St. Petersburg Cathedral Mosque

Cathedral Mosque is one of the architectural landmarks of Russia’s Northern Capital. The majestic granite building is located in the historical center of the city, on Kronverksky Prospekt, opposite a shady park. At the time of its construction in the early XX century, the mosque in St. Petersburg was considered the largest in Eastern Europe. Its turquoise dome invariably attracts the attention of tourists visiting the city’s monuments. The mosque looks especially spectacular in the evenings, when in the illumination of spotlights it resembles a shimmering mirage, which captured the fairy tales of the East.

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Highlights

The Cathedral Mosque building is a striking example of the architectural style known as Northern Art Nouveau. Despite its distinctly oriental appearance, the structure fits perfectly into the surrounding environment of the city. Today the Cathedral Mosque belongs to the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of St. Petersburg and the North-West region of Russia, and has the status of an architectural monument.

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The architectural appearance of the mosque in St. Petersburg surprisingly combines the laconic style of Art Nouveau, fashionable in the early XX century, and sophisticated decor of Mohammedan architecture. Monumental facades of deliberately roughly finished granite slabs unexpectedly harmoniously include colorful elements of traditional cult architecture of the Muslim East. The medieval Gur-Emir mausoleum in Samarkand served as a model for decorating the dome.

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History of the mosque in St. Petersburg

Back in the late 18th century, about 500 lower ranks and officers of the Muslim faith serving in the troops of the capital’s garrison petitioned their superiors to erect a prayer building in the city. A few years later, the military department commissioned designs for the building. One of them belonged to the court architect Luigi Rusca, who left a bright trace in the image of St. Petersburg. However, his project of the mosque, submitted for the highest consideration in 1803, remained unrealized, as well as other proposals.

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Only in 1898 the capital authorities allowed the establishment of a Muslim charitable society, which was allowed to collect donations for the construction of the Cathedral Mosque in St. Petersburg. Honorary members of this organization were the Emir of Bukhara and the Khan of Khiva, who made significant monetary contributions to the God-pleasing cause. But the real opportunity to realize the dream of the St. Petersburg Muslims opened only at the beginning of the next century, when under the onslaught of revolutionary events that shook Russia in 1905-1906, Emperor Nicholas II signed a manifesto on religious freedom.

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In May 1906, a committee for the construction of the Cathedral Mosque in St. Petersburg was established, headed by an officer of the General Staff, the famous orientalist Abdulaziz Davletshin. 45 projects were submitted to the competition announced by the Imperial Society of Architects. Members of the jury, and their number included academicians of architecture and professors of the Academy of Arts, chose the work of a young architect Nikolai Vasilyev. For the construction of the mosque were purchased land near Kronverksky Prospekt. The foundation of the building was laid in February 1910 in the presence of Emir of Bukhara Seyid Abdulahad-khan, Lieutenant General Prince Felix Yusupov, an envoy of the Shah of Persia and other honored guests, which was announced by a silver plaque embedded in the base of the structure. The Cathedral Mosque received the believers after three years, but the finishing work continued.

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At the end of 1917, the Council of People’s Commissars, which came to power, ordered the arrest of bank accounts of the committee for the construction of the mosque in Petrograd. Construction work was interrupted. The interiors of the prayer hall remained unfinished. Majolica elements for decoration were made at the factory of the firm “Gelwein-Vaulin” in Gatchina, but during the revolutionary days the enterprise burned down and was not renewed, unique molds for castings were destroyed. Nevertheless, it was still possible to complete the ceramic roofs, stained-glass glazing of the windows, and install a beautiful cast-iron grille near the building, cast on a pre-revolutionary order.

The last gift of the Emir of Bukhara was a huge carpet woven in Tabriz, covering 400 m². It was delivered to Petrograd in 1920. Soon the city authorities closed the mosque, and its premises were used as a warehouse. The prayer building was returned to the Muslim community in 1955. Restoration works were repeatedly carried out in the heavily damaged mosque. Destroyed ceramic fragments were replaced with elements of glazed porcelain. Turkish masters were invited to renew the wall ornamental paintings. The last restoration was completed in 2015.

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Architecture and interior of the Cathedral Mosque

The main volume of the mosque building in St. Petersburg is a massive cubic structure measuring 42 by 32 meters. The facades are made of blocks of Finnish granite with voluminous decorative chipping of the front surface. The arched niche of the entrance portal decorated with colored tiles, high lancet windows with geometric stained glass in restrained tones stand out brightly against the background of gray stone. The cylindrical dome, crowned with a golden crescent moon, rises 39 meters. Under its canopy there is a prayer hall for 5000 worshippers. The appearance of the building is completed by two 49-meter minarets, their tops are decorated with elegant turrets with ribbed domes. The bearing structures of the minaret towers and the central dome with a diameter of 14 meters are made of reinforced concrete. Granite facing was ordered in Finland, masters from Central Asia were invited to decorate the building.

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The interior is decorated with majolica, skillfully folded into beautiful patterns. On the walls are arranged plafonds with calligraphic Arabic script of quotations from the Koran surrounded by floral ornaments.

The main prayer hall is located in the center of the building.

The main prayer hall on the first floor is for men only. The part of the hall to the left of the entrance is separated by a decorative lattice, here is the entrance to the women’s prayer hall on the second tier. A marble staircase leads to the third floor. This is where the offices and the Muslim Sunday school are located.

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Practical information

The mosque in St. Petersburg is open for visits from 10:00 to 17:00. Entrance is gratuitous, but the attendants will bless anyone dropping small donations into the slot of the box at the entrance.

Tourists should follow certain rules when exploring. Gathering on this excursion, pick up closed clothes, ladies should refuse bright cosmetics, and also take a scarf, covering the hair. Before entering, you should take off your shoes, mute your phones.

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Loud conversations in the mosque are not welcome. It is allowed to photograph the interiors, but it is not customary to point the lens at the faces of ministers and worshippers.

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Where to eat

Right in front of the mosque, in Alexander Park, 3-G, an establishment with a cheerful sign “More coffee!” awaits you. Fans of Japanese cuisine will be pleased with the cafe “Eurasia”, which is 150 meters north of the Cathedral Mosque (Kronverksky Prospekt, 13/2). Its menu also offers a good choice of European dishes. The price range for the main items is 230-599 rubles. A two-minute walk away is the Spices and Joys restaurant, where you can have a hearty lunch. The average check will be 900 rubles per visitor.

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How to get there

The Cathedral Mosque of St. Petersburg is located in the Petrogradsky district of the city, on Kronverksky Prospekt, 7. Nearby is the stop of buses № 122, 170, 172 and marshrutka № 308. The nearest metro station is Gorkovskaya.

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