Assumption Cathedral
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin MaryUkraine, Kharkiv
no reviews
GPS: 49.9899, 36.2305
Assumption Cathedral
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin MaryUkraine, Kharkiv
The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the building of the oldest Orthodox church in the city of Kharkov, named after the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has been rebuilt several times since the 17th century. The bell tower of the 19th century cathedral at the time of construction was one of the highest in Russia (higher than the main bell tower of the Empire - Ivan the Great in Moscow), now it is the highest in the Kharkov diocese, one of the highest in Ukraine, and until the beginning of the 21st century it was the highest stone building in city. The cathedral is located in the city center on the University Hill on the banks of the Lopan River. The quarter occupied by the cathedral is limited by Universitetskaya street, Kvitki-Osnovyanenko street and Sovetsky lane.
The first mention of the Assumption Cathedral in written sources is found in the report of 1658 of the governor Ofrosimov, sent by him to Moscow. According to him, the wooden temple was built in 1657, and the wood for the church was carried by the Cossacks under Silifontov, the first Kharkov governor. The built temple was single-altar with a small area of approximately 16 square sazhens (about 70 m²). At first, the temple did not even have wooden icons, but paper ones were used instead. Even during construction, in 1657, two Kharkov priests Yeremeishche and Vasilische, as well as deacon Iosipishche, visited Moscow in order to receive money and church items for the construction of the Assumption Church and filed a petition to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with this petition. The tsar several times gave instructions to provide assistance to petitioners and to transfer a number of liturgical books and icons to the Assumption Cathedral.
During earthworks in the following centuries, human remains were found, which gave reason to assume that there was a church cemetery at the temple. A wooden fence was built around the churchyard, within which the cemetery was located. Apparently, already in the 1780s, this cemetery was abolished, and later its territory was built up: the northern part was occupied by the Gostiny Dvor, and the southern part was occupied by the buildings of Kharkov University.
By the 1680s, the wooden temple had already fallen into disrepair, and in 1685-1687, inside the fortress, 25-30 fathoms north of the old wooden one, a new stone cathedral was being built under the leadership of Colonel Avdiy Grigoryevich. The new church was cruciform with five domes. The church was consecrated by Metropolitan Avramy of Belgorod in 1688. Until the beginning of the 18th century, a wooden chapel stood at the site of the throne of the old wooden church. A free-standing stone bell tower was also built, but the date of its construction is not known.
On July 8, 1733 (according to other sources, March 3, 1733), the cathedral was damaged by a major city fire. So, the oak shingled roof burned down, the domes in the temple and on the bell tower, everything inside burned out, and only stone walls remained standing. But already in 1734, thanks to the efforts of Archpriest Grigory Alexandrov, the temple was restored, the domes were built and gilded crosses were installed, and the roof was covered with white "English" tin.
In 1700, dangerous cracks were discovered in the walls of the cathedral, and it was clear that even a major overhaul would not help here, so the temple began to be dismantled with the intention of building a new one in the same place. With the blessing of Samuil Mislavsky, on May 14, 1771, a new stone church was laid according to the plan of Moscow, the largest in Zamoskvorechye, the church of the Holy Martyr Clement, Pope of Rome, built in 1762-1770 on Pyatnitskaya Street - a square shape with five domes and five thrones. Construction was carried out on voluntary donations from the townspeople. In the spring of 1778, an iconostasis was hastily installed in the northern limit, and on April 25 the throne was consecrated in the name of the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. On September 27, 1780, in the presence of Field Marshal Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, who arrived in Kharkov to open the Kharkov governorship, the main altar of the cathedral was consecrated by His Grace Haggai. The final finishing work was completed in 1783. On June 8, the southern limit was consecrated in the choirs in the name of the holy chief apostles Peter and Paul. In the same year, the main iconostasis of the cathedral was installed.
On November 12, 1818 and February 13, 1819, meetings of parishioners and citizens of Kharkov were held, at which, at the suggestion of Archpriest Stefan Antonovsky, a proposal was discussed to erect a new very high bell tower in honor of Alexander I and the victory of the Russian army over the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Patriotic War of 1812. It was decided to call the bell tower Alexandrovskaya, and its design was entrusted to the professor of architecture of the Kharkov Imperial University Yevgeny Vasiliev.
According to urban legend, when reviewing the initial project, the mayor Lomakin was very indignant at the fact that the projected bell tower would be higher than the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in Moscow, which has a height of 81 meters. The architect did not want to reduce the height of the building and he had to go to the trick and promise to redo the project by the next meeting. For the next consideration, Vasiliev submitted the same project, only indicating the heights of each floor, without the overall height. In words, he assured those present that the bell tower would not exceed the bell tower of Ivan the Great. And thus, on May 8, 1820, the plan and facade of the bell tower were approved. Many donations were collected for the construction, the old bell tower was dismantled and already on August 2, 1821, a new one was laid by Bishop Paul, but the construction work was carried out slowly and intermittently. According to the project, it was planned to place a warm church in it, and on November 5, 1833, the main altar was consecrated in honor of the Theophany of the Lord, and on November 12 of the same year, the Right Reverend Innokenty Alexandrov consecrated the chapel in honor of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva. In 1837, work was continued, but already under the guidance of the architect A. Ton, and the project, with minor changes, was basically completed in the early 40s.
On October 1, 1841, Archbishop Smaragd, with a large crowd of people, made a procession from the Intercession Cathedral to the Assumption Cathedral, held a prayer service and sprinkling the cross, after which it was erected by the Moscow master Lukin over the dome of the bell tower. Complete construction work was completed only in 1844. On November 4, 1846, at the request of Bishop Innocent, by the decision of the Holy Synod, the Assumption Cathedral received the status of a cathedral, and the Pokrovsky Cathedral, which had previously been a cathedral, became simply a monastery church. On May 3, 1855, the Kharkiv city society decided to buy and install a tower clock on the bell tower using city funds, and to keep a watchmaker at the expense of the city for their repair and winding. And in the summer of 1862 the clock was set. In September 1863, the former largest 200 pood bell was replaced by a much larger bell weighing 1003 poods (more than 16.1 tons) donated to the cathedral by the Ryzhov brothers and cast at their factory.
Soon a chapel was added to the bell tower, consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas. In it, in 1886, an iconostasis was built, placing a fence in the form of a bronze lattice in front of it. In 1889, His Eminence Ambrose cast a silver bell weighing 18 pounds (about 300 kg) at the expense of the clergy and donations from the parishioners of the Kharkiv diocese. And this so-called Royal bell was hung in a newly built chapel. On the bell, among the ornaments, there is a monogram with the initials of the emperor, surrounded on three sides by a garland with relief images of the names of the imperial children.
In 1924, the antenna of the first Ukrainian broadcasting radio station was installed on the bell tower. The anniversary of the first day of its broadcast on November 16 became a professional holiday for radio and communications workers. The studio was located nearby, and so that the bell ringing did not interfere with the broadcasts, the cathedral was soon closed. Later, the transmitter was installed inside the cathedral, while destroying valuable frescoes and a unique wooden iconostasis of the 18th century, assembled according to Rastrelli's drawings. The station operated until 1941.
In 1959, a partial restoration of the bell tower was carried out. In 1973, work began on the complete restoration of the temple and the bell tower, and the strengthening of the foundations was carried out. In 1986, the House of Organ and Chamber Music was opened in the temple premises. November 21, 2006 restored the cross on the bell tower.
The bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral with a height of 89.5 meters for more than a century and a half was the highest stone building in the city (except for metal towers), and only in 2006 were higher buildings built in Kharkov - two 25-storey residential buildings, 91 ( 110 with antenna) and 95 meters.
The first mention of the Assumption Cathedral in written sources is found in the report of 1658 of the governor Ofrosimov, sent by him to Moscow. According to him, the wooden temple was built in 1657, and the wood for the church was carried by the Cossacks under Silifontov, the first Kharkov governor. The built temple was single-altar with a small area of approximately 16 square sazhens (about 70 m²). At first, the temple did not even have wooden icons, but paper ones were used instead. Even during construction, in 1657, two Kharkov priests Yeremeishche and Vasilische, as well as deacon Iosipishche, visited Moscow in order to receive money and church items for the construction of the Assumption Church and filed a petition to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with this petition. The tsar several times gave instructions to provide assistance to petitioners and to transfer a number of liturgical books and icons to the Assumption Cathedral.
During earthworks in the following centuries, human remains were found, which gave reason to assume that there was a church cemetery at the temple. A wooden fence was built around the churchyard, within which the cemetery was located. Apparently, already in the 1780s, this cemetery was abolished, and later its territory was built up: the northern part was occupied by the Gostiny Dvor, and the southern part was occupied by the buildings of Kharkov University.
By the 1680s, the wooden temple had already fallen into disrepair, and in 1685-1687, inside the fortress, 25-30 fathoms north of the old wooden one, a new stone cathedral was being built under the leadership of Colonel Avdiy Grigoryevich. The new church was cruciform with five domes. The church was consecrated by Metropolitan Avramy of Belgorod in 1688. Until the beginning of the 18th century, a wooden chapel stood at the site of the throne of the old wooden church. A free-standing stone bell tower was also built, but the date of its construction is not known.
On July 8, 1733 (according to other sources, March 3, 1733), the cathedral was damaged by a major city fire. So, the oak shingled roof burned down, the domes in the temple and on the bell tower, everything inside burned out, and only stone walls remained standing. But already in 1734, thanks to the efforts of Archpriest Grigory Alexandrov, the temple was restored, the domes were built and gilded crosses were installed, and the roof was covered with white "English" tin.
In 1700, dangerous cracks were discovered in the walls of the cathedral, and it was clear that even a major overhaul would not help here, so the temple began to be dismantled with the intention of building a new one in the same place. With the blessing of Samuil Mislavsky, on May 14, 1771, a new stone church was laid according to the plan of Moscow, the largest in Zamoskvorechye, the church of the Holy Martyr Clement, Pope of Rome, built in 1762-1770 on Pyatnitskaya Street - a square shape with five domes and five thrones. Construction was carried out on voluntary donations from the townspeople. In the spring of 1778, an iconostasis was hastily installed in the northern limit, and on April 25 the throne was consecrated in the name of the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. On September 27, 1780, in the presence of Field Marshal Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, who arrived in Kharkov to open the Kharkov governorship, the main altar of the cathedral was consecrated by His Grace Haggai. The final finishing work was completed in 1783. On June 8, the southern limit was consecrated in the choirs in the name of the holy chief apostles Peter and Paul. In the same year, the main iconostasis of the cathedral was installed.
On November 12, 1818 and February 13, 1819, meetings of parishioners and citizens of Kharkov were held, at which, at the suggestion of Archpriest Stefan Antonovsky, a proposal was discussed to erect a new very high bell tower in honor of Alexander I and the victory of the Russian army over the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Patriotic War of 1812. It was decided to call the bell tower Alexandrovskaya, and its design was entrusted to the professor of architecture of the Kharkov Imperial University Yevgeny Vasiliev.
According to urban legend, when reviewing the initial project, the mayor Lomakin was very indignant at the fact that the projected bell tower would be higher than the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in Moscow, which has a height of 81 meters. The architect did not want to reduce the height of the building and he had to go to the trick and promise to redo the project by the next meeting. For the next consideration, Vasiliev submitted the same project, only indicating the heights of each floor, without the overall height. In words, he assured those present that the bell tower would not exceed the bell tower of Ivan the Great. And thus, on May 8, 1820, the plan and facade of the bell tower were approved. Many donations were collected for the construction, the old bell tower was dismantled and already on August 2, 1821, a new one was laid by Bishop Paul, but the construction work was carried out slowly and intermittently. According to the project, it was planned to place a warm church in it, and on November 5, 1833, the main altar was consecrated in honor of the Theophany of the Lord, and on November 12 of the same year, the Right Reverend Innokenty Alexandrov consecrated the chapel in honor of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva. In 1837, work was continued, but already under the guidance of the architect A. Ton, and the project, with minor changes, was basically completed in the early 40s.
On October 1, 1841, Archbishop Smaragd, with a large crowd of people, made a procession from the Intercession Cathedral to the Assumption Cathedral, held a prayer service and sprinkling the cross, after which it was erected by the Moscow master Lukin over the dome of the bell tower. Complete construction work was completed only in 1844. On November 4, 1846, at the request of Bishop Innocent, by the decision of the Holy Synod, the Assumption Cathedral received the status of a cathedral, and the Pokrovsky Cathedral, which had previously been a cathedral, became simply a monastery church. On May 3, 1855, the Kharkiv city society decided to buy and install a tower clock on the bell tower using city funds, and to keep a watchmaker at the expense of the city for their repair and winding. And in the summer of 1862 the clock was set. In September 1863, the former largest 200 pood bell was replaced by a much larger bell weighing 1003 poods (more than 16.1 tons) donated to the cathedral by the Ryzhov brothers and cast at their factory.
Soon a chapel was added to the bell tower, consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas. In it, in 1886, an iconostasis was built, placing a fence in the form of a bronze lattice in front of it. In 1889, His Eminence Ambrose cast a silver bell weighing 18 pounds (about 300 kg) at the expense of the clergy and donations from the parishioners of the Kharkiv diocese. And this so-called Royal bell was hung in a newly built chapel. On the bell, among the ornaments, there is a monogram with the initials of the emperor, surrounded on three sides by a garland with relief images of the names of the imperial children.
In 1924, the antenna of the first Ukrainian broadcasting radio station was installed on the bell tower. The anniversary of the first day of its broadcast on November 16 became a professional holiday for radio and communications workers. The studio was located nearby, and so that the bell ringing did not interfere with the broadcasts, the cathedral was soon closed. Later, the transmitter was installed inside the cathedral, while destroying valuable frescoes and a unique wooden iconostasis of the 18th century, assembled according to Rastrelli's drawings. The station operated until 1941.
In 1959, a partial restoration of the bell tower was carried out. In 1973, work began on the complete restoration of the temple and the bell tower, and the strengthening of the foundations was carried out. In 1986, the House of Organ and Chamber Music was opened in the temple premises. November 21, 2006 restored the cross on the bell tower.
The bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral with a height of 89.5 meters for more than a century and a half was the highest stone building in the city (except for metal towers), and only in 2006 were higher buildings built in Kharkov - two 25-storey residential buildings, 91 ( 110 with antenna) and 95 meters.
PLACES NEARBY
QUESTION-ANSWER
No questions