On the Middle Avenue of the famous Vasilievsky Island in the old part of the city, there is a beautiful spired church of the Evangelical Lutheran confession. It is named after Saint Archangel Michael. The famous cathedral is located at 18/3rd Line, 32. The architect of the church was military engineer Karl Bulmering, and the famous facade in the pseudo-Gothic style was created by architect Rudolf Bernhard.
The congregation was established in 1731 in the building of the First Cadet Corps. Its first parishioners were cadets, teachers, and officers serving in the corps. Free access to the small house church was also granted to residents of the surrounding neighborhoods. In 1834, the congregation was named after the Archistrategos Michael. In 1841, Emperor Nicholas I ordered the church to be moved to a private building but decreed that funds from the treasury be paid to the parish for it. At that time, the unified congregation was divided into German and Estonian communities. The Estonian congregation organized the Church of Saint John. The German congregation (about 2,000 parishioners) gathered in a private house on the 3rd Line of Vasilievsky Island, where on August 16, 1842, the Church of Saint Archangel Michael was consecrated. Since the building could not accommodate all parishioners, after the reconstruction of the cadet school building, a Lutheran church was reopened there, consecrated on November 8, 1847. Until 1861, there was one parish for the church on Vasilievsky Island and the cadet school. From 1861, the church in the cadet school was permitted to create its own parish, which from 1866 was called the “Church of Saint Michael on the Cadet Line.”
The Evangelical Lutheran church was founded in St. Petersburg in 1871. Originally, the congregation was created in 1731 in the building of the first cadet corps. In 1841, Emperor Nicholas I ordered the church to be moved to a private building.
Meanwhile, parishioners were raising funds to build a new stone church with 800 seats, which was laid on October 23, 1874, on the Middle Avenue of Vasilievsky Island. The church was consecrated on December 19, 1876. With the consecration of the new building, the parish in the cadet school was abolished by imperial decree, and the parishioners and property were transferred to the building on Vasilievsky Island. The church operated an elementary school with an orphanage, as well as a widow’s shelter and a society for the care of the poor.
The church was built according to the design of military engineer Colonel Bulmering, and the facade was rebuilt in 1886 according to the design of architect Bernhard. The church is built in the pseudo-Gothic style. The building is crowned with a pointed spire on a high drum decorated with Gothic lancet windows and pinnacles. The walls are faced with sandstone. The church interior was magnificently decorated, the room had excellent acoustics, and one of the best organs in the city by the Sauer firm operated there from 1877 to 1935.
In 1929, the building of St. Michael’s Church was transferred by the Soviet authorities to the Russian Lutheran congregation of Jesus Christ, resulting in the unification of the German and Russian parishes. In 1935, the church was closed by decree of the Leningrad Regional Executive Committee dated August 15 of the same year. The church building was repurposed as a sports base for the Kalinin factory, then became a warehouse for the Uritsky tobacco factory, and after World War II — a workshop of the experimental “Sport” factory. The new owners completely rebuilt the interior, dividing the main worship hall into three floors with ceilings.
In 1992, the building was returned to the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria), and services resumed. However, while St. Mary’s Church was mainly Finnish, the congregation of St. Michael’s Church was predominantly Russian. Russian is the main language used in the Masses. Currently, the church premises are provided for worship by other Protestant denominations: Methodists, Seventh-day Adventists, and the “Vineyard” and “Chapel on Golgotha” churches.
The building has been preserved; restoration work began in 2002 and was completed in 2010. In 2012, the congregation of St. Michael’s Church was gifted an organ from the Austrian firm “Rieger Orgelbau,” made in 1956 and formerly belonging to the Lutheran Church of St. Paul in Helsinki (Finland); the instrument was put into operation in 2015, and on January 3, 2016, it was consecrated by Bishop Arri Kugappi.
During the restoration and shortly thereafter, the building was decorated with stained glass windows, which were originally absent because in the 19th century the parish of St. Michael’s Church was one of the poorest in the St. Petersburg district and could not afford such luxury as stained glass; thus, what was impossible in the 19th century was realized in the 21st century.
However, there have been losses: the cast-iron decoration of the building’s facades was not fully restored because some elements were lost during Soviet times due to deterioration and lack of maintenance, and some — the pinnacles of the side facades and the cast-iron parapet — were deemed hazardous, removed, and stored until funds become available for their restoration. As a result, the roof lacks pinnacles and Gothic grilles.
Sources:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Лютеранская_церковь_Святого_Михаила
https://peterburg.center/maps/lyuteranskaya-cerkov-svyatogo-mihaila-v-sankt-peterburge.html
https://www.citywalls.ru/house91.html
https://saint-petersburg.ru/m/thebest/rubin/372284/
