page_title: Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
section_title: Soviet period
hierarchical_section_title: Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra / Soviet period
caption_attribution_description: Вскрытие раки с мощами святого благоверного князя Александра Невского. 1922.
context_page_description: The Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra is a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Saint Petersburg. It is in the Diocese of Saint Petersburg and part of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where it is the cathedral church of the monastery complex.
  The cathedral is the centre-piece of the ensemble of buildings that comprises the monastery complex. Work began on the cathedral in 1719, but as it was nearing completion severe cracks were discovered in the structure that threatened its stability, and the work was ordered to be demolished in 1744. A competition design early in the reign of Empress Catherine the Great failed to produce a suitable alternative, and it was not until 1774 that a design by Ivan Starov was selected. Construction began in 1778 and the cathedral was finally completed and consecrated in 1790. On the day of the consecration the relics of St Alexander Nevsky were ceremonially transferred to the cathedral in a grand ceremony.
  The cathedral remained largely unchanged for much of its existence, its importance highlighted by the rich and valuable furnishings that were donated by the Imperial family.
context_section_description: After the revolution, many of the valuables were removed from the cathedral and placed in museums, part of the state's general confiscation of Russian Orthodox Church property.  The courtyard between the cathedral and the Metropolitan's house became a burial ground in 1917 called the Kazachye Cemetery, later the "Communist Square". The cathedral was operated between 1926 and 1933 by the Renovationist movement of the Orthodox Church, before a decision by the Leningrad Executive Committee on 16 August 1933 to close the cathedral. The last service was held on 7 December 1933, after which it passed to the House of Entertaining Science on 20 December that year.  In the 1940s, part of the building was occupied by the first district housing authority of the Smolninsky District and the State Museum of Urban Sculpture, and the rest was used as a warehouse.
  In 1955 the Holy Trinity Cathedral was returned to the Orthodox Church.  It had sustained damage during the siege of Leningrad, and after repairs it was re-consecrated on 12 September 1957 by Metropolitan Elevfery.  Further restoration works were carried out between 1957 and 1960, and 1986 and 1988. The relics of Alexander Nevsky were returned to the cathedral on 3 June 1989 from the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism where they had been stored since 1922.  The silver sarcophagus of Alexander Nevsky, which was transferred to the Hermitage Museum in 1922, remains there.  The first monastic service was held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral on 14 September 1995, and on 3 November 1997, the parish assembly was abolished and the cathedral's monastic status was restored. In 2013 the 300th anniversary of the Monastery's founding was celebrated. Between 13 and 28 July 2017 some 500,000 people visited the cathedral to worship at the relics of Saint Nicholas, which were on loan from their permanent home in Bari.
caption: The silver sarcophagus of St Alexander Nevsky, removed from the cathedral in 1922
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