St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral

The St. Nicholas Epiphany Naval Cathedral, also known as St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, stands in the Admiralteysky District of Saint Petersburg and is considered one of the most vivid monuments of Elizabethan Baroque in Russian church architecture. The church was built from 1753 to 1762 to a design by architect Savva Chevakinsky as the regimental church of the Guards Naval Crew, funded by the naval department; the initiative for its construction came from Prince Mikhail Golitsyn, president of the Admiralty College, who petitioned Empress Elizabeth Petrovna "in tribute to the worthy memory of the glorious deeds of the Russian fleet." The cathedral has traditionally provided spiritual care to sailors of the Imperial Russian Navy and remains an active cathedral for naval servicemen.

The cruciform building accommodates about five thousand people and reaches a height of 64 meters. Its blue-and-white facades are adorned with clusters of Corinthian columns, ornamental window surrounds, a broad entablature, and lacy wrought-iron balcony railings, and are crowned with five gilded domes. Next to the cathedral, a freestanding four-tiered bell tower 74 meters high, topped with a tall spire, was built in 1755–1758 — it became one of the architectural landmarks of this part of the city. The cathedral consists of two churches: a lower one, with three altars, dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, patron of sailors and travelers, and an upper one, with a single altar, dedicated to the Epiphany of the Lord. The interiors preserve 18th-century carved iconostases by Ivan Kanaev and Semyon Nikulin, with icons painted by the Kolokolnikov brothers.

The upper church was consecrated in 1762 in the presence of Catherine II, who ordered that the church be called a cathedral. The lower church houses the principal relic — a 17th-century Greek icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker containing a fragment of his relics. In 1908 the Tsushima Obelisk was erected in front of the cathedral in memory of the crew of the battleship "Emperor Alexander III," lost in the Battle of Tsushima; funds for the monument were raised by sailors of the Guards Naval Crew.

The St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral never closed during the Soviet era and held cathedral status from 1941 to 1999 — during the Siege, Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) of Leningrad lived within its walls. In 1966 the poet Anna Akhmatova's funeral service was held in the lower church. Today the upper church holds memorial plaques for the crews of the submarines "Komsomolets" and "Kursk," and memorial services for fallen sailors are held there regularly. From 2021 to 2024 the cathedral's historic bell tower underwent restoration.