Yevpatoria, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker: the history of creation and the present

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Yevpatoria is a small resort town located on the shores of Kalamitsky Bay. Its length is 37 km, if you count from Cape Lukull in the south and Evpatoria in the north. The bay is shaped like an arc, but the guides prefer to call it the “Scythian bow.”

One of the main attractions in Evpatoria is the Cathedral of St. Nicholas. He is considered the patron saint of sailors and merchants, it is forbidden to mention him in bad words, according to the unwritten maritime law. Even the pirates, no matter what happened at sea, never offended the saint. On the contrary, sailors often kept his image along with a photograph of a loved one. For a trading and port city, the tradition of honoring this saint is inseparable from the history of the resort.

Description of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

This majestic Byzantine-style building is located onembankment Tereshkova and immediately attracts the attention of tourists. It is believed that it is the likeness of the Constantinopolitan church of Hagia Sophia. The building itself is painted white, and the domes are blue. Before restoration, they were dark blue. The central dome is made of concrete. Its weight is 156.6 tons and its diameter is 18 meters. VV Sokolovsky and Sergey Stroev painted the vaults, domes and walls of the cathedral. The iconostasis was made by a carver from Florence Vannuca. The cross was created by artist B. V. Edwards.

History of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Evpatoria

The Greek community in the city has repeatedly put forward a proposal to build a temple and even allocated land for this. This was done in gratitude for the contribution of the Russian Empire to Greece gaining independence in 1878. The Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Evpatoria was designed by the architect Alexei Osipovich Bernardazzi, who was the chairman of the Odessa Technical Society. The temple was built on the site of a Greek church in memory of the liberation of the resort from the Anglo-French-Turkish troops during the Crimean War. Byzantine architecture was chosen as the basis for the architectural composition of the cathedral. The first stone in the foundation of the future architectural monument was laid on July 11, 1893. The room was consecrated in 1899 according to the old style by Bishop Nikon of Volsky. About two thousand Orthodox believers can fit inside the building at the same time.

The beginning of the construction of the temple: the work of Archpriest Yakov Chepurin

Initiatorconstruction was Archpriest Yakov Chepurin. Without the participation of this priest, who became the first rector, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Evpatoria (Crimea) would never have been built. He collected money for the temple and donated his personal funds, pawned family heirlooms and his property in a pawnshop, and took loans from a bank. This man devoted his whole life to building the temple, but he never had a chance to see the consecration with his own eyes. Before this event, the archpriest did not live just a few months.

Memory of Archpriest Chepurin

There is very little information about this selfless and modest person. But there is a legend that he died on the threshold of the temple, when he found out that the painting on the walls of his brainchild flowed because of the stoves flooded in the basement. His heart could not bear this news. Archpriest Yakov Chepurin was buried under the walls of the cathedral, and later a church school was named in his part and the street adjacent to the cathedral was renamed. Nearby is the grave of Dr. N. A. Auger, who initiated the development of mud therapy in the city, which became one of the incentives for he alth tourism.

Fundraising took two years. Various religious communities participated in it: Muslim, Karaite, Jewish, which is not uncommon for Evpatoria.

Features of the location of churches in Evpatoria

The city is famous for its tolerant attitude towards different religions. At a short distance there areGreek church, synagogue, mosque and orthodox temple. All of them do not interfere with each other, but provide support. Most of the temples are located along the Tereshkova embankment, because this place is the religious center of the city. The Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Evpatoria is located on the territory of the "Old City" and is included in the tourist route "Little Jerusalem".

Restoration of the cathedral and its consequences

This temple occupies a leading place in terms of capacity and area in the Crimea and is second only to the Kherson Vladimir Cathedral, which is currently being restored. The Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Evpatoria was also restored in 2014. But many local residents such a renovation of the temple was perceived negatively. The fact is that the ancient painting, familiar and revered by many citizens since childhood, has not been preserved. Several layers of plaster, including some with older images, were removed from the walls and taken outside in trash bags, replaced by brighter but less natural contemporary paintings. The grace of decor in this style is no longer felt. Believers note that the temple became attractive only for tourists, but along with the ancient images on the walls, the feeling of the holiness of this place also disappeared.

Initially, there were no paintings in the construction plan of the cathedral, it was planned to have snow-white walls and the figure of Jesus opening his arms to the parishioners against the background of a cloudless sky. Even during the war, the temple was not destroyed, miraculously avoidingdestruction. But in 1955, the Soviet authorities closed the temple on a false protocol, demolished the domes, and then organized warehouses and art workshops in it. But then the building was restored.

Address of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Evpatoria: Tuchina street, 2.