Temple of the Archangel Michael (Sevastopol)

Cathedral in the panorama of the city. Engraving from Niva magazine, work by E Schmidt, circa 1880.

In the middle of the XIX century, the population of Sevastopol was 30 thousand people, so two cathedrals, St. Nicholas and Petropavlovsk, could not cope with the number of believers ^[1] . Admiralty Cathedral by that time already pretty dilapidated. In 1848, the captain of the port of Sevastopol, Rear Admiral Rogulya, addressed Mikhail Lazarev with a request to build a church instead of one of the chapels of the Sevastopol Admiralty Cathedral. The author of the project may have been Colonel Vanderweide. There are allegations of drawings drawn up by engineer Captain Rulev ^[1] .

During the Crimean War, the church became a religious center and stronghold of the city. Divine services were held daily. The services were visited by princes Nikolai and Mikhail Nikolayevich, who donated a gilded lampad of chased work to the temple. ^[2] . On October 5, 1854, Admiral Vladimir Kornilov funeral in the temple, March 7, 1855 - Admiral Vladimir Istomin ^[3] , July 1 - Admiral Pavel Nakhimov ^[4] . During the burial of the last most of the officers stood on the street for lack of space in the church.

On August 2, 1855, a shell hit the church, the church suffered great damage, and the remains were evacuated to the casemates of the Nikolaev battery. In 1857 Ivan Krasilnikov, an honorary citizen , financed the restoration. But the restoration only touched, in fact, the buildings, services were impossible due to the lack of an iconostasis and other church utensils. From time and weather, the church began to collapse ^[1] .

In 1869, Tsesarevich Grand Duke Alexander III ordered that the church be transferred from the Navy Department to the Land Engineering for restoration. The estimated cost of restoration was 14,000 rubles ^[5] .

The work was carried out by engineer captain Lebedev in early 1870. A new iconostasis was ordered in Odessa , the dome was restored. Icons were created by Academician Ivan Georgievich Karneyev (on the southern wall — Prince Alexander Nevsky “in memory of Prince Alexander Menshikov” Prince Mikhail of Chernigov “in memory of Prince Mikhail Gorchakov.” On the northern wall — Prince Vladimir and St. Apostle Paul “in memory of Admiral Vladimir Kornilov and Admiral Pavel Nakhimov ”). September 24, the church received antimins, in October it was consecrated. In 1873 a square was laid in the destroyed territory near the church. He was surrounded by an iron fence with a gate ^[6] . Later in its place was founded the Military History Museum of the Black Sea Fleet .

From 1889, the church became a regimental church of the 50th Belostok Infantry Regiment ^{[7] [8]} . Prior to this service was extremely rare. The regiment took care of further work in the church ^[9] . The regimental priest at that time was Ignatius Bryantsev. On September 15, 1903, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich attended the liturgy.

The commemorative plaques of the compound appeared in 1905, to the 50th anniversary of the defense of the city ^[10] . The order was issued by the Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich. At the same time, small repairs were carried out in the church.

Under the Soviet regime , the reading room of the name of the French Communist André Marti was opened in the church. Since 1931, the House of Health Education has been operating. In 1968 the building became a part of the museum, in 1979 the Cathedral was declared a monument of architecture. With Ukraine gaining independence, the temple was leased to the Black Sea Fleet of Russia . On November 21, 2002, the first Divine Liturgy was served, which subsequently began to be held almost every day ^[11] . In 2013, the dome of the cathedral was resumed ^[12] .

The cathedral is rectangular in shape, and its portal consists of niches covered with arches, supported by columns with Byzantine capitals . The arches are framed with carvings and medallions with rosettes. The church was rebuilt several times, but retained its original appearance. It is designed in the classical style ^[13] . The roof was crowned with a dome, destroyed in Soviet times.

The modern paintings of the cathedral date back to 2014. The author and performer is the Minsk artist Anton Daineko. In the altar apse in the early Byzantine style , the Eucharist in Konkhe is written - Oranta . The creation of a new iconostasis continues, 11 bells for the church were cast in Yaroslavl ^[14] .

Location of memorial plaques

The prerevolutionary spelling of the original has not been saved, but the writing of punctuation marks has been preserved ^{[1] [15]} .

• Crimea: Orthodox shrines: guide. Comp. E. M. Litvinova. - Simferopol: “RuBin”, 2007.
• Sevastopol. Guide. - Sevastopol: Biblex, 2010.
• Architecture of Sevastopol / E.V. Venikeev, - Simferopol: Tavria, 1983.
• Historical sites and monuments of Sevastopol / Z. Chembanyuk, - Simferopol: Krymizdat, 1962.