Description of the attraction
Nativity of Christ Cathedral is located in the center of Riga and is the largest Orthodox church in the city. The idea of building a new cathedral in the city arose in 1872. After a competition for the construction of a temple with a capacity of 2000 people, at the end of 1875, the project of R. K. Fluga.
The foundation stone of the new cathedral was made by the Riga bishop Seraphim in May 1876. The construction was supervised by the architect N. V. Chagin. According to the project, the temple should be 5-domed, and the domes significantly exceeded the height of the buildings. Initially, the bell tower in this temple was not planned, however, closer to the end of construction, Emperor Alexander III presented the cathedral with 12 bells cast at the factory of the Moscow merchant ND Finlandsky by the famous master of that time K. Verevkin. For the bells, a belfry project was made, built in the same style as the temple. The belfry fits perfectly into the original plan of the temple, combining with the cathedral in style and composition. The belfry was connected to the cathedral by a covered passage.
The interior decoration of the temple was mainly in the ornamental painting, made in the "Byzantine style", supplemented by font compositions in the arches. The icons were painted at the Academy of Arts by such famous artists as F. S. Zhuravlev, K. B. Venig, A. I. Korzukhin, V. P. Vereshchagin. The utensils were ordered from the factories of I. A. Zheverzheeva, I. P. Khlebnikov, etc.
The construction of the temple was completed in 1883, the next year the Riga Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ was surrounded by an openwork fence and a square was laid out in the inner territory. The consecration of the cathedral took place on April 28, 1884. And three days later, on Saturday, the first ringing of all 12 bells sounded over the city. Quite quickly, the temple turns into a generally recognized spiritual center, not only of the Latvian capital, but of the entire region. There is information that in the fall of 1894, John of Kronstadt served here, who is now canonized.
In 1918, the Riga municipality closed the church, and divine services were prohibited. When Archbishop John Pommer visited the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ, at the invitation of the All-Latvian Cathedral of Orthodox parishes, he found the church in a catastrophic state. The glasses were broken, there were no bells, the iconostases were cut and piled up, the painting was destroyed, the crucifix was thrown into the trash.
The difficult path to the restoration of the temple began. Archbishop John, in order to prevent further destruction of the cathedral, and, if possible, to collect and put in order what was left, settled in the basement of the temple. Gradually, at the cost of a hard struggle, and with the help of the residents of Riga and the Russians, the restoration of the church began. Initially, permission from the authorities was required for each service. Everyday services in Church Slavonic and Latvian began on Christmas Day 1922. By the middle of the 30s. the temple again becomes the spiritual center of Riga, the painting was renewed, a struggle was waged for the return of the former property of the cathedral. A new wave of destruction was brought about by the Second World War, after which the cathedral was gradually restored again, becoming the spiritual center of the city.
By order of the Council of Ministers on October 5, 1963, the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ was closed. Only the walls remained of the cathedral, everything else was either destroyed or pulled apart. In 1962, the building of the former cathedral was turned into a planetarium.
Only in July 1991 began the difficult path to the third resurrection and restoration of the cathedral. The first divine service, under difficult conditions, was performed by His Eminence Vladyka Alexander on January 6, 1992. From that time on, services began to be carried out regularly, and the same day after day, repair and restoration work was carried out. Now the temple is covered with magnificent painting, a new roof has been made, the domes are covered with copper, although there is still much to be done. The families of benefactors Vladimir Ivanovich Malyshkov and Igor Vladimirovich Malyshkov donated a wonderful iconostasis.
Today, “three times resurrected,” as it is popularly called, the Riga Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ occupies a worthy place in the cultural and spiritual life of the capital of Latvia. During his visit to Latvia in May 2006, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy held a divine service here.
