Address: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Shcherbakova street, 15A
Start of construction: 1898 year
Completion of construction: 1900 year
Architect: Malinovsky P.P.
Coordinates: 56 ° 20'59.9 "N 43 ° 52'19.3" E
Content:
The majestic cathedral in the Sormovsky district is one of the most beautiful sights of Nizhny Novgorod and a state-protected historical and architectural monument. This temple has been raising its domes for over a century. Built at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it stood for only two decades. Then came the years when the cathedral was in great desolation. In the 1990s, the situation changed, and the long-awaited period of restoration and restoration work began. Today, the Sormovo Cathedral appears before the townspeople and guests of Nizhny Novgorod in all its glory.
General view of the Transfiguration Cathedral
Temple history
Nowadays Sormovskiy district is a part of the city. And in the 19th century, the small village of Sormovo was located on the outskirts of Nizhny Novgorod. Intensive development here began in the middle of the 19th century, when scattered workshops merged into a single production - "Machine factory for towing and imported shipping". As time went on, it grew into a real industrial center - the Sormovo shipyard. More than 10.5 thousand people worked at its production facilities, and Nizhny Novgorod had the opportunity to grow, largely thanks to this enterprise.
With donations from workers from the factory settlements, a church was first erected in honor of the holy noble Prince Alexander Nevsky. Its construction did not take long and was completed in December 1882. However, the small temple, especially on weekends and holidays, was not able to accommodate everyone who came to pray. For this reason, six years later, the trustees of the parish schools belonging to the shipbuilding industry decided to build a new church in Sormovo and dedicate it to the Christian holiday of the Transfiguration. To resolve all administrative issues and collect donations, a special construction committee was created, the chairman of which was elected the famous Russian industrialist and engineer Fyodor Foss, and the construction was blessed by Bishop Vladimir of Nizhny Novgorod.
The new cathedral was also erected at the expense of the Sormovo workers. And among the local residents, this temple has long been called "penny", as they allocated for the construction of one penny from each ruble of their salary.
The new cathedral required over 2.5 million bricks. And eleven bells for the temple belfry were cast by Yaroslavl craftsmen. In order not to reduce the quality of the masonry, the cathedral was built only when it was warm - during three summer seasons, and in winter the construction was suspended.
View of the northeastern facade of the cathedral
The large Sormovo cathedral could accommodate about 2,000 parishioners at a time. The interior decoration was completed in 1903, and two years later, the main cathedral altar was consecrated. Inside the cathedral, a huge six-tier carved out of wood and gilded iconostasis with a beautiful forged cross at the top was placed. From the spacious prayer hall to the altar, there were steps of salt made of marble. The temple was very beautiful, and in 1903 its appearance and rich interiors were captured in photographs by the famous Nizhny Novgorod photographer Maxim Petrovich Dmitriev.
After the 1917 revolution, with the new government in the country, a different attitude towards the church came. In 1927, by decision of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Executive Committee, the wooden belfry was destroyed, and the bells were confiscated from it. The entire metal roof was removed from the cathedral and it was intended to blow it up. However, later the city authorities decided to turn the cult building into the Palace of Labor. But there were not enough funds for the implementation of these plans, so in 1934, a House of Culture for children was first located in the former church, and then the premises were used as warehouses for medicines and food. The vaulted sub-church was ugly partitioned off and a refrigerator was made inside it for storing fish.
For the next fifty years, no one took care of the temple, and it was badly dilapidated. The huge cathedral stood in the center of Sormovo, like a silent reproach to the authorities. The restoration work of the temple was carried out for the first time only in 1987.
Three years later, the Sormovo Cathedral was returned to the believers, and its new birth began. Money for the repair and restoration of interiors was collected as many years ago - at a penny. Many Nizhny Novgorod residents donated icons kept by their families to the church and volunteered to work at a construction site. The restoration of the iconostases was carried out by specialists using old photographs and archival drawings. In parallel with the restoration of the cathedral, parishioners and builders improved the parish territory, erected a fence and renovated the parable house, in which the premises of the refectory, baptismal and Sunday school were equipped. The first church service in the Sormovo Cathedral took place in 1991, during the celebration of Easter. And by its centenary (2005) the temple was already completely restored.
Domes of the Transfiguration Cathedral
Architectural features of the cathedral
The project of the cross-domed cathedral was developed by the city architect Pavel Petrovich Malinovsky. In 1903 he moved to work in Moscow, so the architect V.A. Kosov - one of the designers of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
The cathedral in Sormovo was built in the tradition of a pseudo-Byzantine style, rare for Russia, with elements of eclecticism. There are only three such churches on the territory of our country - in Novy Afon, in St. Petersburg and Volgograd. Art critics believe that the Cathedral of St. Sophia, dedicated to Alexander Nevsky, became the prototype of the Sormovo temple.
The temple bell tower is located below the main dome. This violation of the generally accepted canons was done intentionally to emphasize the sublime position of the central part of the cathedral and the aspiration of the entire structure to the sky. The vaults of the dome are made according to the latest building technologies of the beginning of the last century - using reinforced concrete structures.
Today, the tall and massive temple is visible from afar. It has a width of 29.9 m, and when the bell tower is placed, the width reaches 46.9 m. The main dome rises to the cross to the height of a 12-storey building (42.7 m). There are not many churches of this size in the city. The temple has silvery domes, which look very beautiful in combination with red-brick walls, snow-white semi-columns and cornices.
The current state of the cathedral and the visiting regime
Sormovsky Cathedral is a functioning Orthodox church. Its central throne is dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord. In addition, there are side-altars of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God and the prophet Elijah.
Church services are held on weekdays at 7.00 and 17.00, and on Sundays and holidays - at 6.00 and 16.00. In the mornings, the streets of the Sormovsky district are filled with beautiful church bells.
Fragment of the facade of the Transfiguration Cathedral
There is a Sunday school at the cathedral, created for the children of parishioners, and on Tuesdays from 17.00 to 20.00 an Orthodox lecture hall for believers is open in the church. Patronal holidays are celebrated here on July 21, August 2 and 19, and November 4.
How to get there
The cathedral is located in the Sormovsky district of the city, on Shcherbakova street, 15A. You can get there by buses and fixed-route taxis (stop "Center of Sormova" or "Ploschad R. Alekseev").
