Holy Protection Cathedral

Ukraine has many churches that were resurrected after being destroyed in Soviet times, and Zaporizhia’s Holy Protection Cathedral was one of the most challenging projects. It was originally consecrated as St Cyril’s Cathedral in 1886, but met an untimely end when it was pulled down in the 1930s. The project to rebuild the cathedral started in 1993 and archive architectural plans and photographs of the building were tracked down in St Petersburg. Construction would take until 2007, and the new church is almost an exact replica of the one that came before, even down to the vibrant image of the Intercession of the Virgin inside.

I like it. Beautiful

I visited our cathedral today and was pleasantly impressed. Due to its size and the large number of rooms, you can find a quiet place and pray peacefully. There are a lot of icons, and they look very expensive. There is a toilet for visitors. Candle prices are surprisingly low. But after the service, the servant goes out to the worshipers and collects donations. The cathedral is open until 18:00.

I visit the cathedral very often. At the moment, on December 23, 2021, artwork is underway, the painting is done very beautifully and the cathedral is being transformed and filled with good energy. Services are different in the morning and afternoon and evening. There are always priests at any time and you can ask for advice and help. Inside there is a church shop with a large selection of goods, prices are different

The Holy Intercession Bishops' Cathedral is a local monument of cult architecture and urban planning. The first church, which was located on the site of today's Holy Intercession Bishops' Cathedral, was built in 1778 mainly of wood. In 1886, on the site of the former Intercession Church, the Holy Intercession Cathedral was laid, which was destroyed in the 30s of the XX century. In 1993, it was decided to recreate the Holy Protection Cathedral in its original form. The construction of the temple took 14 years. Architect Dmitry Romanov found photographs of the cathedral in the Synodal Archives of St. Petersburg, which stood on the site of the reconstruction of the cathedral before the October 1917 coup. The designers studied in detail the architectural features of the church on Cathedral Square and were able to develop drawings for the construction of a new church. The new temple became an exact copy of the main temple of Aleksandrovsk, which was destroyed at the beginning of the 20th century. Today the temple is one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the country, 53 meters high with a vivid image of the Most Holy Theotokos and a rare iconostasis in the Ukrainian Baroque style. The iconostasis was probably created in 1730. For over 200 years he was in the church of the Archangel Michael in one of the rural parishes of Podolia. It is possible that in front of the old iconostasis, the Cossacks also prayed to strengthen the Orthodox faith. In 1938, when the church was finally destroyed, the iconostasis fell into a private collection and was prepared for exporting it abroad. But later it was transferred to the Zaporozhye Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Faith to All and Love.