Krasnogvardejskiy district of St. Petersburg is the old cemetery, whose history has become part of the history of the city itself, it is so inextricably connected with it.Once he was called George.It is only two decades younger than the city itself and remembers the times of Peter I. Today it is the largest urban necropolis.Its area is almost seventy hectares.It is called Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery.How to get to him, and that there may be interesting things to see - that's what we'll try to figure out right now.
wooden church on the banks of Chernavka
order to start talking about its history, should think back to the beginning of the XVIII century.On the banks of the Neva River was built a new capital, and with all Russian people flocked here artisans, most of whom were voluntary carpenters.This is for them, at the behest of the Emperor Peter I, was given a place near the mouth of the Okhta River.Here they settled, lived and died.
But Orthodox person can not be without a temple of God, and in 1725 by the architect Potemkin was built a wooden church.Sanctify it in honor of the patron saint of carpenters - St. Joseph Drevodela.That's what was called in Russia, St. Joseph - the Betrothed of the Blessed Virgin Mary.He is known to be a carpenter.Soon, on the banks of a small river Chernavka - inflow Ohta - formed cemetery.Ohtinskom called it - under the name of the river itself.
Building Protection Church
After a while dilapidated wooden structure.And in its place built a new stone church.However, it left bobble - not considered severe frosts Petrograd.The temple was built "cold", ie without heating, and spend the winter there life proved to be completely impossible.
nothing to do but to fork out again, and next to him to build another church, this time in view of our northern climate.So there was a Church of the Intercession, the author of the project which was the architect M. Zemtsov.Petersburgers well known for his other work - the church of the saints and the righteous Simeon and Anna at the corner of Belinsky and moss.
epidemics of the XVIII century
Meanwhile Petersburg grew, and more and more space was required for the final resting place for those who completed it in his earthly journey.In this regard, in 1732, by order of the Holy Synod, Okhta Cemetery has received the status of city and was used along with other cemeteries of the capital.But St. Petersburg angered the Lord, and at the end of the century he hath happened two terrible epidemics - smallpox and typhoid.Many residents were brought to the Okhta Cemetery, and it turned out to be crowded.
In connection with these sad events in May 1773 opened a new - Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery.It is situated on the banks of the same river all Chernavka and directly adjacent to the Okhta.The old cemetery, though it was considered closed, but it continued for a long time podhoranivat dead to the graves of their relatives.In the same year a new church was built on the cemetery Bolsheokhtinskoye.It was consecrated in honor of St. George, which gave the name to the entire complex.
construction of St. Nicholas Church
Petersburg was originally the city of shipbuilders and sailors.And they have their own patron saint - Saint Nicholas of Myra.Here in his honor at the cemetery in 1812, the new church was laid.It was built on the donations of merchant Nikonov, and was just on the place of burial of the family.Since ancient times, there is an Russian people pious tradition - to bequeath their belongings on charitable affairs.
In this temple before burial funeral many masters - shipwrights and mariners, and later created a special site for the burial of soldiers and officers who died of his wounds in a military hospital.In official documents they referred to them as "soldiers tied up the glory of the Fatherland."
Land - Old Believers and the Institute for Noble Maidens
Around the same time Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery in its southern part, it is the burial place of the Old Believers.In the area allotted to them in the middle of the XIX century by the architect KI Brandt erected Edinoverie church of St. Demetrius.Up to now it has not been preserved, as with many other temples were destroyed during the Soviet period.
Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery was the resting place of the prematurely deceased pupils of the Institute for Noble Maidens - boarding school for girls from noble families.It was on the opposite bank of the Neva.Today, the existing bridge Peter the Great was not yet in sight, and the summer boating and winter on the ice of the frozen river crossed to the right bank, where there was Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery.How to reach it on the melting ice in spring or autumn the first - we, modern people it is difficult to even imagine.
family tomb family Eliseev
In the early eighties of the XIX century was built another church Bolsheokhtinskoye cemetery.It was erected at the expense of the well-known Russian businessmen - Eliseev brothers.The church was consecrated in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God - especially revered shrines.It is known that the older brother - Stepan Petrovich - never started a business day, not prayer in front of her.Construction of the church at a cost of a record sum for those times - one million rubles, and since then it has become a generic family burial place Eliseev.
many saints, shine on the banks of the Neva River, St. Petersburg is famous for.Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery mentioned in the life of one of them - Saint Xenia of Petersburg.It was there she sent overstayers unmarried daughter of an officer's widow and miraculously arranged her marriage to a young man buried his wife.Not just about the cemetery and we read in the life of another luminary of Orthodoxy - St. John of Kronstadt.
Cemetery after the revolution
Revolution and set in after her period of rebellion in many ways changed the face of the ancient necropolis.Temples were destroyed, which was so well known Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery.Monuments and tombs, tombs and gravestones - barbarously destroyed in the years of atheistic obscurantism.Miraculously preserved only Nicholas Church.
In 1939 Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery became a place of mass burial of Soviet soldiers killed during the Finnish War.For their graves took large areas of the southern part of the cemetery, and several years later the vast territory occupied burial of the fallen defenders of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War.
Cemetery today
scheme Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery, is given at the end of the article shows that this is the biggest necropolis of the city today.It is clearly seen that it is composed of two parts.Built in the late seventies of the last century avenue Energetikov separated plot with old graves from the area where the victims are buried siege of Leningrad.It should be noted that due to the fact that during the forties - seventies, was buried very large number of residents, many areas of the old graves were used again, and is now ancient tombstones can be seen only around the St. Nicholas Church.
Many guests of St. Petersburg, wanting to get the most complete picture of the city, try to visit the cemetery and Bolsheokhtinsky.How to get it?You can use the trolley bus number 16 or bus number 132, departing from the metro station "Alexander Nevsky Square" and trolleybus №18 to metro "Novocherkassk".His address is: Avenue Metalworkers, 5.
