Demetrius Church (Kharkov)

A wooden church in the name of the great martyr Demetrius was built in the middle of the 17th century in the then-suburban settlement of Goncharovka beyond Lopan. Of her priests, Pyotr Fedorovich Vitinsky is known (he began his ministry no later than 1689 , completed in 1731, having become a monk and having spent the last five years of his life in the Pokrovsky monastery ), and his son Grigory Petrovich Vitinsky (from 1719. The censuses of 1724 and 1732 indicate about the existence of a fraternity with the “fraternal court” on Ktitorova Street upon arrival.

In 1764, a dilapidated church was dismantled and a new one, also wooden and, apparently, similar to its predecessor, was erected. Judging by the image on the well-known plan of 1787 , it was made in the traditional forms of Ukrainian three-domed architecture with a low detached bell tower.

In the XVIII century, there was a cemetery at Dmitrievskaya Church (in the area of ​​the current intersection of Malinovsky and Karl Marx streets) for three Zalopane parishes - Dmitrievsky, Blagoveshchensky and Rozhdestvensky. The church kept its significance until the beginning of the 19th century, when the Cold Mountain region was included in the city limits, where a new cemetery with the Church of All Saints was opened (in its place there is now an unfinished stadium in the 1960s).

On November 19, 1804, the church, along with the parish archive, died in a fire. The small icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk Hodegetria, which was in the temple, according to the description, since the time of the first church in 1689, remained unharmed and was subsequently revered as a local shrine. The new - stone - temple, the construction of which, with the blessing of Bishop Christopher (Sulima) began on February 6, 1805 , was designed by architects Yevgeny Vasilyev and Peter Yaroslavsky in the Empire style with a semicircular dome and a tall sharp bell attached to the temple. Consecrated in 1808, the one-throne church was small in size, since the parish attributed to it was not at that time populated. An old iconostasis was brought from the Osnovyanskaya Church, the temple from the street was fenced with a picket fence, and wattle on the other sides.

Opposite the temple, in the mother’s house, lived the writer G. F. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko , who was supposedly married and buried in this church.

Only in the early 1840s, with the need for expanding the church, two chapels were added to it (in honor of the parishioners of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God and especially in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh ), as well as a bell tower in a pseudo-Byzantine style new for that time, they published a similar on the minaret and giving the area an “oriental” flavor. The annexes made it possible for 800 people to fit in the church. In 1872, a two-story stone house was built on the church site for the clergy (two deacons, a psalmist and watchmen) according to the project of D. L. Tkachenko.

However, the parish population continued to grow. With the construction of the railway and station, the settlement of the previously deserted area adjacent to them, the former suburb of Goncharovka almost became the center of the city. Dmitrievskaya Church was again cramped. Rector of the temple (since 1877 ) prot. John Chizhevsky came up with the initiative for its further expansion and decoration, supported by parishioners, and in 1885 - 1896 the church underwent a major reconstruction according to the project of M. I. Lovtsov . The central nave was expanded, the side aisles and the bell tower were rebuilt. The temple, which was actively included in the panorama of the western part of the city, harmoniously combined elements of Gothic, Byzantine and Old Ukrainian decor. Instead of the previous 800, he accommodated over 2100 worshipers. Huge windows gave an abundance of light inside. A chapel and a parish school building were built on each side. A shrub was planted along the fence from the side of the street, protecting the yard from street dust. Inside the fence were tall trees and a pool of water, which was consecrated on the appointed days.

According to V.P. Karpov, a contemporary of construction, “this temple can be called the best temple in Kharkov: with its beauty and graceful lines, the selection of ornaments, egg-shaped domes and spike-shaped turrets, it can not attract the eye of an observer, it rests on it soul, and thank him in absentia for the architect ... The bell tower of the temple is all openwork, decorated with thin columns ... crowned with a mirror cross with a gilded glow . " However, the interior decoration of the temple was completed only in 1901 : the dome and walls are painted with Alfresco, the iconostases and icon cases of the icons are gilded, the painting is partly updated, partly painted again.

The church took care of the Alexander Hospital, which is adjacent to the north, for which Father John in 1894 received thanks from the Kharkiv City Council. In 1896, a parish fraternity was founded, taking care of the improvement of the church, the welfare of the clergy, the primary education of children of parishioners and charity. In 1898, a parish opened for girls on the rights of urban classmates at the parish, and in 1899 , a hospital for the elderly. Charity and social activities about. John Chizhevsky was awarded many awards, including the Anninsky star .

The temple was closed in February 1930 and transferred to the ownership of the Avtodor club, and later to the DOSAAF society. The clergy and active parishioners were repressed, several people were shot.

In 1935, the former church was rebuilt in the constructivist style, the domes and upper tiers of the bell tower were destroyed, and the internal space was partitioned off. After the war, the building housed the cinema "Sport". Side aisles, divided into two floors, were occupied by DOSAAF workshops, shops, the Vityaz cafe, and a doctor's office. In 1966, the facade of the church was lined with ceramic tiles, finally disfiguring the appearance of the building, and the temple murals, previously only hidden under a layer of whitewash, were destroyed.

On November 8, 1992, the first divine service of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church takes place in the still operating cinema. On December 20, the UAOC Patriarch Mstislav (Skrypnik) visited the church, who blessed the ordination of the monk Igor (the associate professor of Kharkov University Yuriy Isichenko ), later rector of the church, and then the diocesan bishop.

A year later, worship services become regular. There is a gradual transfer of premises to the church community, which lasted until August 11, 1999 . However, the buildings of the former chapel and parish school are still occupied by retail outlets.

The temple is the cathedral of the Kharkov-Poltava diocese of the UAOC (updated) , currently operating as a separate religious organization. A theological seminary (“College of the Patriarch Mstislav”), a Sunday school for children, catechism courses, a library, an outpatient center were opened with him.

The former warden of the parish, Yuri Dontsov, developed two projects for the reconstruction of the temple - the minimum approved by the Kharkov Council of Architecture and Urban Planning in 1996 , and capital in the Ukrainian style. In 2007, a new restoration project was provided by a graduate of KHTUS Vladislav Moiseenko (thesis). However, the financial situation of the parish and the entire Kharkiv-Poltava diocese of the UAOC (o), as well as the semi-emergency state of the building delay its restoration. In 2011-2012. The dome of the temple is being restored. On November 8, 2012, a cross was erected above the temple feast.

• Bagaley D., Miller D. The history of the city of Kharkov for 250 years of existence (since 1655). - Kharkov: printing house M. Zilberberg and Sons, 1905-1912
• Leibfreyd A., Polyakova Yu. Kharkov. From the fortress to the capital: Notes on the old city. - Kharkov: Folio, 2004
• The official site of the temple
• Repair of the temple in 2008-2009 (inaccessible link) (photo report)
• At Harkov_, the Vіdbudovuvati Unified Church was laid: Vіkna-Novini (TV report)