Description of the attraction
The Lutheran Church in Zhitomir was built in 96 of the 19th century on the site of the former bed of the Popovka River. The well-known city architect Arnold Jensha was engaged in its project, the style of construction is modernized Gothic. At the beginning of the 18th century, on the site where the Lutheran Church was later built, there were meadows and fields of the suburb of Zhitomir. At one time the organ of this church was played by Daniel Richter - the grandfather of the famous pianist St. Richter, who lived nearby in a small house that previously belonged to the gardener of the Lutheran community. The organist in the church in the 1920s was also Eduard Richter, the uncle of the future musical genius.
In the second half of the 30s of the last century, the building of the temple was given to the sports hall of the society "Dynamo" (club of employees of internal organs). Only half a century later, at the end of the 80s, the church building was vacated thanks to the appearance of a new sports complex on Korbutovka. The small Lutheran society of Zhitomir, unfortunately, did not have the funds necessary to restore and maintain the temple after using it for "sports purposes". At the end of the last century, the building was handed over to the Church of the Nativity of Christian Baptists. The Dutch Christian Academy "De Driestar" took a serious part and helped not only to carry out restoration work in the temple, but also to build a whole complex with a school included in it. Currently, the Baptist congregation provides the Lutherans with free temple space for worship.
Having survived to our time, the Lutheran Church still belongs to the most striking architectural landmarks of the city. The church building is surrounded by a beautiful garden decorated with sculptures, flower beds, the pride of which are several magnolia bushes.
