At
the end of the 19th century there were 46 graves of Emperors and Grand
Dukes in the St. Peter and St. Paul’s Cathedral thus leaving virtually
no room for new burials. Hence in 1896 the construction of the Grand
Dukes’ Burial Place began to last till 1908 (the architects D.Grimm,
A.Tomishko, L.Benois). On November 5, 1908 the newly constructed building
of the Grand Dukes’ Burial Place was consecrated. First the altar
in honor of Saint Alexander Nevsky was consecrated, then the rest of the
building. Already on November 8, 1908 the first tomb appeared in the Grand
Dukes’ Burial Place. At the southern part, next to the alter, the Grand
Duke Alexei Aleksandrovitch, the son of Alexander II, was buried. The
construction of the new building brought no changes to the established
burial procedure – the ceremony remained the same. The burial service
was read at St. Peter and St. Paul’s Cathedral, then the coffin with the
remains was brought to the Vault, where a brief lithium was delivered upon
which the coffin was lowered into the prepared grave.
Unlike
the Cathedral, 60 burial vaults were made in the floor of the Vault while
it was still being constructed. The graves themselves also differed from
those in the Cathedral. They represented two-tier concrete crypts. Each
vault was safely sealed with three stone slabs and over the grave on the
floor level a white marble slab was put. Written on it with super-imposed
letters was title, name, place and date of birth and death, date of
burial.
In
1916 there were 13 tombs at the Vault out of which 8 were transferred from
the St. Peter and St. Paul’s Cathedral between 1909 – 1912.
After
the revolution of 1917 the Vault experienced hard times. In 1926 the
building and its interior decoration were considered to have no artistic
value. All bronze decorative elements were removed and melted, the tombs
were destroyed, the vaults unsealed. Since the 1930s the building was used
as a warehouse of the State Central Book Chamber. Between 1952-1954 the
Vault had virtually no owner. On August 19, 1954 the building was given to
the Leningrad Department of Culture and it was only 10 years later that
the restoration works began. By that time all interior decoration was
lost: gone was the stained glass panel in the eastern window, the solium,
the Holy Doors, the alter pediment. During the restoration of 1964 they
were not recreated.
In
1992 the burial tradition in the Vault was resumed. On May 29 the Grand
Duke Vladimir Kirillovitch, Alexander II’s great grandson, was buried
there. Later, in 1995 the ashes of his parents – the Grand Duke Kirill
Vladimirovitch and the Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna – were
transferred there.
Spurred
by the resumed burials the restoration works began in the Vault, during
which the northern graves were examined and put in order, the grave slabs
located at the southern wall as well as the tomb of the Grand Duke
Konstantin Konstantinovitch were restored.
The
recreation of the lost tombs as well as the original outlook of the Vault
is still under way.
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