COURT CATHEDRAL OF OUR LADY FEODOROVSKAYA in Tsarskoe Selo, located at 32 Akademichesky Avenue, Pushkin, an architectural monument, attached to the unfinished complex of Feodorovsky settlement. Construction works commissioned by the Imperial family were undertaken in 1909-12, to the designs of architect V. A. Pokrovsky, who took the Holy Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin as a model. The building includes the Upper Church consecrated in the name of the Icon of Our Lady Feodorovskaya, which was a sacred, ancestral icon belonging the Romanov Dynasty, and the Lower (Cave) Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov. The facades are adorned with mosaic panels made in the workshop of V. A. Frolov. The five-tier iconostasis of the Upper Church contains icons made in Moscow in the workshop of N. S. Emelyanov according to ancient patterns, it can currently be seen in the Museum of Religious History. The church plates were made to look like those of the 17th century and were produced by Olovyanishnikov’s Company. The Lower church is decorated according to the plans of architect V. L. Maximov with 17th century icons. The walls were upholstered with dark textile and ornamented with polychrome patterns (artists I. P. Pashkov and V. S. Shcherbakov). The cathedral treasured the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov. The Imperial family of Emperor Nicholas II usually prayed here (there was also a separate chapel for the Empress). The cathedral was originally owned by His Imperial Majesty’s Escort and Household Infantry Regiment, which guarded the Imperial residence, but was transferred to government ownership in 1914. At the beginning of 1934, the cathedral was closed down and turned into a cinema theatre, decorations were either taken to museums or ransacked. In the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, the building was extensively damaged, later it functioned as a storehouse. In 1985-95, restoration was carried out. In February 1992, services in the Lower church were resumed, and in the summer of 1996 services started in the Upper church as well. In 1993, a bronze bust of Emperor Nicholas II (sculptor V. V. Zayko) was unveiled next to Court Cathedral of Our Lady Feodorovskaya.

References: Мещанинов М. Ю. Храмы Царского Села, Павловска и их ближайших окрестностей. СПб., 2000. С. 41-52; Кузнецов В. В. "Вспоминаю наш храм..." // С.-Петерб. епарх. ведомости. 2001. № 24. С. 77-87; Черновская Л. Ф. Государев собор // Там же. С. 88-95; Феодоровский Государев собор / Авт. текста: Л. В. Бардовская, Г. Д. Ходасевич. СПб., 2002.

V. V. Antonov. Emelyanov Nikolay Sergeevich
Frolov Vladimir Alexandrovich
Nicholas II, Emperor
Olovyanishnikov P.I.
Pashkov Ivan Vasilievich
Pokrovsky Vladimir Alexandrovich
Shcherbakov Valentin Semenovich
Zayko Viktor Vladimirovich
Akademichesky Avenue/Pushkin, town, house 32