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Church of SS. Peter and Paul (Kolomna)

3 Meshkova Street, the Memorial Park, Kolomna.

Strangely enough the history of the Church of SS. Peter and Paul is associated with a cholera epidemic raging in Kolomna and other Moscow province towns in 1770. An act was passed by Catherine II in 1771, prohibiting burials near parish churches situated in urban areas. Since then, dead people had to be buried beyond the city gates.

In 1775, the Cemetery of SS. Paul and Peter was opened near Ryazan Gates. Thanks to eagerness of Kolomna merchants, a stone church dedicated to the pre-eminent apostles SS. Peter and Paul was built there in 1779. It was a baroque building with a double-height square on a white-stone plinth. The square was adorned with rustications, pilasters, smart linings, and eave with a dome upon it. The dome featured round windows and a lantern drum crowned with the only spire.

In 1883, a small heated refectory with a side chapel dedicated to Saint Andrew the Apostle was attached to the Church. Since the mid 18th century, there was a stone almshouse for war veterans near the Church. The Church also owned a two-storey stone house in the cemetery. Upstairs, there was a room for a sexton; gravediggers lived downstairs.

In 1818, a merchant Firs Bocharnikov gave a shop to the Church. It was the will of the contributor, that one third of the receipts was used for the maintenance of priests and clergymen.

The Church did not have its own priest. Thus, the services were held by Kolomna clergymen weekly.

In the 1880s, a brotherhood dedicated to St. Nicholas existed in the Church. Under the leadership of priest John Fomintsev it supported students in need of Kolomna Religious School.

The bell tower was built with support from Kolomna merchant I. Shkarin in 1890. In 1891, a new bell of 701 poods (11,482 kg or 25,314 lbs) cast with support from Milyaev, Shkarin, Makeyeva, and other parishioners was erected. However, a new century was coming, and it brought many troubles and disasters to Kolomna churches...

In the late 19th century, the cemetery and the Church were reconstructed as a single complex upon the project of D. Vinogradov.

In 1908, a cemetery fence with three stone chapels, a gate bell tower, and side gates was built. Construction was overseen by architect F. Rybinsky.

From 1902 to 1908, the refectory was enlarged and rebuilt thanks to the efforts of the merchant Vasily Milyaev. New side chapels dedicated to St. Vasily of Ancyra and All Hallows were arranged. The old side chapel of St. Andrew was abolished.

The church refectory is very decorative: it is adorned with figured brick carvings and feigned columns impressively finished with kokoshniks. The middles of the southern and northern facades are crowned with decorative domes, three on each side. The seventh dome is above the western entrance. As experts say, this part of the Church has one of the best acoustics in the city competing with the Church of the Ascension.

The belfry and the domes were removed in the 1930s. However, the Church functioned with pauses up to 1942, when the cemetery was closed. The Church priests were arrested by authorities several times. One of them, the priest Nikolay Lebedev, the blood brother of Bishop Grigory of Shlisselburg (Lebedev), was arrested and put to death in 1936. The deacon of the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, Father Grigory Samarin, was canonised as a Russian neo-martyr and confessor in 2002.

After the services in the Church of SS. Peter and Paul were completely stopped, all icons and paintings were lost. Only gallery figured grille survived.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the cemetery was abolished. The place, where many famous citizens of Kolomna including ancestors of St. Philaret (Drozdov) were buried, was razed to the ground.

On 25 October, 1970, in the territory of the former cemetery, a memorial park was opened and eternal light in memory of the fallen during World War II was lit in front of the crowd.

In the 1970s, several more architectural monuments of the cemetery complex were demolished including the two-storey house and the 18th-century almshouse as well as one of the three fence chapels.

A gym was situated in the Church up to 1977.

Before a military museum was opened on 26 August, 1977, enthusiasts put a lot of work and effort into reconstruction of the Church of SS. Peter and Paul building, information and items collection, and decoration of the exposition.

In the early 1990s, the smart lantern drum with an onion dome was restored.

In 1996, a memorial cross was erected on the northern side of the Church, where Metropolitan Philaret's (Drozdov) father and other relatives were buried.

An Orthodox community of the Church of SS. Peter and Paul was registered in 1997. Services for the dead are held from time to time in the former cemetery (later the Memorial Park).

In 2003, two survived chapels dedicated to the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker were handed over to the community.

In 2006, the Chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker situated in the fence of the former cemetery was reconstructed. Now it is daily opened for the believers.

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