In 1703, after the city of Yamburg was liberated from Swedish occupation, a wooden cathedral church dedicated to the Archangel Michael was built there. In 1761, it burned down.
Construction of the cathedral began based on a personal decree of Empress Catherine II in 1764 and lasted eighteen years. The project for the new stone cathedral on the main square of the city was created by the architect Antonio Rinaldi.
By the highest decree of the Empress, a project for the complete reconstruction of the oldest part of the city was also developed. Urban development activities in Yamburg were given political significance. The city on the Luga River was becoming a settlement place for craftsmen and merchants. The route from St. Petersburg to the Estland and Livland provinces passed through Yamburg. Catherine II often stopped in Yamburg on her way to Reval (Tallinn). Therefore, she wanted to see a cathedral in Yamburg with "capital" architecture.
The predecessor of the St. Catherine Cathedral in style, features, architectural techniques, and composition is the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Pochep, Ukraine, built by Rinaldi. However, the St. Catherine Cathedral in Yamburg is more refined.
The project for the new stone cathedral on the main square was entrusted to architect Antonio Rinaldi. Construction began based on a personal decree of Empress Catherine II dated August 2, 1764.
Materials for the Yamburg temple were supplied from all corners of the world. The construction used Riga alabaster, linden boards and logs, Reval glue, roofing iron, Dutch soot, tar, copper, German white lead, and French chalk.
Near Yamburg, on the banks of the Luga River, there were slab quarries, and clay, sand, and lime were extracted. The local lime was noted for its special strength. Rinaldi also favored marble, which was mined from Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega, and Pudost stone, whose deposit is near Gatchina. Siberian quadrangular iron was supplied by the Demidov contractors.
The walls and vaults of the church were built of brick, while the capitals and bases were carved from limestone. The foundation was laid from large slabs with each row poured with lime mixed with brick rubble, and above ground level, a plinth of hewn slabs was laid on the foundation.
During construction, the initially erected single-domed stone church significantly changed its external appearance and transformed into a majestic five-domed cathedral. The interior, with its splendor, resembled a palace hall. The icons for the temple were painted by Professor Kozlov of the Academy of Arts.
The cathedral’s plan is presented as an equilateral cross with somewhat rounded ends, and along its diagonals, there are four small round towers.
On the western side of the cross, a square bell tower is attached, through which the main entrance to the cathedral exists. Here is the main portal and porch. The bell tower is equipped with three portals decorated with ornamental treatment.
There is also an entrance to the cathedral from the southern facade. While the southern entrance is relatively simple, all three portals of the bell tower have decorative treatment. The arched openings of the bell tower have a double casing, the outer part of which reaches the sandrik, supported by distinctive flat brackets. The sandrik has three keystones, the middle one serving as the lock. Above the sandrik is a semicircular pediment with a cornice of small projection.
Each entrance to the cathedral has an external granite porch with steps. The largest porch is at the main entrance.
The building of the Catherine Cathedral is completed with the traditional five-domed structure typical of Russian religious architecture. The high central dome with a light drum and cupola compositionally subordinates four smaller domes. The central dome has a light drum 9 meters in diameter and 10 meters high, pierced by eight large rectangular windows.
In 1782, the construction of the cathedral was completed. A fence was arranged around the temple. Thus, in a remote provincial town far from the capital, a truly "courtly" cathedral 45 meters high was built.
On April 6, 1783, the cathedral was consecrated and named Catherine’s — in honor of the holy great martyr Catherine of Alexandria.
In 1882 (on the centenary of the temple), a thorough repair of the cathedral was carried out. All icons were restored by the artist Koch.
In 1911, a Committee for the Restoration of the Catherine Cathedral was created, headed by General of Infantry Dmitry Rezvy, but the restoration was not carried out.
In 1932, the Catherine Cathedral was closed as a religious institution. It housed warehouses for a military unit.
During the Great Patriotic War, the cathedral was heavily damaged by shelling and bombing.
From 1965 to 1979, restoration work took place.
From October 1979 to May 1990, the cathedral housed the "Old Yamburg" exhibition of the Kingisepp Historical and Local Lore Museum.
In the summer of 1990, the cathedral was handed over to the Orthodox community and became active again. In the same year (September 13), the cathedral was visited by Patriarch Alexy II.
On June 3, 1990, on Trinity Sunday, the first service after restoration was held in the cathedral.
On February 17, 2008, after another round of restoration work, the cathedral was consecrated by Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga.
The height of the cathedral is 45 meters. A three-tiered bell tower is attached to the western side of the temple. The foundation is laid from large slabs, each row poured with lime mixed with brick rubble. On the foundation, above ground level, a plinth of hewn slabs is laid. The walls and vaults are brick. The capitals and bases are carved from limestone. The cathedral’s plan is in the shape of an equilateral cross with rounded ends, into the diagonals of which four round towers are built. A square bell tower with a portal containing the main entrance and porch is attached to the western side.
The lower part of the walls around the entire perimeter of the cathedral has a plinth 90 cm high, consisting of six rows of hewn limestone slabs. There is also an entrance on the southern facade of the cathedral.
All three portals of the bell tower have decorative treatment. The arched openings of the bell tower have a double casing, the outer part of which reaches the sandrik, supported by flat brackets. The sandrik has three keystones, the middle one serving as the lock. Above the sandrik is a semicircular pediment with a cornice of small projection.
All entrances to the cathedral have an external granite porch with steps. The porch of the main entrance is the largest.
The interior lighting is provided by eight large rectangular windows with flat brick lintels. All window openings have decorative treatment characteristic of mid-18th-century architecture, consisting of narrow profiled frames reinforced at the corners and a sandrik.
The central drum and facades are divided by pilasters and panels.
The building’s cornice is intricately articulated and significantly projects forward. A brick parapet encircles the cathedral above the cornice.
The cathedral is crowned with a five-domed structure, traditional for Russian church architecture. Four small domes are compositionally subordinated to the tall central dome with a light drum and cupola, which has a light drum 9 meters in diameter and 10 meters high, pierced by eight large rectangular windows measuring 170×270 centimeters.
The window openings are externally treated with simple plaster casings with archivolts. Each archivolt of the casing corresponds to a semicircular keystone of the drum’s cornice.
In the summer of 2004, the facades of the Catherine Cathedral regained their historical colors. The current appearance of the cathedral lacks important decorative stucco details: garlands, brackets, elegant volutes between the windows of the central drum, and 32 alabaster vases that previously decorated the domes and tiers of the bell tower. The decor was lost in the 19th century and was not restored during the 1965–1978 restoration works.
Sources:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Екатерининский_собор_(Кингисепп)
https://kvsspb.ru/obekty/novoe-sertolovo/muzey/ekaterininskiy-sobor-v-kingiseppe/
