Description of the attraction
The oldest operating Orthodox church in the city of Lutsk is the Intercession Church, which is located on the territory of the historical and cultural reserve "Old Lutsk", not far from the Lyubart castle on Karaimskaya street, 11.
The founder of the Intercession Church was the great Lithuanian prince Vitovt. However, it is assumed that the church was built by the grandchildren of the Kiev prince Vladimir the Great. In 1583, according to archival documents, the church was considered already old, so it needed reconstruction. After 1625, the temple was dismantled, and a wooden temple was erected in its place, and then a stone temple. In 1637, the Orthodox Lutsk-Ostrog Bishop Athanasius Puzyneny made a major overhaul of the church. The cloister was faced with bricks, and an altar apse was added to expand the altar, and a superstructure was erected on top, covered with a new roof.
From 1803 to 1880 the Intercession Church served as a cathedral, from 1803 to 1826 - a Greek Catholic cathedral, and from 1826 to 1880 - an Orthodox one. In 1831 and 1845. forced repairs were again carried out in the temple, as the church suffered from fires. In 1873-1876. the roof was crowned with domes, a bell tower with a "woman" was attached to the church, and on the sides of the apse there was a sacristy and a ponamark. With the onset of 1914, a parish school was already operating at the Intercession Church, there was a cemetery and a psalmist's house.
In its entire history of existence, the Lutsk Pokrovskaya Church suspended its activity only once, and then only for three weeks. This happened in 1992 due to a conflict with supporters of the Kiev Patriarchate.
The interior of the church today belongs to the late period. The iconostasis of the temple was installed in 1887, the walls were painted in 1932 and 1966. The main relic of the Intercession Church was the icon of the Volyn Mother of God, which is a masterpiece of Ukrainian painting of the 13-14th century.
