Guardian Angels of St. Petersburg

Figuratively speaking, St. Petersburg first tried to find heaven at the very beginning of its existence, almost from birth, simultaneously with the development of swampy and, as it seemed to many, land unsuitable for life. Having risen above the flat plain with the swamp of the soil, it quickly burst into the blue expanse with the sharp gilded spire of the Peter and Paul Bell Tower. The author of this brilliant idea, a Swiss of Italian origin, the first architect of St. Petersburg, Domenico Trezzini, getting to the Finnish swamps of St. Petersburg through Arkhangelsk and Moscow and having admired the Orthodox Russian wooden and white stone architecture with its tented bell towers, onion and helmet-shaped domes, offered St. Petersburg something new, even never happened in Rus'. He boldly drew a sharp spire, unusual for the Russian eye, stretching into the sky on the multi-tiered bell tower of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. It’s as if it’s closer to God this way, and it’s more convenient for believers to communicate with him. This is probably where the unexpected idea of ​​some kind of mediator between God and people was born. It could well be an Angel, the materialized image of which can be installed on the tip of the spire. The idea turned out to be not only happy, but also fruitful.

The foundation of the “very original”, still wooden cathedral church in the name of Saints Peter and Paul on Hare Island took place in 1703, on the feast of the Holy Trinity, simultaneously with the foundation of the Peter and Paul Fortress. According to one legend, when laying the foundation of the cathedral, Peter buried a golden ark with the relics of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called in its foundation. Only in 1712, on the site of the wooden one, they began to erect a stone cathedral building according to the design of the architect Domenico Trezzini. Its construction was completed after the death of the founder of St. Petersburg, in 1733.

The main decoration of the cathedral is its multi-tiered bell tower with a high spire. As we have already said, if, of course, you believe the family legend of the modern descendants of the first architect of St. Petersburg, Trezzini deliberately gave the bell tower contours very similar to the figure of Peter the Great, as if thereby creating a kind of monument to him. The original structure of the spire was wooden. Only in 1857–1858, according to the design of engineer D.I. Zhuravsky, it was made metal. At the same time, the total height of the cathedral together with the Angel reached 122.5 meters. “And yesterday the guide said that the height of the cathedral is 123 meters,” the tourists are perplexed. “I have winter data, and he has summer data,” the guides reassure. The height of the Angel itself is 3.2 meters, and its wingspan is 3.8 meters. St. Petersburg residents like to spice up the story about the Peter and Paul Cathedral with an anecdote: On an excursion to the Peter and Paul Fortress: “Tell me, how big is the Angel on the spire of the cathedral?” - "Real size".

Anecdotes are anecdotes, but folklore also has other evidence. In the frosty winter of 1996, during restoration work on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, installers stored fasteners in Brazilian coffee cans. Of course, no one put any special meaning into this, it was just convenient. However, very soon a legend developed in the city that it was precisely this circumstance that contributed to the quick and successful completion of the work. As if the mild Brazilian climate and the warmth of the southern countries, which symbolized the cans of exotic products, protected the high-altitude workers during work and would preserve the result of their labor for a long time. True, the restoration in 1996 was not successful. Just five years later, the Angel was again removed from the cathedral spire for further renovation work.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral became the tallest architectural structure in St. Petersburg. This status remains with him to this day. The spire of the cathedral is crowned with the figure of an Angel - the “Flying Angel”, or the “Flying Virgin”, as it is sometimes called in St. Petersburg, keeping in mind the asexual nature of the heavenly army. Angel in his modern form was made only under Catherine II according to a drawing by the architect Antonio Rinaldi, although, according to legends, it hovered over the city even under Peter I. One legend even claims that the “wicked” and practical Peter made it spin, combining two functions at the same time - decorative and meteorological . As if even then the Angel became a weather vane. In fact, it was made rotating much later, after being fixed motionless, it bent several times under the pressure of hurricane winds.

In the city mythology of St. Petersburg, the Angel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral has long acquired the status of a symbol of the city. And if, according to one legend, the empty hand of an Angel raised to the sky is waiting for the very trumpet that will herald the end of the world, then according to another, it squeezes an invisible sword that reflects evil spirits from the city.

In the 1930s, in the bureaucratic offices of either the Kremlin or Smolny, a grandiose project arose to replace the Angel on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral with a sculpture of the “leader of all times and peoples” Stalin. This monstrous plan was seriously discussed in party circles in Leningrad, and it seemed that nothing could prevent its speedy implementation. The artistic community of Leningrad was in a panic; they did not know what to do. According to city legend, the director of the Hermitage, academician I. A. Orbeli, found a way out: “For mercy, comrades,” he allegedly said at one of the high meetings, “the Peter and Paul spire is reflected in the Neva, and what, do you want Comrade Stalin to end up down?” head?"

The appearance of an Angel on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral was in fact not some kind of historical accident. Thanks to folklore, cases of intervention of the heavenly army in the life of the Neva region are known long before the appearance of St. Petersburg. This was the case during the Battle of the Neva, as we already know from the story about Alexander Nevsky. Another intervention of the Angel in the life of St. Petersburg, according to city folklore, occurred at the very end of the 18th century. As you know, a large cycle of legends about the Mikhailovsky Castle begins with a vision of a sentry standing guard at the old Summer Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna. A young man appeared to him in a radiance, calling himself the Archangel Michael, and ordered him to immediately go to the emperor and say that the old Summer Palace should be destroyed, and in its place a temple should be built in the name of the Archangel Michael. The soldier did as the angel ordered, to which Paul allegedly replied: “His will will be done.” On the same day, the king ordered the construction of a new palace and a church attached to it in the name of the archangel. This seemingly small inaccuracy, according to folklore, turned out to be fatal and ruined the unfortunate emperor. Paul was ordered to build not a church at the palace, but a temple in the name of the archangel. “Why, sir, did you not fulfill the command of Archangel Michael exactly? – Monk Abel once asked him. – Neither kings nor nations can change the will of God. I see your tomb in that castle, blessed sovereign. And as you think, it will not be the residence of your descendants.” As we know from history, the monk’s prophecy was completely fulfilled. On the night of March 11-12, 1801, Paul I was villainously murdered in the Mikhailovsky Castle.

Angels have been receiving permanent residence permits in St. Petersburg since the mid-18th century. They crown the domes of churches and the roofs of public buildings, fill the pediments, attics and entablatures of architectural structures, and settle on the tops of columns and decorative pillars. Angels hold in their hands crosses and heraldic shields, scrolls of sacred scriptures, coats of arms of cities and order ribbons. In some cases these are flying geniuses of Glory, in others - winged Victorias, thirdly - messengers of Peace, fourthly - guardians of Wisdom, fifthly - bearers of the Good News, and so on and so forth. But in all cases, without exception, they are also the guardians of the city. The number of angels in the architectural decoration of St. Petersburg can hardly be accurately counted. This can be judged at least from St. Isaac's Cathedral - only on the drum of its dome there are twenty-four angels. The angels included in his sculptural compositions are, as they say, “innumerable.” But there are also angels in the sculptural design of the interiors of St. Petersburg palaces, mansions and public buildings, angels in the composition of wall paintings, in the decorative design elements of everyday cultural objects, angels of cemetery tombstones, family crypts and memorial buildings, and many, many other angels.

Meanwhile, in the history of St. Petersburg construction, there are known angels who, unfortunately, either did not survive to this day, or were not realized at all in the final projects. As is known, the project of the Kazan Cathedral in the form it was conceived by the architect Voronikhin was never implemented. According to the architect's plan, another colonnade, similar to the one that spread its wings along Nevsky Prospekt, was to decorate the opposite, southern facade of the temple. The external sculptural decoration of the cathedral was not completed either. The powerful stone pedestals that still stand on both sides of the colonnade were intended for sculptures of two archangels. Until 1824, plaster copies of them stood on pedestals. It was supposed to replace them with bronze ones. But it was never possible to do this. A legend was born among the people that the archangels themselves “do not want to take their places” until, according to rumor, a “wise, truthful and honest politician” appears in Russia.

Over time, the plaster archangels became so dilapidated that they had to be removed. And the stone stools still stand. Who knows... Moreover, it is known that pedestals do not like to stand empty.

The angels that once adorned the destroyed “Lithuanian Castle” have also been lost. This is how in everyday speech St. Petersburg residents called an unusual building for St. Petersburg, built in 1787 on the corner of the Kryukov Canal and Ofitserskaya (now Dekabristov) Street, the facades of which were decorated with seven romantic towers. At the same time as “Lithuanian” it had another name: “Seven Tower Castle”. At the beginning of the 19th century, the so-called Lithuanian Musketeer Regiment was stationed there, and from 1823 the gloomy, damp premises of the castle began to be used as a pre-trial prison, which lasted for almost a century, until 1917. During this time, the castle acquired several more names among the people: “St. Petersburg Bastille”, “Stone Bag”, “Uncle’s House”, “Uncle’s Dacha”. A joke has been preserved, published at one time in the magazine “Satyricon”: “Carrier! To the “Lithuanian Castle” - “And back?” - “We can go back.” - “How long to wait?” - "Six months".

As expected, there was a departmental church in the prison, the roof of which and one of the towers of the castle were decorated with figures of angels with crosses in their hands - such strange symbols of the prison institution. These angels appear quite often in the rhyming folklore of the time:

How do you walk along Ofitserskaya,

There's a tall gray house there.

There are four towers on the sides

And two angels with a cross.

Above the house of eternal rest

There are two angels with a cross,

And sentries for patrol

Below with a loaded gun.

Men will shave half their head

And they will take you to the government house.

There are four towers in the corners

And two angels with a cross.

These Angels have long become heroes of St. Petersburg city folklore. One of the Angels, according to local legends, left his place at night and walked around the prison cells. The prisoners allegedly heard his ringing steps more than once and saw his shiny wings. They knew that if he knocked on the cell of one of the death row prisoners, he would be executed that same night. Twice a year, on Easter and Christmas, an Angel appeared to the prisoners in a dream, brought news from relatives and blessed them. When the prisoners first entered the prison gates under guard and looked at the roof of the castle, it seemed to them that the Angel could barely withstand the weight of the cross, and all the long days and nights of imprisonment they believed that “the day will come when the Angel will drop the cross and everyone will be released.” "

And indeed, in March 1917, crowds of revolutionary Petrograd residents, intoxicated by the smell of freedom, set fire to and then destroyed the “Lithuanian Castle”, having previously released all the prisoners to freedom. The sculptures of Angels also perished. The ruins of the castle stood until the 1930s, then the ruins were dismantled and residential buildings were built in their place for workers of the Admiralty Plant, and Prison Lane was named after S. M. Matveev, a worker at this plant who died in 1918.

In 1930, another Angel left Leningrad. He crowned the Monument of Glory, which was located on Izmailovsky Prospekt in front of the Trinity Cathedral. The majestic Monument of Glory was erected in honor of the victories of Russian weapons during Russian-Turkish War 1877–1878. The monument, built according to the design of the architect D.I. Grimm, was a column made of six rows of cannon barrels captured from the Turks during that war. The winged figure of an Angel on its top represented Victory. Around the column, on separate granite pedestals, stood artillery pieces, also captured from the enemy. This entire memorial ensemble suddenly disappeared one day. An urban legend linked his disappearance to either an upcoming or already completed state visit. people's commissar USSR K.E. Voroshilov to friendly Turkey, which, as the legend claims, considered it insulting the existence in distant Leningrad of such an expressive reminder of its, still relatively recent defeat at that time. And the Monument of Glory disappeared in the smelting furnaces of one of the Leningrad factories.

Fortunately, the fate of this Angel was not so tragic. In 2005, the Monument of Glory was completely restored.

Right after October revolution In 1917, there was a threat of loss of the most famous St. Petersburg Angel, installed on the top of the Alexander Column, on Palace Square.

This column is located in the very center of the city. In colloquial speech it is called the “Pillar of Alexandria”, or “Column of Victory”. It was built according to the design of the architect Auguste Montferrand and was inaugurated on August 30, 1834. The column was conceived as a grandiose monument to the winner of Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812–1814, Alexander I. The Alexander Column almost immediately became an object of urban folklore. Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky wrote down an anecdote about Countess Tolstoy, who forbade her coachman to take her past a column. “The hour is uneven,” she said, “perhaps she will fall from her footstool.” As you know, the column is not dug into the ground and is not fixed to the foundation. It is held together solely with the help of precise calculations, the jewelry fit of all parts and its own weight. According to one of the many legends, when laying at the base of the column, a box of excellent champagne was buried - so that it would stand forever, without being subject to settlement or tilting.

Some St. Petersburg residents were also not happy with the sculptural allegory - the figure of an Angel crowning a granite obelisk. The well-known salon talker D.E. Tsitsianov in Pushkin’s St. Petersburg, whose age by that time was approaching 90 years, allegedly said: “What a stupid statue they erected - an Angel with wings; you need to imagine Alexander in full uniform and holding Napoleon by the hair, and he just jerks his legs.”

In the 1840s, a pun was well known in St. Petersburg, the authorship of which was attributed to St. Petersburg University professor V.S. Poroshin: “Pillar of pillar to pillar.” There was no need to tell St. Petersburg residents who was who in this little phraseological masterpiece. According to legend, the reigning Emperor Nicholas I ordered to give the Angel’s face a resemblance to the face of Emperor Alexander I, while at the same time indicating to the sculptor B.I. Orlovsky that the face of the snake trampled by the Angel’s cross should resemble the face of Napoleon.

And this is not the only soldiers’ association that dominated the minds of the liberal public of the era of Nicholas I:

In Russia everything breathes military craft:

And the Angel puts a cross on guard.

The military image of an incorruptible guard is also visible in the corresponding sayings: “You stand like the pillar of Alexandria” or “The unshakable pillar of Alexandria.”

On the eve of the new 20th century, mystical scenes began to play out around the Alexander Column. In the evenings, the distinct Latin letter “N” was displayed on the smooth granite trunk of the column. They started talking about the end of the world, about “New” disasters threatening the city, about prophecies of its death. Very soon everything turned into a farce. The Latin letter turned out to be one of the letters in the name of the company “SIEMENS”, engraved on the glass of the lanterns near the column. As soon as the lights came on and dusk fell on the city, this inscription began to be projected into space. And one of the letters – “N” – was imprinted on the column.

There was no mysticism, but the hoaxers did not stop. Relatively recently, in May 1989, a brilliant prank was organized in St. Petersburg, invented and carried out by a certain youth initiative group. Signatures were collected against the transfer of the Alexander Column from Palace Square to the Alexander Garden. The column allegedly interfered with parades and demonstrations. Moreover, as it turned out later, there was even a special prize prepared for the one who exposed this talented hoax. The list of signatories concerned about the fate of the monument grew and grew. The prize remained unclaimed.

A few years later, St. Petersburg residents heard stunning news on the radio. As it turned out, St. Petersburg is not facing a fuel crisis. Another unknown page of St. Petersburg history has been revealed. Documents have been discovered confirming the long-standing guesses of local historians: beneath us there is an underground sea of ​​oil; this oil storage facility comes closest to the surface of the earth in the area of ​​Palace Square. Archaeologists have known this for a long time. It was they who recommended using the column that was being built at that time as a multi-ton plug capable of holding back a fountain bursting from the ground. In the light of this remarkable discovery, it becomes clear why the column is not dug into the ground and not strengthened on a special foundation, which, it would seem, should have provided it with additional stability, but stands freely on its own foundation and is kept in balance by its own weight.

It was April 1st. “Ah, it’s not difficult to deceive me, / I’m glad to be deceived myself,” said the poet, and this pure truth. Newlyweds come to the Alexander Column. The groom takes his beloved in his arms and carries her around the column. Once. Two. How many times, they believe, he can walk around the column with his bride in his arms, so many children will they give birth to in a happy marriage.

There are always people around the Alexander Column, or “At the Pillar,” as modern youth put it in everyday speech. Groups of tourists gather here. Dates are scheduled. Teenagers hanging out. In their language it is called: “Sit on a column.” New myths are born. Legends. Jokes. The column's ancient guard functions are recognized, but they are painted in the same joyful tones of a cheerful, harmless prank:

When asked by tourists from Vologda if he could see everything, the Pillar of Alexandria replied: “Not all women are late for dates. Some people just don’t come.”

There is a legend that after the revolution, fighting against everything that was connected with the “damned” past, the Bolsheviks decided to remove the Alexander Column. Everything was already ready for demolition, but “there were people who proved by calculations that when the column falls, the force of the impact on the ground will be so powerful that all nearby buildings will be destroyed.” The crazy idea was abandoned. But the fate of the Angel seemed to be decided after all. In its place they allegedly planned to erect a monument to V.I. Lenin, the pedestal of which was to serve as the Alexander Column. There was nothing on her for some time. But when Palace Square began to be prepared for filming crowd scenes for the film “October,” director Sergei Eisenstein demanded that the figure of the Angel be returned, at least for the duration of filming. The film was shot. It was as if they had forgotten about Angel. Since then it has still stood in its historical place.

True, if you believe folklore, in the 1950s they started talking about the Angel on the Alexander Column again. As if it seemed blasphemous to someone that the Angel was greeting numerous columns of demonstrators on Palace Square with a raised hand. They started talking about moving the column again. But, as it turned out, fate protects the column. They say that every day she comes in the strange image of an eccentric in tarpaulin boots and a cap. The eccentric walks around the column, stopping briefly at the bas-reliefs of the pedestal. Behind his back, people have long called him Montferrand, although they believe that he “imagined himself a great architect” and comes to “admire the creation of his hands.” Be that as it may, they stopped talking about moving the column.

Meanwhile, the column has its own mystery, which seems to have not yet been solved. It is known that before the revolution there was a monumental fence around the Alexander Column. It consisted of cast iron links, consisting of several elegant spears, the top of which were gilded imperial eagles. Between the links stood the barrels of captured cannons, with their muzzles down. A legend has been preserved that the original French guns that were captured from Napoleon during his flight from Russia were originally intended for the fence. However, at the last moment the Napoleonic guns were replaced with Turkish ones. As if Montferrand himself, a Frenchman by birth, who had never learned to speak Russian during his forty years of living in Russia, took care of this. This mysterious act of replacement was a kind of tribute to the architect’s filial love for his motherland. Perhaps this legendary story will help answer another long-standing mystery of the Alexander Column. Indeed, why would a monument be erected in the center of the capital of an Orthodox state, on top of which an Angel with the face of the Orthodox Emperor Alexander I tramples on a French serpent Catholic cross? Perhaps this strange circumstance should be considered the conscious audacity of the Catholic Montferrand? If this is so, then perhaps Russia was right when the opportunity finally presented itself to remind the architect of his tactless act. True, this happened after the death of the architect. It is known that Montferrand bequeathed to be buried in the basements of his most significant architectural brainchild - St. Isaac's Cathedral. However, this only posthumous wish of the famous author of the council was categorically denied on the grounds that the burial of a Catholic in Orthodox church comes into irreconcilable contradiction with the centuries-old traditions of the Russian people.

Currently, the elegant cast-iron fence around the Alexander Column has been restored, and the sculpture of an Angel with a Catholic cross in his hands has been carefully restored.

Many St. Petersburg angels are not so famous. But each of them played a specific role in the history of the city. St. Andrew's Cathedral, which stands on the corner of Bolshoy Prospekt and the 6th line of Vasilievsky Island, which we have already mentioned, was built for holders of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. This is emphasized by the figures of angels above the entrance, overshadowing the order star. Two angels above the entrance to the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra support the star of the Order of Alexander Nevsky. One of the main symbols of Christianity - the cross - is held by angels in the composition of several St. Petersburg churches. These are the Transfiguration Cathedral near Liteiny Prospekt, the Church of St. Catherine and the Armenian Church on Nevsky Prospekt. The cross with angels is also included in the composition of the Lutheran Church of St. Peter and Paul on Nevsky Prospekt.

Angels acquired particular importance in the design of the facades of public buildings and secular structures during the era of the highest flowering of the architecture of Russian classicism, or the Empire style, which occurred in the first quarter of the 19th century, when Russia experienced an unprecedented triumph after the victorious end Patriotic War 1812. IN public consciousness angels acquired a new status, different from their exclusively divine nature in previous periods of history. The angels became geniuses of Victory and Glory, crowning the winners with solemn wreaths. This is how angels are depicted on the facade of the Admiralty, in the design of the Arch of the General Staff, in the composition of the Narva triumphal gates.

In the 19th century, a romantic legend was born in St. Petersburg that the city of St. Peter is guarded by three Angels - a golden one on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, a silver one on the dome of the Church of Catherine the Great Martyr, which is on Syezdovskaya, the former Cadet Line of Vasilievsky Island, and a bronze one on the top of the Alexander Column. It is only necessary, as the legend says, to maintain their original condition. We have already talked about the golden Angel of the Peter and Paul Cathedral and the bronze one on top of the Alexander Column. It remains to tell the story of the Silver Angel.

In 1750, a wooden church was built in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine for the Kexholm regiment stationed on Vasilyevsky Island. People called the church “Smallpox” because it was visited by smallpox patients. According to legend, it was moved to the Cadet Line from the Havana Field, where it originally stood. In 1809, the church burned down, and in its place, in 1811–1823, a new one, made of stone, was erected according to the design of the architect A. A. Mikhailov.

The powerful dome of the church, which dominates the surrounding buildings and is clearly visible from the sea, is crowned with the figure of an Angel, as if greeting ships entering the Neva with his hand raised above his head. At one time, the Angel held a cross in his hands. Then the cross was lost, and now the empty-handed Angel resembled a young schoolboy greeting those around him with a pioneer salute. People call him that: “Pioneer”, or “Angel – empty hands”. He is also known as "Black Angel". They say that the Angel was originally silver and for some reason someone repainted it black.

In conclusion, it should be noted that on the eve of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, two St. Petersburg Angels - gold and bronze - were restored. The third, the so-called “Black Angel,” has currently been removed from the dome of the Church of the Great Martyr Catherine and is being restored. If it is returned to its historical silver color, then, as St. Petersburg city folklore claims, the fate of the city will be in the capable hands of all three of its heavenly patrons.

The first angel (in the form of a weather vane) was designed by Domenico Trezzini himself in 1724 (that first angel held the weather vane with both hands) and decorated the bell tower spire until 1756, until he died in a fire from a lightning strike. The recreated figure repeated the dimensions and proportions of the original one. The hurricane of 1777 caused serious damage to the figure of the second angel. The third angel was made according to the sketch of Antonio Rinaldi (the great Italian architect, who was in court service in Russia in 1756–1790), and to protect it from lightning in 1778, the great Leonhard Euler proposed and completed a lightning rod device. This angel already had the appearance that is familiar to us now, and was holding a cross in right hand.

In 1829, a storm again damaged the angel's figure. There were no funds in the city treasury for the construction of scaffolding around the spire. Roofer Pyotr Telushkin volunteered to climb onto the apple of the spire and repair the figure. He did this in six weeks in October-November 1830 and for his feat received 3,000 rubles (about ten years' salary), as well as the right to a free glass of vodka in all government taverns for life. He confirmed this right with a corresponding document with a seal. According to legend, he often lost this document; in the end, officials got tired of issuing him again and again, and a seal in the form of a brand was put on Telushkina’s right side chin Now all he had to do was click his finger on the brand. Then, according to legend, a characteristic gesture appeared, inviting a drink.

In 1858, another repair was made to the spire and the angel was replaced (but appearance remained according to Rinaldi's drawings). The fourth angel rotated freely on the spire, obeying the direction of the wind - it is this fourth angel (weighing almost a ton!) that still hovers over the city. After 1858, partial repairs to the spire and angel were carried out in 1957, 1991–1996 and 2000–2003. During the last renovation, the figure was removed for major restoration in special workshops. By the way, it was reported that many bullet holes were found in the angel’s wings - most likely, these are traces of shots fired by revolutionary sailors in November 1917... The frame of the figure is now made of stainless steel, but is lined, as before, with gold sheets. On February 11, 2003, on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the figure of the Golden Angel blessing St. Petersburg shone again.

Like the previous one, this angel holds in his right hand a four-pointed, sometimes called Latin, and not Orthodox, eight-pointed cross? Why?

In fact, neither in Byzantium (from where Christianity and the eight-pointed cross came to Rus'), nor in Orthodoxy in Russia itself, the holiness and canonicity of the four-pointed cross was denied by anyone except the Old Believers (schismatics). Here, for example, is what the holy righteous John of Kronstadt wrote about the four-pointed cross in the introduction to his book “On the Cross of Christ” back in 1855 (this was his theological dissertation at the St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy of the Russian Orthodox Church):

“We will devote this discussion to the study of the cross of Christ, and specifically we will present an archaeological study of its form, with the aim of showing schismatics from the very antiquity and universality of the use of the four-pointed cross, that this form of it is the true form and that all other types of the cross are only modifications of this true appearance of the cross, and in the essence of the matter they constitute one and the same cross of Christ. This will naturally refute the blasphemies of the schismatics against the four-pointed cross as absurd and without any basis.”

It goes without saying that in 1777 the project for the sculpture of an angel (with a four-pointed cross) was highly approved (by Catherine II). And Antonio Rinaldi, when choosing the shape of the cross, could be guided by several considerations: firstly, the bell tower of the cathedral itself was made by Domenic Trezzini in the European style; secondly, sculptural images are generally rare in Orthodox culture and tradition - this is precisely the European, Latin tradition; thirdly (perhaps this is the main thing), Peter I conceived the city above the Neva as a “window to Europe”, and in all subsequent years the appearance was also considered as a tribute to its “holy stones” Orthodox Cathedral in the name of supreme apostles Peter and Paul...

2002-10-09T19:45+0400

2008-06-05T16:15+0400

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An angel will return to the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg in December

According to him, the angel is completely cleaned and prepared for gilding. In the near future, restorers will begin assembling the angel figure. Then, at a special stand, they will check the operation of the rotating mechanism, with the help of which the weather vane will rotate on the cathedral spire. The next step will be covering the entire composition (angel, cross and pedestal) with gold leaf. It will take about 400 grams of precious metal to gild a weather vane weighing approximately 500 kg. After the angel is covered in gold, restorers will install it on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Alexander Borkhvart emphasized that restorers have been given a unique chance to install the angel as reliably as possible: the entire Peter and Paul Cathedral is covered in scaffolding, and it is possible to get to the installation site of the weather vane without the help of a helicopter. During the last restoration of the angel in 1995, the work was carried out under very difficult conditions, since the scaffolding was installed only at the very top of the spire. The Peter and Paul Cathedral was built in 1712-1733 according to the design...

St. PETERSBURG, October 9. /Corr. RIA Novosti Tatyana Yakovleva/. In December, a weather vane in the form of an angel, one of the symbols of the Northern capital, will return to the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Alexander Borkhvart, the chief specialist of the restoration company Acme Dec (the general contractor for the restoration of most objects of the Peter and Paul Fortress), told a RIA Novosti correspondent about this on Wednesday. According to him, the angel is completely cleaned and prepared for gilding. In the near future, restorers will begin assembling the angel figure. Then, at a special stand, they will check the operation of the rotating mechanism, with the help of which the weather vane will rotate on the cathedral spire.

The next step will be covering the entire composition (angel, cross and pedestal) with gold leaf. It will take about 400 grams of precious metal to gild a weather vane weighing approximately 500 kg.

After the angel is covered in gold, restorers will install it on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Alexander Borkhvart emphasized that restorers have been given a unique chance to install the angel as reliably as possible: the entire Peter and Paul Cathedral is covered in scaffolding, and it is possible to get to the installation site of the weather vane without the help of a helicopter.

During the last restoration of the angel in 1995, the work was carried out under very difficult conditions, since the scaffolding was installed only at the very top of the spire.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral was built in 1712-1733 according to the design of the architect Domenico Trezzini. The bell tower with the figure of an angel, crowned with a golden spire, remains to this day the tallest architectural structure in St. Petersburg - 122.5 meters.

The current figure of an angel is the fourth version of the weather vane on the cathedral spire. The first angel, designed by Domenico Trezzini, died in a fire. The new figure of an angel by the sculptor Forshman stood on the spire for only three years, after which it was severely damaged by a hurricane.

To avoid such cases, it was decided to make the weather vane smaller; it was designed by the architect Antonio Rinaldi. Already in the 19th century, in 1858, when the wooden spire of the cathedral was replaced with a metal one, it was crowned with a new figure of an angel - an exact copy of the work of Rinaldi.

Longing for friends and clouds,
From the spire an angel begs for mercy...
But it's like a butterfly is pinned
Cross to the ground, on the Neva banks...
May

IN St. Petersburg has many beautiful churches and palaces.
But the most important thing is the Peter and Paul Cathedral, as the very first symbol of St. Petersburg.

In 1829, during an examination of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, it turned out that over the past hundred years, due to sedimentation, part of the iconostasis had been damaged, and that the spire, especially its uppermost part - the cross with the figure of an angel, required urgent repair. Due to the constant rotation of the weather vane, the cross at the base became too worn out and sank down, and the angel’s wing was torn off by a strong gust of wind.

They didn’t know what to do... it was necessary to build on top of the scaffolding, which would have taken a lot of time and public funds, since the height of the Peter and Paul Cathedral together with the spire to the cross is 122.5 m.

Suddenly, a way out of the difficult situation was found by itself: a young roofer, Pyotr Telushkin, came to the director of the St. Petersburg Construction Committee and said that he could try to fix all the damage on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The construction committee had no choice, because no one could offer any other options to fix the damage at the very top of the cathedral.
Telushkin, like a poor artisan, lacking the collateral required for contractors to construction works, “he pledged,” as the St. Petersburg Vedomosti put it, “his life to ensure the business he had taken upon himself.”

He did not assign a specific remuneration for his work, leaving it to his superiors to determine its value, but asked only for 1,471 rubles for the materials that he would need to carry out the repairs. Telushkin’s proposal was accepted, especially since there were few options to choose from, to put it mildly.

Not much is known about the master himself: in the spring of 1829, a 23-year-old roofer came to St. Petersburg to work from the Yaroslavl province.

It is known that he came from the village of Myagra, Mologsky district, Yaroslavl province, from the family of Mikhail Stakheev. The landowner Trusova sold it to the merchant Telushkin of the village of Vyatskoye, Danilovsky district of the same province, paying the treasury for debts with the money received.

Telushkin had some experience in such work, being a foreman in a roofing shop, he had experience in high-rise work - he had to repair the domes of churches and bell towers. He was not tall, but he could easily lift 13 pounds.

Work began on October 8, 1830. First, Pyotr Telushkin had to do the most difficult thing - climb to the end of the spire, where the cross with the angel is located, and secure a rope ladder there, along which he could then climb up. The master tied himself with a rope, secured its end to the internal structures of the cathedral tower, and began a slow and difficult climb.

When we look at the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral from below, we, of course, cannot see that it is covered with gilded copper sheets, which form vertical protrusions at the joints. In addition, from the base of the spire to its very apple, on which there is a cross with the figure of an angel, there are iron hooks along the entire length of the spire. Telushkin took advantage of this. Alternatingly resting his hands and bare feet on the ledges, he threw the rope over the hooks and secured it with ingenious knots. So, rising from hook to hook, he gradually moved upward. On the first day of work, the master managed to climb only to the base of the apple.

Telushkin completed the most difficult work, which without exaggeration can be called a feat, the next day, October 9. He had to go around the apple and rise to the cross. The main difficulty was that the spire near the apple has a diameter of about 20 centimeters, and the diameter of the apple itself is about 80 centimeters. The master made two loops from the rope, stuck his legs into them, and, hanging almost horizontally above the ground, began to throw the rope loop onto the cross. When this was successful, he was able to climb over the apple to the cross and angel, where the repairs were to be carried out. Now the rope ladder could be secured for the next climbs. For six weeks every day the master climbed the cathedral spire and worked there. He fixed the torn sheets, straightened the figure of the angel, and strengthened the cross. If we remember that the first day of the climb was on October 8, it turns out that the master worked all October and almost all November - a time when the weather in St. Petersburg is not the most favorable - a cold wind blows from the Neva, it often rains, sometimes with snow, early It's getting dark.

Telushkin’s work was watched by thousands of St. Petersburg residents, because the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is visible from afar. From the window of his house on Gagarinskaya Embankment (present-day Dvortsovaya), the then President of the Academy of Arts and Director of the Imperial Public Library, Alexei Nikolaevich Olenin, closely watched the work of the master. He even installed a telescope on the window to better see all the details. He asked to invite the master to his place so that he could tell in detail about all the details of his unusual work.

After this conversation, Olenin’s article appeared, in which he spoke about Telushkin’s feat.

It so happened that a portrait of Pyotr Telushkin has survived to this day - the artist G. Chernetsov, who painted the famous painting “Parade on Tsaritsyn Meadow in St. Petersburg in 1831”, depicted many famous St. Petersburgers in it - statesmen, famous writers, artists, St. Petersburg beauties.

Among those whom the artist “brought” to Tsaritsyn Meadow is a simple Russian peasant, Pyotr Telushkin, who accomplished a real feat for the glory of the Fatherland.

In 1831, the newspaper St. Petersburg Vedomosti described in detail the entire process of the master’s ascent to the spire of the cathedral, and the story ended with the words: “Perhaps someone else will say: “All this is wonderful, but we still need to see whether Telushkin fixed everything well.” damage?" The point is: why not! He is always ready to show his work to anyone who agrees to climb onto an apple from a Spitz along his rope ladder, for lack of another convenient way!"

And indeed, no one dared to check Telushkin’s work. And the craftsman was ordered to remove the rope ladder left at the top in May 1831.

After 110 years, steeplejacks checked the spire and on the oak binding of the frame, which was preserved even during later alterations, they found Telushkin’s painting made with paint. In fact, Pyotr Telushkin is the first famous Russian industrial climber, and people called him the “heavenly roofer.”

For all work, the master was given an amount of 1,471 rubles for the purchase of material. The masters were awarded 3 thousand rubles in banknotes and a silver medal on the Annensky ribbon with the inscription “For zeal.”

There is a legend that he was also presented with a letter, upon seeing which they were obliged to pour it for free in any tavern, but he lost it; then he was given a special mark under his right cheekbone, according to which Telushkin, when coming to a drinking establishment, snapped his fingers - this is supposedly where the characteristic gesture denoting drinking alcohol came from.

It is known that Pyotr Telushkin also repaired the boat on the spire of the Admiralty.

In May 1831, he was married to the serf girl Iraida Fedorova.

But fame and the raining roofing orders (for 300-500 thousand rubles) did not serve him well: he soon became an alcoholic and died in the fall of 1833...

In the collection of the Russian Museum there is an amazing painting “Parade and prayer service on the occasion of the end of hostilities in the Kingdom of Poland on October 6, 1831 on Tsaritsyn Meadow in St. Petersburg,” painted by Georgy Chernetsov. The artist was commissioned by Nicholas I himself, who wanted to capture not only an important moment in the history of the country, but also to create a group portrait of important people of that era.

Work on the canvas lasted five years. The emperor personally approved the list of people whose image was to appear on the canvas. Among the 300 representatives of different classes there are even burghers and peasants. So in the right corner you can see the figure of a bearded middle-aged man. This is Pyotr Telushkin, a roofing master who, at the beginning of the 19th century, was able to surprise the whole of St. Petersburg with his skill and courage.

Since 1840, the painting was in the personal rooms of Alexander II. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Master in love

A native of the Yaroslavl province appeared in St. Petersburg in 1829. The 23-year-old young man was short, but strong: according to eyewitnesses, he could lift 13 pounds (208 kg) on ​​his own. He earned his living by repairing the domes of churches and bell towers, and was sure that there would definitely be a job for him in the capital. According to legend, Peter had a dream - to buy the peasant woman Iraida Fedorova, with whom he had long been in love, from the landowner. That's why Telushkin went to the city on the Neva in search of money to try to start a new happy life. And his plans were partially destined to come true: literally a year later, many knew his name, and Emperor Nicholas I generously gifted the master, ordering his portrait to be captured in a painting by Georgy Chernetsov.

Pyotr Telushkin in a painting by Georgy Chernetsov. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

The appearance of a roofer in the city coincided with a competition that was announced to repair the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the tallest building in St. Petersburg. Due to strong winds and thunderstorms, the wing of the angel on the spire was torn off, and the cross crowning the spire was also damaged by bad weather. All reconstruction projects that were submitted to the emperor required large expenses: a significant part of the amount had to be spent on erecting scaffolding so that specialists could reach the damaged figures. Having learned about this, Pyotr Telushkin made a desperate proposal. He stated that he could repair the cross and the angel if he was given only a rope and a board. Having heard about such a daredevil, Nicholas I gave the go-ahead. However, according to the conditions of that time, the master who took on the execution of a government order had to “deliver something in return.” Since the poor worker had nothing but his skills, he “pledged his life to ensure the business he had taken upon himself,” that is, he was ready to go to prison if he did not live up to the emperor’s hopes.

Blood from under the nails

The rise was scheduled for October 8, 1830. Dozens of onlookers came to the Peter and Paul Cathedral to see this spectacle, ready for the tragic outcome of the undertaking. At that time, the spire was covered with copper sheets, which, when placed on top of each other, created vertical bends protruding 9 cm. Thanks to them, Telushkin was able to wrap a rope around the spire. He tied one end of the rope around himself for safety, and attached the other to the internal wooden fortifications of the spitz. Resting his bare feet on the copper sheets and holding the ledges with two fingers, the master gradually began to walk around the spire, climbing along it to the very top.

Exposition in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Photo: AiF-Petersburg

Closer to the apple, on which stood an angel with a cross, he saw iron hooks on the spire. Having tied the ropes using a yam knot and loops, he built a kind of stirrups that allowed him to continue climbing. Having reached the apple, whose diameter is almost 3 meters, Telushkin realized that he simply could not overcome it. He decided to take a day to think and went downstairs. According to eyewitnesses, when he left the cathedral, blood was oozing from under his nails - it took him such incredible efforts to get up.

Peter and Paul Cathedral at the end of the 19th century. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

The next day Peter returned to continue what he had started. He rose again all the way to the apple. There, thanks to additional ropes, he made stirrups for his feet. With his bare feet resting on the spire and supported by the ropes, he leaned back, hanging almost horizontally to the ground. This position allowed him to throw the rope over the base of the cross, which allowed him to climb up to the angel.

The master made this difficult journey for about 6 weeks, carrying with him the tools necessary for the repair. During this time, he returned the angel's wing, strengthened the cross and was able to secure the copper sheets.

A destructive gift

Everyone was amazed by the feat of a simple master. Alexey Olenin, director of the Imperial Public Library and honorary member of the Academy of Sciences, wrote a large article about him in the magazine “Son of the Fatherland.” According to one source, Telushkin received three thousand rubles in banknotes as a reward, according to another - five thousand rubles.

The further life of the miracle master is shrouded in secrets. Some claimed that he returned to the village, where he bought his beloved girl and married her. Others said that he was destroyed by the “green serpent.” One of the tsar’s “generous” gifts was a charter, according to which in any tavern the bearer was to be given a free glass of alcoholic drink. Legend has it that Peter lost it, and then a mark was placed under his cheekbone. Allegedly, when he came to the tavern, he hit this sign with his fingers, making it clear that they would pour him a drink. It is believed that this is where the famous gesture about drinking alcohol came from.