Walks around Saint-Petersburg#30.

Among the religious architectural monuments of St. Petersburg, it is necessary to mention and tell about the St. Petersburg cathedral mosque, which was the main mosque of the Russian Empire and the largest mosque in the European part of the Russian Empire.

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The history of the foundation of the temple began in 1798, when more than 500 servicemen of the Muslims of the Russian army applied for a prayer house and a place for the cemetery. In 1803-1804, projects were made for the construction of a mosque. Among the main projects were the project Andrei Nikiforovich Voronikhin and the project Luigi Ruska. But both projects remained unrealized. Premises for namaz were allocated in the barracks. In 1862 Ahun Muhammad-Alim Khantemirov tried to collect donations for the construction of a stone mosque with a minaret, but he was denied.
And only in 1881, when the question of erecting a cathedral mosque in St. Petersburg from the Muslim community of high-ranking Ahuna (among whom there were representatives of the guild of merchants) appealed to the government, the collection of funds for the construction of the mosque began.
In 1906, the Committee for the Construction of the Cathedral Mosque in St. Petersburg was established. In 1907, the Committee purchased two sites in the same place where the mosque is now located. A jury was created consisting of famous architects Benois, Dmitriyev, von Gauguin, Lidval, Pomerantsev.
To work on the construction project attracted Polish engineer-architect of Muslim origin Stepan Samuilovich Krichinsky.
Pyotr Kuzmich Vaulin worked on the mosaic decoration of the mosque, dome and minarets.
The ceremony of the solemn laying of the mosque took place in 1909 in honor of the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the reign of Emir of Bukhara on the throne.
Completion of the construction was scheduled for 1914, but financial difficulties, the outbreak of World War I of 1914 and the socialist revolution of 1917 in Russia prevented this.
Only in 1920 all construction and finishing works were completed.

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Today the mosque is functioning. During the celebration of Muslim holidays, thousands of Muslims come to the mosque for prayers.

Thank you for your time and attention. We learned about another architectural monument of St. Petersburg religion. I wait for you on new walks around the city.