Theotokos-Nativity Cathedral (Krasnoyarsk)

The idea of ​​building a temple arose in 1843 . By this time, Krasnoyarsk has been the center of the Yenisei province for more than twenty years. Since the 30s of the XIX century , gold mining has developed rapidly in Siberia , the population of the city has increased, so the need arose to build a new large temple. In October 1843, a congress of gold miners was held in Krasnoyarsk . During the congress, official news was received about the birth on September 8, 1843 of his imperial highness the heir to the Cesarevich, Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich . Upon receiving this news, the gold miners came up with the idea of ​​building a new temple. At the same time, a subscription to donations for construction was opened. It was collected 96,400 rubles. This amount was handed to one of the main gold producers, the 1st guild merchant Isidor (Sidor) Grigorievich Shchegolev - for the construction of the temple.

On October 16, 1843, the merchant I. G. Shchegolev submitted to Bishop of Tomsk and Yenisei Athanasius a petition “with a copy of the decree made by the gold miners to arrange the New Cathedral in the name of Christmas the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the chapels: Exaltation of the honest and life-giving cross and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker” .

According to the plan drawn up by the architect Ton and highly approved on June 8, 1844 , the temple was laid on July 15, 1845 on Novosobornaya Square . According to the first plan of the provincial Krasnoyarsk, a new place was planned for the cathedral church, which is why the square itself was called the townspeople of Novobosornaya.

By September 1849 it was almost finished, but on September 29 its upper arches with domes collapsed, the walls cracked, and the building was demolished to the ground, except for the bell tower, which was recognized as solid. Instead of the destroyed temple, for the construction of which the entire previously collected amount was spent, the honorary citizen Isidor Shchegolev, with his own money, as before, was erecting a new temple in the same place.

This temple was supposed to be called Nicholas, that is, sanctified in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and in honor of the Cesarevich, but later it was called the Theotokos-Rozhdestvensky, as if marking the moment of birth of the heir. The construction of a temple with an iconostasis , utensils, a sacristy and bells , according to the builder, cost 560,000 rubles. The church was consecrated on September 7, 1861 by His Grace Porfiry, Bishop of Tomsk and Yenisei, who, at the invitation of the builder, specially arrived for this from Tomsk .

The temple had dimensions: a length of 55.3 meters, a width of 23.4 meters and an internal height of 40.4 meters. Four pneumatic furnaces were built for heating. An underground temple was built under the cathedral, consecrated in honor of the martyrs Isidore and Tatiana, in 1913, an underground church was also built in honor of St. Catherine’s funds. Euphemia of the Suzdal miracle worker .

After the completion of construction on Novobosornaya (Novobazarnaya) Square, a new public and trade center was formed. Famous merchants, gold miners and philanthropists begin to build their houses and shops on the square.

In 1858, Nikolai Alexandrovich presented the Cathedral with the icon of the Nativity of the Virgin in a silver robe, with the date of his birth in the upper part of the icon (September 8, 1843 ).

Since 1862 - the Cathedral of the Yenisei Diocese ^[1] .

In 1866, Empress Maria Alexandrovna presented the Cathedral with a full sacristy .

July 21, 1873 (according to the old style) the Cathedral was visited by Grand Duke Alexey Alexandrovich .

July 1, 1891 the cathedral was visited by Nicholas II .

On May 1, 1921, at a rally, it was decided to rename the Novobosornaya (Novobazarnaya) square into the Revolution Square .

Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior was blown up in 1931 . Virgin Mary Cathedral was blown up on July 12, 1936 .

In 1936, Professor A. D. Kryachkov was commissioned to develop a project for the building of the House of Soviets, which was supposed to be built on the site of the destroyed cathedral. It was planned to build a square around the building. The construction of the architectural ensemble of the Revolution Square (the square received a new name in May 1921 ) was completed only in 1956 . In addition to the cathedral, shopping arcades and the Passage shopping center were destroyed ^[2] .

The building of the House of Soviets (now the administration of the Krasnoyarsk Territory ) was built on the foundation of the temple. In the center of the square in 1970 a monument to V.I. Lenin (sculptor Boris Pinchuk ) was erected. On the perimeter of the square, the buildings of Sovnarkhoz, the departments of the railway and Aeroflot , the Center for scientific and technical information, the universal scientific library of the Krasnoyarsk Territory were built.

• October 1862 - July 1872 - Tokarev Nikolai Petrovich
• July 6, 1872 - Schegolev Alexander Isidorovich ^[3]

In 2012, during the visit of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill to Krasnoyarsk, an agreement was established to recreate the cathedral on the territory of Strelka ^[4] . It is planned to recreate according to the original projects of Konstantin Ton, and the part of Strelka embankment between the Philharmonic Hall and the Cultural and Historical Center, formerly rented by Moscow investors for the construction of a business center, was chosen as the construction site ^[5] . The exact date of commencement of construction is unknown, but on September 21, 2013, the ceremony of consecrating the foundation stone and the cross at the site for the temple took place ^[6] . At the same time, numerous criticisms rained down, since the temple will take the place of one of the most popular green areas in the center, and the soil near the river is unlikely to withstand the volume of the cathedral ^[7] .

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1. ↑ First headman of the Krasnoyarsk Cathedral of the Theotokos-Nativity Cathedral // Additions to the Irkutsk diocesan sheets. No. 33, August 18, 1872, pp. 412-413
2. ↑ i373.jpg (800x532 pixels)
3. ↑ First headman of the Krasnoyarsk Cathedral of the Theotokos-Nativity Cathedral // Additions to the Irkutsk diocesan sheets. No. 33, August 18, 1872, p. 413
4. ↑ The Virgin Mary-Nativity Cathedral of RIA Novosti will be restored in Krasnoyarsk (09/13/2012)
5. ↑ Mayor Akbulatov agreed with Muscovites to return land on Strelka to the municipality for the construction of the cathedral 05/21/2013
6. ↑ In the center of Krasnoyarsk, a place will be consecrated for a new temple Newslab.ru (09/10/2013)
7. ↑ Cathedral on Strelka split the Krasnoyarsk architects DELA.ru (09/13/2013)

• Arzhanykh, O. P. Cathedral in the name of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary: [History of the Cathedral (Krasnoyarsk)] // Orthodox word of Siberia. - 2004. - March, N3
• The memorial book of the Yenisei province. [comp. and ed. by order of the chief of the Yenisei province, Major General Zamyatnin]. - St. Petersburg: At the printing house of Josaphat Ogrizko - 1863
• Mikhanev, A.P. Domes in Russia are covered with pure gold ...: [about the cathedrals of Krasnoyarsk] // City format. - 2006. - March.
• Melnikov, M. How Krasnoyarsk was destroyed // Arguments and facts on the Yenisei . - 2006. - March, N9