St. Petersburg residents oppose excavations and construction of a temple in Rozhdestvensky Park

On November 16, 2012, it became known that residents of the Central District of St. Petersburg sent letters to the governor, deputies of the Legislative Assembly, the prosecutor's office and the mayor's office of the city with a request to intervene in the process of archaeological excavations and the construction of an Orthodox church in Rozhdestvensky Square (at the intersection of 6th Sovetskaya Street and Krasnoborsky lane). A similar letter was sent to the metropolis.

It was planned to restore the Church of the Nativity on Sands, destroyed in 1934, back in 2004, but local residents were against it, pointing out that then “the only green corner for old and young people within a radius of 600-700 meters will disappear”, “children with poor health - the pupils of kindergarten No. 50 will lose the only place for games and walks, "construction can be dangerous for the surrounding houses, which already have cracks.

At the beginning of September 2012, archaeological excavations were started on the territory of the square, the customer of which is the “Orthodox local religious organization parish of the Church of the Nativity on Sands”. For excavations in July 2011, the parish of the still unrestored church was leased part of the territory of the Christmas Square.

The chairman of the parish council, Archpriest Andrey Shcherban, told journalists that the Church intends to demand the return of the foundation and wall fragments of the church building to the property. “Since there are fragments of the building, the remains of the church may receive the status of a real estate object - in this case, it is within the competence of the regional authorities to transfer it to us for adaptation to modern use, and we will be able to recreate the temple,” he commented on the need for excavations.

At the same time, representatives of the State Construction Supervision and Expertise Service of St. Petersburg informed the initiative group of residents of the Tsentralny District that “the service did not issue a building permit at the indicated address, and the design documentation for construction (reconstruction) was not received by the State Expertise Center.”

Sources

• Vinokurov G., Semykina E. They want to take away a square from Petersburgers in order to build a church // 812 online. 2012. November 16.