Description of the attraction
The Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Irkutsk is one of the city's landmarks and one of the oldest Orthodox churches in the entire region. It is located in the Right-Bank District of Irkutsk in Volkonsky Lane.
The temple was founded in 1795 with funds donated by Irkutsk merchants - Stefan Ignatiev and Ivan Sukhikh, who were the main initiators of the construction of the church. It is assumed that the author of the project of the temple was the famous Irkutsk architect Anton Losev. How the construction of the church was carried out is still unknown, but it can be assumed that it obviously could not do without the participation of the craftsmen and blacksmiths of the Rabochaedomskaya Sloboda.
The right Ilyinsky side-chapel of the church was consecrated in August 1798. At the same time, a new Preobrazhensky parish was founded.
The solemn consecration of the main church in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord took place in August 1811. advisor E. A. Kuznetsov. From 1845 to 1855, the Decembrists S. P. Trubetskoy and S. G. Volkonsky lived in the parish of the Transfiguration Church. The son of the Decembrist Mikhail Küchelbecker and the daughter of the Volkonskys, Elena, were married in this church.
According to archival data, in October 1937, the parish of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord was the largest of the three operating Orthodox churches in Irkutsk. It numbered 1505 parishioners. In addition to all this, the church was the center of education, since a parish school was opened here, and opposite E. Medvednikova's Orphanage House was located.
In Soviet times, the building of the church housed a book depository and an archive. Outside, the church lost two side annexes. Divine services in the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord were resumed only in 2000.
