Cathedral of St. Catherine in Pushkin

Cathedral of St. Catherine is located in the middle of Cathedral Square, which looks more like a small park. This square is located in the center of the residential quarters of Tsarskoye Selo, which were built north of the Catherine Palace. As soon as the city became a summer royal residence, it was actively built up, and the appearance of a large cathedral in the early 19th century became a necessity. 

The Cathedral of the city of Pushkin (former Tsarskoye Selo) was built by the decision of Tsar Nicholas I on the site of a small wooden church. The project of the high cathedral was prepared by Konstantin Ton, who by that time had already become a famous Russian architect. At the same time, he was working on the construction of his most magnificent cathedral, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. 

The cathedral in Tsarskoye Selo was built in 5 years and in 1840 it was consecrated in honor of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria.  The height of the Catherine Cathedral reaches 53 meters and for more than a century it was the tallest building in the city.  

In 1842, the garden master Fyodor Lyamin designed the area around the temple. He made 12 paths that converge to the center, and planted several dozen poplars on the sides. These trees have been preserved to this day, even when the Bolsheviks blew up Cathedral of St. Catherine in 1939. For a long time, the place in the center of the square was empty, then a monument to Lenin was erected there. In 1995, the monument was removed and a cross of worship was installed, and in 2006 the restoration of the cathedral began. 

Many cathedrals of Konstantin Ton were blown up by the Bolsheviks in the 1930s, but nowadays some of them have been restored. Cathedral of St. Catherine in Pushkino has been restored in exact accordance with the drawings of Konstantin Ton. In the same way, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and the Spassky Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Pyatigorsk were restored. By the way, the cathedrals in Pushkin and Pyatigorsk are very similar to each other.