The Piskarevskoye memorial cemetery is located in the north of St. Petersburg, one of the mass graves of the victims of the siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and the soldiers of the Leningrad Front during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. At the cemetery a memorial was erected to the dead during the siege.
Piskarevskoe cemetery was founded in 1939 on the northern outskirts of Leningrad and was named after the nearby village of Piskaryovka. In 1941-1944 it became a place of mass graves. Victims of the siege of Leningrad and the soldiers of the Leningrad Front (about 470,000 people, according to other sources, 520,000 people - 470,000 blockades and 50,000 servicemen) are buried in mass graves.
In February 1945, a competition was held for the project of the memorial to the Leningraders, who died during the siege. In 1956, on a square of over 26 hectares, the construction of a memorial complex began on the project of architects Alexander Vasilyev and Evgeny Levinson. The memorial was opened on May 9, 1960, on the fifteenth anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The eternal flame was lit by fire from the Champ de Mars.
On May 9, 2002, near the cemetery, a wooden chapel dedicated John the Baptist was consecrated. The erection of the temple is planned. Now on the site of the future temple there is a worship cross.