The first German church in Russia was built in Moscow after a special tsar’s permission from Ivan the Terrible. Construction was completed by 1576, and the temple was consecrated in honor of St. Michael. Since the 17th century, the number of German specialists in Russia has steadily increased, and since up to 3/4 of them belonged to Lutherans, the construction of Lutheran churches was inherent in their communities. During the years of Soviet rule, most churches were destroyed or adapted for other purposes. But after 1988, the creation of the German Lutheran Church in the USSR and the collapse of the state, many churches, known as churches, returned to their original purpose. Some of them, representing the spiritual and cultural heritage, are listed as architectural monuments.
The emergence of the German church in Russia
In the XVII century, several German communities were witnessed, of which the largest were in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Arkhangelsk, Yaroslavl, Tula, Perm. In some cities, after the building permit given by the Moscow church, Lutheran churches also began to be erected.
During the period of Peter's reforms, with their unlimited access to the state of foreign specialists, the influx of Lutheran Germans into Russia increased significantly. In a manifesto of 1702, Peter I, among other privileges, granted foreigners free religion, which gave them the right to public worship and church building in any place of the city, and not only within the German settlement, as it was before. During the 18th century, Lutheran communities were formed mainly in industrial and economically important cities, such as St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Barnaul, Smolensk, Tobolsk, Kazan, Omsk, Orenburg, Mogilev, Polotsk. The German church was present in almost every of these cities.
The spread of Lutheran temples in Russia
A large stream of German immigrants, who were attracted by the empress’s manifesto, followed after 1763. The political and economic goal of Catherine II was to populate the sparsely populated areas of the Volga, the Black Sea region, the south of Little Russia, Bessarabia, and the North Caucasus. Alexander I continued the same trend, because soon many German communities with Lutheran churches appeared in these regions.
According to church statistics, by 1905 the St. Petersburg district consisted of 145 Lutheran churches, the Moscow district - 142. The population center with the largest number of German churches was St. Petersburg, where already from 1703, the moment the city was founded, the first German church functioned on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress . It was wooden and small, with one low bell tower.
Interior Features
The Lutheran denomination does not consider the question of the internal structure of the temples according to certain canons important. Classical churches contain the traditional division of Christian churches with the nave, narthex, choirs, transepts and the altar. One or two bell towers usually rise above the narthex (lint). The configuration of modern Lutheran churches at the discretion of the architect and the customer can be arranged differently, without internal zonal division and towers above the entrance.
Another feature of the church, different from the churches of most Protestant denominations, is temple painting, to which Lutheranism does not attach significant importance, as in Catholicism. The interior design can be limited to an altar image, or contain murals, mosaics, stained-glass windows, and other artful elements.
Architectural features
Like the interior design, the Holy German Church pays tribute to the beauty of architectural configurations. There are no restrictions on the forms of German churches, and most of them can be considered masterpieces of temple architecture. Their appearance reflects the features of those architectural areas during the period of domination of which the buildings were built. The Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance style can be found only in those German churches that were once built by Catholics and passed into the possession of the Lutheran church. The structures erected from the moment the denomination arose, that is, from the 16th century, correspond to the architecture of Baroque and Classicism, the buildings of the 19th century are characterized by neo-Gothic forms, and the temples of the 20th century embodied the modernist forms. German photos of churches in Germany reflect all the listed styles. The characteristic church of Russia and the former Soviet republics is architecture, mainly in the spirit of Baroque, Classicism and Neo-Gothic. For all traditional German churches, three prevailing types of buildings can be distinguished.
Cathedrals
These are large-scale buildings in which the episcopal department is located or once was. In Russia, there are few buildings of this type belonging to a German parish. In Kaliningrad, the unique building of the inactive Cathedral of 1380 with the rarest Gothic architecture for Russia has been preserved. This Dome Cathedral was consecrated in the name of Our Lady and St. Adalbert, it is ranked among the monuments of architecture and cultural heritage. Saints Peter and Paul - German Cathedral of 1838 in St. Petersburg, with the ELKRAS archbishopric chair located in it. The eponymous cathedral in Moscow is one of the oldest German churches of the Russian Federation, created in 1695 and reconstructed in 1818. It houses the archbishop's chair of ELTSER.
Churches and chapels
A common type of religious building is the parish church. There are quite a few of them, old and new, in Russia, including those that are not currently operating or have been adapted for other needs. An example is the building of the former German church of St. Petersburg. The church, built in the Neo-Romanesque style with Gothic elements, was built in 1864 on the model of the city cathedral in Mainz. The Soviet government, the building was unrecognizable, was converted for DC communication workers. St. Petersburg is still the Russian settlement where the largest number of churches built by German Lutherans is concentrated. With their temple architecture, they brought a special West European atmosphere to the face of this city.
The chapel is a small building, usually for special needs, built in cemeteries, at train stations, hospitals, private residences, churches. In such buildings, any Lutheran cult rites can be performed. German chapels were most often built in the neo-Gothic style and are the most common type of church architecture.