In the Krasnogvardeisky district of St. Petersburg there is an ancient cemetery, the history of which has become part of the history of the city itself, it is so inextricably linked with it. Once it was called Georgievsky. It is only two decades younger than the city itself and remembers the times of Peter I. Today it is the largest urban necropolis. Its area is almost seventy hectares. It is called the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery. How to get to it and what interesting things can be seen there - this is what we will try to find out now.
Wooden Church on the Bank of Chernavka
In order to start a conversation about its history, you should mentally return to the beginning of the XVIII century. A new capital was being built on the banks of the Neva, and artisans flocked here from all over Russia, most of whom were free carpenters. Here, for them, by order of Emperor Peter Alekseevich, a place was allocated near the mouth of the Okhta River. Here they settled, lived and died.
But the Orthodox person can not do without the temple of God, and in 1725, according to the project of architect Potemkin, a wooden church was built. They consecrated it in honor of the patron saint of carpenters - St. Joseph Drevodel. That is how they called St. Joseph in Russia - the betrothed of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He is known to be a carpenter. Soon, on the banks of the small river Chernavka, a tributary of the Okhta, a cemetery formed. They called it Okhtinsky - by the name of the river itself.
The construction of the Intercession Church
After some time, the wooden building was dilapidated. And instead, a new stone church was built. However, a mistake came out - they did not take into account the severe St. Petersburg frosts. The temple was built “cold”, that is, without heating, and it was completely impossible to conduct winter services there.
There was no choice but to fork out again, and build another temple next to it, this time taking into account our northern climate. So there was the Church of the Intercession, the author of the project was the architect M. G. Zemtsov. Petersburgers are well aware of his other work - the church of saints and righteous Simeon and Anna on the corner of Belinsky and Mokhovaya streets.
Epidemics of the end of the 18th century
Meanwhile, Petersburg was growing, and more and more space was required for the last refuge for those who had completed their earthly journey in it. In this regard, in 1732, by order of the Holy Synod, the Okhta cemetery received the status of a citywide and was used along with other cemeteries in the capital. But the St. Petersburgers were angry with the Lord, and at the end of the century He allowed two terrible epidemics to happen - smallpox and typhoid. Many residents were brought to the Okhta cemetery, and it turned out to be crowded.
In connection with these sad events, in May 1773 they opened a new one - the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery. It is located on the shore of the same Chernavka River and is adjacent to Okhtinsky. Although the old cemetery was considered closed, they continued to chase the dead to the graves of their relatives there for a long time. In the same year, a new church was built at the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery. It was consecrated in honor of St. George the Victorious, which gave the name to the whole complex.
The construction of St. Nicholas Church
Petersburg was originally a city of shipbuilders and sailors. And they have their own heavenly patron - Saint Nicholas the miracle worker Peace of Lycia. Here in his honor a new church was laid in the cemetery in 1812. It was built on the donations of the merchant Nikonov, and was just at the place of their family burial. From ancient times, there has been a pious tradition among Russian people - to bequeath to the godly deeds acquired.
Before this burial, many masters, shipbuilders and sailors, were buried in this temple, and a little later a special site was created for the burial of soldiers and officers who died from wounds in a military hospital. In official documents they were referred to as "warriors who tied themselves to the glory of the Fatherland."
Sites - Old Believers and the Institute of Noble Maidens
Around the same time, the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery, in its southern part, became the burial place of the Old Believers. In the area allotted to them in the middle of the XIX century, according to the project of architect K.I. Brandt, a single-faith church was built in the name of Dimitry of Solunsky. It has not survived to our days, since together with many other churches it was destroyed in the Soviet period.
The Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery became the resting place of the early pupils of the Institute of Noble Maidens, a closed educational institution for girls from noble families. It was located on the opposite bank of the Neva. Nowadays, the existing Peter the Great Bridge was not even in sight, and in summer in boats, and in winter, on the ice of the frozen river, they were transported to the right bank, where the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery was located. How to get to it by melt spring ice or the first autumn ice - it is difficult for us, modern people, to even imagine.
Family tomb of the Eliseev family
In the early eighties of the XIX century, another church was built at the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery. She was erected at the expense of famous Russian entrepreneurs - the Eliseev brothers. The church was consecrated in honor of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God - a shrine especially revered by them. It is known that the elder brother - Stepan Petrovich - never began a working day without praying in front of her. The construction of the church cost a record amount at that time - one million rubles, and since then it has become the patrimonial tomb of the Eliseev family.
Many saints who shone on the banks of the Neva, glorious Petersburg. The Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery is mentioned in the life of one of them - Saint Blessed Xenia of Petersburg. It was there that she sent the daughter of an officer widow, who had sat up in girls, and miraculously arranged her marriage with a young man who buried his wife. More than once we read about that cemetery in the biography of another lamp of Orthodoxy - the holy righteous John of Kronstadt.
Cemetery after the revolution
The revolution and the period of the atonement that came after it largely changed the face of the ancient necropolis. The temples with which the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery was so famous were destroyed. Monuments and crypts, tombs and gravestones - barbarously destroyed during the years of atheistic obscurantism. Miraculously preserved only St. Nicholas Church.
In 1939, the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery became the site of the mass grave of Soviet soldiers who died during the Finnish War. Significant plots were allocated for their graves in the southern part of the cemetery, and a few years later vast territories were occupied by the burials of the fallen defenders of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War.
Cemetery today
The scheme of the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery, given at the end of the article, shows what this largest urban necropolis is today. It is clearly seen that it consists of two parts. The Energetikov Avenue, built at the end of the seventies of the last century, separated the site with old graves from the territory where the victims of the Leningrad blockade rest. It should be noted that as a result of the fact that during the period of the forties and seventies a very large number of city residents were buried, many sites with old graves were reused, and nowadays, ancient gravestones can be seen only around St. Nicholas Church.
Many guests of St. Petersburg, wanting to get the most complete picture of the city, try to visit the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery. How to get to it? You can take the trolley bus number 16 or bus number 132, departing from the metro station "Ploshchad Aleksandra Nevskogo", as well as the trolley bus number 18 from the metro "Novocherkasskaya". His address: Metallistov Avenue, 5.