ROSPHOTO presents the exhibition project In Memory of His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Nevsky on His 800^th Anniversary. Transfer of the Holy Prince’s Relics to St. Petersburg.

Transfer of the relics of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky to St. Petersburg is one of the most important events of the reign of Peter the Great, associated with major military and political victories of the period, such as the triumph in the Great Northern War that defined the future course of Russian life. In order to demonstrate historical continuity, Peter decided to liken his victories to those of his great predecessors and initiated the transfer of the holy relics. The first Russian emperor associated his greatest victories with the military achievements of Alexander Nevsky. It was important to the sovereign reformer that Alexander Nevsky had beat the Swedes near the mouth of the river Izhora (within what would be the new capital of Russia!) and on Chudskoye Lake, not far from those places where battles in the Great Northern War were won. For this reason, Peter planned the transfer of the relics to end with a solemn procession on 12 September, the second anniversary of the Treaty of Nystad that proclaimed Russia’s victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War.

Alexander Nevsky died on his way back from a trip to the Golden Horde. His burial took place on 23 November 1263 in the Nativity Monastery in Vladimir. The imperishable relics of the Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky were unearthed before the Kulikovo Battle in the year 1380. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1547. For nearly 500 years, the relics of the Holy Prince remained in Vladimir, where they were venerated by Orthodox people.

On 30 August 1724, the solemn greeting of the relics of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky took place in Petersburg. The Neva fleet led by the boat of Peter I went up the Neva to meet the galleys with the holy relics. The relics were delivered to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and placed in the Annunciation Church that was consecrated on that day.

Due to Emperor Peter I, Alexander Nevsky Monastery (named Alexander Nevsky Lavra in 1797) became the main spiritual center of St. Petersburg. The holy relics of the patron saint of the city rested there for almost three centuries.

In May 1922, by an order of the new Bolshevik authorities, the reliquary containing the relics of Alexander Nevsky was opened. The relics were transferred to the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism. In 1989, they were returned to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and placed in the Holy Trinity Cathedral.    

The historical exhibition In Memory of His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Nevsky on His 800^th Anniversary. Transfer of the Holy Prince’s Relics to St. Petersburg invites the viewer to feel the continuity of time. Visitors will see more than 100 photographs related to the transfer of the relics of the Grand Prince to St. Petersburg in 1724. Among them are the pictures of the Nativity Monastery in Vladimir, the towns that greeted the solemn procession on the way to St. Petersburg, the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, as wells as the transfer of the relics from the Museum of Religion and Atheism to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in 1990.

ROSPHOTO thanks the Russian National Library, Russian State Historical Archive, Research Library under Russian Academy of Arts, The Russian State Documentary Film & Photo Archive, Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve, State Archive of Audiovisual Documents of Nizhny Novgorod Region for their contribution to the exhibition project.

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