Vladimir Cathedral (Sevastopol)
The Vladimir Cathedral in Sevastopol ( Russian Владимирский собор ) is located on Suvorov Street on one of the highest hills in the city. This Russian Orthodox Church was built in the 19th century. After the destruction in World War II , the Soviet Union had it completely rebuilt in 1966. Four well-known Russian admirals are buried in it, as indicated by the memorial plaques on the facade.
It is often confused with the cathedral of the same name in Chersonesos and is therefore also known as the Vladimir Cathedral (Admiral's Tomb) by the inhabitants .
Building history
The history of the cathedral began in 1825 when the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Alexei Samuilowitsch Greig, petitioned Tsar Alexander I to erect a monument to the saint and apostle-like Grand Duke Vladimir on the ruins of the ancient city of Chersonese . This could be inaugurated in 1829 at the specified location. In the same year, an architectural competition was announced to build a corresponding church. The designs of the Russian architect Konstantin Andrejewitsch Ton for a cathedral in the Russian-Byzantine style were then selected as favorites. However, at the request of Admiral Mikhail Lazarev, the building site for the church was not Chersonese, but the highest hill in the city of Sevastopol, because at that time there were too few Orthodox churches in the town. The foundation stone was laid in 1848, and the actual construction could not begin until 1854.
Because of the Crimean War and the associated defense of Sevastopol (1854–1855), construction was interrupted; it was not until 1858 that building could continue. This work was now under the direction of the architect Alexei Alexandrovich Avdejew , who changed the original plans regarding the architectural style to the purely Byzantine style . The house took another thirty years to complete, so the new church building was consecrated in 1888 .
After Lazarev had died in 1851, the builders decided that he should be buried in the crypt of the cathedral. The Russian admirals Vladimir Kornilov , Vladimir Ivanovich Istomin and Pawel Stepanovich Nakhimov , who played an important role in the defense of Sevastopol and died in the fighting , were later buried here. On two sides of the facade, black marble plaques with the names of the admirals remind of this.
In 1931 an inspection of the admirals' sarcophagi had taken place.
During the Second World War the church was completely destroyed and in 1966 it was rebuilt.
A few decades after the reconstruction, a commission examined the vault of the crypt, and only skeletal fragments were found under the rubble. These were solemnly reburied in 1992.
Architectural
It is a domed structure consisting of a cross-shaped floor plan and five individual vaults. A special limestone from Inkerman was used as the building material . The church is 20 meters wide, 29 meters long and, including the cross on the dome, 32.5 meters high.
The pillars around the outer portals are made of diorite .
The Carrara marble columns , the iconostasis and the choir apse were created by the Italian sculptor V. Bonanni.
The church interior is decorated with frescoes , which the Swiss artist Rolf Iseli did not until the 20th century based on designs by the Russian painter A. E. Kornejew. In addition, ten white marble tablets with the names of other officers who stood out in the defense of Sevastopol are inserted into the side walls.
In the crypt there are eleven graves with common tombstones in the form of a large cross made of black marble.
Web links
Coordinates: 44 ° 36 ′ 37.5 ″ N , 33 ° 31 ′ 24.8 ″ E