St Catherine’s Church

Empress Anna Ioannovna signed a decree awarding a plot of land for the construction of a church to the Roman Catholic community in St Petersburg (14 September 1738). Pietro Antonio Trezzini designed a project for a church and two symmetrical three-storey residential blocks for the clergy (1739). Construction dragged on and Jean-Baptiste-Michel Vallin de la Mothe submitted a new project incorporating Pietro Antonio Trezzini’s original plans (1759–62). Construction continued (until 1783) under Antonio Rinaldi (from 1779). Catherine the Great signed a decree creating the Catholic congregation of St Petersburg, Kronstadt, Jamburg, Reval and Riga centred on the church on Nevsky Prospekt (2 February 1769). The houses for the clergy were increased to five floors (1893).