{{short description|Cemetery in Saint Petersburg, Russia}} {{use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{coord|59|56|36|N|30|14|55|E|region:RU_type:landmark|display=title}} [[File:Вид на Смоленское кладбище (3505487036).jpg|thumb|Aerial view of the cemetery, with the Neva Bay in the background]] '''Smolensky Cemetery''' ({{Langx|ru|Смоленское кладбище}}) is the oldest continuously operating cemetery in Saint Petersburg, Russia.<ref name="enc">[http://www.encspb.ru/article.php?kod=2804009142 The Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214101710/http://encspb.ru/article.php?kod=2804009142 |date=2010-12-14 }}</ref> It occupies a rectangular parcel in the western part of Vasilievsky Island, on the bank of the small Smolenka River, and is divided into the Orthodox, Lutheran, and Armenian sections.<ref name=three>{{cite web | title=Smolenskoe Cemetery in St. Petersburg | website=Saint-Petersburg.com | url=http://www.saint-petersburg.com/cemeteries/smolenskoe-cemetery/ | access-date=26 May 2026}}</ref>
== Orthodox Cemetery == The Orthodox Cemetery<ref name=three/> is known to have existed in 1738,<ref name="enc"/> but lacked official recognition until 1758.<ref name="necropolis"/> Not only was it far removed from the city center, but it was also damp, necessitating the construction of drainage canals.<ref name="history"/>
The cemetery has two churches. The older church is dedicated to the Theotokos of Smolensk. The azure-painted Neoclassical building was erected between 1786 and 1790. The Bolsheviks closed the church for worship between 1940 and 1946.<ref name="history"/> The newer {{ill|Smolensky Cemetery Resurrection Church|ru|Воскресенская церковь на Смоленском кладбище}} (1904), {{as of | 2016 | lc = on}} under repair, is dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ. It is the only example of Naryshkin Baroque in Saint Petersburg. The church used to be known for its dazzling Neo-Baroque icon screen with a set of Vasnetsov icons. Other buildings on the grounds included the first wooden church, that of Michael the Archangel (destroyed by the {{ill|Saint Petersburg flood of 1824|ru|Петербургское наводнение (1824)}}), then rebuilt in stone as a Church in honor of the Holy Life-giving Trinity (1831–1932) and an almshouse designed by Luigi Rusca.
The cemetery became a traditional burial place for the professors of the Imperial Academy of Arts (founded in 1757) and of St. Petersburg University (founded in 1724) – both sited on Vasilievsky Island.<ref name="necropolis">[https://web.archive.org/web/20090102005425/http://funeral-spb.ru/necropols/smolenskoep/ The cemeteries of St. Petersburg]</ref> Up to 800,000 people are estimated{{by whom?|date=November 2019}} to have been interred at the Smolensky Cemetery before the Russian Revolution of 1917, making it the largest 19th-century cemetery of Saint Petersburg.<ref name="history"/> Interments included: * Xenia of Saint Petersburg (died {{circa | 1803}}), the patron saint of the city; her tomb is marked by a chapel. thumb|The Smolensky Church (1786–90) is dedicated to the Theotokos of Smolensk * Vasily Trediakovsky (1769) * Mikhail Kozlovsky (1802) * Andreyan Zakharov (1811) * Elisabeth Kulmann (1825, later moved to the Tikhvin Cemetery) * Dmitry Bortniansky (1825) * Ivan Martos (1835) * Taras Shevchenko (1861, reburied on Chernecha Hora near Kaniv)<ref>[http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/pages/S/H/ShevchenkoTaras.htm The Encyclopaedia of Ukraine]</ref> * Nikolay Ustryalov (1870) * Vasily Karatygin (1880) * Nikolay Zinin (1880) * Ivan Kramskoi (1887) * Alexander Mozhaysky (1890) * Ivan Shishkin (1898) * Dmitry Gamov (1903) * Arkhip Kuindzhi (1910) * Nikolay Beketov (1911) * Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky (1914) * Leonid Pozen (1921) * Alexander Blok (1921) * Alexander Friedmann (1925) * Fyodor Sologub (1927) * Fyodor Uspensky (1928) * Nikolay Likhachyov (1936) * Yuri Bryushkov (1971) * Boris Piotrovsky (1990) * Eduard Khil (2012) * Roman Starovoyt (2025)<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-07-11 |title=Starovoit Buried at Historic St. Petersburg Cemetery Days After Suspected Suicide |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/07/11/starovoit-buried-at-historic-st-petersburg-cemetery-days-after-suspected-suicide-a89773 |access-date=2025-07-11 |website=The Moscow Times |language=en}}</ref>
After the Russian Revolution the local authorities announced plans to demolish the cemetery by 1937, replacing it with a public garden "for sanitation's sake".<ref name="history">[http://www.smolenkaspb.ru/pravoslavnoe The History of Smolensky Orthodox Cemetery]</ref> Entire tombs or their sculptural details were moved to museums in order to preserve them.<ref name="history"/> The remains of Kozlovsky, Zakharov, Martos, Bortniansky, Karatygin, Kramskoi, Shishkin and Kuindzhi were transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Alexander Blok was the last to be reburied – in 1944. The outbreak of the Second World War put the redevelopment plans on hold. The cemetery eventually reopened for select burials in the early 1980s.<ref name="enc"/>
== Lutheran Cemetery == {{Main|Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery}} The Lutheran cemetery on Dekabristov Island is known to have existed in 1747. The minor Smolenka River separates it from the eponymous Orthodox cemetery. This cemetery contained the burials of the parishioners of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Katarina and the Catholic Church of Saint Catherine,<ref name="enc"/> including Leonhard Euler, Germain Henri Hess, José de Ribas, Vicente Martín y Soler, Vasily Dokuchayev, Moritz von Jacobi, Agustín de Betancourt, Jean-François Thomas de Thomon, Xavier de Maistre, Ludvig Nobel, Georg Friedrich Parrot, Karl Nesselrode, and Vladimir Lamsdorf. In the 20th century, several parts of the cemetery were destroyed; the remains of Euler and Betancourt were reburied in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.<ref name="enc"/>
<gallery class="center"> File:Могила Нессельроде К.В..jpg|The grave of Karl Nesselrode File:Могила Купфера А.Я..jpg|The grave of Adolph Theodor Kupffer File:Могила Литке Ф.Н..jpg|The grave of Count Friedrich Michael Lütke File:Могила Де Рибаса И.М..jpg|The grave of José de Ribas </gallery>
{{anchor|armenian}} == Armenian Cemetery ==<!---"Smolensky Armenian Cemetery" redirects to this anchor---> The Armenian Cemetery has a church, the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, consecrated in 1797.<ref name=three/> The architect was probably Georg Veldten.<ref name="enc"/>
== In literature == An annual mourning ceremony accompanied by a picnic feast is recorded in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem ''Cemetery of the Smolensko Church'' of 1836.<ref>{{cite book|last =Landon|first=Letitia Elizabeth|title=Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837|url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=39BbAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PP10|section=picture|year=1836|publisher=Fisher, Son & Co.}}{{cite book|last =Landon|first=Letitia Elizabeth|title=Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837|url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=39BbAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PA36|section=poetical illustration|page=16|year=1836|publisher=Fisher, Son & Co.}}</ref> {{wikisource|Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1837/Smolensko|Cemetery of the Smolensko Church,<br>a poem by L. E. L.}}
== See also == * Tikhvin Cemetery
== References == {{commons category|Smolensk Orthodox cemetery}} {{reflist|2}}
Category:1756 establishments in the Russian Empire Category:Armenian cemeteries Category:Armenian Apostolic cemeteries Category:Armenian diaspora in Russia Category:Cemeteries in Saint Petersburg Category:Eastern Orthodox cemeteries in Russia Category:Lutheran cemeteries Category:Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg Category:Cemeteries established in the 1750s