Russia St Petersburg Architecture Church Church of the Holy Sign

Church of the Holy Sign

Built by Fyodor Demertsov on Holy Sign (Znamenskaya) Square (1794–1804). Empress Elizabeth Petrovna issued a decree on the construction of a parish church “opposite the Jäger Courtyard, at the Ligov Canal” (1759). As it was taking a long time to collect the money for construction, the wooden Church of St Zechariah and St Elizabeth was moved there from the Winter Palace and consecrated as the Church of the Holy Sign (1765). Additions were made to the church (1766–68), which received the other church’s iconostasis, ornaments and images, including a famous icon of the Holy Sign of the Mother of God, painted by a Greek artist, Christopher Semyonov, in Novgorod (1175). Fyodor Demertsov designed a new building (1794–1804). Railings and two corner chapels were built by Fyodor Demertsov (1809) and reconstructed (1863–65). Closed (1938). The icon of the Holy Sign of the Mother of God was transferred to the St Nicholas Naval Cathedral (1938). Blown up to make way for the construction of an underground railway station (1941).

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