St. Nicholas Cathedral (Valuyki)

In the XVII century, the Monastery of Cornelius on the banks of the Valui River founded the Assumption Monastery , which received official status in 1613 under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov ^[2] .

St. Nicholas Cathedral was founded on the territory of the monastery on May 22 ( June 4 ), 1906 as its main temple under Archimandrite Ignatius (Alekseevsky) and consecrated by the Archbishop of Voronezh and Zadonsky Tikhon with a meeting of more than 50 thousand pilgrims on September 1 ( 14 ), 1913 - to 300 the anniversary of the reigning Romanov dynasty and the 300th anniversary of the founding of the monastery. The temple was built of brick from the monastery factory and was originally decorated on the outside with plaster sculptures of saints, covered with brown glue paint, had an iron roof and gilded crosses and domes. The temple accommodated 3,000 people during worship, had a faience iconostasis and icons made in Moscow ^[3] . Initially, the church was a three-seeded church: the first throne was consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (Mirlikis) and the holy martyr Tsarina Alexandra (by analogy with the names of the reigning emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna ; the second throne - in the name of St. Michael Malein (in connection with the name Tsar - the founder of the monastery Mikhail Romanov), the holy martyr Ignatius the God-bearer (in connection with the name of the abbot of the monastery Archimandrite Ignatius) and in honor of St. Seraphim of Sarov ; and the third throne - in honor of Mitrofan the Thief Onega , Tikhon Zadonsky and St. Dmitry of Rostov ^[4] .

In 1926 the temple was closed. In 1935, a colony for minors was placed on the territory of the monastery. Crosses were torn from the cathedral, a foundry was located in the cathedral building, and a vegetable storehouse was located in its basement premises. Subsequently, St. Nicholas Cathedral for many years remained half destroyed ^[1] . In 2002, it was decided to drain and clean the basement of the building, as well as to conduct an examination of the technical condition of the supporting structures ^[5] . In 2007, the restoration of the cathedral itself began ^[6] , which has been most actively carried out since 2009 at the initiative of the Archbishop of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, John, with the support of Governor E. S. Savchenko and the regional government. Restoration work was carried out by Valuikistroyservis LLC, curator of the work Stryzhakov D.V. On August 13, 2009, solemn consecration and raising of crosses and domes of the church took place ^[4] . On September 4, 2011, the Archbishop of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, John, made the solemn consecration of the four-throne restored from the ruins of St. Nicholas Cathedral ^[7] .

A large four-pillar five-domed brick cathedral in the Russian-Byzantine style . The height of the temple is about 55 m, length - 37.6 m, width - 32 m, the depth of the foundation - up to 4.5 m ^[4] . Currently, the church is four-altered: the central throne is consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker; the right chapel is consecrated in honor of the martyr Eugene; the left - in honor of St. Mitrofan, Bishop of Voronezh, and in the lower church there is a throne in the name of All Saints who shone in the Russian land ^[7] .

• Degtyarev S.A. Valuysky Assumption Nikolaev Monastery (its past and present). - Belgorod: Bel.Ru, 2010 .-- 16 p. - 600 copies. - ISBN 978-5-904331-01-6 .
• Oleinikov T. M. Materials on the history of the Valuy Uspensky Nicholas Monastery (Rus.) // Voronezh antiquity. - Voronezh, 1914. - Issue. 13 .
• Papkov A.I. Valuysky Assumption Monastery of St. Nicholas in the 17th century // South of Russia in the past and present: history, economics, culture: 2 volumes: collection of books. scientific tr IV International scientific conf. / holes ed. I.T. Shatokhin (Belgorod, December 8, 2006). - Belgorod: BelSU Publishing House, 2006. T. 1. - ISBN 5-9571-0222-9

• Maria Litvinova. On the ground and underground (neopr.) . The newspaper " Belgorod News ", No. 161 (2999), 2011 (September 16 , 2011 ). Date of treatment June 18, 2012. Archived September 26, 2012.
• Morozova A. O. History of the Valuy Nicholas-Dormition Assumption Monastery in the study of T. M. Oleinikov (Neopr.) Chronicle of the White Mountains . BelStory.RU (09.24.2012). Date of treatment March 23, 2014.
• Starikova S. Golden domes of the Valuy land (Neopr.) . The newspaper Belgorodskaya Pravda, No. 131, 2011 (September 6 , 2011 ). Date of treatment June 18, 2012. Archived September 26, 2012.
• St. Nicholas Cathedral on the site of the Valuy deanery
• St. Nicholas Cathedral on the site "Temples of Russia"