Armenian Church of St Catherine

On Nevsky Prospekt, between houses No. 40 and No. 42, stands the Church of St Catherine — a church of the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the few active houses of worship of a different faith in the very centre of St Petersburg. The Armenian community appeared in the city almost immediately after its founding, but it was not until six decades later that it acquired its own stone church.

The first petition to build a church was submitted by Archimandrite Minas as early as 1714, but it was refused. The community was only able to open a house of prayer in a wooden building on Vasilyevsky Island in 1725, and an attempt to build a stone church in 1740 came to nothing after the death of Anna Ioannovna. Permission for construction was finally obtained by the head of the Armenian community, Hovhannes Lazarian, in 1770, having received Catherine II's verbal consent. The site for the church was allocated on Nevsky Prospekt, on the grounds of a former court stable, which determined its elegant appearance, fitting for the centre of the capital.

The church's design was created by architect Yuri Felten, and the building was ready as early as 1772. Construction cost 33,000 roubles, of which Lazarian personally donated 30,000; in gratitude, the community allowed him to build his own house nearby, along the prospekt's frontage line, which was later sold to the parish. Since residential wings occupied the sides, the main entrance to the church was placed not on the western side, as was customary, but on the southern side, facing Nevsky Prospekt. Felten designed the façade in the spirit of his earlier Lutheran Church of St Catherine on Vasilyevsky Island, but with more elaborate decoration: Ionic capitals with pendant ornaments, round windows on the second tier, and bas-reliefs with putti are complemented by a pediment composition depicting the baptism of King Trdat III by Catholicos Gregory the Illuminator.

The consecration of the church in the name of the Great Martyr Catherine, patron saint of the empress, took place on 18 February 1780, performed by Archbishop Joseph Argutinsky together with eight priests in the presence of Prince Grigory Potemkin. A printing house and a national school were opened at the church, the latter still operating today. Inside, the space is adorned with twenty paired composite-order columns of yellow artificial marble set against white marble walls.

In May 1930 the church was closed, and a few years later it was divided by interior floors: it housed an air-defence headquarters, and after the war a scenery workshop of the Musical Comedy Theatre. The Armenian community only succeeded in reclaiming the building in 1990, after registering a religious association, and the first service in the restored church was held on 14 March 1993. The full consecration of the church took place on 12 July 2000, performed by Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, together with Patriarch Alexy II — on that same day the relics of St Gregory were returned to the community from the Hermitage.

Today the Church of St Catherine remains the spiritual and cultural centre of St Petersburg's Armenian community and a monument of Classicism on the city's busiest avenue. More than two centuries of history — from Lazarian's donation to Soviet-era desecration and the revival of the 1990s — have made this church a symbol of the endurance of the Armenian diaspora in the Russian capital.