St. Nicholas Church (Vaasa)

Since 1809, with the entry of Finland into the Russian Empire , a Russian military garrison was stationed in the city of Vaz, and Russian merchants and officials arrived.

The first initiator of the construction of the Orthodox church was the Minister of Education, Prince A. N. Golitsyn , who addressed on June 1, 1814 to the St. Petersburg Metropolitan Ambrose (Podobedov) with a letter stating the need for the construction of an Orthodox church in Vaz “both in importance of the city itself and according to the content of the inhabitants of our confession ” ^[1] . According to the report of the governor of Vaza, it appeared that in addition to the garrison, there were only two Orthodox in the city: merchants Ivan Ivanovich Lisitsyn and Artemy Semenov, who asked to send a priest, but did not have money to build the church.

In 1819, a second attempt by the merchants themselves to obtain permission to erect the church was also unsuccessful. The governor of Vaz, in his reply, reported that “there is no state-owned building that is convenient to appeal to the Orthodox Church in the city,” as there are no funds for its construction. Merchants were invited to build a church "on their own capital" ^[2] . In 1824, a military priest was appointed to the artillery regiment stationed in Vaz, who was instructed to "nourish the civilian population as well . "

In 1845, I. I. Lisitsyn, who increased his financial condition, filed a new petition for the construction of the church. The architect of the Office of Public Buildings, architect E. B. Lorman, drew up a project that was approved by the emperor on February 28, 1852, but on August 3, 1852, a severe fire broke out in Vaz, destroying almost all city buildings ^[3] .

In 1855, Emperor Nicholas I approved a plan for the construction of a new city, which was decided to be moved closer to the sea and renamed to Nikolaystadt. Provincial architect Karl Axel Setterberg developed new blueprints for a church with a capacity of 350 people. On August 27, 1858, the project received (as amended by the architect G.I. Karpov) approval of the Holy Synod , indicating that the Orthodox "between the cities of Abo and Torneo are devoid of any means of observing the rites of their religion . " The merchant I. I. Lisitsyn donated 3 thousand rubles in silver for the construction, 10.2 thousand rubles were received from the construction capital of the Spiritual Department, the treasury allocated 6 thousand rubles. Merchants Mikhail Fedorovich Grachev, as well as Vasily and Grigory Smirnov, contributed.

On May 9, 1861, the priest of the 82nd Vazas Infantry Regiment, John Lektorov, laid the foundation of a stone church built by contractor Lindahl. The cost of building a single-domed church with a refectory was 26.5 meters long, 18 meters wide and 24.5 meters high with a cross and amounted to 17,142 rubles in silver. A tent bell tower was built over the narthex.

On September 9, 1866, the consecration of the temple took place, performed by the Helsingfors Deanery Archpriest Nikolai Popov together with the rector Priest John Tikhomirov. The consecration was attended by the Finnish Governor General Count N.V. Adlerberg and the local Governor. At that time in the city there were about 150 Orthodox ^[4] .

On December 31, 1939 and January 12, 1940, during the period of the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940), the church suffered from air raids. From 1979 to 1980, church interiors, including wall and dome paintings, were thoroughly restored. On March 30, 1980, the church was re-consecrated by Metropolitan Oulu of Leo (Makkonen) .

In 1864, the temple inside was painted white, the lower part of the walls was painted marble, the dome vault was ultramarine, decorated with gilded stars.

The iconostasis, the icons of which are executed by the method of metachromotypy according to the sketches of academician F. G. Solntsev , was brought by sea from St. Petersburg . Among the temple images, the icon in the icon case of St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker, donated by the commander and officers of the 9th Infantry Regiment, as well as St. Seraphim of Sarovsky, presented by contractor Shilov. The banners were received as a gift from Archpriest John Sergiev . The icon of Christ the Almighty in a silver setting, lamps, a sacristy, a bell and other valuable things was donated by the merchant I. I. Lisitsyn.

One of the temple's attractions is the shroud on white velvet, which originally belonged to the Bomarsund Fortress Hospital Church in the Åland Islands . In 1854, after the destruction of the fortress during the Crimean War , the shroud was taken away by the attackers to Paris , where it was bought by the Russian citizen Rechinsky and transferred to the Finnish spiritual government. In 1864, the shroud was donated to the St. Nicholas Church of the Vasa.

After World War I, four large icons were donated from the Valaam Monastery to the St. Nicholas Church, dating to the middle of the 19th century - svtt. Moscow Peter and Alexia, St. Petersburg. Sergius of Radonezh and Seraphim of Sarov, st. John and Gennady of Novgorod, swt. Demetrius of Rostov and Theodosius of Chernigov.

• Petander, CB. J., Vaasan ortodoksisen kirkon lyhyt historiikki. Vaasa 1982.

• Official site of the Vaasa parish (Fin.)
• Kurkimies I. N. Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Vaasa, Finland