Spire of the Peter and Paul Fortress: interesting facts and photos. The spire of the Peter and Paul Fortress A beautiful angel flew to the Peter and Paul Cathedral

The angel located on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral has long become one of the symbols of St. Petersburg. True, the figure, familiar to all residents of the city, is already the fourth in the history of St. Petersburg.

The amazing story of a miracle roofer named Peter Telushkin, who repaired the angel on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the most extraordinary way.

The spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral (the first large church in St. Petersburg, located on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress) has long been the cathedral structure in the city - one hundred twenty-two and a half meters. At the top of its spire there is, naturally, a cross and a gilded angel. Moreover, the angel is a weather vane, it rotates and shows the direction of the wind.

And one curious story happened to this angel.

Guide Alexey Pashkov tells amazing story repairing the angel on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Repair of the angel on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

This was in 1830. A strong storm swept over St. Petersburg, the wind was very strong. And the angel was bent by the wind, almost torn off the cross. The angel needed repairs. But in order to fix it, we first had to somehow get there. How to get there? At that time there was only one way - to build scaffolding the entire height of the spire. But forests are long, expensive and ugly. And then a volunteer was found; his name was Pyotr Telushkin, who volunteered to climb there without any scaffolding and fix the angel right there, on the spot, without removing him from the cross. He was allowed to try.

How did he climb?

He began by climbing out onto the spire of the smallest windows, over which there is a small cornice. He climbed out onto this cornice and, standing on it, began to walk around the spire in a circle and tie a rope around it. He actually walked around the spire, tied the rope, and tied himself to it. And then... Do you know how they climb poles with the help of two loops: throw it on - pull it up, throw it on it - pull it up? That's how he climbed up.

In this way he reached the ball under the angel (the golden ball, or the “golden apple”, as it is called). From below it seems small. In fact, it is two and a half meters in diameter. Of course, there was no way to get over it.

What did he do then? He untied himself from the spire, leaving only one rope that tied him under his knees. He then threw his body back, meaning he was essentially hanging upside down on the spire. Being in this position, he made a loop at the end of the rope, untwisted it, and threw it over. She caught herself on the cross. I climbed over the ball along it, got to the angel, and actually repaired it right there, on the spot, without removing it from the spire. For which he was, naturally, awarded.

Quite true story, everything is documented about. This Telushkin, by the way, is even mentioned by Turgenev in the novel “Smoke” in one place. Moreover, it is interesting that Turgenev, a convinced Westerner, puts into the mouth of one of his characters the argument that Russia seems to be great, and rich in talent, and there are people like Telushkin in it... but life is still better in Germany! Because there is more order. Well, Turgenev had his own point of view on this issue. And Telushkin went down in history as a brave roofer, a St. Petersburg hero.

The first angel (in the form of a weather vane) was designed by Domenico Trezzini himself in 1724 (that first angel held the weather vane with both hands) and decorated the bell tower spire until 1756, until he died in a fire from a lightning strike. The recreated figure repeated the dimensions and proportions of the original one. The hurricane of 1777 caused serious damage to the figure of the second angel. The third angel was made according to the sketch of Antonio Rinaldi (the great Italian architect, who was in court service in Russia in 1756–1790), and to protect it from lightning in 1778, the great Leonhard Euler proposed and completed a lightning rod device. This angel already had the appearance that is familiar to us now, and was holding a cross in his right hand.

In 1829, a storm again damaged the angel's figure. There were no funds in the city treasury for the construction of scaffolding around the spire. Roofer Pyotr Telushkin volunteered to climb onto the apple of the spire and repair the figure. He did this in six weeks in October-November 1830 and for his feat received 3,000 rubles (about ten years of his salary), as well as the right to a free glass of vodka in all government taverns for life. He confirmed this right with a corresponding document with a seal. According to legend, he often lost this document; in the end, officials got tired of issuing him again and again, and a seal in the form of a brand was put on Telushkina’s right side chin Now all he had to do was click his finger on the brand. Then, according to legend, a characteristic gesture appeared, inviting a drink.

In 1858, another repair was made to the spire and the angel was replaced (but appearance remained according to Rinaldi's drawings). The fourth angel rotated freely on the spire, obeying the direction of the wind - it is this fourth angel (weighing almost a ton!) that still hovers over the city. After 1858, partial repairs to the spire and angel were carried out in 1957, 1991–1996 and 2000–2003. During the last renovation, the figure was removed for major restoration in special workshops. By the way, it was reported that many bullet holes were found in the angel’s wings - most likely, these are traces of shots fired by revolutionary sailors in November 1917... The frame of the figure is now made of stainless steel, but is lined, as before, with gold sheets. On February 11, 2003, on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the figure of the Golden Angel blessing St. Petersburg again shone.

Like the previous one, this angel holds in his right hand a four-pointed, sometimes called Latin, and not Orthodox, eight-pointed cross? Why?

In fact, neither in Byzantium (from where Christianity and the eight-pointed cross came to Rus'), nor in Orthodoxy in Russia itself, the holiness and canonicity of the four-pointed cross was denied by anyone except the Old Believers (schismatics). Here, for example, is what the holy righteous John of Kronstadt wrote about the four-pointed cross in the introduction to his book “On the Cross of Christ” back in 1855 (this was his theological dissertation at the St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy of the Russian Orthodox Church):

“We will devote this discussion to research about the cross of Christ, and specifically we will present an archaeological study about its form, with the goal of showing schismatics from the very antiquity and universality of the use of the four-pointed cross, that this form of it is the true form and that all other types of the cross are only modifications of this true appearance of the cross, and in the essence of the matter they constitute one and the same cross of Christ. This will naturally refute the blasphemies of the schismatics against the four-pointed cross as absurd and without any basis.”

It goes without saying that in 1777 the project for the sculpture of an angel (with a four-pointed cross) was highly approved (by Catherine II). And Antonio Rinaldi, when choosing the shape of the cross, could be guided by several considerations: firstly, the bell tower of the cathedral itself was made by Domenic Trezzini in the European style; secondly, sculptural images are generally rare in Orthodox culture and tradition - this is precisely the European, Latin tradition; thirdly (perhaps this is the main thing), Peter I conceived the city above the Neva as a “window to Europe”, and in all subsequent years the appearance of the Orthodox cathedral in the name of the supreme apostles was considered as a tribute to its “holy stones” Peter and Paul...

We talk about the winged patrons of the city on the Neva.

Angel on top of the Alexander Column

The Alexander Column is one of the first Russian monuments symbolizing the victory over Napoleonic troops. The statue of an angel on its top holds a four-pointed cross with its left hand, trampling on a snake with it, and raises it to the sky with its right hand. The author of this angel is the sculptor Boris Orlovsky. There is a legend that he gave the face of the bronze figure the features of Tsar Alexander I.

Angel on the roof of the Consulate General of Lithuania in St. Petersburg

A unique angel appeared on the building of the Lithuanian Consulate in 2007. The sculpture was created in the city of Vilnius especially for Northern capital, given its windy and rainy weather. A white angel with black heels and the face of a child sits on the roof with his legs dangling. Rumor has it that if you look at him for a long time, you can see him wink. And if he winks, expect good news.

St. Petersburg is the only European capital, which at no time in history was captured by the enemy.

Angel on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral

The first figure of the Guardian Angel of St. Petersburg on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral was made by the Dutch master G. van Boles in the 1720s. After the fire of 1756, it was restored according to the drawings of D. Trezzini. In 1830, a hurricane wind strongly tilted the spire and damaged the figure of an angel, which served as a weather vane. Roofer Pyotr Telushkin, distinguished by his enormous physical strength, without any scaffolding, with the help of ropes, and sometimes simply holding on to his fingers, managed to wrap a rope loop around the spire and repair the weather vane. His name will forever go down in the history of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

State-owned peasant Pyotr Telushkin of the Yaroslavl province. A master of a roofing shop who erected a cross and an angel without the use of scaffolding on the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg in October - November 1830. He posed for the artist G. G. Chernetsov in 1832.

The ascent of Peter Telushkin to the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Drawing by F. G. Solntsev. 1876

In 1858, during the replacement of the spire's wooden structures with steel ones, the angel figure was removed. Instead, a third figure was installed, made according to a drawing by sculptor R. K. Zaleman. The angel now stood almost vertically and was firmly connected to the cross. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the spire was painted with camouflage paint, and the angel was covered with burlap to protect it from shelling. In 1991, the angel spent several years in restoration workshops, where it was repaired and re-gilded. Only in 1995, the figure of an angel was raised to the top of the spire with the help of a helicopter. The height of the figure is 3.48 m; the wingspan of the angel is 3.56 m. The height of the cross is 6.5 m. The weight of the angel with the cross is 250 kg.