Spassky Cathedral (Penza)

It was built from 1800 to 1824. In 1804, the main altar of the lower church of the cathedral was consecrated - in the name of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, in 1812 - the right side altar, in the name of St. Catherine the Great Martyr. , in the name of the Dormition of the Mother of God, in 1832 ^[1] . The Cathedral was visited at various times by members of the Imperial family - Alexander I Blessed, Nicholas I, future emperor Alexander II the Liberator, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, patron of the Penza Lermontov Library, Nicholas II. gallery, wall painting which as we move to the altar in eighty scenes consistently deployed to visitors the entire biblical history of the Old and New about the covenant. The paintings were painted in 1850-1851 by the head of the Saransk school of painting Kuzma Aleksandrovich Makarov and his students ^[2] .

In addition, the cathedral was the seat of the main shrine of the city - the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, donated to the newly settled city of Penza by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who, according to legend, saved our city from the nomad raids in 1717 during the Great Kuban pogrom. Penza relics were also kept here - standards of the people's militia of 1312 and 1855 ^[3] .

The cathedral in the style of Russian classicism was located on the Cathedral Square of the city ​​and was blown up in 1934. At the end of the twentieth century in 1998, the chapel of the All-Merciful Savior was laid at the site of excavation by Patriarch Alexy II .

September 28, 2017 the name of the square on which the cathedral stands was returned to the historical name - Cathedral Square ^[4] .

In April 2010, after long years of oblivion, under Bishop Benjamin, the first stone of the future Spassky Cathedral was laid in the holy Penza land.

In 2011, work began on the reconstruction of the cathedral in the same place. According to Metropolitan Serafim (Domnina) : “The new temple is bigger than what it was. Now we are building approximately according to the project conceived by the Archbishop of Tambov and Penza Feofil (Rayev) ” ^[5] .

In 2011–2014, the construction was visited by well-known hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church: Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk , Metropolitan of Astana and Kazakhstan Alexander, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Varsonofy .

July 11, 2016 Construction of the Spassky Cathedral in Penza has entered its final phase. Finishing works have remained, but they are the most laborious, laborious and costly. In terms of the amount of investments, the finish will exceed the construction itself.

• Requisites for assistance in restoring the temple "Building a cathedral together"
• Construction of the Savior Cathedral
• History of the cathedral
• Spassky Cathedral group VK
• Diocese page
• Penza Chronicles. Local history portal. In the temples of Penza.