Description of the attraction
The Transfiguration Church in Velyki Sorochintsy, Mirgorodsky District, Poltava Region, is a striking example of Ukrainian church architecture in the 18th century. Its interior is decorated with a unique seven-tiered carved iconostasis with more than a hundred icons.
The Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior was erected in 1728–1734. Its history of creation begins in 1718-1719, when the Mirgorod Colonel D. Apostol begins the construction of a temple in his family estate - Bolshie Sorochintsy. According to the research of the famous Ukrainian scientist P. Beletsky, the foundation of the church was timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the colonel, who planned to perpetuate the memory of himself with the construction of a temple and arrange a family tomb in it. The pious idea of building the temple was completed only after D. Apostle received the hetman's mace in 1727. As a sign of such a grace of fate, the newly elected hetman not only completes the church in a short time, but also seeks to decorate it most luxuriously. The main role in this plan was assigned to the future iconostasis, which in its splendor should have, if not surpassed, then at least equal to the best iconostasis in the capital.
Initially, the stone church had nine domes, but after a fire that broke out in 1811 from a lightning strike, only five of them were restored. The architect of the Transfiguration Church, the walls of which, by the way, are 1.5 m thick, was S. Kovnir. The iconostasis was carved by craftsmen from Gadyach and Glukhov. The icons were painted by hieromonk Alipy from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and the artists of the Borovikovsky school of Mirgorod. Hetman Cossacks helped build the church. The remains of Hetman D. Apostle, his wife Juliana and children are in the crypt under the temple, where all the passages are buried. The hetman's coat of arms has been preserved on the wall of the Transfiguration Church. In 1809, the famous writer N. Gogol was baptized in this church.
In 1955 the Savior Transfiguration Church was closed. It was returned to the believers only in 1989. There is a library and a Sunday school at the church.
