The land on which the Simeon Church stands was gifted by Peter I to his three-year-old daughter Anna in honor of her being named tsarevna. Between 1712 and 1714, by Peter’s order, a wooden church dedicated to St. Simeon and Anna was built here. On February 3, 1714, it was consecrated in the name of Archangel Michael.
Originally, it was a rectangular one-story building with a small tower and spire above the altar section. P. N. Petrov, in his book "History of Saint Petersburg," notes that it was built for the lower palace servants and workers who were settled at that time in the area between the Fontanka River and Liteyny Prospect.
From 1731 to 1734, by the order of Empress Anna Ioannovna, a new stone church was erected on the site of the dilapidated one, designed by architect M. G. Zemtsov. His assistant I. Ya. Blank also participated in the work. On January 27, 1734, Archbishop Theophan Prokopovich consecrated the church in the presence of the Empress. The main altar was consecrated in the name of the Holy Righteous Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess, while the side chapels—the right in the name of Archangel Michael, the left in the name of Ephraim the Syrian.
The church is an example of early Petrine Baroque with elements of ancient Russian architecture. The architect combined traditional Russian church architectural techniques with features of Western European architecture. To the west adjoined a refectory with a tall 47-meter bell tower above the entrance. The spire of the bell tower was installed by the Dutch master Herman van Boles. The architect employed ancient Russian architectural methods, based on the traditional Moscow three-part churches of the 17th century. The volume of the church follows the traditional "octagon on a square" design. To the west adjoins the refectory with a tall bell tower above the entrance. The walls of the church and bell tower were decorated with pilasters of the Roman-Doric order; on the bell tower tiers and the dome drum, lighter Corinthian and Ionic orders were used. The facades were adorned with numerous wooden statues.
Originally, the building’s facades and interior were richly decorated with wooden sculptures. Zemtsov requested that the carving work be entrusted to masters Kondrat Osner and Kondrat Gan, but the Construction Office decided to assign this task only to Kondrat Gan and his apprentices. The project included: "for the iconostasis... Corinthian order capitals according to drawing eight, Composite order capitals according to drawing four, which are to be on round turned columns... and on the same iconostasis ten angel statues, also above the royal doors panels with angels and the royal doors themselves, and in the second apartment the Holy Spirit in glory... [Outside] it is necessary... to decorate with carved work around the large lantern and around the bell tower to carve twelve wooden statues of apostles and angels, and around the large lantern to make sixteen pilaster capitals of the Composite order with carved work, and in the upper lantern to carve eight crockets and thirty-eight turned vases, and around the bell tower to carve eight festoons."
The stucco decoration was made by I. Rossi. In 1753, master B. Neyer installed chimes on the bell tower, transferred from the closed Church of the Resurrection of the Word near the palace of Prince A. Menshikov.
On February 16, 1772, in memory of the birth of Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich, a chapel was consecrated in the church in honor of Eustathius and Placida, which existed until 1802. In 1779, the church was enclosed by a fence.
On January 27, 1734, the church was consecrated in the presence of the Empress. The main altar was consecrated in the name of the Holy Righteous Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess.
The church was declared a court church, and until the predecessor of the Kazan Cathedral was built, especially solemn services were held here, attended by all the nobility. In 1779, the church was enclosed by a fence.
The Simeon Church was frequented by high-ranking officials and members of the royal family. In 1797, Emperor Paul I, to commemorate the birth of his daughter named Anna after the holy righteous Anna the Prophetess, ordered the image of the Order of Saint Anna to be placed on the church portal, signifying that the church had become an order church. On the day of the order’s feast (February 3/16), the Anninsky knights visited the Simeon Church. Inside the church, by the right column nearest the altar, Paul I arranged an Imperial place made of crimson velvet with gold trim.
In 1802, the church was transferred from court jurisdiction to the diocesan authority, after which it ceased to be an order church.
Between 1802 and 1808, architect M. P. Vyborov added a sacristy to the church and built a chapel on the corner. In 1838, the interior was renovated. Academician D. Antonelli painted new icons for the Royal Doors of the Mikhail chapel.
Since 1868, the church housed a Society for Assistance to the Poor with a children’s shelter and almshouse.
In 1869, restoration was carried out according to a project by architect G. I. Winterhalter. The bell tower was raised, and the church and chapel were expanded on three sides; the sacristy was extended, and a new iconostasis was made following the old model. On October 17, 1871, a new chapel was consecrated in the name of the icon of the Mother of God "Three-Handed," which, according to tradition, was brought by water to the church porch during the flood of 1777.
On October 8, 1872, the renovated church was solemnly consecrated.
In 1938, the church was closed. Some of its premises were used as warehouses and were severely damaged. Between 1951 and 1954, the building was restored and transferred to the Meteorology Museum. In the late 1950s, the church housed the hydroelectric power station design department(s) of the Leningrad branch of the design institute Orgenergostroy. The walls were "bare," the iconostasis was absent, and throughout the church and under the dome stood drafting tables with blueprints of future machines, units, and assemblies for major construction projects from the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Station to the future Krasnoyarsk and Ust-Ilimsk stations. The designers moved here from the Soyuzpushnina building on Moskovsky Prospect and left in the early 1960s for the Main Staff building, in the part where the new Hermitage exhibition is now open. In the 1980s, it was reconstructed as a meteorological museum. It was returned to the diocese in 1991 and reconsecrated on January 1, 1995. Restoration was carried out from 2003 to 2008.
Sources:
https://www.citywalls.ru/house3440.html
https://walkspb.ru/istoriya-peterburga/zd/sim-anna-ts
