Metochion of the Valaam Monastery

At the intersection of Narvsky and Staro-Petergofsky Prospekts, not far from the Obvodny Canal, stands a five-domed church dedicated to the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Today it houses the St Petersburg metochion of the renowned northern monastery — the Transfiguration of the Saviour Monastery on Valaam. The complex brings together the church itself, a free-standing bell tower, and a residential building, all built in a unified early-twentieth-century style, forming a cohesive architectural ensemble at one of the busy intersections of the Kirovsky District.

The metochion's history began in 1901, when the plot of land for the future complex was acquired by the Dormition Staraya Ladoga Convent of the St Petersburg diocese — the building was originally intended for that convent, not for Valaam. Construction, to a design by the architect Vasily Kosyakov — author of a whole series of notable St Petersburg churches and public buildings, including the Naval Cathedral in Kronstadt — proceeded from 1904 to 1910 and, unlike many profit-driven buildings of the time, was not carried out in haste.

The architect drew on the imagery of seventeenth-century Moscow and Yaroslavl architecture: the church was given a five-dome arrangement with closely clustered domes, and beside it rose a free-standing bell tower and a residential building for the clergy and pilgrims. Such a combination was typical of large monastery metochions of the early twentieth century, which united liturgical and household functions within one compact architectural ensemble, designed to receive monks and pilgrims of the northern monastery arriving in the capital.

After the revolution the metochion was liquidated in 1919, and the church became a parish church. In 1922–1923 it came under the authority of the Renovationist Petrograd autocephaly, and then, until 1935, belonged to the Patriarchal Church. On 7 October 1935 the church was closed: the building subsequently housed a garment factory and then a furniture combine, and during the war years the south and west facades of the building suffered serious damage.

The buildings were returned to believers in 1989, and the metochion of the then-reviving Valaam Monastery was established here. After restoration work, the main altar of the church was personally consecrated on 2 April 1994 by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, in honour of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Today the metochion operates a children's Sunday school, an Orthodox secondary school named after the Venerable Sergius and Herman — founders of the Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga — as well as an icon-painting workshop; the monks and parishioners carry out volunteer work, including helping those in need and participants of the special military operation.

The Valaam Monastery metochion on Narvsky Prospekt is a rare example of a St Petersburg church complex that has travelled the path from a monastery metochion through Soviet industrial use and back to church life, and one of the few surviving monuments of Vasily Kosyakov's architecture in this part of the city.