Church of the Three Hierarchs

The Church of the Three Saints is a modest, discreet building near St. Andrew’s Cathedral on St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island. The date of its foundation is considered to be July 2, 1740. The architect Giuseppe Trezzini created the project that was put in its basis.

Initially, when St. Andrew’s Cathedral was wooden, a warm room was needed for winter church services. It was then that the idea of building a stone church, approved by Empress Anna Ioannovna, arose. In 1760, when the construction was completed, the temple was consecrated in honor of the universal hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, and the church itself also became so called. The building has three entrances and a small dome on the roof, so it is not immediately possible to understand that the temple is in front of you.

The interior of the church is rich and beautiful. Here are preserved images of ancient writing, iconostasis of the 19th century, gilded jewelry, church utensils, ancient icons. A special place is occupied by panicadilo and bronze altar cross.

There is a legend that in this temple the dead of smallpox were buried during the epidemic, so it was called “pox”. According to other reports, the church belonged to the Georgian diaspora, as evidenced by the preserved tombstone epitaph in the Georgian language. In Soviet times, there was a knitting factory, and only in 1991 the church was returned to the diocese, and later reconstructed. Now the temple is active, working daily.

You can get from the metro station "Vasileostrovsky" pedestrian 6th line of Vasilievsky Island.