For two centuries, almost all Russian emperors, from Peter I to Alexander III, were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
The tombstones of the kings were repeatedly remade and replaced with new ones, due to their dilapidation and unsightly appearance. Stone was replaced by marble, gray Karelian marble gave way to white Italian, etc. The royal tomb survived two large-scale replacements of tombstones: in the 1770s (during the rebuilding of the Cathedral) and in 1865.
Initially, tombstones made of white alabaster stone were placed over the burial places in the cathedral. In the 1770s, during the restoration of the cathedral, they were replaced with others made of gray Karelian marble.
In 1865, by decree of Alexander II, 15 tombstones were replaced with new ones at once. It must be assumed that the tombstones of the last seven emperors and their wives were remade.
The tombstones on the graves of Alexander II and his wife were in turn replaced by Alexander III in 1887, less than a decade after their deaths.
Thus, all the royal tombstones in the Peter and Paul Cathedral are replicas of the second half of the 19th century.
There are no graves in the Peter and Paul Cathedral:
- Peter 2 (who died in Moscow and was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin)
- John VI Antonovich, who was killed in the Shlisselburg fortress.
In the autumn of 1921, the then government again needed gold and jewelry.
Orders, pectoral crosses, rings, gold buttons from uniforms, silver vessels in which the entrails of the dead were stored - all this, in the eyes of the Bolsheviks, was subject to expropriation. Precious wreaths and ancient icons that once adorned the royal tombstones had already been taken away in an unknown direction by the Provisional Government.
Under the pretext of helping the starving Volga region, the tombs of all Russian emperors and empresses, from Peter I to Alexander III, inclusive, were opened.
This action gave rise to many rumors about the fate of the remains. According to one version, the remains of the kings were transferred to oak coffins and taken to the crematorium, which had been established shortly before and soon closed.
Naturally, the exhumation was by no means carried out in the interests of historical science. Values were described and confiscated "in favor of the starving."
Eyewitness accounts of this outrageous action contain some important details.
These memoirs - oral, transmitted from other people's words - were once collected by L. Lyubimov and later supplemented by the historian N. Eidelman for his book "The First Decembrist". The act of exhumation, which was signed by all members of the commission, has not yet been found.
Who was found?
In the memoirs, they report finding the remains of all the kings and queens, except for Alexander I. Alexander's coffin is completely empty, only at the very bottom "a little dust". Some of the members of the commission recall on this occasion the legend of the elder Fyodor Kuzmich, I have my own explanation for the loss of Alexander.
Others contain minimal bones and clothing. Paul's skull is allegedly split into several pieces. Others report that Paul was embalmed, covered with a wax mask, which was swollen in places and they even saw a grimace of horror on Paul's face.
At the same time, without exception, all eyewitnesses noted the perfect preservation of Peter I.
The emperor was dressed in a green uniform and leather boots and looked like himself, as he was depicted in the paintings.
These days, the opening of the grave of Alexander III, carried out at the initiative of the church, is expected. A genetic examination will be carried out to identify the remains of his son, Nicholas II. Whether it will come to the revision of all the royal remains is not yet known.
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The custom of burial of rulers and high dignitaries in the church came to Rus' from Byzantium, it formed the basis of the tradition of erecting grand-princely temples-tombs for representatives of one dynasty. The Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin is such an ancestral necropolis. Representatives of Moscow's ruling dynasties, the Rurikids and the Romanovs, were buried here.
The Archangel Cathedral of Ivan Kalita became the first grand ducal tomb. By the beginning of the 16th century, Ivan III decided to disassemble the great-grandfather's tomb and build a new, more spacious one. Four years later, the stone tombs of the ancestors were returned to the newly built tomb. But first, its founder, Ivan III, who died on October 27, 1505, was laid in the cathedral.
The burial places of the Rurik princes are located along the walls of the cathedral in a certain order. Along the southern wall are buried mainly the great Moscow princes; along the western - specific, close relatives of the grand dukes; along the north - the princes who fell into disfavor and died a violent death. At the northwestern and southwestern pillars, representatives of the Tatar nobility who converted to Orthodoxy and were at the Russian court were buried.
Under Ivan the Terrible, a royal tomb was built in the deacon's room - the southern part of the altar room of the cathedral. The creation of a special tomb was dictated by the adoption of the royal title by Ivan IV. In addition to the tomb of Grozny himself, there are the burial places of his sons - Ivan Ivanovich, who suffered from his father's anger, and Fyodor Ivanovich, who ruled after his father's death. The youngest son of Ivan IV, Tsarevich Dmitry, who died in Uglich in 1591 at the age of less than nine, also rests in the Archangel Cathedral. Since 1606, the shrine with the holy relics of Tsarevich Dimitri has been located at the southeastern pillar of the cathedral.
The tombs of the royal Romanov dynasty are located near the pillars in the central part of the cathedral. The founder of the dynasty, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, as well as tsars Alexei Mikhailovich, Fedor Alekseevich and Ivan Alekseevich found peace here. Russian emperors, starting with Peter I, were buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Only Emperor Peter II, the grandson of Peter I, who died in Moscow in 1730 from smallpox, rests in the Archangel Cathedral.
Burials were made in white-stone sarcophagi, they were lowered under the floor into the ground. Brick tombstones with white stone slabs, decorated with fine carved floral ornaments and epitaphs made in Slavic script, were erected over the graves. At the beginning of the 20th century, the tombstones were placed in glazed brass cases with superimposed crosses and inscriptions. In total, there are fifty-four graves in the cathedral under forty-four tombstones and two commemorative plates.
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the tomb of the Russian tsars. February 6th, 2014
Today, as every time I visit St. Petersburg, I visited the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the resting place of members of the Romanov dynasty.
I believe that this is a holy place for every Russian person, because here is the ashes of those who built our country, its cities, ports, roads, created the basis of its industry. The ashes of those who created Russia in the usual understanding and representation for everyone. Those who for centuries defended Christianity and Orthodox peoples from foreign enslavement.
The existing Russian turmoil began exactly at the moment when the Russian monarchy disappeared, and there was very little to wait until the centenary of this event.
Orthodox Russian tsars built and protected our state for centuries, collected new lands, making the Russian Empire, or simply Russia, the largest country in the world. In the end, it was the monarchical form of the state that existed in our history an order of magnitude more than all other forms of Russian statehood
Anthem of the Russian Empire.
Gate to the fortress.
Peter and Paul Cathedral. Until the year before last, the tallest building in St. Petersburg. Completely built by 1733.
The interior of the temple.
It was unpleasant that when visiting excursion groups, guides and caretakers do not make remarks to men who do not take off their hats, but there were some, especially among foreigners. Unfortunately, many perceive the cathedral not as a sacred temple, but as a museum exhibit.
Catherine's chapel, where the remains of the family of the last Russian Tsar, who were brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinburg in 1918, are buried.
The Russian Orthodox Church has already canonized them in our time.
The burial of the founder of the Russian Empire and the city of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great.
The burial of the greatest Russian Empress Catherine II, thanks to whose deeds, including the current state of Ukraine, owns a third of its territory.
Photos of other members of the dynasty who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The winner of Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Alexander the First.
Nicholas the First, who successfully suppressed the first liberal rebellion in the history of the Russian state - the uprising of the Decembrists.
Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna, mother of the last Emperor Nicholas II, who escaped death only because she was in Kyiv in 1917.
She died in Western Europe, in 2006 she was reburied here.
In Kyiv, in her honor, in 1916, the current Petrovsky railway bridge was named, among other things. In general, she did a lot of useful things for our city, sincerely loved it and always spent a long time in it.
Later, in Soviet Russia, her memory, of course, was forgotten.
Her husband, Emperor Alexander III, who died suddenly in the Crimea from an illness in 1894. After him, power passed to their son Nicholas, who was destined to become the last Russian Tsar.
The builder of Kyiv is Emperor Nicholas I. It was thanks to his personal participation that Kyiv began to turn from a city of monasteries and pilgrims into a major provincial center with a developed industry and transport infrastructure. Under him, most of the streets of the center of Kyiv were laid, as we can see them to this day.
Alexander II - Tsar Liberator. He freed the peasantry from serfdom and the Balkan peoples from the Turkish yoke.
He was killed in 1881 in St. Petersburg by Narodnaya Volya terrorists. So in those years, the predecessors of the current enemies of the Russian state called themselves, from pro-Western liberals to Trotskyists and Islamic militants.
The family of the last Russian Tsar.
Troitsky Bridge of St. Petersburg, built in 1903 for the 200th anniversary of St. Petersburg. Under the USSR it was called Kirovsky.
And the frozen Neva.
View of the Peter and Paul Cathedral from the Trinity Bridge.
During the turbulent history of Petropavlovka, not only its external architectural appearance, but also the memorial one was formed. In fact, today it is a whole necropolis with facade, half-open and not yet explored sides.
Who is buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress
Official burials on the territory of the fortress appeared even before the completion of the construction of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which became known as the Peter and Paul Cathedral. In a temple made of wood in 1708, Catherine, the daughter of Peter I, was the first to be buried in infancy. In 1715-1717, the graves of three more young children of the sovereign appeared in the unfinished cathedral - daughters Natalia, Margarita and son Pavel. At the same time, Queen Marfa Matveyevna also found her last refuge here.
Despite interfamily strife and accusations of conspiracy, at the behest of Peter the Great, his disgraced eldest son Alexei (died under unclear circumstances in 1718) and sister Maria (March 1723) rested in the imperial tomb. Their graves are located under the bell tower in the aisle of St. Catherine. In 1725, the body of the reposed Peter I was transferred to the church.
Peter the First
The last Tsar of All Rus' (since 1682) and the first Emperor of All Russia (since 1721) died at the age of 52 in January 1725 in the Winter Palace. In accordance with the regulations of the ceremonial, developed by him, the body for parting was originally exhibited in the same place in the mourning hall. The sovereign was in a coffin in lace-embroidered brocade clothes with a sword and St. Andrew the First-Called on his chest.
After a month, he was embalmed and transferred to a temporary wooden church specially erected in honor of the sad case, installed right in the unfinished Cathedral of Peter and Paul. And only six years later, in 1731, at the behest of Anna Ioannovna, who reigned at that time, Peter the Great, together with his wife Catherine I, who reposed two years later than the sovereign, were buried in the imperial tomb of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Their tombs-crypts, the chambers of which are located under the floor, are located at the southern entrance to the temple. As evidenced by inscriptions and crosses made of pure gold.
Tombs in the Peter and Paul Fortress
The fortress temple became the last home for almost all the sovereigns of Russia, including Alexander III.
Catherine II
The tomb of Catherine the Great, located in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, lacks an epitaph, which the Empress herself composed during her lifetime. “Having ascended the Russian throne, she wished well and tried to bring happiness, freedom and property to her subjects,” the empress wrote about herself. Her death was as turbulent and gossip-shrouded as her life.
But the most tragic thing is that the son Pavel, who inherited the crown, ordered to bury his mother next to the body of the murdered Peter III brought from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and crowned by him personally. The cocooned former spouses lay side by side in the mourning tent of the Winter Palace for 4 days in early December 1796, and then were moved to the cathedral for burial.
“Just think that these spouses spent their whole lives together on the throne, died and were buried on the same day,” Nikolai Grech wrote about this event.
The general list does not include only Peter II, who was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Kremlin, as well as John VI Antonovich, who was killed in the Oreshek fortress. After the burial in 1831, at the request of Nicholas I, his brother Konstantin Pavlovich, members of the imperial family began to be buried on the territory of the temple.
Ekaterina Mikhailovna, Grand Duchess
The granddaughter of Paul I found her last refuge in the cathedral on May 4 (16), 1894, having died after a long illness. The Grand Duchess was known for her philanthropic work in Russia, her promotion of women's education, and her conservative views.
After death, the funeral litiya was held in her house - the Mikhailovsky Palace. Alexander III took part in the burial in the imperial tomb. The name of Ekaterina Mikhailovna went down in history as an example of philanthropy and care for one's neighbor.
In connection with the overcrowding of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, in 1897 - 1908, the Grand Duke's tomb was erected nearby, connected to it by a covered gallery. During the period from 1908 to 1915, the graves of 13 people appeared in it, 8 of which were reburied from the cathedral. Since 1992, the tradition has been resumed, and so far 4 burials of members and those close to the imperial family have been added.
Still buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress
Next to the cathedral was the commandant's cemetery, where almost all the chiefs of the fortress were laid to rest. In addition, from the moment the first prisoners appeared in Petropavlovka in 1717 and until the official closure of the Trubetskoy Bastion prison in 1923, cases of suicide and natural death were repeatedly recorded here. Therefore, it is possible that not all the dead were taken outside the citadel for burial.
Periodic random finds since the end of the 80s of the last century of the so-called execution pits with the remains of those killed in 1917-1921 indicate that these little-studied graves are chronologically the last in the history of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The custom of burial in the church came to Rus' from Byzantium, where this honor was awarded to those who “did not die even after death”: basileus (kings), high dignitaries, patriarchs. This custom formed the basis of the tradition of erecting grand-princely temples-tombs for representatives of one dynasty. Family or dynastic tombs, as a rule, were dedicated to the archangel Michael, who, according to Christian mythology, was the guide of the souls of the dead to the kingdom of the dead. The Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin is such an ancestral necropolis. Representatives of the Moscow ruling dynasties - the Rurikovichs and the Romanovs - were buried here.
The Archangel Cathedral of Ivan Kalita became the first grand ducal tomb. But by the beginning of the 16th century, the crowding of the temple with coffins was so great that Ivan III decided to dismantle the great-grandfather's tomb and build a new, more spacious one. Before starting work, the Grand Duke ordered the white-stone sarcophagi of the ancestors to be transferred from the cathedral to the church of St. John of the Ladder.
Four years later, the stone coffins of the ancestors were returned to the newly built tomb and buried in predetermined places. But the first to be laid in the cathedral was its founder himself, the "sovereign of all Rus'" Ivan III, who died on October 27, 1505.
Starting from the XIV century, the tomb of the Moscow princely house was the personification of the idea of reconciliation and harmony for the sake of the unity of Rus' under the leadership of Moscow. In it, irreconcilable enemies found eternal rest next to each other, reaching extreme bitterness in internecine struggle.
The burial places of the Rurik princes are located along the walls of the cathedral in a certain order. Along the southern wall are buried mainly the great Moscow princes; along the western - specific, close relatives of the great princes; along the north - princes who fell into disfavor and died a violent death. Such are the graves of the princes Staritsky, Vladimir Andreevich and his son Vasily, victims of the oprichnina policy of Ivan the Terrible. At the northwestern and southwestern pillars, representatives of the Tatar nobility who converted to Orthodoxy and were at the Russian court were buried.
Burials were made in white-stone sarcophagi, which were lowered under the floor into the ground. Brick tombstones with white stone slabs, decorated with fine carved floral ornaments and epitaphs made in Slavic script, were erected over the graves. At the beginning of the 20th century, the tombstones were placed in glazed brass cases with superimposed crosses and inscriptions. At the same time, errors were made in the inscriptions: specific princes were named great, and in some cases incorrect dates of death were given. In total, there are fifty-six graves in the cathedral under forty-five tombstones and two memorial plates.
