Diving school in church

Let me tell you about a place that literally blew my mind.

It is a huge abandoned temple in pseudo-Byzantine style on Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg.

The Church of the Merciful Icon of the Mother of God of the 1890s was built to commemorate the coronation of Alexander III. Part of the money for the construction of the temple was contributed by sailors, who considered it the main sea church of St. Petersburg.

This fact may have influenced his future fate.

In 1932 the temple was closed, the utensils were looted and the building was handed over to the Scuba Diving Training Unit.

And now you go inside the church, and there under the dome goes a giant pipe for training divers 40m high.

On the place of the altar of the temple a swimming pool was equipped, where sailors learned to float from the torpedoes.

The past appointment of the temple is evidenced by the artefacts scattered around it.

Today the Ministry of Defense of Russia has returned the temple to the believers again. It should be restored, but there is an opinion that if an iron pipe is cut in the center, the building will collapse.

In the mid-2000s they decided to restore the temple – but the restoration is still going on. The cost of the work is estimated at 12.5 million dollars.