Chesme Church, Orthodox church in Saint Petersburg, Russia
Chesme Church is a brick and white stone building with a quatrefoil plan: a central square under a dome, with four semicircular barrel-vaulted arms. Its walls are painted salmon pink with narrow white vertical bands, and it has tall lancet windows, a crenellated parapet with pinnacles, and five small domes topped by spires and crosses.
Construction began in 1777 under Catherine II's commission with architect Yury Felten designing it to commemorate a Russian naval victory at Chesme Bay. The building experienced major changes during World War II and was later restored.
The church is the centre of the Moscow deanery district and has a Sunday school for children and teenagers. The marble plaque at the entrance records that the church was built in memory of the 1770 victory over the Turkish fleet at Chesme. The Italian icons were lost in the 1930 fire; the iconostasis is a copy made from Yury Felten's drawings.
The most practical approach is to take the metro to Moskovskaya station, then walk through the park toward Lensoveta Street near Aviation Street. The walk through the green surroundings is part of the experience and allows time to observe the setting.
The church was closed in 1919 and later housed the Glavnauka archive (1925–1930) and carpentry workshops of the Road Institute. In 1930 a fire destroyed the interior, including the iconostasis. A museum of the Chesme Victory opened here in December 1977 as a branch of the Naval Museum.
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