St. Ascension Cathedral, Velikie Luki: History and Architecture

The Holy Ascension Cathedral in the city of military glory Velikie Luki is a landmark with a rich and in many ways tragic history. In 2014, the city celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the restoration of the temple.

Ancient Monastery and Troubled Time

Despite the fact that, in fact, the new building is the modern Holy Ascension Cathedral, Velikie Luki keeps the memory of his ancient origins. Initially, on the place where the temple now stands, Ilyinsky Monastery was located. The history of this not preserved monastery is drowning in the darkness of the centuries, and, unfortunately, to this day very little information has reached about it. It is only known that the monastery was burned by the Polish troops in the Time of Troubles, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Alas, after the ruin the monastery could not be reborn, and for almost a century the remaining buildings were dilapidated, and the territory came to desolation.

New life in the old place

The Ilyinsky Monastery was officially abolished in 1632, although in fact it had not operated for many years. Only in 1675 life was revived here. In place of the grass remnants of the old monastery, a new Ascension Monastery Monastery was laid. The initiator of its construction was the Metropolitan of Novgorod and Velikie Luki Cornelius. The basis for the erection of a new monastic complex in the city was the petition of nuns from the Vvedensky monastery destroyed by the Lithuanians.

Initially, the monastery was rebuilt in a tree, but these buildings did not last long. The fire of 1719 almost completely destroyed them. In the second time, already built stone solid buildings.

An invaluable contribution to the development of the monastery and its construction was made by its fourth ruler - hegumen Margarita. With her efforts in 1752, a church was built in the name of the Ascension of the Lord, from which the Holy Ascension Cathedral later grew up. Great Luke enriched with a magnificent stone building.

Plan and architectural features

By its architectural design, the church was a typical building in the style of Moscow or Naryshkin baroque. On a rectangular podkleti, or chetverike, octagonal volume - octagon overlapped by an onion dome towered.

The origin of these forms of architecture is derived from the Russian wooden church architecture. At the end of the 17th century, they moved to stone construction. Although at the beginning of the construction of the Holy Ascension Cathedral, St. Petersburg and Moscow conquered a new style of classicism, in the provincial cities, this type of church was built until the end of the 18th century.

The modern plan of the church includes a western gallery, a porch, side altars, a pentahedral apse, a refectory, and a three-tier bell tower. The latter was a special pride of the monastery, which singled out and raised above the city the Holy Ascension Cathedral.

Great Luke, like many ancient cities, since the founding of the monastery and the completion of the construction of the cathedral have overgrown with different and different buildings. On their background, the architecture of the church is lost. However, this dissonance does not prevent the city from enjoying the revived monument and spiritual center.

The Holy Ascension Cathedral (Velikie Luki) and the history of the 20th century

The monastery lasted until 1918. The turbulent upheavals of modern history have not bypassed either the city of Velikiye Luki or the cathedral itself. After the revolution, it was abolished, although the temple still operated for some time. In 1925 he was also shut down. The building of the 18th century was given to trading warehouses, and gradually it began to collapse. Before the war the bell tower was dismantled, having shot and melted the bells.

Surprisingly, during the military operations the cathedral practically did not suffer, but in the following years it was systematically destroyed, trying to lead to an uncultured appearance. For this, the central octagon was demolished, and from the former splendor of the cathedral there remained only a rectangular box of the podklet. In 1990, the cathedral was rebuilt and began to function again as a parish church.