Immaculate Conception Cathedral (Moscow)
| Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception | |
|---|---|
 The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception |
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| Construction year: | 1911 |
| Builder : | Foma Ossipowitsch Bogdanowitsch-Dworschezki |
| Architect : | Foma Ossipowitsch Bogdanowitsch-Dworschezki |
| Position: | 55 ° 46 '2 " N , 37 ° 34' 17" E |
| Purpose: | catholic cathedral |
| Website: | www.catedra.ru |
The Immaculate Cathedral Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( Russian Собор Непорочного Зачатия Пресвятой Девы Марии / Sobor Neporotschnowo Satschatija Presvjatoj Dewy Marii , popularly known simply Костёл / Kostjol or Кирха / Kircha - "the Catholic Church") is a neo-Gothic church in the center of Moscow and the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Mother of God of Moscow . It is one of only two Catholic churches currently open in Moscow and the largest Catholic cathedral in all of Russia.
Built in 1911 according to a design by Tomasz Bohdanowicz-Dworzecki as a branch church of the Polish community, the church was closed by the communist government in 1938, rebuilt and used for secular purposes for almost 60 years. It was not until 1996, after years of negotiations, that it was returned to its religious purpose as a church and, after extensive renovation, it was re-consecrated in 2001. It received cathedral status in 2002.
Regular services in Russian, Polish, Korean, English, French, Spanish, Armenian and Latin are held in the cathedral, as well as charity concerts of organ and church music. Attached to the cathedral is a library, the main editorial office of the Russian Catholic magazine "The Catholic Messenger - The Light of the Gospel" (Russian: "Католический вестник - Свет Евангелия") and the office of the local Caritas association .
The cathedral is inscribed on the list of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation and is a listed building.
story
Prehistory and first construction period
At the end of the 19th century there were only two Catholic churches in Moscow: the Church of St. Louis the French and the Peter and Paul Church of the Polish community. The latter had grown to around 30,000 members, and the small church was nowhere near enough. In 1894 the local council decided to build a new church and submitted a petition to the governor-general of Moscow. Permission was granted, but on the condition that “the building should be built far from the city center and not in the immediate vicinity of particularly venerated Orthodox shrines”. On May 16, 1895, the community bought ten hectares of land on Malaya Grusinskaya Street that met this requirement. At that time the property was still on the outskirts and was surrounded by fields and vegetable gardens. Today it is greatly reduced in size and surrounded by high-rise buildings, in the middle of the metropolis in the central administrative district and just outside the “ ring line ” of the metro that surrounds the city center. At the time, the property cost 10,000 rubles in gold (based on purchasing power at the time, this corresponds to around 200,000 euros today), and the purchase was financed by donations. The purchase agreement and the complete lists of all donors have been preserved in the city archives of Moscow and Saint Petersburg to this day.
Another requirement of the city read: “In view of the two existing Roman Catholic churches, the new one to be built should represent a comparatively large house of prayer. With a cross on the gable, but without towers and external sculptures ”. The draft submitted by the Russian architect of Polish descent Tomasz Bohdanowicz-Dworzecki did not meet the last requirement, but was accepted. The draft provided space for up to 5000 believers.
The foundation stone was laid in 1899, but the actual construction work did not begin until 1901 and lasted until 1911. The construction cost 290,000 rubles in gold (equivalent to around 5,800,000 euros today). Much of the money was raised by the Polish community itself. Other donations came from Catholic communities across the Russian Empire.
The church was consecrated on December 21, 1911. It was named "Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary" and the status of the subsidiary church of the Peter and Paul Congregation. The consecration received a lot of coverage in the Russian and Polish daily press. For example, the Moscow newspaper "Russkoye Slovo" wrote:
“The beautiful, highly artistic massif of the new Roman Catholic Church, consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, rises in the dirty, poor, and forgotten by God and the city. Huge in its dimensions and height, [...] the new church leaves a deep impression. [...] [Every detail] looks impressive and significant: you don't see or feel the slightest stylistic flaw. "
In the years 1911–1917, additional funds were collected for the interior decoration. The interior work lasted until 1917. The furnishings in the church, however, remained comparatively sparse until the 1930s, apart from the magnificent main altar . Parts of the original design were not even realized: Inside, the floor was not laid with marble as planned, but rather poured from plain concrete; on the outside the pinnacles of the facade were missing . According to some sources, the pinnacles were built in 1923 and partly destroyed again during the Second World War, partly deliberately dismantled; According to other sources, they were not completed until the cathedral was renovated in 1999.
Closure and renovations
In 1929 the Peter and Paul Congregation was formally dissolved by the communist government. Masses were no longer allowed to be celebrated in the Church of the Immaculate Conception. In 1935 the site of the church was greatly reduced. It lost a large part of its gardens, on the site of which a school was built in 1936. The church was finally closed on July 30, 1938 (the same fate befell Peter and Paul Church , the other Moscow church of the Polish community, nine days earlier ). After the church was closed, the church was looted and the main altar and organ were irretrievably lost. For a few months the church was first used as a vegetable store, then converted into a dormitory. The interior was redistributed into four floors.
During the Battle of Moscow in World War II, the top of the main tower was dismantled to make it difficult for the Luftwaffe bombers to orientate themselves. Shortly after the war, the church lost another part of its property to a neighboring house.
After a fire in 1956 in which the dome of the main tower collapsed, the tenants of the dormitory were moved one by one to new buildings; in their place the research institute Mosspezpromprojekt (Russian Мосспецпромпроект) gradually moved into the church. It was rebuilt again. The research institute was primarily concerned with the planning of industrial plants, but also designed the torch for the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium for the 1980 Summer Olympics .
In the 1960s and 1970s, the building fell into disrepair. The sight of the desecrated and dilapidated church put pressure on the Russian bard Vladimir Vysotsky , who lived in the house across the street from 1975 until his death in 1980. In 1976 the city administration had plans to renovate the church building, convert it into a concert hall for organ music and hand it over to the Central Office for Culture. However, the project failed due to resistance from the research institute.
Dispute about the return
In 1989, a union of Moscow Catholics and the cultural association “The Polish House” (Russian Дом Польский) raised the question of returning the building to the Catholic Church for the first time. With the approval of the city council, on December 8, 1990, on the occasion of the feast of the Conception of Mary , the first Holy Mass in 60 years was celebrated on the steps of the church . Hundreds of people prayed for the Church to be returned in the December cold. The mass was chaired by the Polish priest Tadeusz Pikus , auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Warsaw since 1999 .
In January 1990, a group of Moscow Catholics formally established the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On April 13, 1991, Pope John Paul II established the “ Apostolic Administration for European Russia” with the Apostolic Constitution Providi quae . On April 21, 1991, its Apostolic Administrator Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz issued a decree to rebuild the Church of the Immaculate Conception. On May 3rd, the Polish national holiday, another mass was held on the steps of the church with the approval of the city administration. On May 31st, the municipality's statutes were officially recognized by the City Council's Judicial Administration. But it stayed that way for the time being. In the meantime, parts of the church from Mosspezpromprojekt have been sublet to various companies.
From June 7, 1991, masses were celebrated every Sunday in the courtyard of the church. On July 15, 1991 Josef Sanewski, Salesian of Don Bosco , was appointed parish priest. From November 29, 1991, regular religious instruction took place under the direction of Don Bosco sisters . At the same time, the first charitable projects for nursing and poor relief emerged.
On February 1, 1992, the Vice Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, signed a resolution according to which the institute should gradually hand over the building to the Catholic community and vacate it completely within two years. However, the decision was not implemented. The institute let the deadline for the first partial handover pass. As a result, community representatives entered the building on July 2, 1992 and occupied the institute's workshop. After discussions with the city council, the occupied space was awarded to the community and separated from the rest of the institute's premises by a wall. From then on, regular services were held in this room.
On March 7, 1995, some parishioners removed the dividing wall from the institute; others started clearing the roof structure on their own. The institute called on the police special forces, OMON , for help. The following day there was another confrontation with the police, injuring several parishioners, including a nun. Others were arrested, including a priest and a seminarian; they were released the next day.
In the light of these events, the Apostolic Administrator Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz asked then President Boris Yeltsin in an open letter on March 9, 1995 to address the situation surrounding the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The letter said, among other things: “It seemed like the persecution of the Church was a thing of the past. But is that so? When was the last time a priest was arrested? When was the last time a nun was beaten up? "
Thereupon Yuri Luzhkov (meanwhile appointed mayor by Yeltsin) signed a new decision to move the institute, which had been a draft for a long time. The resolution was postponed to March 7th and provided for the building to be cleared in 1995–1996. At the same time, the institute presented the latest events from its point of view in a letter to Luschkow and demanded compensation at the community's expense.
In a meeting with the Polish ambassador Stanisław Ciosek on March 15, 1995, the Deputy Mayor of Moscow Alexander Musykantski assured him that the church would be returned by the end of the year.
On March 19, a mass was celebrated in the recaptured part of the church under the direction of the Apostolic Nuncio John Bukowski , who brought the congregation the blessing of Pope John Paul II.
On November 2, 1995, Yuri Luzhkov demanded in a new resolution Mosspezpromprojekt to vacate the building by the end of the year at the latest. When this resolution was not implemented either, parishioners entered the institute on January 2, 1996 and began to clear it. The director of the institute, Yevgeny Afanasyev, called the police again, but this time they saw the believers as right and let them have their way. The director then asked the parish priest for a final two-week extension of the relocation period, and on January 13, 1996, Mosspezpromprojekt moved out of the building.
On February 2, 1996, the Apostolic Administration for European Russia finally received official permission to use the church for an unlimited period of time.
Renovation and rededication
As early as the early 1990s, the Office for the Protection of Monuments had plans to renovate the Church of the Immaculate Conception by 1997, the 850th anniversary of Moscow. However, due to the dispute over the building, the project was not implemented. Ultimately, the return of the church was made conditional on the Catholic community renovating it at its own expense. A commission was set up in 1995 to plan the renovation, chaired by the parish priest Josef Sanewski, the Russian historian Stanislaw Dumin and the Polish building contractor and politician Grzegorz Tuderek .
Between 1996 and 1999 the building was renovated with financial support from the Polish company EnergoPol and the German Association of the Roman Catholic Church Renovabis . The Moscow government finally made funds available in 1999. The work was initially carried out under the direction of the Polish companies PKZ and Budimex , which, among other things, completely renewed the facade and roof. From September 1998 the priests Andrzej Stezkewitsch, today Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Mother of God of Moscow, and Jan Tajchman , architect and restorer from Toruń , took over the management of the work ; both had led the renovation of the Catholic Dormition Cathedral in Saint Petersburg immediately before. The interior work including the new altar was carried out by Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian masters according to Tajchman's designs. All marble work inside and outside was done by Moscow firms. All church furniture was made by students of the St. Petersburg School of Restoration under the direction of its director Vladimir Muchin. The glass paintings for the rose window on the facade were made in Toruń, all other stained glass windows by the Belarusian company Tolotschko from Hrodna .
On December 12, 1999, the Church of the Immaculate Conception was solemnly reopened and rededicated by the Cardinal Secretary of State of the Roman Curia, Angelo Cardinal Sodano .
On April 21, 2001, the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Apostolic Administration for European Russia was solemnly celebrated in the church . On February 11, 2002 Pope John Paul II elevated the administration to the Archdiocese of Mother of God of Moscow and the Apostolic Administrator Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz to its first archbishop and metropolitan with the Apostolic Constitution Russia intra fines . At the same time, the Church of the Immaculate Conception received the status of the Cathedral of the Archdiocese. In March 2002 the cathedral took part in a joint rosary prayer organized by video conference with Catholics from several European cities under the direction of Pope John Paul II.
Since the reopening, the cathedral has held several services every day. The main liturgical language is Russian, but masses are also celebrated in Polish, English, French, Spanish, Korean, Latin and Armenian (according to the Armenian rite ). In addition to the masses, there are regular organ and church music concerts in the cathedral. Admission is usually free; Tickets for selected concerts are available at the box office for a small donation.
On April 12, 2010, the central funeral service of the Polish community for the victims of the plane crash near Smolensk took place in the cathedral .
Architecture and equipment
The cathedral is a neo - Gothic three - aisled cruciform pseudo-basilica . It is built entirely from red bricks and the outside is not plastered. The main nave is 65 m long and has five bays , while the transverse arms are each single bogie. The height of the tower dome above the crossing is 30 m. The facade was designed by the architect based on Westminster Abbey and the tower based on the Milan Cathedral . Each of the side aisles is reinforced by five buttresses , the total number 10 symbolizes the Ten Commandments according to the old church building tradition .
The main tower and the central spire of the facade are each of a cross, two pinnacles of the facade with coat of arms of Pope John Paul II., And Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz crowned.
Eleven steps lead to the main portal , the first ten of which symbolize the Ten Commandments, the eleventh Jesus Christ . Only those who obey the commandments and the teachings of Jesus should have access to the heavenly gate, which is symbolized by the portal of the cathedral. The portal is framed by columns and crowned by an eyelash , the top of which is designed as a finial . The eyelash itself is adorned with a relief ornament, in the middle of which a gold-plated monogram consisting of the letters “VMIC” can be seen (“Virgo Maria Immaculata Concepta”, Latin for “Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Received”). The architect's original design included a star of David instead of the monogram , as a reference to the Jewish faith of the Virgin Mary. A rosette made of light-colored stone is located above the Wimperg , its diameter is three meters.
inner space
There is a stone crucifix in the anteroom and a holy water container to the left and right of the entrance to the nave . A brick from the Lateran Basilica in Rome is walled in above the left, and an anniversary medal from the year 2000 above the right. A door in the right wall of the anteroom leads up to the organ loft , and a door in the left wall leads down to the crypt . In the latter there is an oratory , rooms for catechesis and the office of the Caritas Association.
There are benches in the main nave of the cathedral and confessionals in the side aisles. Until the church was closed in 1938, the aisles were also equipped with benches, with the left aisle being reserved for women and the right for men. The two side aisles are separated from the main nave by rows of five columns and two half-columns. The columns and the ceiling are white, the walls are painted cream. The floor is laid out with light and dark gray marble slabs in a checkerboard pattern.
The 8.5 meter high church windows are decorated with stained glass . Most of them show abstract patterns; the coats of arms of the apostolic nuncios John Bukowski and Francesco Cardinal Colasuonno are also shown on the windows in front of the transept . The windows in the transept are slightly larger and more elaborate. On the window in the right cross arm, the holy apostles Peter and Andrew are depicted, who symbolize the Western and Eastern Catholic Church. On the opposite window in the left transverse arm Pope John Paul II can be seen, who looks up to the apparition of Fátima . A total of 14 reliefs are placed under the windows in the nave , depicting the 14 stations of the Cross .
At the end of the right aisle, next to the presbytery , is the entrance to the sacristy , at the end of the left aisle is the Chapel of the Divine Mercy. The tabernacle is at the altar of the chapel .
The main altar of the cathedral is faced with dark green marble . It contains parts of the relics of the Holy Apostles Andrew , Zenon of Verona , Gregory of Nyssa , Gregory of Nazianzen , Cosmas, Damian and Anastasia , as well as parts of a cloth of the Blessed Virgin Mary , a gift from the Diocese of Verona . To the right of the altar is the ambon , also faced with dark green marble. Behind the altar, on the wall of the apse , there is a nine meter high stone crucifix with a three meter high figure of Christ . On the consoles to the left and right of it are plaster sculptures of the Mother of God and the Apostle John , works by the sculptor Svyatoslaw Sachlebin .
Opposite the altar, above the anteroom of the cathedral, is the organ gallery, which originally offered space for up to 50 choirs; a large part of this, however, is now used by the organ itself.
organ
With 74 registers , four manuals and 5563 pipes, the cathedral organ is one of the largest in Russia. It is already the third organ in the eventful history of the church.
The original organ was lost in the 1938 looting. After the renovation in 1999 the cathedral was first an electronic organ with 60 registers, a gift from the American charity "Aid to the Church in Russia" under the direction of Father Marcel Guarnizo, who here in 1997, nor during the renovation, his ordination as deacon get had.
The current pipe organ is a gift from the Evangelical Reformed Basel Minster . The instrument was built in 1955 by Th. Kuhn AG in Männedorf ; The pedal register Prinzipalbass 32 ′ (register no. 65) from the Basel cathedral organ from 1850 was reused . With the exception of the pipes of this historical register, the instrument was dismantled in 2002 by Orgelbau Schmid from Kaufbeuren in Basel and new in Moscow built up. The pipes Prinzipalbass 32 ′ are not allowed to leave Switzerland as they are part of the Swiss cultural heritage. In 2009 a replica was added to the place of the historical pedal register.
For the transport, the organ pipes were wrapped in clothing donated by Basel residents, which were later distributed to those in need in Moscow. The assembly of the organ was initially headed by Gerhard Schmid, whose personal request all work was carried out free of charge. However, he died on September 9, 2004 from the long-term effects of injuries sustained in a fall from scaffolding. His son Gunnar finished the work.
The organ was consecrated on January 16, 2005 by Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz as part of a mass followed by the opening concert of the First International Festival of Organ Music. The month-long festival included several organ concerts in the cathedral. The final concert was played by the main organist of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, James Edward Goettsche .
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- Coupling : 43rd BW / OW, 44th OW / HW, 45th RP / HW, 46th BW / P, 47th OW / P, 48th HW / P, 49th RP / P.
- Playing aids : database of register combinations , crescendo , tutti.
- Annotation:
- (N) = Register added later in 2009, instead of the original of the Basel cathedral organ from 1955 that remained in Switzerland
Bells
The five bells of the cathedral are on the roof, directly behind the arcades on the left side of the facade. They are a gift from Bishop Viktor Skworc and were cast by the Felczyński Bell Foundry in Przemyśl .
The bells are operated electronically. The largest of them weighs 900 kg and is named "Mother of God of Fátima ". The other bells are called, from the largest to the smallest, "John Paul II", " St. Thaddäus " (after the patron saint of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz), "Jubilee 2000" and " St. Victor " (after the patron saint of the bishop Viktor Skworc).
See also
literature
- ON Orobej, OI Lobov (Red.): Moskva načala veka (Москва начала века). In: Stroiteli Rossii. XX vek: antologija (Строители России. XX век: антология), pp. 88–89. O-Master-Verlag, Moscow 2001, ISBN 5-9207-0001-7
- PV Sytin: Iz istorii moskovskich ulic (Из истории московских улиц), Volume 3, pp. 280–282. Moscow 1948; New edition 2008 by Exmo-Verlag, ISBN 978-5-699-24988-6
Web links
- Official website of the cathedral (Russian) with historical photos and videos
- More than 200 photos of the cathedral, inside and out (in Russian)
- 20-minute television documentary about the cathedral from the series "Myths and Legends" by the television station Stoliza (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l History of the cathedral on ProCatholic.ru (Russian); Retrieved March 30, 2009
- ↑ a b c d e f g h History of the Cathedral ( memento of March 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the official website (Russian); Retrieved March 30, 2009
- ↑ a b c d e TV documentary about the cathedral from the series "Myths and Legends" by the TV station Stoliza; online at smotri.com (Russian), accessed March 30, 2009
- ^ "Through the Moscow of Vladimir Vysotsky and his literary heroes", an essay by Lyubov Ossipowa, May 1985; online at kulichki.com (Russian), accessed March 30, 2009
- ↑ "The Moscow government installs the exterior lighting of the Catholic cathedral" , article on NEWSru.com of November 9, 2005 (Russian); Retrieved March 30, 2009
- ^ "Russkaja Mysl" newspaper of March 16, 1995, open letter from Apostolic Administrator Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz to President Boris Yeltsin. Online archive at www.rm-news.eu (page no longer available)
- ↑ Curriculum vitæ by Jan Juliusz Tajchman ( memento from September 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (Polish); Retrieved March 30, 2009
- ↑ Divine service plan of the cathedral ( memento of April 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the official website (Russian); Retrieved April 21, 2009
- ↑ a b c d e Architecture of the Cathedral ( Memento from March 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on the official website (Russian); Retrieved March 30, 2009
- ↑ a b “Uncle, may I whistle?” - Report and interview with Gunnar Schmid by Jan Smirnizki (Russian), web edition of the newspaper “Moskowski Komsomolez”, January 17, 2005; accessed on August 16, 2015. Mirror on perm.ru ( memento of April 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 27, 2009.
- ^ Orgelbau Schmid Kaufbeuren eK: Company portrait 1955–2005 ; Retrieved March 30, 2009
- ^ "The International Festival of Organ Music" , a report by Anna Iwanowa, February 10, 2005 (Russian); Retrieved March 30, 2009
