History of the restoration period in photos
Photos of the Friday’s work sessions
Portraits of the Restoration’s participants
At the end of 2006 Boris Gryzlov, the Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, visited the church. He accepted the offer of Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir to establish and to head the Board of Trustees created to guide the reconstruction of the church. Restoration began in summer of 2007 and lasted for six years, not ceasing even for one day.
It is hard to imagine the scale of the works done, bearing in mind that the cathedral was used for decades as an industrial enterprise.
Despite the church’s bad luck in Soviet atheist years, it was rewarded generously by the restoration period. The deficiencies and shortcomings that occurred during its initial construction were eliminated, though they were never destined for correction.
The restoration works were funded every year from different sources: both public (Federal and Municipal budgets) and private. The Board of Trustees managed to attract noteworthy sponsors, who made it possible to execute a range of works not covered by State programs. A Soviet era building was purchased and later on reconstructed as the House of the Clergy. Parishioners also readily responded to the appeal to raise funds to enable the painting of new icons and reconstitution of church utensils.
The restoration project was designed by the architecture and restoration workshop No. 5 «The Research Institute Spetsproektrestavratsiya» (St.Petersburg). Restoration works were performed by such companies as «Resma», «Vympel» and «Promproject» (Moscow), as well as «The Construction Culture» (St.Petersburg). The design and installation of new engineering networks were conducted by the company «Telros» (St.Petersburg).
The first two and a half years (2007-2009) were needed in order to get rid of the factory’s heritage (removal of annexes, floors, old engineering networks). Old ceilings in the lower and upper churches were torn down, and works in the basement were conducted in order to make it waterproof. The most impressive outcome of this period was the recreation of the five domes of the Cathedral. On August 29, 2009 the festival of Patrons and the Board of Trustees’ session were held in the glow of the new golden domes.
In 2010-2011 all the facilities of the basement as well as the lower and the upper churches were restored and decorated. Some roofs were tiled and others were covered with copper. New engineering networks were constructed, and the Bell Tower was restored. Works on reconstruction of the inner decoration and the liturgical utensils of the Cathedral started.
In autumn of 2011 a marble altar and a marble baptistery were erected under the guidance of Archimandrite Zinon (Theodore) in the lower church. He also started to paint frescos on the apses.
Another gift was the recreation of all the 11 bells of «Romanov ringing». The bells rang for the first time at a ceremony on March 27, 2011, on the feast of Feodorovskaya icon.
During the year 2012 an intense effort was made to restore the white-stoned facades of the church, including the majolica panel and the mosaic icon above the main entrance. Inside the church the decoration work was in full swing: the interior items, the five-tier iconostasis of the upper church and many other things were recreated.
Near the church the St. Petersburg construction company «Dal′piterstroj» reconstructed the historic House of the Clergy, the foundation of which was laid in the summer of 2011.
In its jubilee year 2013, the Feodorovsky cathedral stands completely renewed. The 100-year anniversary of the cathedral has become a start of a new era in its long history.