St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Eastern Orthodox Naval Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia
St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral is a Russian Baroque church in Saint Petersburg featuring five golden domes rising above a blue facade with white columns. Inside, two separate worship spaces are stacked vertically, with a four-level bell tower topped by a slender spire creating the distinctive skyline.
Construction of this cathedral began in 1753 under Empress Elizabeth's patronage and was completed in 1762 by architect Savva Chevakinsky. It was built specifically to serve the Russian naval regiments stationed in the city.
The cathedral gave its name to Nikolskaya Square, the nearby market, the Old and New Nicholas Bridges and the former name of Glinka Street. Its lower church holds a 17th-century Greek icon of St. Nicholas with a particle of his relics, and the Kolokolnikov brothers painted the images: Fedot in the upper church, Mina in the lower.
The cathedral stands on the bank of the Kryukov Canal, with the freestanding 74-metre bell tower separate from the main building. The Tsushima obelisk of 1908 stands in the garden in front of the church. A chapel was consecrated in the lower tier of the bell tower in 2000.
The cathedral holds a 17th-century Greek icon of St. Nicholas with a particle of his relics, kept in the lower church. In the garden stands the Tsushima obelisk, put up in 1908 to the crew of the battleship Emperor Alexander III, paid for by sailors and officers of the Guards Crew. Memorial plaques in the upper church name the crews of sunken Soviet submarines, among them Komsomolets and Kursk.
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