The German Lutheran community is older than the church building itself. German Lutherans have inhabited St. Petersburg since its very foundation. Initially, they gathered for prayer meetings in the house of Vice Admiral Cornelius Cruys—approximately where the New Hermitage now stands. Services were then conducted by Pastor Wilhelm Tolle. In 1709, a small wooden church was erected in the courtyard of Cruys’s house, where both German Lutherans and Dutch Reformed believers from all over Admiralty Island, home to the German Quarter, gathered. The community’s founding date is considered to be 1710.
On December 27, 1727, Peter II issued a decree granting the community a plot of land on the “Nevskaya Perspective” (modern Nevsky Prospect), where a church, a church school, and a pastor’s house were to be built. The construction project was developed by the community’s patron, Count Münnich. The first stone of the new church was laid on June 29, 1728, on the day of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. In their honor, on June 14, 1730, Pastor Natzius consecrated the church.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the building had severely deteriorated and could no longer accommodate the growing community. In 1833, the old 18th-century church was demolished.
In May 1833, at one of the church council meetings, Alexander Brullov’s project, the winner of the competition, was approved, and on August 21, 1833, the first stone of the new St. Peter’s Church was laid. Construction lasted five years.
On Reformation Day, October 31, 1838, the church building was consecrated and still stands today at Nevsky Prospect 22-24. Alexander Brullov’s masterpiece, which harmoniously combines features of a Romanesque basilica and Russian classicism, is the largest Lutheran church in Russia. Among the many works of art that once adorned the Petrikirche, two altar paintings were especially valuable: Holbein’s canvas “Jesus with Doubting Thomas and the Disciples,” gifted in 1707 by the court painter Grot, and the huge canvas “Christ on the Cross” by the famous Russian artist Karl Brullov.
From 1895 to 1897, the church’s interior was restored under the direction of architect Maximilian Messmacher.
In the 19th century, the community continued to grow. In 1862, the number of parishioners was 17,600, and by 1912 it had reached 21,000. The 1917 revolution marked a tragic turning point in the history of St. Peter’s Church.
Many parishioners left Russia. The church building and all its property were nationalized. In the 1920s, services were still held, but repression against Christians of all denominations increased. Persecutions and arrests began.
On Christmas Eve in 1937, when parishioners gathered for service, they could not enter because the church door was locked. Pastors Paul Reichert and Bruno Reichert of the Petrikirche were arrested and later executed in 1938.
In 1938, after the Petrikirche was closed as a “house of worship,” the former church was used to display the “North Pole” panorama. From 1939, it housed the warehouse of the Leningrad State Estrada Theater, and during 1941–1945, military units were stationed there. The building increasingly lost its artistic decoration and fell into disrepair.
After the church was closed, its valuable furnishings and fine works of art were looted. Holbein’s altar painting was given to the Hermitage, while Brullov’s “Christ on the Cross” remains in the Russian Museum (in 2007, a reduced copy of the painting was placed in the church hall). The stained glass windows ended up in the Hermitage’s storage (currently being restored). Some valuable items disappeared irretrievably. The Walcker organ was lost, although some of its pipes still stand in the organ of the Donetsk Philharmonic. These include the facade pipes and more than 20 registers inside the instrument.
After the war, the heavily damaged building was used for various warehouses—from theatrical decorations to vegetables. In 1958, reconstruction began to convert the building into a swimming pool for the Baltic Sea Shipping Company.
The project was designed by architect A. P. Izoitko. During this reconstruction, the layout was changed, and the interior was completely redone. A 25-meter-long reinforced concrete pool was built in the central nave, diving towers were installed in the altar area, and stands with 800 seats surrounded the hall on three sides. The pool’s grand opening took place in 1963. The building of St. Peter’s Church was returned to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States in June 1993, and the Petrikirche became a cathedral.
Today, the Evangelical Lutheran community of Saints Anna and Peter gathers here for services. A modern organ was installed in the Lutheran church on Nevsky Prospect in 2017. It replaced a small instrument from 1992, which had been played in the Petrikirche after a 30-year “stagnation” period when the building was used as a swimming pool during Soviet times. Today, under the vaults of the Petrikirche on Nevsky Prospect, live music by composers of various eras is performed by renowned ensembles and young musicians. Special attention is given to German musical culture.
Sources:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Лютеранская_церковь_Святых_Петра_и_Павла_(Санкт-Петербург)
https://www.citywalls.ru/house1820.html
https://petrikirche.ru/3-7/
