Where the kings are buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Royal Tombs

Islands of the Russian Emperors Having rested for about 2 months, the expedition in November 1820 again headed for the “ice continent”. Having passed Macquarie Island, in mid-December the ships endured a fierce storm with “such great gloom that it was barely 30 fathoms

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Tomb of Charles Edward Stuart Everyone is familiar with the story of Charles Edward Stuart, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. After his star set forever on the Field of Culloden, the prince was forced to flee to the remote Hebrides. For a while

Shrine of St. Andrew A young man fell on my head at the very moment when I was comfortably seated on the hotel veranda with a bottle of white Orvieto. The view from here was most magnificent: long rows of green vineyards stretched along the hillside and

Only for Emperors! The history of the Imperial City in Beijing, where mere mortals were prohibited from entering, is closely connected with the rulers of the Qin and Ming dynasties. It was they who achieved the highest power of the empire and built themselves palaces and temples of the Forbidden City, which is still there today

Chapter 8 Spiritual confessors of Russian emperors The relationship between Russian autocrats and the Orthodox Church had its own very dramatic history. It should be remembered that all Russian monarchs were religious people, but the Orthodox Church as an institution of power

Recently, the public has been agitated by the issue of the reburial of the supposed royal remains - this time of Saint Tsarevich Alexy and Saint Grand Duchess Maria. Supporters of the authenticity and, accordingly, burial of these remains refer to the so-called as the main argument. a note from Ya. Yurovsky, according to which the bodies of the executed members were not destroyed, but buried in Porosenkov Log near Yekaterinburg. Opponents of the identity of the found remains also have their own arguments.

But this debate raises the question of another dark historical secret of the 20th century.

However, let us first recall the wild campaign to destroy royal monuments, which began in 1918 with a monument to someone killed at the hands of a terrorist in the Kremlin - then V.I. Lenin himself threw a rope over the cross, and then urged his comrades to pull its ends and quickly overthrow the hated monument.

Through the efforts of the Bolsheviks on the territory of the Soviet Union, all monuments to the Tsar-Liberator Alexander ΙΙ were destroyed. The only one that survived was the one that turned out to be standing on foreign territory - in Finland. As for his son Alexander ΙΙΙ, the only surviving monument to him, created by P. Trubetskoy, was left rather as... a historical curiosity.

Even a number of monuments to Peter the Great were destroyed, in particular the monument where he is depicted as a master shipbuilder. Those monuments to royalty that were not demolished ( Bronze Horseman, monuments to Nicholas I, Catherine II), were preserved only at the insistence of the most sensible representatives of the intelligentsia and because of their artistic value.

All icons and lamps were removed from the royal graves, placed in boxes and sent to Moscow

The barbaric actions also include the looting of the royal graves in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. By 1917, there were more than a thousand wreaths on the cathedral walls, columns and graves. There were icons and lamps on almost every grave and near it. On the tombstones of Peter I, Alexander I, Nicholas I and Alexander II lay gold, silver and bronze medals, stamped on the occasion of various anniversaries. In September-October 1917, by order of the Provisional Government, all icons and lamps, gold, silver and bronze medals from the graves, gold, silver and porcelain wreaths were removed, placed in boxes and sent to Moscow. Further fate The number of cathedral valuables removed is unknown.

But the looting did not end there. Documents about the opening of the royal tombs have not survived, but a number of memoirs have reached us that testify to this.

Here are the words of Professor V.K. Krasusky (Koltushi near St. Petersburg):

“Peter had a large golden cross on his chest... Valuables were being confiscated from the royal tombs”

“While still a student, I came to Leningrad in 1925 to visit my aunt Anna Adamovna Krasuskaya, Honored Scientist, Professor of Anatomy Scientific Institute them. P.F. Lesgafta. In one of my conversations with A.A. Krasuskaya told me the following: “Not so long ago, the opening of the royal tombs was carried out. The opening of the tomb of Peter I made a particularly strong impression. Peter's body was well preserved. He really is very similar to the Peter who is depicted in the drawings. On his chest he had a large golden cross, which weighed a lot. Valuables were confiscated from the royal tombs.”

Knowing A.A. Krasuskaya, as a very serious scientist and person, I cannot admit the idea that everything she told me was based only on rumors. She could only say about the opening of the tombs what she knew well.”

Here's what the doctor writes: technical sciences, Professor V.I. Angeleiko (Kharkov) L.D. Lyubimov:

“I had a friend in the gymnasium, Valentin Shmit. His father F.I. Shmit headed the department of art history at Kharkov University, then went to work at Leningrad University. In 1927, I visited my friend and learned from him that in 1921 his father participated in the commission on and in his presence the graves of the Peter and Paul Cathedral were opened. The commission did not find a body in the grave of Alexander I. He also told me that the body of Peter I was very well preserved.”

And here are the memories of D. Adamovich (Moscow):

“The tomb of Alexander I turned out to be empty: no coffin, no body”

“According to the words of the late history professor N.M. Korobova... I know the following. A member of the Academy of Arts, Grabbe, who was present at the opening of the royal graves in Petrograd in 1921, told him that Peter I was very well preserved and lay in the coffin as if alive. The Red Army soldier who helped with the autopsy recoiled in horror. The tomb of Alexander I turned out to be empty."

The story of the writer Nadezhda Pavlovich deserves attention. Information about the opening of the royal tombs was conveyed to her by Uritsky’s nephew Boris Kaplun:

“That day, Boris was excited: he had just participated in the opening of the royal tombs with a detachment of Red Army soldiers. "For what?" - we asked. - “To verify the rumor that royal treasures were hidden in the royal coffins.” At that time, there were cases when, imitating old romantic stories, some people staged a fictitious funeral in order to get hidden wealth “out of the ground” at the right time.

“So what, did you find it?” - “No, they didn’t find it. Peter the Great was preserved better than others - he had a diamond ring on his finger, which we thought about removing for the museum, but didn’t dare.”

It is not entirely clear whether all the graves were opened, and most importantly, the problem arises: in what condition are the remains of Russian emperors in their graves after the looting of the 1920s? For all its complexity and delicacy, this issue requires a calm and professional answer and solution.

During the turbulent history of Peter and Paul Fortress, not only its external architectural appearance, but also its memorial appearance was formed. In fact, today it is a whole necropolis, with facade, half-open and not yet explored sides.

Who is buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress

Official burials appeared on the territory of the fortress even before the completion of the construction of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which became known as the Peter and Paul Cathedral. In the wooden church in 1708, the first to be buried in infancy was Catherine, the daughter of Peter I. In 1715 - 1717, the graves of three more young children of the sovereign appeared in the unfinished cathedral - daughters Natalya, Margarita and son Paul. At the same time, Tsarina Marfa Matveevna found her last refuge here.

Despite inter-family feuds and accusations of conspiracy, at the behest of Peter the Great, his disgraced eldest son Alexei (died under unclear circumstances in 1718) and sister Maria (March 1723) were laid to rest in the imperial tomb. Their graves are located under the bell tower in the chapel of St. Catherine. In 1725, the body of the deceased Peter I was also transferred to the church.

Peter the First

The last Tsar of All Rus' (from 1682) and the first Emperor of All Russia (from 1721) died at the age of 52 in January 1725 in the Winter Palace. In accordance with the regulations of the ceremony, which he himself developed, the body for farewell was initially exhibited there in the funeral hall. The Emperor was in the coffin in brocade clothes embroidered with lace with a sword and St. Andrew the First-Called on his chest.

After a month, he was embalmed and transferred to a temporary wooden church, specially erected in honor of the sad occasion, installed directly in the unfinished Cathedral of Peter and Paul. And only six years later, in 1731, at the behest of Anna Ioannovna, who reigned at that time, Peter the Great, together with his wife Catherine I, who died two years later than the sovereign, were buried in the imperial tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Their crypt tombs, the chambers of which are located under the floor, are located at the southern entrance to the temple. As evidenced by inscriptions and crosses made of pure gold.

Tombs in the Peter and Paul Fortress

The fortress church became the last home for almost all the sovereigns of Russia, including Alexander III.

Catherine II

The tomb of Catherine the Great located in the Peter and Paul Cathedral is missing the epitaph that the empress personally composed during her lifetime. “Having ascended the Russian throne, she wished well and tried to bring happiness, freedom and property to her subjects,” the empress wrote about herself. Her death was as turbulent and shrouded in gossip as her life.

But the most tragic thing is that his son Paul, who inherited the crown, ordered his mother to be buried next to the body of the murdered Peter III, delivered from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and personally crowned by him. The crippled former spouses lay side by side in the mourning tent of the Winter Palace for 4 days in early December 1796, and then were moved to the cathedral for burial.

“You will think that these spouses spent their entire lives together on the throne, died and were buried on the same day,” Nikolai Grech wrote about this event.

The general list does not include only Peter II, who was laid to rest in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin, as well as John VI Antonovich, who was killed in the Oreshek fortress. After the burial in 1831, at the request of Nicholas I of his brother Konstantin Pavlovich, funeral services for members of the imperial family began on the territory of the temple.

Ekaterina Mikhailovna, Grand Duchess

The granddaughter of Paul I found her last refuge in the cathedral on May 4 (16), 1894, dying after a long illness. The Grand Duchess was known for her charitable work in Russia, her promotion of women's education, and her conservative views.

After her death, a funeral litany was held in her home - the Mikhailovsky Palace. Alexander III took part in the burial in the imperial tomb. The name of Ekaterina Mikhailovna went down in history as an example of philanthropy and care for one’s neighbor.

Due to the overcrowding of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, a Grand Ducal Tomb was erected nearby in 1897 - 1908, connected to it by a covered gallery. During the period from 1908 to 1915, the graves of 13 people appeared in it, 8 of whom were reburied from the cathedral. Since 1992, the tradition has been resumed, and to date, 4 burials of members and close associates of the imperial family have been added.

Still buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress

Next to the cathedral there was a commandant's cemetery, where almost all the commanders of the fortress were buried. In addition, from the moment the first prisoners appeared in Petropavlovka in 1717 until the official closure of the Trubetskoy Bastion prison in 1923, cases of suicide and natural death were repeatedly recorded here. Therefore, it is possible that not all the dead were taken outside the citadel for burial.

Periodic random discoveries since the late 80s of the last century of so-called execution pits with the remains of those killed in 1917 - 1921 indicate that these little-studied graves are chronologically the last in the history of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Peter and Paul Cathedral - the tomb of representatives of the Romanov dynasty

Imperial burials of the 18th century. are located in the southern nave of the cathedral in front of the iconostasis, where the icon of the Apostle Peter is placed in an icon case. They are located in two rows. In the first row, in addition to Peter I and his second wife, Empress Catherine I, their daughter Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was laid to rest. Empress Anna Ioannovna, Emperor Peter III and Empress Catherine II are buried in the second row. Thus, Peter I the Great and his grandson Peter III are buried in front of the icon of their patron saint, the Apostle Peter.

Imperial burials in the northern nave of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

In the northern nave, in the iconostasis, there is an icon depicting the Apostle Paul; Emperor Paul I, his wife Empress Maria Feodorovna, their eldest son Emperor Alexander I and his wife Empress Elizabeth Feodorovna are buried in front of it. In the first row there are three graves: Emperor Nicholas I, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the eldest daughter of Peter I, Princess Anna Petrovna, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp - the mother of Peter III. In the northern nave, in the same row as Emperor Alexander II and his wife Empress Maria Alexandrovna, their son Emperor Alexander III rests. On September 28, 2006, Empress Maria Feodorovna (nee Maria Sophia Frederica Dagmar of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, 11/14/1867–10/13/1928) was reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral next to her husband, the Emperor. Alexander III. Maria Feodorovna died in Denmark and was buried in Roskilde Cathedral near Copenhagen.

All tombstones in the Peter and Paul Cathedral are made of white Carrara marble, except for two, created from semi-precious stones. The burial of Alexander II is decorated with a tombstone made of green Altai jasper, weighing about 5.5 tons. Above the grave of his wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, a tombstone made of rhodonite, weighing about 6.5 tons, was installed. These magnificent monolithic tombstones were made according to the design of A. L. Gun at the Peterhof Lapidary Factory near St. Petersburg and installed in 1906, when the 25th anniversary of the death of the Tsar-Liberator, who abolished serfdom, and the Tsar-Martyr, who died from a Narodnaya Volya bomb after multiple assassination attempts, were celebrated.

In addition to emperors and empresses, family members were also buried in the cathedral: at the beginning of the 18th century. Relatives of Peter I were buried here, and from 1831 the graves of grand dukes began to appear.

V. Reinhardt. Peter and Paul Cathedral. North nave This is what the graves of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna looked like before they were replaced in 1906.

In 1939, at the request of the Greek government, in the presence of representatives of the museum, both governments and the clergy, the grave of the nee Greek princess Alexandra Georgievna, wife of the son of Alexander II, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, was opened. Her remains were sent home for reburial. In 1994, the body of Tsarevich Georgy Alexandrovich was exhumed to identify the remains of his brother Nicholas II. After the necessary research, Georgy Alexandrovich was buried in the same coffin and crypt in the presence of clergy, and a memorial service was served.

During restoration work In the cathedral, after the fire of 1756, a wall was built that separated from the main hall of the temple three rooms located under the bell tower: the vestibule through which parishioners enter the temple, the sacristy and the chapel, consecrated in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine. After this, the main building of the cathedral was often called the “Main Temple”, and the Catherine’s chapel was often called the “Small Temple”. Separate services were held here.

On July 17, 1998, in the Catherine's chapel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the remains of members of the family of Emperor Nicholas II, a servant and a doctor, who were shot in Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, were interred. The tombstone is made of three types of Italian marble, the tombstone is made of Carrara white marble. Under it is a two-tier crypt, on the lower tier of which are buried: doctor E. S. Botkin, maid A. S. Demidova, footman A. E. Trupp, cook I. M. Kharitonov.

On the upper tier of the crypt there are coffins with the remains of Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and three daughters: Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia. Memorial plaques on the walls of the Small Church contain information about all family members, but for Grand Duchess Maria and Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, whose remains were not found, there is no indication of the burial place. Participants in the funeral: President Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin, representatives of foreign states, a large number of invited The delegation of the Romanov family, consisting of 52 people, was headed by the great-great-grandson of Nicholas I, Nikolai Romanovich Romanov. More than 1,000 correspondents covered this event in the media. The funeral requiem service was celebrated by clergy of the St. Petersburg diocese, led by the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest Boris Glebov. During the burial, 19 shots were fired.

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church believes that “...The decision to identify the remains as belonging to the family of Emperor Nicholas II raised serious doubts and even opposition in the Church and society. In this regard, the Holy Synod speaks out in favor of the immediate burial of these remains in a symbolic grave-monument.”

In August 2000 Russian Orthodox Church canonized members of the family of Nicholas II, but did not change her attitude towards burial in the Catherine Chapel.

From the moment of the consecration of the stone Peter and Paul Cathedral, church and service life was largely determined by its use as an imperial tomb. Over time, funeral services for persons of the reigning house became the main activity of the clergy. The sacraments of baptism and weddings were never performed here.

In May 1919, by order of the commandant of the fortress, the cathedral was closed. Since the early 1990s. services have resumed here.

On the eve of the revolution, the large Romanov family numbered more than 60 people. 18 of them died during the years of revolutionary terror (four were shot in January 1919 in the Peter and Paul Fortress). The rest managed to leave their homeland. Their lives in exile developed differently. Now the Romanovs live in many countries of the world, have different professions. During their visits to our country and St. Petersburg, descendants of emperors visit the graves of their ancestors in the Peter and Paul Cathedral to venerate their memory.

Grand Ducal Tomb

By the end of the 19th century. There was practically no room left in the cathedral for new burials, so the building of the Grand Ducal Tomb was erected next to it according to the design of the architect D. I. Grimm, with the participation of A. O. Tomishko and L. N. Benois.

Combining features of various styles, the building fits well into the architectural ensemble of the Peter and Paul Fortress and forms a single ensemble with the Peter and Paul Cathedral, being its chapel, consecrated in 1908 in the name of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, one of the patrons of St. Petersburg.

The tomb is connected to the building of the Peter and Paul Cathedral by a gallery where premises were provided - the Royal Rooms, intended for the rest of members ruling family when visiting the graves of loved ones.

Grand-ducal tomb. Photo beginning XX century

Unlike the cathedral, sixty concrete crypts with a depth of 2.2 m, located in rows from east to west, were immediately prepared in the Grand Ducal Tomb. The grave was closed flush with the floor with a white marble slab, on which the title, name, places of birth and death, and the date of burial of the deceased were engraved. When they were buried in this building, the funeral service took place in the cathedral. By 1916 there were thirteen burials here, eight of which were moved from the Peter and Paul Cathedral. After the revolution, the tomb, like the cathedral, was closed and sealed. The bronze decorations and bars of the altar were sent for melting down. The building was subsequently used as a warehouse, at which time the tombstones were broken. In 1954, the tomb was transferred to the State Museum of the History of the City.

Funeral procession Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Photo 1911

Funeral of Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov. Photo 1992

Funeral of Leonida Georgievna. Farewell to the body in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Photo 2010

Currently there are seventeen graves here. The burial in 1992 of the great-grandson of Emperor Alexander II, Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov (08/30/1917–04/21/1992), whom supporters considered a contender for the Russian throne, served as a precedent for subsequent burials. In 1995, the remains of Vladimir Kirillovich’s parents – Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich (30.09.1876–12.10.1938) and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna (13.11.1876–2.03.1936) were reburied in the Grand Ducal Tomb from Coburg (Germany). On June 3, 2010, next to Vladimir Kirillovich in the Grand Ducal Tomb, his wife Leonida Georgievna (nee Princess Bagration-Mukhranskaya, 09/23/1914–05/23/2010, Madrid) was buried.

Church and parish life of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

The first wooden church in the Peter and Paul Fortress was consecrated on April 1, 1704 in the name of the apostles Peter and Paul. Little information has been preserved about the services in this church, but it is known that solemn services were held there in honor of the victories of Russian weapons, trophies obtained in Northern War. In 1712, when St. Petersburg became the capital of the state, construction of a new stone church began around the wooden church, which lasted 21 years. During the construction period, the clergy was preserved and services were held. Already in the first wooden church, the daughter of Peter I, Catherine, was buried; the burials of the Tsar’s relatives continued during the construction of the stone temple. When the remains of Peter I and Catherine I were interred in the cathedral in 1731, the temple became the imperial tomb. Indications that the cathedral was created by the cathedral decree of Anna Ioannovna in June 1731 are in the chronicle of the Peter and Paul Fortress and in Bogdanov-Ruban, but in the Complete Collection of Laws Russian Empire no such decree has been found.

On June 29, 1733, the consecration of this unique and huge “notoriously built church” took place in the presence of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The re-consecration of the cathedral took place on June 23, 1757, after a fire that destroyed the bell tower a year earlier.

On July 6, 1737, Anna Ioannovna imposed a resolution on the report of the Synod on the staff of the clergy and clergy of the St. Petersburg Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Synod drew the empress's attention to the small number of priests and their inconsistency with the high status of the temple: they are “unlearned people,” while for such a “noble church” they rely on “worthy, learned, skillful and benevolent people” and “infinite numbers” as ministers. The staff was significantly expanded, and from that time on, regular episcopal services began in the cathedral, led in turn by the highest hierarchs of the Russian Church.

Before the establishment of the St. Petersburg diocese in 1742, the cathedral was considered synodal and subordinate to the Holy Synod. In the Peter and Paul Cathedral, as a cathedral, clergy were promoted to the rank of bishop and St. Petersburg metropolitans were ordained, and here the new metropolitan was to hold his first service.

From the first years of its existence, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was not the only place for bishop's services. It was quite difficult to get to the Peter and Paul Fortress, especially in spring and autumn due to the “danger of the Neva,” so increasingly such services began to be held in other churches, and the Peter and Paul Cathedral began to lose its importance as the main one. In addition to the territorial inconvenience, it was important that members of the imperial family were buried in the cathedral; it became a memorial place, in which funeral services began to play a leading role.

In 1858 Saint Isaac's Cathedral became the cathedral church of the St. Petersburg Metropolis, which is confirmed by the “Highly approved Ceremony of the consecration of the St. Petersburg Cathedral in the name of St. Isaac of Dalmatia on May 30, 1858.”

In 1859, the Peter and Paul Cathedral was transferred from the jurisdiction of the diocese to the court construction office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1883, together with the clergy, it was assigned to the Court Spiritual Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the cathedral received the status of a court, which was fully consistent with the historical situation, and retained it until 1917 In 2007, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir (Kotlyarov) named the Peter and Paul Cathedral the first cathedral of St. Petersburg.

Due to the fact that the cathedral is the tomb of the House of Romanov, a special church and service life of the temple developed: funeral services and memorials were held here for the deceased members of the imperial family, and such ordinary services as baptism and weddings were not held. Cathedral members took part in all ceremonies of the monarchs' funerals and memorial services. Sometimes the funeral service was held in the cathedral for the commandants of the fortress, who were buried in the Commandant Cemetery. By the end of the 19th century. a “List of church and service activities of the Peter and Paul Cathedrals” was established, indicating the regular holding of divine services. Due to the location of the cathedral in the center of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the duties of the clergy included performing religious rites for those who made up the parish of the church: soldiers of the fortress garrison, prisoners held in the fortress, and Mint workers. On the eve of holidays, Sundays and highly solemn days, all-night vigils were served, after each liturgy all persons buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, starting with Peter I, were commemorated.

Another aspect of the activity of the cathedral clergy is the swearing in of Mint workers and young soldiers. The clergy of the cathedral taught the law of God to the young soldiers of the fortress bastion and oversaw the observance of penance (punishment) imposed on prisoners, soldiers and officers of the fortress garrison.

The temple holidays of the Peter and Paul Cathedral were: June 29 - the day of the patrons of the cathedral, the supreme apostles Peter and Paul; November 24 - Holy Great Martyr Catherine in memory of the patron saint of the small church - Catherine's chapel; August 30 (transfer of the relics to St. Petersburg) and November 23 (burial) are the days of the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, which began to be celebrated after the consecration of the Grand Ducal tomb in honor of this saint in 1908. Holidays were also dedicated to temple shrines, and religious processions were held.

After 1917, services continued for some time, but apparently stopped in 1919, when the temple was closed by order of the commandant of the fortress A.I. Poppel, however, the staff and income were maintained until 1922, after which the staff disintegrated.

In 1922, the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Grand Ducal Tomb were assigned as museum objects to the Glavnauka, created under the People's Commissariat for Education. In 1924, the Trubetskoy Bastion Prison, and in 1926, the cathedral and tomb were transferred to the Museum of the Revolution. A new page of history opened for the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1954, when it came under the jurisdiction of the State. Museum of the History of Leningrad (since 1991 - St. Petersburg).

One of the first and basic legal documents initiating the transfer of religious property to believers in post-Soviet times was the Order of the President of the Russian Federation of April 23, 1993, in which the Government of the Russian Federation was entrusted with the gradual transfer of religious property in federal ownership into ownership or use religious organizations. In 1997, Minister of Culture E. Yu. Sidorov determined the forms contractual relations with the church regarding monuments: 1. Form of ownership (rarely used); 2. Free use (often used); 3. Sharing (rarely used). The third type of use includes such monuments as the Moscow Kremlin, Peter and Paul Cathedral, etc.

In the early 1990s. two parishes were registered: one for the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the other for the Grand Ducal Tomb with its rector, Archpriest Boris Glebov. In 2001, the current parish was registered, the chairman of the parish council (headman) of which is B. A. Almazov, and the treasurer is N. N. Valuysky. The rector of the cathedral is Abbot Alexander (Fedorov). There was no new consecration of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in post-Soviet times; after the registration of the parish before the celebration of the temple holiday on July 12, 2002, a new antimension was issued by Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir (Kotlyarov).

1992 can be considered the beginning of the resumption of services, mainly of a memorial nature; this became possible after the burial of Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov in the Grand Ducal Tomb. In 1997, the first all-night liturgy after the revolution was held in the cathedral; a year later, on July 17, 1998, Father Boris Glebov held a service for the innocent murdered, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the execution of the latter’s family Russian Emperor and burial in the Ekaterininsky chapel of Ekaterinburg remains. On July 12, 1999, on the day of the apostles Peter and Paul, the first all-night and metropolitan liturgy was held in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which was conducted by Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga. From this time on, services became regular.

In 2007, the St. Petersburg Diocesan Administration of the Russian Orthodox Church turned to the Chairman of the Federation Council S. M. Mironov with a request to head the Board of Trustees of the Imperial Peter and Paul Cathedral, the result was the signing between the diocese and the museum of an agreement on the joint use of the cathedral and the organization of regular services from the beginning of 2008.

On the night of April 27, 2008, for the first time in the post-Soviet period, the rector of the cathedral, Abbot Alexander Fedorov, held an Easter service, and on July 12, 2009, Patriarch Kirill performed the Divine Liturgy in the cathedral, thus marking the city’s name day. This was the first patriarchal service in the entire history of the temple. Previously, even if the patriarchs visited the cathedral, but did not conduct divine services, there is no need to talk about the Russian Empire in this context due to the absence of the institution of patriarchy in it. The Patriarch presented the cathedral with a copy of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which is now kept in the central nave on the salt to the left of the Royal Doors. Vicar Bishop Ambrose, on behalf of the diocese, presented the bishop with an icon of the apostles Peter and Paul as a gift. Patriarchal services began new tradition. On July 12, 2010, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church also celebrated the day of the apostles Peter and Paul.

On September 30, 2009, a historic agreement on services was reached between the metropolis and the museum; in accordance with it, excursion work is not conducted during services. Worship services are held on Saturdays - All-night vigil and on Sundays - liturgy. Services mark all the main twelfth holidays and Easter, memorial services are held for the deceased emperors, some empresses and members of the imperial family, temple holidays are traditionally celebrated: the days of the apostles Peter and Paul, the Great Martyr Catherine and the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky.

IN general list of the churches of the St. Petersburg Metropolis, the cathedral is listed as the “Imperial Memorial Cathedral in the Name of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul” under No. 126.

In November 2010, President D. Medvedev signed the Federal Law of the Russian Federation on the transfer of state or municipal property for religious purposes to church organizations. The future will show how this law will affect the fate of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

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