The Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is located on Primorsky Prospekt, on the banks of the Bolshaya Nevka. The first owner of this land was General A.I. Osterman, then Chancellor A.P. Bestuzhev-Ryumin. In the first half of the 18th century, the Bestuzhev-Ryumin manor “Stone Nose” was located here.
For the serfs resettled here, Bestuzhev-Ryumin decided to build a church. It was laid in the late 1740s according to the design of G. Trezzini. Due to Bestuzhev-Ryumin's exile, it was not possible to build the building on time; work was suspended in 1758. The consecration of the wooden building of the temple in the name of the Annunciation of the Mother of God took place only after Bestuzhev-Ryumin returned to St. Petersburg in 1762.
Since the constructed building was cold and not heated, it was decided to build a warm aisle. It was consecrated in 1770 in the name of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky. The temple housed the iconostasis of the first St. Isaac's Church. Blagoveshchenskaya Street (now Primorsky Avenue) was built next to the temple.
On June 12, 1803, the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary burned down due to a lightning strike. The iconostasis and church utensils were saved. The new owner, State Councilor Sergei Savvich Yakovlev, decided to restore the temple. The new stone church building in the form of a rotunda was built by Vasily Mochulsky in 1805-1809. Such a solution for a church building was new not only for St. Petersburg, but also for all of Russia.
In the new church, the Yakovlevs decided to open a second chapel - in the name of the holy martyrs Timothy and Mavra, the only such chapel in St. Petersburg. His appearance is associated with the death of Sergei Savvich’s wife Mavra Borisovna.
A cemetery appeared next to the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In addition to Yakovlev's descendants, heroes of the War of 1812, writers, actors, and musicians were buried here. The Serafimovskoe cemetery, located behind the railway, traces its history back to these burials.
In the 1850s, the architect A.I. Krakau carried out restoration of the building.
In the 19th century, the temple was popular with everyone who visited this dacha suburb of St. Petersburg. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin also visited here. His 1836 poem “When outside the city, thoughtfully, I wander,” is dedicated to a walk through the church cemetery. By the beginning of the 20th century, the Annunciation Church became the main church in this area of the city. In 1901, a bell tower and a sacristy were added to the building according to the design of V.K. Teplov.
An orphanage and a Society for Benefiting the Poor operated at the temple. The church contained the tombs of the Orlov-Denisovs and Nikitins.
In 1937, the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was closed. In 1946-1947, during the reconstruction of Primorsky Avenue, the bell tower was dismantled and most of the cemetery was destroyed. For a long time, a workshop for a rubber products factory operated in the church building.
The temple was returned to believers in 1992. In 1995, a Russian-Belarusian parish was founded here, and the restoration of the building began. By 2001, it was restored and re-consecrated on April 5, 2003 by Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga.
In the first half of the 19th century, the “Stone Nose” manor of Count A.P. was located here. Bestuzhev-Ryumina. The stone Church of the Annunciation with a warm chapel in the name of St. Alexander Nevsky, built at the manor in 1765, burned down in 1803 from lightning. The construction of a new temple is being undertaken by Sergei Savvich Yakovlev. Built in 1805-1809 according to the design of the architect V.O. The Mochulsky temple is close in composition to manor rotunda churches. Its cylindrical building is topped by a flat dome resting on a drum surrounded by a Tuscan colonnade. The walls of the lower tier of the temple are rusticated; their upper tier ends on four sides with gabled low pediments, under which there are three-part semi-circular windows. The Annunciation Church was far visible from neighboring villages. The architects now involved in its restoration did not find a church similar in design in Russia.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Annunciation Church was the main one in the area. To improve the conditions of worship, in 1903 the church designed by V.K. Teplov added a bell tower. Inside the temple there was an interesting chapel in the name of St. Alexander Nevsky. The temple building is a historical and cultural monument and is under state protection. According to some reports, Count Alexei Petrovich himself and some of his fellow countrymen - heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812, as well as the defense of Sevastopol and the Russian-Turkish War - were buried inside the temple. The temple contained valuable icons; the golden altar cross contained the relics of saints and a piece of the Life-Giving Tree of the Lord. Near the church and behind it there was a huge cemetery. Nowadays, what remains of it is a section behind the railroad, known as the Seraphim Cemetery. Since 1872, a Poor Benefit Society operated at the church, running an orphanage.
In 1937 the temple was closed. In 1946-1947, during the reconstruction of Primorsky Avenue, the bell tower of the church was demolished and most of the cemetery was destroyed. A rubber products factory was located in the church building. After its closure, the building, which was, as the memorial plaque said, “under state protection,” was empty and completely desolate.
In 1992, the temple was returned to the Orthodox parish. Since then, restoration work has been carried out in the unique building in accordance with the surviving measurement drawings of the beginning of the century, which were completed in rough form by the end of 2001. The appearance of the temple was completely restored, paintings were done inside its dome, and all three iconostases were installed. On April 5, 2003, after the complete completion of restoration work, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir consecrated the temple.
On the Bolshaya Nevka embankment in Staraya Derevnya in the 1760s. Bestuzhev-Ryumin built the wooden Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Then the manor acquired its second name - the village of Blagoveshchenskoye. Construction of the church began in the late 1740s. designed by architect P.A. Trezzini - the son of the first architect of the city, Domenico Trezzini. However, the arrest and exile of Bestuzhev-Ryumin in 1758 suspended the work; construction was completed only after his pardon and return to St. Petersburg. The wooden church in the form of a rotunda was erected by 1762, when its first consecration took place. Since the built church was cold, three years later the construction of a warm chapel began. In 1770 it was consecrated in the name of Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky. The iconostasis, which was previously located in the first (at the time of construction) St. Isaac's Cathedral, was moved here from the count's home church.
On June 12, 1803, the temple burned down from a lightning strike (the iconostasis was saved), and was soon restored by the new owner of the estate, S. Yakovlev. A new church with three chapels designed by architect V.O. Mochulsky - in the Empire style - was built from 1805 to 1809. The general composition of the building is close to the classic manor rotunda churches of the second half of the 18th century. The temple also ended with a rotunda, decorated with a Tuscan colonnade of 12 columns, between which bells were placed. The church contained a beautiful Empire-style iconostasis; the gilded altar cross “kept the relics of several saints and a particle of the Life-Giving Cross.” For a long time, an old bell with the image of a coat of arms and a medal carved in honor of Count Bestuzhev-Ryumin was preserved in the church. On the bell there was an inscription that “it was poured by the bell master Den. Evdokimov, and the decorations and inscription were made by the serf Count Prokhor Nevzorovsky in St. Petersburg in 1765.” However, in 1856 this bell broke.
The church was consecrated in 1809 in the name of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In addition to the main chapel, there is also a chapel of Alexander Nevsky and the holy martyrs Timothy and Maura. Not far from the church, the new owner of the land, A.N. Avdulin erected a roadside chapel in 1818. On the Feast of the Transfiguration, a religious procession was sent from the church to neighboring Kolomyagi. After the cholera epidemic in 1848, annual religious processions began to be held around the church on July 28, the day of Our Lady of Smolensk, in memory of those who died from that disease. In the early 1850s. Restoration work was carried out in the temple under the leadership of architect A.I. Krakau, and half a century later, in 1900, civil engineer V.K. Teplov added a bell tower and a sacristy, consecrated on November 25, 1901. A Poor Benefit Society and an orphanage operated at the church. In the church itself there were family tombs of the Nikitins and Orlov-Denisovs.
Two cemeteries were assigned to the Annunciation Church: a parish one, opened in 1765 half a mile away from it (in the area of modern Dibunovskaya Street), and in the fence near the church - a richer one, maintained at the expense of wealthy parishioners. These places during the summer walks of 1833-1835. visited A.S. Pushkin, who lived in a dacha nearby, on the Black River.
The cemetery was destroyed in the early 1940s, but traces of several unmarked crypts could be seen in the mid-1990s. The temple was closed in 1937. In 1947, due to the expansion of the Primorskoye Highway, the bell tower was demolished. In 1992, the temple was returned to the Orthodox Church. In 1995, a Russian-Belarusian parish was founded at the church, through whose efforts the restoration of the temple began. In 2003, the temple was re-consecrated, and services are held there.
He led the Divine Liturgy at the Annunciation Church on Primorsky Prospekt.
His Eminence was served by the secretary of the diocesan administration, Archpriest Sergiy Kuksevich, the dean of the Primorsky district, Archpriest Ippolit Kovalsky, the rector, Archpriest Theodore Guryak with the clergy, Archpriest Stefan Vitko and other clergy.
The reader of the Church of the Nativity of Christ on the Sands, John Vitko, was ordained a deacon.
“Today we celebrate a remarkable event in gospel history, which truly became the beginning of our salvation,” the bishop said in his sermon. “Heaven watched people for five thousand years and did not find anyone who could carry out the plan, the plan of the Most Holy Trinity for the salvation of the human race. Lord did not want His beloved creation to completely perish. He was looking for that Virgin in the human race who could accept the Son of God. And finally, in the inconspicuous city of Nazareth, in which there were many pagans, and the Jews said that there was nothing good in it Maybe the Lord saw the Virgin Mary. He sent the Archangel Gabriel to Her, who revealed to Her, the first of all people, the secret of the Incarnation. All that was required of the Virgin Mary was faith in what the Lord wants to do and acceptance of the will of God. She had this faith and answered the Archangel Gabriel: “Behold, the Servant of the Lord; Let it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). Whatever the Lord has decided, that will be done."“We see that for salvation we need faith and humility,” the archpastor continued. “The Apostle Paul in one of his letters says that by faith Christ dwells in the hearts of people (Eph. 3:17). If there is no faith, Christ will not dwell. It is necessary also humility, and with this everything is not so simple for us. If we still believe in the Lord, then we resign ourselves with great difficulty. Humility is a whole science, and the holy fathers implemented it in their lives, using the example of the Mother of God. We have different states. Sorrow comes to the heart - and who is it? Sorrow is our sister. In our state of fall, we cannot have other sisters than sorrow. But praise, vanity, pride came to us, trying to introduce themselves to us like relatives and friends. We don’t need such “friends”; they take away work from demons. Therefore, we should not allow such conditions. These are not our relatives. We must constantly think about how to acquire humility."
“When you read the lives of the saints, you see what examples of humility they show,” noted the ruling bishop. “You open the Fatherland and you read: behold, there once lived the monk Euphrosynus. He was a simple man, unlearned, illiterate. He came to the monastery - where do you put him? in the choir you have to sing from books, but he is not taught to read and write. The abbot assigned him to the kitchen - there, they say, you will come in handy - to cook porridge for the brethren. He went to the kitchen. And everyone forgot about him, no one taught him anything. Day after day he I was preparing food, looking at the fire in the stove and thinking: “Look, the fire is burning me here, but how will it burn me there, in the future eternal life!" And he constantly humbled himself, looking at the fire. One day, the abbot decided to ask the Lord to answer, who of the brethren of his monastery will be awarded the Kingdom of Heaven. He prayed for three years, and the Lord gave him a revelation. He finds himself in paradise, walks among the beautiful trees of the Garden of Eden, looks - lo and behold: Euphrosynus the cook is sitting in the garden on a golden throne. He comes up and asks : “How are you here?” - “Well, through your prayers, Father Abbot, the Lord appointed me to guard this garden.” - “Can I take something from this garden?” - “Of course, take what you want!” - “Here, pick me three apples!” Euphrosynus picked three apples, the abbot wrapped them in his robe - and woke up. He discovered that there were three apples in his robe. In the morning, having gathered all the brethren in the temple, the abbot asked to call Euphrosynus. They bring him in, the abbot asks: “Euphrosyn, where were you last night?” - “Father Abbot, I was where you saw me.” - "Where?" - "In the garden". - “What did I ask you?” - “What you asked for, I gave you.” - “And what did you give me?” - “Three apples.” The abbot showed these three apples of paradise, which the Lord gave to this monk for humility."
“We see that the Lord chooses people for simplicity and humility. So in Nazareth He chose the humble Virgin Mary, who became the Ark of new salvation. Through Her we are saved, we turn to Her, we ask that She cover us with Her omophorion, that she help us, was our zealous Intercessor. Therefore, today, when the Virgin Mary receives the joyful news of the birth of the Savior, She will carry in Her womb the One who contains the entire universe. She did not exalt herself above the cherubim, but humbly accepted this news and carried Her mission to Golgotha, when “I just as humbly stood at the Cross of the Lord and was crucified with the Son for the salvation of the human race,” Metropolitan Barsanuphius concluded his sermon.
The Gospel was given to the temple.
The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the twelfth holiday dedicated to the appearance of the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. According to the Gospel of Luke, the archangel told Her that She would soon become the Mother of the Lord, incarnate in the form of a man.
The first St. Petersburg church in honor of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in Staraya Derevnya in the 1760s according to the design of Pietro Trezzini, the son of the first architect of the city. In 1803 it burned down, and soon a new church in the Empire style was erected in its place according to the design of Viktor Mochulsky. In 1900, a bell tower and a sacristy were added to it. For some time the temple belonged to the renovationists, in 1937 it was closed, and the property was transferred to the State Fund. The temple was returned to the Church in 1992 and rededicated on April 5, 2003.