Churches & Cathedrals

St. Petersburg has an excellent collection of churches and cathedrals, although not as sumptuous as the religious architecture of Moscow. Consiously manifesting the city's western orentation, the majority of them are not the fancy onion-domed constructions typical of the capitol. Below are a few of the ones you may want to visit:

Chesme Church

A remarkable church in St Petersburg's is the stone Gothic-style Chesme church and palace. Yuri Felten was commissioned to build the palace in 1770. It was named after the Russian victory over the Turkish fleet in Chesma Bay. Its striking red and white design, capped by five domed roofs makes it quite unique compared to any other building in the country. Inside, a branch of the Naval Museum, contains an exhibition devoted to the famous victory.

Smolny Cathedral

Another one of St. Petersburg's beautiful churches. Its dazzling cupolas and baroque style architecture rise majestically above the banks of the Neva River. The majestic cathedral is actually in the shape of a cross, and a tall two-tiered bell tower topped off by spectacular onion-shaped domes adjoins the central cupola. . It was designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and officially completed in 1835.

Buddhist Temple

Buddiyskiy Khram is the only buddhist temple in St. Petersburg. It was constructed between 1909 and 1915 by one of the tsar's doctors who happened to be taken with Tibetan Buddhism and supposedly consecrated in honour of Kalachakra. Restored to Russia's indigenous Buddhists community in 1990, the Buryat tribe of Siberia, it is now fully functional.

Church of St.Catherine of Alexandria

This church is St. Petersburg's oldest Catholic church. It was built in the early neo-classical style, and designed by the french architect J.B. Vallin de La Mothe and A. Rinaldi and built between 1763 and 1782. The weddings of members of venerable families took place there, as well as meetings of representatives of the Roman Catholic Church.

St Sampson's Cathedral

This cathedral is one of the oldest buildings in St. Petersburg. It was built around 1709 when Peter the Great won victory over the Swedes at Poltava on St Sampson's Day. Legend has it the it was the scene of the secret wedding in 1774 between Catherine the Great and one of her lovers, Prince Potemkin. The original wooden structure was replaced by the newly-restored blue, green and white stone cathedral which opened in 1740.

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