Trinity Cathedral | Russia Travel

The Cathedral was the regimental church for the Izmailovsky regiment, one of the oldest guard regiments for the Russian Army. The regiment was so named after the Izmailovo village, near Moscow. This regiment moved to Petersburg when the city to the north was established again as the Russian capital under Empress Anne.

On July 12, 1733 a large dark blue satin field tent was put up with icons painted all over it and was to be used by the soldiers and officers. However, it was only accessible during the summer, which meant that the soldiers had to attend other churches during that time. During 1754 and 1756, a wooden church was built under the orders of Empress Elizabeth on the same site as where the field tent had been put up. The Trinity church had two altars, the main one being sanctified in the name of the Trinity. However, in 1824 the Cathedral suffered much damage due to a flood and had to be rebuilt under the orders of Nicholas I to Vasily Stasov.

The rebuilding of the new church only began in May 1828 and was finally finished in May 1835, although many accidents occurred during the process. The Trinity cathedral dominates the skyline with a height of more than 80 meters. On the cathedral wall many memorial plaques can be found of all the regimental officers killed in battle. Also housed in the cathedral are all the flags, trophies and keys from the fort that the regiment had won during their campaigns in 1854 to 1855 and 1877 to 1878.

In 1922 a lot of the Trinity Cathedral’s valuables were stolen and this carried on for many years leading to the cathedral's closure in 1938. Later the cathedral was taken over by the Soviet Ministry of Telecommunications, where it became a warehouse. It was only in 1990 that the cathedral went back to the Russian Orthodox Church to be put back to its former position. The cathedral is now open to visitors, but has no comparison to its splendor during the pre-Revolutionary past.

Bookmark/Search this post with: