Grand Church of the Winter Palace
home church of the Russian imperial family in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg
The Grand Church of the Winter Palace (Russian: Собор Спаса Нерукотворного Образа в Зимнем дворце) in Saint Petersburg, sometimes referred to as the Winter Palace's cathedral, was consecrated in 1763. It is located on the piano nobile in the eastern wing of the Winter Palace, and is the larger, and principal, of two churches within the palace. A smaller, more private church was constructed in 1768, near the private apartment in the northwest part of the wing. The Grand Church was designed by Francesco Rastrelli, and has been described as "one of the most splendid rooms" in the palace. Today, the church is an unconsecrated exhibition hall of the State Hermitage Museum.
History
Construction of the church began on 14 October 1753 (Julian calendar). Six years later, the interior design was executed by the Italian artists Carlo Zucci, Francesco Martini, Giovanni Antonio Veneroni and the sculptor G. B. Gianni. Rastrelli was personally in charge of the three-tier iconostasis where the icons were painted by Ivan Ivanovich Belsky and Ivan Vishnyakov. The Italian Francesco Fontebasso painted the evangelists in the church's spandrels and the "Resurrection of Christ" plafond in the vestibule.
The Grand Church was one of the final parts of the palace to be completed.
The public source identifies “Grand Church of the Winter Palace” as home church of the Russian imperial family in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Grand, Church and Winter.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 21, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4378125. Authority coordinates are 59.941, 30.316. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1763, 1768 and 1753.
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This entry incorporates text from “Grand Church of the Winter Palace” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.