Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord at the Imperial Porcelain Factory

After the foundation of a village on the banks of the Neva River for workers of brick factories, in 1713 a wooden church of the Transfiguration of Our Savior was built ^[1] . However, it soon became dilapidated, and, at the request of the parishioners, it was decided to build a stone temple. The organizer of the construction of the new church was the priest Herodion Timofeev. Among the donors was Empress Anna Ioannovna . Construction continued from 1731 to 1735 , but the temple was completely consecrated on August 4 (15), 1742 , when the state-owned porcelain factory was already transferred here.

Due to the fact that the church was dilapidated by 1811, a project for its reconstruction was developed (authors: E.T. Sokolov and L.I. Miller). Lack of funds limited the work lasting only one summer, only a change in the shape of the dome and, in part, the interior decoration. The consecration of the renewed temple took place on September 27 ( October 9 ), 1817 . Repair of the church did not solve the problem, and the clergy constantly made attempts to build a new building. The project of the temple was made in 1837 by the architect A. G. Grigoriev , and in 1840 - F. I. Ruska . Due to lack of funds, the construction was never completed. In 1845 - 1846 , 1856 , 1893 (under the direction of A.V. Malov) and 1914, repair and restoration work was carried out in the church.

After 1918, the parish of the temple remained in the Patriarchal Church. The building itself was recognized as an architectural monument. On July 9, 1932, the Presidium of the Leningrad Executive Committee decided to close and demolish the temple; On November 5, the church was closed, and in 1933 it was demolished.

The church was located between the banks of the Neva and Shlisselburgskoe highway . The temple was stone, facing the altar to the southeast ^[2] ; had 3 chapels: the main - the Transfiguration of the Lord, the right - the prophet Elijah, the left - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

The entrance was - under the bell tower. The building itself was multi-component. Behind the bell tower, an elongated one-story part 12 meters long, covered with an iron roof, began. It was called a small church and in fact it was on the site of an old temple. Aisles were arranged here. Further, to the southeast, is the main, two-story, part of the temple 14 meters long and wide. An apse is attached to it, and on the left side there is a small stone “pilomark” through which the entrance to the altar part was arranged.

Above the dome was a wooden lantern , crowned with a bulbous cupola and a cross. The upper tier of the bell tower was already two lower and was originally wooden, but in 1845 it was replaced by a stone, and the Spitz - a seven-sided dome with an onion dome. The cross on the bell tower was originally iron and four-pointed. By 1830, it lost stability and was corrected by the famous Peter Telushkin . After the temple was rebuilt, the cross was replaced with a gilded six-pointed one.

The four-tiered iconostasis of the main altar fully corresponded to the canons of the pre-Petrine era, which made it unique for St. Petersburg. It was renewed in 1856 . The iconostases of the chapels were smaller. Soleia towered 2 steps and had a fence in the form of an iron grid.

Opposite the main altar, choirs were arranged on the columns, and under them were the so-called “female” places. The main part of the temple was connected to the aisles, through arches, also arranged during the rebuilding of the temple in 1845 .

Among the revered shrines in the temple were:

• the icon of the Transfiguration of the Lord with the image of the transfer of the relics of St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, and the particles of the cross of the Lord, the relics of Alexy, the man of God, the martyr George, Abraham, St. Alexy. The image was donated by the court protodeacon Alexy Zavodsky, later buried next to the temple. The icon was in the altar, above the royal doors;
• the miraculous Kazan icon of the Mother of God, found on the seabed near Kronstadt around 1770, was a ship carpenter Tikhon Vaganov, according to legend, after a night vision. The image was decorated with a robe with corollas and precious stones.

The bell kept a Swedish bell, about 500 kilograms in weight. On the bell were inscriptions:

• Latin: “ Soli Deo gloria, Gloria in excelsis Deo. Me fundebat. "
• Swedish: “ Tin Goolz namps aera och panasluono capall fiët pridnh m: Georgia pzat anno 1686 Holmiae Misael Bader. "

There were two versions of its previous location: 1) previously hung on the tower of the office of brick factories on the opposite side of the Neva; 2) was discovered underground during the construction of a stone church, which prompted speculation about the presence of the Swedish church in this place.

In front of the temple in 1894 , in commemoration of the anniversary of the porcelain factory, a bronze bust of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was installed.

The parish of the temple consisted of workers at the Porcelain and Alexandrovsky (until 1862 ) factories, as well as residents of the Smolensk-Yamskaya settlement (until 1878 ). The clergy consisted of two priests, a deacon and two clerks ^[3] . At the temple there was a parish school and parish guardianship.

Traditionally, parish processions took place in the parish: in May - in Kolpino ; in July - to the chapel of the Icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow"; July 9 - at the Thornton factory (in memory of getting rid of cholera in 1893 ); July 20 - around the village of the Porcelain Factory (in memory of getting rid of cholera in 1848 ); July 28 - in the village of Smolensky (in memory of getting rid of cholera in 1831 ).

The following were attributed to the church: 1) the Church of the Holy Right Prince Alexander Nevsky (built in 1860 - 1861 ) at the Vargunin brothers' paper station located on the right bank of the Neva opposite the Transfiguration Church; 2) the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit , erected in 1902 - 1912 at the porcelain cemetery adjacent to the temple; 3) a chapel in the fence of the church, built in 1811 ; 4) a wooden chapel in the name of the Savior Not Made by Hands, located in the cemetery beyond the Neva, at the state-owned brick factories.

• Historical and statistical information about the St. Petersburg diocese. - SPb. , 1884. - T. VIII. - S. 367-373.
• Antonov V.V., Kobak A.V. Shrines of St. Petersburg: Ist.-churches. encyclical. in 3 t . - SPb. : Chernyshev, 1994. - T. 1. - S. 165-167. - ISBN ISBN 5-85555-030-6 (erroneous) .