The Swedish Church of Saint Catherine — built in a pseudo-Romanesque style with a rose window. The original wooden church with 300 seats was laid on May 17, 1767, by architect Felten Yuri (Georg Friedrich) Matveevich. It was consecrated in the name of St. Catherine of Alexandria — the patroness of the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who supported the construction of the church.
Later, due to the growth in the number of parishioners, it was completely rebuilt according to the project of architect Karl Karlovich Anderson, increasing the seating capacity to 1,200. Karl Karlovich Anderson, the church’s architect, was the son of a Swedish subject. He studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and later was a student of Professor Bosse. He also built the Russian church in Copenhagen.
In 1905, architect Fyodor Ivanovich Lidval made partial changes to the facade.
The construction costs amounted to 100,000 rubles, of which Emperor Alexander II donated 5,000 rubles. Religious paintings were created by Professor Tirsch from Munich. An organ was also installed in the church. The new church was consecrated on November 28, 1865. The neighboring Swedish Lane derives its name from the church.
The congregation was organized in 1640 in Nyenschantz. Initially, it was part of the Church of Sweden. After the transfer of Ingria to Russia following the Northern War, some residents were relocated to Saint Petersburg. Meetings began in 1703, held in a private house by Pastor Yakov Maydelin.
In 1734, Empress Anna Ioannovna gifted the congregation a plot in the area of the modern Nevsky Prospect, where the first wooden church named after Saint Anna was built.
In 1745, the Swedish and Finnish congregations separated. The Finnish congregation remained at the original location — now the Finnish Church of Saint Mary — while the Swedes built a prayer house at a new site, on which the stone Church of Saint Catherine was built in 1767. The church was repeatedly rebuilt over time. The church had a parish school, shelters for boys and girls, an almshouse, and a charitable institution. Among the parishioners were the Nobel and Lidval families, and jeweler Carl Fabergé. Carl Mannerheim, the future Russian general and President of Finland, was married in this church.
The parish functioned until 1934, when it was closed. Various organizations occupied the building afterward, the last being a youth sports school.
The parish activities resumed in 1993. In 2005, the building was fully returned to the congregation. The Lutheran parish is considered Swedish; besides the Lutheran parish, services of the Church of England community are held in Saint Catherine’s Church, with regular services conducted in Russian and Swedish.
Sources:
http://encspb.ru/object/2804010456
http://opeterburge.ru/sobry-sankt-peterburga/shvedskaya-tserkov-svyatoj-ekateriny.html
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Шведская_церковь_Святой_Екатерины
https://www.citywalls.ru/house1062.html
