Three churches on the Obvodny Canal embankment

All the day's business was finished, evening was descending on the city, and the sky had taken on a beautiful blue color. I decided to take a little walk before going home. The beginning of my walk was on Ligovsky Prospekt, at the point where the avenue crosses the Obvodny Canal. I stopped briefly on the bridge over the canal to look at the view towards sunset. The bright sunset colors had already faded, but the sun was still slightly illuminating the edge of the sky from behind the horizon.

The area of Ligovsky Prospekt is the old city outskirts. The Obvodny Canal was the city border. Ligovsky Prospekt was an old Novgorod road. The road ran along an elevated plot of land long before the city was built. After the founding of St. Petersburg, this road became the main trade and postal route, and near the intersection of the Obvodny Canal and Ligovsky Prospekt, the Yamskaya Sloboda was located. Here settled the coachmen with their families.

Most of the residential houses of this settlement were wooden, and they have not survived to this day. The embankments were built up with apartment houses in the late XIX century. Most of these buildings look rather modest. But in the center of the former sloboda there is an architectural landmark - an architectural ensemble, including three churches and several auxiliary buildings.

The first church was built on this place at the very beginning of the XVIII century. It was a simple wooden chapel, and it did not last long, soon a new stone church was erected in its place. The parish expanded and grew. Instead of wooden buildings appeared stone buildings, the first church was enlarged, then another church was built next to it, and the entrance to the church territory was decorated with a high bell tower.

From the side of Ligovsky Prospekt the entrance to the church territory is decorated with two semicircular colonnades with chapels. On the left and right the entrance to the arch is guarded by sculptures of the Apostles Peter and Paul. In the arch there is a scheme of church buildings, I took a photo of this scheme. There is also information about upcoming services and an invitation to classes on the basics of the Orthodox faith for those wishing to receive Holy Baptism.

The main temple of this architectural complex is the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross, it was built in the middle of the XVIII century in the Baroque style, and rebuilt a century later in the Neo-Baroque style. The bell tower is a later building, it was made in a similar style. On the second floor of the bell tower is a small church in the name of Saints Cyril and Methodius. At the back of the site is the church of the Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God, built in the late 18th century and reminiscent of ancient Novgorod churches.