Alexander's Church - a church built in 1881-1884 for Lutheran workers employed at the Krenholm manufactory. The initiator of the construction of the new church was the pastor of St Johannes parish, Ferdinand Gottlieb Tannenberg, who conducted services for Estonians in the Swedish-Finnish church of St Michael.
The church was designed by Otto Pius von Hippius, and the funds for the construction were donated by Baron Ludwig von Knop, owner of the Krenholm manufactory. The walls were laid by the master from Kronstadt Luka Tuzov, the interior decoration was carried out by Emelyan Volkov. Initially the construction of the church was supervised by the architect of the project, later it was done by Paul Alisch, the architect of Krenholm. After the change of architect, minor changes were made to the project: for example, heating and ventilation pipes were added.
Alexander II died on 1 March 1881 as a result of a terrorist bomb explosion. By a joint decision made by the city of Narva and the church administration in October 1883, the cathedral and parish were named in honour of Alexander II. A year later, in May 1884, the cathedral was consecrated.
In those years the manufactory employed about 5,000 people who adhered to Lutheranism. The Alexander Church was designed to accommodate this number of workers. There were 2,500 seats and an equal number more could take part in the service standing. The central part of the church is made in the form of an octahedron. The main room is joined by a longitudinal building and an octagonal tower 61 metres high. The first pastor of the Alexander parish was Richard Julius von Pauker. He held this position until his death on 29 March 1910.
Alexander's Church suffered considerably in both World War I and World War II. During Soviet rule, only the parish of Alexander Cathedral (the only one of all Lutheran church parishes) continued its work. In 1959, the newly restored cathedral celebrated the 75th anniversary of the church. But three years later, in September 1962, the parish was forced to leave the church, and the building of the cathedral was given to a warehouse, all the interior furnishings were destroyed. The parish managed to hide the church bell and took with them only some of the panikladilas.
It was not until 1990 that the Lutheran cathedral was returned to the parish. The first divine service after such a long break took place in 1994. And since then, regular services have been held in the cathedral during the summer, while the rest of the time services are held in the small church. The historic bell, which was hidden, was retrieved on the 120th anniversary of the cathedral. In 2004, the stained glass windows made by Dolores Hoffmann were consecrated. In 2007, the spire of the cathedral's bell tower was erected, which together with the 4-metre high cross reaches a height of 60.7 metres. The height of the octagonal inner main hall is 25.5 metres and the diameter of the vault is 20.3 metres. The Narva Alexander Cathedral Museum is located in the cathedral tower, which can be visited independently or a guided tour can be booked.
