St. Samson's Cathedral in St. Petersburg is one of the few examples of the church architecture of the first half of the 18 th century preserved to present time. The construction of the original wooden church of St. Samson began by order of Peter the Great at the end of November 1709 to commemorate one of the major battles of the epoch of Peter the Great – the battle of Poltava . The church was consecrated in 1710. The battle had taken place on June 27, 1709 , on the memorial day of St. Samson the Hospitable, so the church became St. Samson's.

Cast iron boards with orders of Peter the Great preceding and following the battle of Poltava were attached to the walls of the church

The first wooden church of St. Samson constructed in 1710 was near the Vyborg Road leading to the northwestern part of the country, towards the border of the territories belonging to the King of Sweden. When going to the battles of the Northern War, soldiers were encouraged by seeing this church and felt proud of the victory of the Russian army.

At the beginning of the 18 th century, this church was far from the administrative center of the city, so the first city cemetery was founded at this church in 1711. The first architects of St. Petersburg – Domenico Trezzini, Andreas Schlüter, Jean-Baptiste Leblond and Georg Mattarnovi – were buried here, as well as the sculptor Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the first Russian economist Ivan Pososhkov, the painters Louis Caravaque and Stephano Torelli.

The organizers of the conspiracy against Count Biron, the favorite of Czarina Anna Ioannovna, were executed and also buried here. These were Artemy Volynsky, Andrei Khrushchov and Pyotr Yeropkin. Their tomb still can be seen near the church. Later, by order of Catherine the Great, a monumental board was unveiled upon their burial place. In 1885, it was replaced by a monument designed by the sculptor Mikhail Shchurupov.

St. Samson's Cathedral is a unique combination of the architectural features characteristics of the epoch preceding Peter the Great and features of European architecture. In general, this architectural style is often described as "Czarina Anne's Baroque". At the same time, the upper part of the bell tower with its octagonal top reminds us about the 17-th century architecture of Moscow and Yaroslavl.

Of special importance is the carved and gilded wooden iconostasis of the church. It is one of the best works of Russian wood carving of the first half of the 18-th century. There are also rare 18-th century icons, including those by the artists Ivan Kvashnin and Andrei Pospelov.

In 1984, reconstruction of the church began. It was completed in 1999 and, in the same year, to commemorate the 290 th anniversary of the victory in the battle of Poltava, a State museum was founded in the building of St. Samson's Cathedral. In May 2002, the Divine service was renewed here. Since that time, the Divine service is held in this Cathedral on major Holidays of the Russian Orthodox Church.

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