damaged after the fire that happened already in Soviet times (the first ones were dismantled), and maybe a small spire , located closer to the altar of the church and pinnacles - elements that existed, but over time the church lost them, will be restored starting in 2019 ^[4]

In 2011, work began to restore the original appearance of the church and services were transferred to the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary , and in 2014 - to the Franciscan monastery of St. Anthony the Miracle Worker . By the end of 2014, the waterproofing of the building was completed, a little less than half of the large lancet windows (including windows on the facade ) were inserted: the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation allocated funds for them ^[5] . For this, the dimensions of the window connectors were expanded to historical, which would have been impossible without releasing the building from the ceilings built in Soviet times ^[6] . Since June 12, 2015, services continued in the church building in parallel with the ongoing restoration ^[7] .

• Inover Church of St. Petersburg
• Temples of St. Petersburg

• Forum where you can download the drawing of the restoration of the towers and the general plan, according to which the church is restored
• One of the photos shows a project of reconstruction of the Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the superstructure of the bell towers; visual representation in the context of the surrounding buildings. The project was developed by the Architectural and Restoration Workshop No. 5, an independent unit of the Institute of St. Petersburg Research Institute of Restoration of Historical and Cultural Monuments NII SPETSPROEKTRESTAVRATSIYA. Photo collage is presented based on the materials of the site www.arm5.ru (on the website of this no information, however, there is an official project from which this image was taken).
• Church of the Sacred Heart in the encyclopedia of St. Petersburg
• Church at Militia Dei
• Temples of St. Petersburg