Obukhovskoy Oborony Avenue, 235, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 192012
The Church of the Holy Trinity is known by the name “Kulich and Paskha,” which it was given due to its architectural design — the church ensemble is shaped like Easter dishes: kulich (a traditional Easter bread) and paskha (a traditional Easter dessert). The idea to give the building the form of kulich and paskha belongs to the client of the construction, Prosecutor General Alexander Vyazemsky, the owner of the village of Alexandrovskoye, the site where the church was built. From an architectural and compositional point of view, the unusual form of the bell tower for Russian art reproduces the Pyramid of Cestius in Rome. According to many architectural historians, it was created under the impression of architect Lvov’s trip to Italy in 1781.
Similarly, the round-plan church is associated with the round temples of Vesta in Rome and Tivoli, which architect Lvov studied and sketched. The Italian prototypes were also known to Russian architects through engravings by Giovanni Piranesi and A. Parboni.
Despite all its originality, the church, built as a manor church, proved inconvenient for services as a parish church. To increase the church’s area, in 1858 a vestibule was added to the entrance part, and a tambour was added to the altar part.
In 1874, the future Supreme Ruler of Russia, Admiral Alexander Kolchak, was baptized in this church. The birth record states: “...in the 1874 metric book of the Trinity Church of the village Alexandrovskoye, Saint Petersburg district, under No. 50 it is recorded:
To naval artillery staff-captain Vasily Ivanovich Kolchak and his lawful wife Olga Ilyinichna Kolchak, both Orthodox and first-married, a son Alexander was born on November 4 and baptized on December 15, 1874. His godparents were: naval staff-captain Alexander Ivanovich Kolchak and the widow of collegiate secretary Darya Filippovna Ivanova.”
The church was one of the few churches in Leningrad that functioned for a long time during the Soviet era (until the Great Terror). On October 10, 1937, its rector, Archpriest Leonid Dyakonov, was arrested and executed on December 5. In March 1938, the church was closed and repurposed as a club. During this time, all its furnishings were destroyed; among them, the icon of the Holy Trinity, which had been the main shrine of the church for many years, disappeared without a trace (this icon was donated by the peasants of the village Alexandrovskoye in 1824). Eight years later, on April 17, 1946, the church reopened for services. The solemn consecration of the church was performed on June 1 by Metropolitan Gregory of Leningrad and Novgorod. All the relics currently kept in the church were gathered from other churches. For example, the blue and gold iconostasis from the mid-18th century was transferred from the Annunciation Church on Vasilievsky Island, from the chapel dedicated to the Conception of John the Baptist located in the choir of that church.
Currently, the church houses the especially revered icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” (with coins), which was brought by private individuals who preserved it after the closure in 1932 of the church dedicated to this icon near the former Glass Factory on the Neva, where it was kept until the destruction of that church in 1934.
The icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, located on the left kliros and also especially venerated, previously kept in the Nikolskoye cemetery church in the city of Kolpino, was transferred to the church in December 1947 by the Pisaryov sisters, residents of Kolpino, who had safeguarded it during the war years. On December 13, 2013, this icon was moved to the Kolpino Trinity Cathedral, where it has since been kept in a kiot on the south side of the altar.
The church itself, imitating a kulich, is a rotunda with a colonnade of 16 Ionic order columns supporting an entablature. It is crowned with a low dome without a drum. The exterior walls are painted in a yellow-brown “Petersburg” color, and the dome is green. Oval windows are arranged on the second tier, and the upper part of the walls is finished with a frieze. The dome is topped with an orb and cross. Due to the absence of a drum under the dome, the altar part of the church is dimly lit; moreover, this enhances the illusion of the building’s size — inside it looks much larger than from the outside. Inside, the walls of the round hall are painted blue and decorated with Corinthian pilasters; above the altar apse are figures of hovering angels. The blue dome, imitating the sky, creates a feeling of lightness and airiness.
Sources:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_Church_“Kulich_and_Paskha”
