Russian Orthodox Cathedral (Vienna)

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Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Vienna
Interior view of the cathedral towards the iconostasis

The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas ( Russian Кафедральный собор Святителя Николая в Вене ) is a späthistoristische church in the 3rd district , Jaurèsgasse 2. It is the seat of the Russian Orthodox community in Vienna and since 1962 eparchy .

The interior

It was built in 1893–99 as an embassy church by the Italo-Austrian architect Luigi Giacomelli according to plans by Grigorij Iwanowitsch Kotow . A large part of the construction costs (400,000 rubles) came from a donation from Tsar Alexander III. upset.

The consecration of the cathedral to Saint Nicholas was made on April 4th (17th) 1899. With the beginning of the First World War the church was closed and placed under the care of neutral Spain. From 1924, the year in which the Soviet Union and Austria established diplomatic relations, the church building was attached to the Soviet embassy, ​​but during the Stalinist period it was initially only used as a storage room. During the Second World War, the church was transferred to the Vienna University of Music for use. From 1945, however, with the support of the Soviet military command, the church was again accessible to the faithful and in 1948 a new main bell was donated by the Red Army . Since 1962 the church has been the episcopal seat of the eparchy for Vienna and Austria , which as a diocese is subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate .

The church is a five-domed building in the traditional forms of Russian sacred architecture. The interior is divided into a lower and an upper church: the patron saint of the upper church is St. Nicholas , the patron saint of the lower church is the holy Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky .

From 2003 to 2008 the cathedral was extensively renovated; Instead of the planned re-consecration ceremony, a memorial service for the late Patriarch Alexius II took place on December 21, 2008 . The previously bare interior of the church was redesigned in 2006-2008 by the leading Moscow icon painter Archimandrite Zinon and a few employees with wall paintings in the traditional Byzantine style. The new iconostasis also comes from Zinon .

The Russian Embassy is right next to the cathedral .

literature

  • Dehio Vienna. II. To IX. and XX. District . Anton Schroll, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-7031-0680-8 , p. 63-64 .

Web links

Commons : Russian Orthodox Cathedral Vienna  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Information brochure for the Cathedral of St. Nikolaus, Vienna o. JS 3f.
  2. New splendor for St. Nicholas Cathedral. ORF, accessed on November 30, 2008 .
  3. News - Days of Remembrance of His Holiness Patriarch Aleksij II. (No longer available online.) Cathedral z. St. Nikolaus, formerly in the original ; Retrieved December 21, 2008 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nikolsobor.org  
  4. Information brochure ibid p. 11, 14

Coordinates: 48 ° 11 ′ 51 ″  N , 16 ° 23 ′ 4 ″  E