Maltese Chapel

After Paul I ascended the throne and took the title of Protector, and then Grand Master of the Maltese Order, the Vorontsov Palace was granted to the Maltese knights, who were forced to seek refuge after Napoleon Bonaparte captured the island of Malta in 1798. In 1798, Paul I, as emperor, accepted the title of Grand Master of the Maltese knights. He gifted the Vorontsov Palace to the Russian branch of the Maltese Order.

Above the lattice gates of the palace, the order’s coat of arms was affixed — a white Maltese cross on a red background. The palace began to be called the "Castle of the Maltese Knights."

Between 1798 and 1800, by the order of Paul I, two churches were built on the palace estate: an Orthodox church and a Catholic chapel of the Maltese knights’ order — the Maltese Chapel. The building of the Maltese Chapel was constructed according to the design of architect Giuseppe Quarenghi in the neoclassical style.

On June 17, 1800, Archbishop of Mogilev Stanislav Sestrentsevich consecrated the church. After the death of Paul I, his successor Alexander I renounced the title of Grand Master of the order, retaining the title of its protector. In 1803, Alexander I relinquished the title of protector, and in 1817 it was declared that "the order no longer exists in the Russian Empire."

The Maltese Chapel is the cathedral church of Saint John of Jerusalem. It was annexed in 1799 to the main building on the garden side. The facade is designed as a four-columned portal. The hall is framed on both sides by a Corinthian colonnade, supporting the vaulted ceiling. The chapel housed the order’s treasures and the grand master’s chair. During Paul I’s lifetime, the order’s meetings were regularly held here.

From 1810 to 1918, the Vorontsov Palace housed the Page Corps. The Maltese Chapel was preserved as a Catholic church and was open for visits by embassy and mission staff, as well as members of the imperial family.

In 1853, the patron of the church, Duke of Leuchtenberg, son-in-law of Emperor Nicholas I and the highest-ranking Catholic in Russia, was buried here. An altar chapel was added in the apse part of the chapel, under which a crypt was arranged. By the will of the duke’s wife, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, the interior of the duke’s private prayer room, which was located in the Mariinsky Palace, was recreated in the chapel.

Since 1928, the Maltese Chapel building was used by educational institutions housed in the Vorontsov Palace as a club. Most of the chapel’s interior items and church utensils were transferred to city museums.

The Maltese Chapel has undergone multiple repairs and restoration works. The last restoration of the church was carried out from 1986 to 1998. At the end of 2002, the chapel, restored on the initiative of the head of the Suvorov Military School, General V. N. Skoblov, opened the Museum of the History of Russian Cadet Corps.

The Maltese Chapel is also used as a concert hall, where organ music is regularly performed. The organ, made by the German firm Walcker, was installed in the chapel in 1909 and transferred to the Small Opera and Ballet Theater in 1927. After the restoration of the Maltese Chapel building in 1998, the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (KGIOP) decided to restore the organ and return it to its original place. The organ was moved back in November 2004, and in December of the same year, the instrument was sent for restoration to Estonia. The official solemn opening of the organ, attended by the Governor of Saint Petersburg Valentina Matviyenko and former President of the Republic of Malta Guido de Marco, took place on January 20, 2006.

The church has a rectangular shape with a cylindrical vault. Two rows of artificial marble columns divide the chapel’s interior space into three naves. Choir galleries are arranged above the side naves. The wall surfaces are enriched with decorative arches, sculptures of angels, Maltese crosses, and plaster garlands. The church ceiling consists of semicircular barrel vaults decorated with paintings of plant ornaments and rosettes, as well as plaster garlands.

The altar part is an apse with columns placed close to the walls. In the center is a marble altar, behind which was the altarpiece of John the Baptist (the patron saint of the Maltese Order) by A. I. Charlemagne, created by the artist in 1861. To the right of the altar, under a canopy, stood the grand master’s crimson velvet chair. To the left, under a marble plaque with an inscription about the church’s foundation and solemn consecration, were the bishop’s chair and several stools. Here, in front of the altar screen, were benches for the embassy with velvet cushions. In the middle of the hall were 14 wooden benches with cushions covered in red cloth.

The altarpiece remained in the Maltese Chapel until 1928, then was transferred to the Museum of Religion and Atheism, and from there in 1932 it ended up in the Russian Museum. The canvas was stored in the Russian Museum’s collections without a stretcher or frame, rolled on a drum, which caused numerous damages. In February 2006, the Russian Museum’s management decided to transfer the altarpiece to the Maltese Chapel for temporary storage. The restoration of the canvas was carried out in the workshops of the Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops, and Signal Corps. In September 2007, the icon was returned to its historical place.

Currently, entry inside is only possible with a concert ticket.

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_Chapel

https://www.citywalls.ru/house2569.html