The favorite home church of Nicholas I and his family is located in the western part of the former "Her Majesty's Own Dacha Alexandria." Resembling a medieval Gothic cathedral in miniature, the chapel serves as an impressive romantic decoration of the park, which is why it was named the Gothic Chapel (one of the meanings of the word "chapel" is a small home church for the prayers of a single family). It was built as the home church of the royal family and was used by the families of four generations of Russian emperors – Nicholas I, Alexander II, Alexander III, and Nicholas II. The church was consecrated in the name of Saint Blessed Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky.
The church was mainly used during the summer. The imperial family's visits to the Gothic Chapel were called the "Small Outing."
Tynyanov mentions the Chapel in the story "The Young Vitushishnikov": The church, which the emperor ordered to be built at his Alexandria, his Peterhof dacha, the "tiny little church," as it was called, was pure Gothic and did not resemble the bulbous domes. Pointing to the pointed windows and stone lace and frills at the corners, chamber lady Baranova told the maids of honor: "Learn from them!"
The creation of the Chapel reflects the Russo-German cultural ties of the early 19th century. The facade designs and plans were made by the famous German architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and the direct supervision of the construction was carried out by architect Adam Menelas, after whose death, from September 1831, this role was assigned to architect Joseph Charlemagne.
The church is a Gothic building, square in plan, with identical facades pierced by rose windows for stained glass. The corners of the building are decorated with towers topped with pointed cast-iron spires and gilded Orthodox crosses. The facades are adorned with 43 copper statues based on models by sculptor Demut-Malinovsky – figures of angels, apostles, evangelists, and the Mother of God with the infant. Massive oak doors lead directly into the church hall. Inside, as outside, the church is decorated in the neo-Gothic style: pointed arches, vaults soaring upwards, round stained-glass windows.
Based on models by master Sokolov, in 1832 at the Alexandrovsky Foundry, an openwork parapet, brackets, rosettes, and other decorative elements (about a thousand parts in total) were cast from cast iron. A three-sided projection – the apse – adjoins the eastern facade. Above its side walls are bell towers – crossbars with three bells on each side. The glass for the stained-glass windows in the rose windows above the portals was made at the St. Petersburg Glass Factory.
The interior decoration was Orthodox but executed in the Gothic style. The gilded single-tier iconostasis is set within Gothic pointed arches. The site on the hill in the western part of Alexandria was chosen by Nicholas I himself.
After the revolution, the Alexandria park began to be transformed into a museum complex. In 1932, the Chapel became the museum of the history of Alexandria park.
During World War II, the building survived, the cast iron on the facades and most of the sculptures were preserved, but the interior decoration was heavily damaged.
In 1997-1998, the chapel was restored, with the iconostasis painting and stained glass recreated.
Sources:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Капелла_(Петергоф)
https://peterburg2.ru/restplaces/muzey-goticheskaya-kapella-2837.html
https://www.spb-guide.ru/page_18207.htm
https://www.citywalls.ru/house19332.html
