Saint Mary’s Finnish Church
This church was built between 1803 and 1805 so as to host the faithful from the “Ingria” (Russian region bordering the Golf of Finland) Evangelical Lutheran community of Saint Petersburg.
With its Neo-classical style, the architecture of this church reminds of those built by architect Georg Veldten, such as the Saint Catherine Armenian Church. This is easily understandable when you consider that its architect, Gotlib Paoulsen was a disciple of Georg Veldten.
Shut down in 1938, the church was turned into a foster home and then in 1970 became the home of “the House of Nature”. It was returned to the Lutheran community in 1990 and consecrated again in 2002 in front of Finnish president Tarja Halonen.