Ortho­dox church in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Peters­burg, the bur­ial vault of the Russ­ian emper­ors, a mon­u­ment of Petrine Baroque archi­tec­ture.

The stone cathe­dral was built accord­ing to the design of the archi­tect D. Trezzi­ni in 1712–1733 on the site of the first church in St. Peters­burg — the wood­en Peter and Paul Church, erect­ed in 1703. From 1733 to 2012, the cathe­dral, 122.5 m high, was the tallest build­ing in St. Peters­burg, and until 1952, the tallest in Rus­sia.

In the 18th cen­tu­ry, the Peter and Paul Cathe­dral acquired sig­nif­i­cance as a memo­r­i­al to Russ­ian mil­i­tary glo­ry: numer­ous tro­phies were kept here: ban­ners, keys to con­quered cities and fortress­es. Since 1708, buri­als of mem­bers of the Romanov dynasty began in the Peter and Paul Cathe­dral. Dur­ing the 18th to ear­ly 20th cen­turies, all emper­ors and empress­es, with the excep­tion of Peter II and Ivan VI, as well as many mem­bers of the Impe­r­i­al House of Romanov, were buried in the cathe­dral.

In 1918, ser­vices in the church ceased, and church valu­ables were con­fis­cat­ed. In 1922, the cathe­dral became a branch of the Muse­um of the Rev­o­lu­tion. It is cur­rent­ly under the juris­dic­tion of the State Muse­um of the His­to­ry of St. Peters­burg.