Near St. Petersburg, on the estate "Znamenka," stands the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul – the oldest functioning church in Peterhof. The founders of the church were the owners of the Vasilyevskaya manor, the future Znamenka – the Rzhevsky princes.

In September 1718, Prince Ioann Ioannovich Rzhevsky submitted a petition to Tsar Peter I: "In Petersburg, by the sea, on my newly built Vasilyevskaya manor, I have built a church in the name of the great apostles Peter and Paul, and it, my church, is ready for consecration."

After Menshikov, Minikh, and Golovin, the Vasilyevskaya manor was owned by Count Alexey Grigorievich Razumovsky – the secret husband of Empress Elizabeth. In 1761, Count Razumovsky appealed to the Empress with a request to allow the construction of a new stone church next to the old wooden one. And on July 25, 1761, "by the decree of Her Imperial Majesty…", the last decree of the Empress’s life, the Synod blessed the construction.

The stone church was first erected on this site in 1767 by architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Now, the Znamenka estate has its own highlight, an architectural monument that has come down to us from the depths of the 18th century. The Peter and Paul Church is modest in size, laconic, and elegant. It rightfully can be considered the oldest functioning church in Peterhof. Already in 1767, in the "List of Churches of the St. Petersburg District," one could read: "The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul stands memorably on the manor of Count Razumovsky, and a newly built one nearby bearing the same name." Subsequently, like the estate, it underwent several reconstructions, and today we see the version from 1877, attributed to Bosse.

In its final form, the church presents a rectangular main volume, topped with three domes arranged along its longitudinal axis in the traditional "Ukrainian" scheme (Razumovsky was the Hetman of Ukraine). The central, taller dome is crowned with a quadrangular drum and an onion-shaped cupola; the side domes, located to the east and west, are flatter and hemispherical in shape. The southern entrance to the church is decorated with a classical portico of four paired columns, topped with a triangular pediment. Previously, the church dome was blue with golden stars, and the upper dome under the drum was gilded; all this was lost during the Soviet era.

The interior decoration of the Znamenka Church in Peterhof is also done in the Baroque style. Thanks to the abundance of light, bas-reliefs, bright warm tones in the room, the patterned forged chandelier, the stairs to the choir loft, and other elements of the church, a festive atmosphere reigns inside.

At the same time, the interior resonates with the calm and secluded setting of the Znamenka estate itself. The small cozy church is filled with light due to the abundance of windows around the perimeter of the building and the use of wooden textures combined with light-colored walls.

After the revolution in 1917, the church was closed and looted for the first time. The crosses were removed from the domes, which were repainted red. Ultimately, the building was closed and subsequently plundered.

Closed in 1930, the church was used as a food warehouse for the Fruit and Vegetable Institute, which was housed in the Znamenka Palace. During World War II, the vault and walls of the church suffered significant damage and were later used as an auxiliary building by the poultry farm and boarding house that occupied the palace after the Great Patriotic War. On March 29, 1993, the church was returned to the believers.

Sources:

http://znamenka.spb.ru/istoriya-xrama/

https://dzen.ru/a/YeZBD-9ibHBdbOnw

https://discover-peterhof.ru/hramy-i-sobory/hram-svyatyh-apostolov-petra-i-pavla-v-znamenke/

https://www.citywalls.ru/house22702.html