Assumption Cathedral (Tula)

The construction time of the first, main temple of the Assumption Convent is not exactly established. From the documents of the XVIII century it is clear that it was a stone two-story building. On the upper floor there was a throne in the name of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a chapel in the name of the Monk Alexander Svirsky , in the lower floor there was a throne in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “ Burning Cupid ” and a chapel of Nicholas the Wonderworker . Over time, the building was dilapidated, it began to go underground, in spring and on rainy days the ground floor was flooded. The church was dismantled and in 1791-1792 they built a new one - stone, one-story - with the money allocated from the treasury by Catherine II , under the care of the Tula civil governor Andrei Ivanovich Lopukhin. The main altar was consecrated in the name of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the southern chapel was dedicated to the icon of the Burning Cupid, the northern to Alexander Svirsky. In 1857, the temple, which had already arrived in a rather dilapidated state, was expanded, after which its dilapidation only accelerated.

In 1899, they started dismantling this church, and by 1902 a new two-story building was erected in its place. The lower warm temple with one throne in the name of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene and the great martyr Panteleimon the healer was consecrated on October 24, 1902. Upper, with the main throne of the Assumption - June 28, 1904, and the side chapels of the upper church - in the name of the icon "Burning Cupid" and in the name of Alexander Svirsky - July 11, 1910 and July 3, 1911.

The Assumption Church was erected in a pseudo-Russian style . Her original, unrealized project has been preserved, which is close to the constructed church, but provides for slightly different decorative and plastic elements. In the process of construction they abandoned the Gothic decorative elements - lancet frames of windows on the drums. They didn’t do the horizontal three-part division of the facades by the windows - in the case of such a division, the building would seem to be three-story. The walls of the upper church were painted in 1909. Perhaps the artists were co-workers of Viktor Vasnetsov , since the murals of the temple are exact copies of his works in the Kiev Vladimir Cathedral . The inscription was preserved on the wall of the upper church: “In 1909, with the help of the abbess of the Mother Superior Magdalene, with the help of philanthropists, this cathedral church is decorated with wall scripture and ornament . ” The walls of the cathedral are made of dark red brick. Black domes are crowned with crosses and crescents. Abbot Agnii, revered in Tula, who was involved in the construction of the temple, was buried in the cathedral.

With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the monastery was abolished and the cathedral closed. In the 1930s, they tried to blow it up, but the cathedral was very strong and survived. Then the domes were knocked down from him and a branch of the state archive was placed. In the late 1980s, the building was reconstructed. The domes were re-established and the base of the cathedral strengthened.

On September 8, 2006, the cathedral was returned to believers, and on January 24, 2007 the throne of the lower church was consecrated by the Archbishop of Tula and Belevsky Alexy and the relics of St. John of Tula were transferred there. On May 10, 2012, the second floor was solemnly consecrated in the Holy Assumption Cathedral. It marked the completion of the restoration of the temple.

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