Reconstructing a Site of Memory: Korolev Old Believers’ Prayer House

This article is dedicated to a little studied problem of the 19th century Old Believers’ prayer houses localization on the cultural map of St. Petersburg. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is Pierre Nora’s theory of lieux de mémoire, which shows the process of memory revival in spite of the history of oblivion. An overview of the most significant loci in the history of a historical and cultural phenomenon of Old Believers’ Saint-Petersburg was undertaken. There were presented data from various sources casting light on the circumstances of the Old Believers’ Korolev Prayer House functioning and closure, based on the analysis of which an attempt to relate this significant site of memory in the cultural history of St. Petersburg to a specific building in urban sprawl was undertaken for the first time. Interdisciplinary culturological methodology makes it possible not only to verify the address of the prayer house, which has not been considered determined with adequate accuracy until now, but also to raise an issue of studying the cultural history of the Old Believer St. Petersburg at the Pushkin era.