The birthplace of the great Russian commander was the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was built here only in 1868-1881. Its second name is New Fair. The cathedral was consecrated in a solemn atmosphere on July 20, 1881. The ceremony was attended by the Russian Emperor Alexander III with his wife and Tsarevich Nicholas.
Unfading glory and well-deserved canonization
Russia is rich in geniuses in every field. But there are nuggets of a very high standard, combining several divine virtues. Their glory does not fade for centuries. This can be confirmed by the 2008 TV project “The Name of Russia”, which was won by Alexander Nevsky (1221-1263), who lived more than 750 years ago.
Through his efforts, the Christian faith spread in the northern landsamong the Pomors. And even on the territory of the Golden Horde, he erected an Orthodox church. Not to mention the fact that he did not allow the Teutonic or Livonian knights to enslave the Russian lands, as a result of whose victory - if such a thing happened - Orthodoxy in these territories would disappear altogether. He was canonized thanks to his services to the church and state, and not because he was a prince of Novgorod. A subtle politician, a commander from God, he became revered in Russia already under Vladimir. At the Moscow Cathedral of 1547, his church-wide glorification took place. The Metropolitan was Macarius. The canonical version evaluates the Novgorod prince as a golden legend of medieval Russia. He glorified Nizhny Novgorod for centuries. The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a worthy monument to this great man.
History of Creation
The temple has its own history full of happy and tragic pages. It began with a visit to the Novgorod fair, which the city has been famous for since time immemorial, by Emperor Alexander II. The local merchants, in order to perpetuate this event, turned to the archbishop with a request to build a second city church. In 1822, a small copy of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Spassky Old Fair Cathedral, was built here. The architect Auguste Montferrand also built the original in the northern capital: “I want to fly like a white seagull in the morning, and not breathe over your miracle, Montferrand.” A copy of this miracle adorned Nizhny Novgorod. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, or Novoyarmarochny (following Spassky Staroyarmarochny), did not shame the city with its architecture either.
Building a temple
The construction was approved in 1856 by Bishop Anthony of Nizhny Novgorod and Governor A. N. Muravyov. The collection of donations began, which continued until 1866, that is, 10 years. And the collected amount of 454 thousand 667 rubles 28 kopecks was not enough, since the original project proposed by the architect R. I. Kilevane had to be redone. Since the proposed building was not strong enough. The second project did not fit either. The government adopted a third one, the author of which remained unknown. But the inaccuracies and mistakes made in it were corrected by L. V. Dal, the author of the second plan. He supervised the construction of the temple, which in 1881, 17 years after the symbolic laying of the first stone (1864), decorated Nizhny Novgorod. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral has three thrones: Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and, in fact, St. Alexander Nevsky.
Located in the heart of the city
The cathedral is located in the very center of the city, at the address: st. Arrow, 3a. This street (it was re-layed in 1868) is one of the oldest. She was considered noble, was sung in some works. For example, it is mentioned as a street in the city of Gorky in the song "On the wide Volga, on the distant Strelka." That is, the main street of the city since the 18th century was not renamed by the Soviet authorities. And the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral suffered, it had a warehouse with all the ensuing consequences. Not spared, despite the name, although the cult of the Grand Dukeactively planted, especially before the war of 1941. The words spoken by Nikolai Cherkasov at the end of Sergei Eisenstein's film of the same name: "Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword" sounded like a spell.
The originality of the temple
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is very beautiful. It is a building of five tents. All of them are octagonal, and the central one rises up to 72.5 meters. The attached photo shows that different architectural styles are successfully combined in the unique decor of the facade. In our time, after reconstruction, the third largest bell in Russia is installed on the bell tower of the cathedral, its weight is 60 tons, the height coincides with the diameter and is equal to 4 meters. Impressive. The cathedral originally had a winter church, which was heated, and therefore worked all year round. And the temple itself - only during fairs. Since he did not have permanent parishioners. They were merchants coming to the fair. The church of Macarius of Zheltovodsky and Unzhensky was located on the choirs of a large church, in the protruding western vestibule.
Sights of the trade capital of Russia
Since 2009, the words “Orthodox Cathedral” have been added to the full name “Cathedral of the Holy Right-believing Prince Alexander Nevsky”. Of course, it belongs to the sights of Nizhny Novgorod along with such world-famous pearls as the Ensemble of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin and Zapochainye. On the territory of this settlement there is a good half of all the memorable places of the city. And all of them are included in the Unified State Register of Objectscultural heritage of the peoples of Russia. Monasteries and theatres, churches and monuments - Nizhny Novgorod has much to be proud of. During its almost 800-year history, the city has accumulated many priceless objects that are popular with tourists from all over the world.
Number of cathedrals
The Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky is still in Simferopol, Slavyansk and Paris. The project of the cathedral, located in the French capital, was approved by Napoleon III, who allegedly owns the phrase: "Strange, original, but very beautiful." It was erected in 1861 for a large Russian colony permanently residing in Paris, numbering at least 1000 people. The Russians were very devout and needed a spacious church. In 1983, this cathedral was listed among the historical monuments of France. The Simferopol Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky is very good (his photo is impressive). Built by order of Catherine II, destroyed on the night of September 27, 1930, it is now being restored.
Returned to the church bosom
In 1994, another Alexander Nevsky Cathedral became a cathedral. Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia, in 1990 rebuilt and returned to believers a beautiful church of the Udmurt and Izhevsk eparchies. Located in the very center of the city, the cathedral did not escape closure and looting in the 30s. Then the cinema "Colossus" worked in the building for many years. Bishop Pallady took an active part in the reconstruction and return to a new life of a beautiful and so necessary for Orthodox believers church. It seems that apart from the Parisian cathedral, noone temple to the glory of Alexander Nevsky did not escape the sad fate of being plundered, and even blown up. Neither the people's love for the place of worship, nor beauty stopped the militant atheists. Izhevsk Cathedral, built in the style of Russian classicism, representing its standard (square base, cubic shape, pylons and arches), was erected in 1823. St. Andrew's Church in Kronstadt became a model. The author of both cathedrals was the brilliant Andrey Zakharov.
Northern Temple
Another victim of people who decided to live according to the principle “we will destroy to the ground” was the next Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Petrozavodsk “distinguished itself” by the fact that five domes were demolished from the most beautiful temple and the “transformed” building was turned into a museum of local lore. Now it is also a cathedral and belongs to architectural monuments. Perhaps it was spared because it was built (1826-1832) with donations from the workers and craftsmen of the Alexander Factory and was originally intended as a factory church. A worthy beautiful temple had three thrones, and in 1888 a school was opened here. Since 2000, restoration and restoration work began. In 2010, a monument to Alexander Nevsky was opened near the temple. Now the cathedral is an ornament and landmark of Petrozavodsk.
Victim of atheism
The saddest fate befell the Military Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky. The Krasnodar authorities, of amazing beauty, first deprived the main temple of the city of domes, and in 1932 they blew it up altogether. So blindhatred arose, perhaps, because the foundation of the unique cathedral was an equal-ended, perfectly symmetrical cross: try it, place a museum of atheism here, anyway, people will start going to the cross.
In 2003, Governor A. Tkachev decided to restore the cathedral. The beginning of the work was consecrated by Alexy II, and the end - by Metropolitan Kirill. Believers returned to the temple in 2006.
