Archangel Michael Cathedral (Oral)

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The Archangel Michael Cathedral

The Archangel Michael Cathedral ( Russian Михайло-Архангельский собор , also known as the Old Cathedral ) is a Russian Orthodox church building in the Kazakh oral . Built between 1740 and 1751, it is one of the oldest preserved buildings in the city. It is the cathedral of the Oral and Aktobe eparchy .

history

The foundation stone for the building was laid in 1741. It is located in the old city center on the bank of the Ural River . The construction was led by builders from Moscow , who designed the cathedral in the style of the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin . After completion in 1751, it was consecrated to Archangel Michael , the guardian angel of the Oral Cossacks .

At the end of the 18th century, the Urals riverbed began to shift. As a result, the bank on which the cathedral stood began to be washed away. To fortify the coast, the governor-general of Orenburg had a total of 300 oaks planted. From the second half of the 19th century, the city began to expand to the north and the newly built Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (destroyed in the 1930s) was inaugurated. As a result, the number of parishioners had been reduced considerably, and services were only held on public holidays. A four-story bell tower was added to the west of the church building in 1861 .

With increasing religious persecution in the Soviet Union , the cathedral was closed and reopened several times after the October Revolution and during the Russian Civil War , and from the 1930s at the latest the building served as a warehouse. A museum in honor of Emelyan Ivanovich Pugachev was established in one of the chapels . In 1940 a museum of atheism was opened in the former cathedral . From 1943, services were held in the cathedral again. It was closed again in 1961 and stood empty for five years. A regional museum of local history was located in the building between 1966 and 1988.

On the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the day of the baptism of Rus in 1988, the parishioners turned to the city's executive committee with a request to return the church building to the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1989 the Council for Religious Affairs of the Council of Ministers of the USSR approved the return. In the summer of that year the cathedral was rededicated.

When the Uralsk and Guryev Eparchy was founded on January 30, 1991, it became their cathedral. Extensive renovations were carried out between 1997 and 1998. The iconostasis has been restored and work has been carried out to preserve the frescoes . In addition, the domes were gilded and new bells were installed in the tower.

Web links

Commons : Archangel Michael Cathedral (Oral)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cathedral of the Archangel Michael. uralsk.gov.kz, accessed on July 28, 2019 (English).
  2. ^ A b Churches built on the bank of the Zhaiyk River. e-history.kz, accessed on July 29, 2019 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d Кафедральный Собор Архангела Михаила. Уральск. uralsk-eparhiya.kz, accessed July 29, 2019 (Russian).

Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 0.1 ″  N , 51 ° 22 ′ 43.5 ″  E