Description of the attraction
The Cathedral of Elijah the Prophet is an ensemble of three buildings that stand close to each other and are oriented along the east-west axis: the church, the refectory and the bell tower. It is located in the town of Soltsy, Novgorod region. It stands by the road, on the bank of the Krutets stream. The Church of Elijah the Prophet is a remarkable monument of Russian culture of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Created on the wonderful examples of the religious art of its time.
In the documents stored in the Department for the Protection of Monuments of the Novgorod Region, the Ilyinsky Church is dated in different ways: either the end of the 18th - early 19th centuries, then the second half of the 19th century.
The first mention of the village of Solets was found in chronicles dating back to the end of the 14th century. The Church of Elijah the Prophet with the chapel of Flor and Lavra existed in Soltsa already in the first half of the 16th century. The old church was erected in the oldest part of the village, "on the village", which in the late 70s - early 80s of the 16th century, by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, was granted to the wheel master Rychk Rigin and became known as the Kollesnaya Sloboda. At that time, there were 25 yards of wheel-makers in the settlement, 4 yards of clergymen and a church made of wood.
In 1734 the temple was rebuilt. Most likely, the new wooden Church of St. Elias was larger than the old one, since it had not one, but two side-chapels: in the name of St. Nicholas and the Martyrs Florus and Laurus. This fact is known from the clerical church bulletin of 1800.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the church was badly dilapidated. No later than 1824, a new brick church of Ilyinsky began to be built along the Novgorod road. It was consecrated in 1825, which was recorded in the world record, dating back to 1914.
In the summer of 1937, Ilyinsky Cathedral suffered the bitter fate of many churches: it was confiscated from the church community and given to a procurement office for a warehouse. According to the stories of local residents, it was then, by the decision of the leadership of the city communal services, that the top of the bell tower was dismantled. The iconostasis of the cathedral was probably destroyed at the same time.
In September 1945, the registration of the parish community of the Ilyinsky Cathedral took place, and, 2 months later, the temple was consecrated. But divine services were held only in the refectory, where at that time there were single-tier iconostases made of wood. They were later lost. The cold church was used as a warehouse for several years, despite the fact that the church council repeatedly complained to the authorities about the terrible attitude of tenants towards the temple building.
In the winter of 1955, the church was returned to the community, and repairs were organized with funds donated by believers. After 5 years, a new, this time 30-year period of the existence of the Cathedral of Elijah the Prophet as "inactive" began. Local authorities closed it in order to convert it into a House of Culture. But they were in no hurry to solve this problem, the temple was given to the state farm "Pobeda" as a warehouse. After some time, the roof of the cold church was repaired, and at the same time the snare drums with their heads were dismantled and all the crosses were removed.
In 1975, the cathedral was given the status of an architectural monument under state protection, and as a result, it was left without supervision at all. Therefore, until 1980, the central dome collapsed, and this, accordingly, caused large-scale losses and damage to paintings in the upper areas of the building. At this time, roofing material was kept in the temple.
In 1981, a major overhaul of the Elias Cathedral was carried out. After that, they tried to adapt it for a museum of local lore, but the project did not materialize. In 1992, the cathedral was transferred to the Novgorod diocese.
Every year on August 2, on the feast day of the holy prophet Elijah, a large number of pilgrims from different places come to the cathedral. A public Orthodox library was created at the cathedral, and the work of a Sunday school was organized.
