What does the angel on the Peter and Paul Fortress mean. Angel of the Peter and Paul Fortress

The gilded spire of the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is, of course, one of the most important creative successes of Dominico Trezzini. 300 years ago, in 1719, the creation of the golden dress of the tallest tower in the city began. It took five years. The search for craftsmen and the necessary materials went far beyond the borders of St. Petersburg. The spire has become a truly international "project", the details of its implementation have been preserved in the documents of the Russian State Historical Archive.

Five hundred pounds of copper

Trezzini attracted the first-class Dutch master Harman van Boles to develop the design of the spire, or, as they said then, the spitz (knitting needle). In 1718, a wooden spire according to the drawings of the Dutchman was assembled, covered with paint and installed on the upper lantern of the bell tower.

Now it was necessary to upholster the spire and domes of the bell tower with copper sheets, gild them, make and place a cross with the figure of an angel. In January 1719, Peter I ordered: “Send to St. Petersburg a craftsman to whom the copy (spire) on the tower is to be upholstered with copper, namely, the one who entered the tower and launched rockets at the time of the entrance of the Tsar’s Majesty in Riga, and to send him immediately .. .".

Riga was taken by Russian troops in 1710. Arriving there in 1711, the tsar climbed the tower of the Cathedral of St. Peter, from where fireworks were launched in his honor. The Riga church with its 120-meter bell tower, which became one of the prototypes of the bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, was especially fond of the sovereign ...

Master Friedrik Cifers was quickly found and brought to St. Petersburg. Here, in May 1719, in the Chancellery of City Affairs, an agreement was concluded with him for the purchase of copper and the forging of "boards for upholstering the spitz and domes on the Church of Peter and Paul" from it. Zifers undertook to forge in Riga 887 boards "from the sovereign's copper" at two hammer mills. For the upholstery of copper sheets, the master set a price of a ruble per pood.

Copper was supposed to be bought in Riga, but such a large amount was not available there. The main part of copper in the 17th century came to Russia from Sweden, the Northern War disrupted trade relations, and the flow of copper into the country was significantly reduced. It is not surprising that it was found in the Baltic cities conquered from the Swedes: Peter I ordered to take 500 pounds in Reval.

Already in 1720 Zifers with his assistants produced the first batch of 393 sheets. “To hasten that work,” he sent two of his assistants to the banks of the Neva. They helped to take sheets and weigh them - in the Peter and Paul Fortress on the pharmacy scales and in Gostiny Dvor.

In the meantime, they were looking for craftsmen to gild the sheets brought from Riga. For this, the sovereign allocated gold coins (chervonets), indicating to use one chervonets for each foot (30.48 cm). In total, 1,500 feet of copper surface needed to be gilded. But it turned out that there were few craftsmen-gilders in St. Petersburg.

One of the candidates for these works was Gilde Brant, a silversmith from the Armory Office, and Yerofey Ivanov, the other. In the autumn of 1720, they both made a test: they gilded one copper plate each. Trezzini was instructed to determine "how much gold will be spent and which of them will be the best gilding." In December, Trezzini concludes: "The gilding is good for both."

At first, preference was given to Ivanov, but in March 1721, the gilding of copper plates was transferred to the Riga masters Johann Steinbeis and Johann Eberhard, Cifers' countrymen, whom he advised to involve in this business. They were paid a thousand rubles for the purchase of materials, and the rest was promised to be given out after the work was completed. The decisive role here was played by the fact that the Riga masters asked for less than Ivanov for the gilding of the sheets.

In the Peter and Paul Fortress, they were given a room, they were given the “tackle” they requested (coal and firewood, boilers, wooden troughs, iron grates, half-barrels, tongs), they were given an interpreter and six workers “for cleaning and boarding boards”, including from Swedish prisoners of war . For gilding, it was ordered "to look diligently, so that they would gild with the most good work truthfully and use one gold piece for every foot ...". Trezzini personally supervised the supply of gold and the acceptance of ready-made gilded boards.

Steinbeis and Eberhard achieved an indulgence for their families - exemption from tenant duty: "So that in our houses, where our wives and children live in Riga, while we are here at work by the sovereign's grace, there would be no standing."

"Out of spite they want to spoil"

At the same time, preparations were underway to create a cross and an angel figure. On May 28, 1722, Trezzini reported to the Office of City Affairs: “It is up to me to make an angel flying from copper sheet, which will be placed on the kugel of the bell tower of the holy church of Peter and Paul, which will hold a cross in its hands against the created model and drawing” .

In St. Petersburg, they began to look for those who wanted to contract for these works. The first to respond was a foreigner from Prussia, Christian Friedrikson, who set a price for his "copper work without gilding" - 200 rubles. But in a row they gave it to the Russians - the peasant Ivan Menshy and the silversmith Lazar Zadubsky, who set a lower price - 175 rubles. We saved as much as we could...

In October, the contractors made an angel, in their words, "without sparing their labor and without unnecessary expenses." Judging by the documents, there were serious disagreements between them and the Riga gilders.

The inhabitants of Riga were dissatisfied with the quality of the embossed and soldering works of our craftsmen and feared that it would be “difficult” for them to gild in soldered places, they noted the fragility of such a design. Those, in turn, reproached the inhabitants of Riga that they "want to spoil it with excessive heat." This meant deliberate damage to the structure of the angel during gilding with the help of fire. The architect Trezzini, who supervised the work, was very worried about the timing of the creation of the spire, which could not be kept, far behind the wishes of the sovereign, and for the quality of the work performed.

Alas, the fears of the masters from Riga were confirmed. It was decided to remake the angel, the cross and the ball, as well as the mechanisms and attachments to them. Trezzini complained that the contractors “untruthfully” wrote to the office and “made it so that it is impossible for anyone to gild an angel, ... in many places it is soldered inside and out with silver and copper very badly and with many patches that would not be able to resist fire , for, and in all the things of that angel ... ". If such an angel were put on a spire, it would certainly fall apart. Therefore, the “thin and objectionable parts” were instructed to remake and fasten the inhabitants of Riga - Steinbeis and Eberhard ...

An angel shone over the still unfinished cathedral in 1724. The sovereign several times himself climbed the bell tower, with pleasure showing foreigners his city from a height.

Unfortunately, the copper-gold splendor created by such labor died in 1756 in a devastating fire that broke out from a lightning strike that hit the bell tower. With its restoration, changes took place in the appearance of the temple, but Trezzini's plan - a golden spire with a winged guardian of St. Petersburg - was preserved ...

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Angel on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

The first figure of the guardian angel of St. Petersburg on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral was made by the Dutch master G. van Boles in the 1720s. After a fire in 1756, it was restored according to the drawings of D. Trezzini. In 1830, a hurricane wind tilted the spire severely and damaged the figure of an angel, which served as a weather vane. The roofer Pyotr Telushkin, who was distinguished by his enormous physical strength, without any scaffolding, with the help of ropes, and sometimes just holding on to his fingers, managed to wrap the spire with a rope loop and repair the weather vane. His name has gone down in the history of the Peter and Paul Fortress forever.

State peasant Pyotr Telushkin, Yaroslavl province. The master of the roofing shop, who put a cross and an angel on the spitz of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg in October - November 1830 without the use of scaffolding. He posed for the artist G. G. Chernetsov in 1832.

The ascent of Peter Telushkin to the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Drawing by F. G. Solntsev. 1876

In 1858, during the replacement of the wooden structures of the spire with steel ones, the figure of the angel was removed. Instead, a third figure was installed, made according to a drawing by the sculptor R.K. Zaleman. The angel now stood almost vertically and was firmly connected to the cross. At the beginning of World War II, the spire was painted with camouflage paint, and the angel was covered with burlap to protect it from shelling. In 1991, the angel spent several years in restoration workshops, where it was repaired and re-gilded. Only in 1995, the figure of an angel was lifted to the top of the spire with the help of a helicopter. The height of the figure is 3.48 m; the wingspan of the angel is 3.56 m. The height of the cross is 6.5 m. The weight of the angel with the cross is 250 kg.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral is one of the most "postcard" places in St. Petersburg, you can recognize it by its silhouette alone. This is the center of the heart of the city - the fortress of the same name, from which the Northern capital counts its history. At the same time, the cathedral is the tallest building in the city center.

In the history of its construction, in general, there are a lot of things "most" ..

The very first cathedral in St. Petersburg

The Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the form in which we know it today was laid on May 30, 1712. The construction of the cathedral according to the project and under the guidance of the architect Domenico Trezzini took 20 years and lasted until 1732.

The stone cathedral was built a few years later over the wooden one. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

However, the history of the temple dates back to the founding of the city - a wooden cathedral appeared in the fortress on Hare Island as early as 1703. The grandiose scope of Peter demanded a monumental scale - the cathedral had to surpass the Menshikov Tower and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in Moscow in size.

The wooden temple stood in the fortress for less than ten years, after which a solid stone building was built around it (the wooden temple remained for some time inside the stone one). Given this continuity, the Peter and Paul Cathedral can be considered the oldest church in St. Petersburg.

Tallest building in the center

As you know, St. Petersburg residents greatly value the "sky line of the city" - a horizontal perspective that allows you to look at half of the Northern capital from anywhere in the city center. At the same time, not a single skyscraper or too high business center interferes with the panorama. To preserve this line, the so-called height regulation was introduced, which operates on the principle "the closer to the center - the lower the building."

On the outskirts, you can also find 300-meter buildings, but within a radius of several kilometers from Nevsky Prospekt, the regulations are strict, which is why the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is so clearly visible from afar.

The height of the stone building in 1720 was 112 meters and turned out to be 32 meters higher than the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in Moscow. However, the famous spire crowned the temple only 13 years later, after the death of Peter I. Today, the height of the building, together with the spire, is 122.5 meters.

The largest royal tomb

Everyone who at least once went inside the cathedral undoubtedly remembers the rows of majestic tombstones of members of the imperial family.

The founder of the cathedral, Peter I, also rests here. In 1908, when there was no room left for tombstones inside the cathedral, a new tomb was built next to the temple and connected with it by a corridor. Here it was decided to bury only members of the imperial family, not the crowned persons themselves. Before the outbreak of the First World War, they managed to move eight graves from the right nave of the cathedral and bury five deceased grand dukes. In total, 30 crypts were provided in the tomb. After the 1917 revolution, the cathedral stopped performing its ritual functions for a long time. In 1992, Vladimir Kirillovich, a member of the Romanov family, was buried here. The last to be buried here was the wife of Emperor Alexander III, Maria Feodorovna - in 2006, her remains were transported to the Peter and Paul Cathedral from Denmark.

Today, 48 members of the royal family are buried in the cathedral. Another 17 graves are located in the Grand Duke's burial vault.

The biggest angel

The angel on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral can rightfully compete with the ship on the spire of the Admiralty in terms of its tourist popularity.

The spire appeared on the roof of the cathedral only in 1733, and Domenico Trezzini proposed decorating the bell tower with the figure of an angel 11 years before. The architect created the drawing, and the figure was created by an ordinary peasant and a silversmith. True, Trezzini did not suit their work, and invited European masters remade the angel. They combined it with a weather vane: the figure of an angel held the axle with both hands and was equipped with turning mechanisms. The weather vane was active and was much smaller in size than the current angel.

Looking from the ground, it is hard to believe that the growth of an angel is more than three meters. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

On the night of April 29-30, 1756, lightning struck the spire, burning it fell on the roof of the cathedral. The bell tower was then completely lost, the roof was damaged, the portico at the entrance was broken, the bells of the chimes melted in the fire. Under Peter III, the angel was restored according to the original drawings.

The second angel of the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral died during a hurricane in 1778. A strong wind broke the figure, the turning mechanism was damaged. The third angel was designed by Antonio Rinaldi. Then he changed his position and ceased to be a weather vane, although with gusts of wind it can still rotate a little. The last time the angel was replaced along with the spire was in 1858.

In the 1930s, at the initiative of the workers, the question of replacing the spire spire angel with a ruby ​​star was considered. They managed to draw up documents for this project, but because of the outbreak of war, they did not manage to complete this work. During the siege of Leningrad, the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral was painted over, the angel was covered with burlap. The height of the figure is 3.2 meters, the wingspan is 3.8.

The most difficult iconostasis to restore

The iconostasis of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, a kind of monument to Russia's victory in the Northern War, is made in the form of a triumphal gate. By the complexity of the composition, it is not inferior to the most famous world monuments of woodcarving.

The iconostasis of the Peter and Paul Cathedral has been restored for more than 25 years. Photo: St. Petersburg Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church

The iconostasis was created by decree of Emperor Peter I. It is made of oak, linden and coniferous wood. To the left and right of the Royal Doors are the gilded figures of the archangels Gabriel and Michael. The height of the gilded iconostasis is almost 20 meters. It was made in 1722-1726 in Moscow according to a drawing by Domenico Trezzini. It included 43 icons and three-dimensional sculpture.

Over the almost 300-year history, the iconostasis has been repaired three times. A major restoration was planned for 1987. Icons were restored, but there was not enough money for sculptures and ornaments. In 2011, the restoration resumed thanks to the help of philanthropists and funds from the federal budget. In total, work on the restoration of the iconostasis took 25 years and was completed only a few years ago.

A gilded angel, the symbol of St. Petersburg, was erected.

A new life was given to the angel of the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress ten years ago by restorers, engineers, steeplejacks, helicopter pilots - everyone who worked to recreate the monumental symbol of the city on the Neva.

The first angel-weather vane (designed by Domenico Trezzini) adorned the spire of the cathedral until 1756, but died in a fire. The reconstructed figure was damaged by a hurricane. According to the sketch of Antonio Rinaldi, a third angel, smaller in size, was made, but he was also defeated in a storm. Roofer Pyotr Telushkin managed to repair the figure and the cross without scaffolding. In 1834, the spire tilted again: the wooden frame began to rot. The then engineer Dmitry Zhuravsky was appointed as the builder of the spire. He developed a reliable and simple rotary mechanism with bearings that does not require special maintenance. Since 1858, the fourth angel has been free to rotate on the spire.

The height of the guardian angel hovering over our city is more than three meters, the wingspan is about four meters, the height of the cross in his hands is six meters.

An exact copy of the Rinaldi angel was periodically restored. The most difficult work had to be done ten years ago, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the city of Petrov. The angel had remained motionless for several years, and by the anniversary it had to be "revived" by repairing the turning mechanism. When Vadim Gimmelman, head of the Design Bureau for Special Machine Building, was asked to save the design, he replied: "We must - we will save it."

The work was not cheap, and there were practically no funds. People did not work for money. As true patriots and enthusiasts, they worked seven days a week. Our angel is visible from the windows of my apartment. If I wake up and see that the angel is spinning, I feel calm,” says Vadim Georgievich.

But the most famous person at the construction and restoration site was the representative of the chief designer Anatoly Melder. At 67, he worked without insurance at a height of 122.5 meters!

The structure was dismantled in parts in July 2002. In Catherine's Curtain, employees of the Akme-dek company manually covered it with gold leaf - a total of 350 grams of the precious metal was used. Gilded pieces of copper were sent up by helicopter.

For half a year the city did not see its angel. On January 20, 2003, clear weather and mild wind contributed to the successful start of the installation of the repaired structure. The next day, with the help of a Baltic Airlines helicopter, a gilded sphere was placed on top of the spire. For another two weeks, high-altitude work continued - the installation of the swivel mechanism and the frame of the figure. The cladding of the spire of the city's most famous bell tower was made by hand.

The angel was collected on the upper platform of the scaffolding, four by four meters in size, in difficult conditions, with strong winds and temperatures often below minus 20 degrees. When the large wing was turned, there was a strong gust of wind - it could have been “carried”, but, fortunately, nothing happened. Since they worked with gold leaf, they did without gloves, the bolts were also twisted with bare hands - no heavy tools could be used.

High-altitude assembler Pavel Khodakov went up to the three angels of St. Petersburg: he examined the figure on the Alexander Column of Palace Square, filmed the golden-haired celestial from the Church of St. He has a long friendship with the latter: the climber participated in the restoration in 1995.

Then we removed the gilded plating of the spire for the first time after its installation, that is, for the first time in 140 years. Then it was necessary to put the casing in place, so that everything coincided. And if for the first time the lining was delivered by helicopter, then ten years ago - by winches in containers, ”recalls Pavel.

“This sign of the cross and the image of the guardian angel of this city are blessed and sanctified by the grace of the Most Holy Spirit, sprinkling this sanctified water - in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen". These words were uttered three times on February 13, 2003, standing on the upper platform of the scaffolding, by the rector of the Peter and Paul Cathedral (now archimandrite - Ed.)

The site was swayed by the wind in all directions. It was not easy,” recalls father Alexander. On a small platform above the city, next to him, several more people fit - a choir, photojournalists, cameramen ...

The capsule with the message to posterity and the icon of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos were placed in a gilded sphere at the top of a 40-meter spire a little earlier, on January 30. The message awaits those who, following the current climbers, will have to climb to the angel for a new restoration. Experts vouched that this will happen "at least in 50 years."

A consecrated angel with a cross is not just an image and a symbol. It means that the city is guarded by God, not abandoned by its saints, and that this city is truly Orthodox, where spiritual life lives.