Description of the attraction
One of the most beautiful churches in the city of Nikolaev is the Cathedral of the Kasperovskaya Icon of the Mother of God, which is located at Sadovaya Street, 12. The Orthodox Church belongs to the Nikolaev and Epiphany of the UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate. The cathedral was dedicated to the miraculous Kasperovskaya icon of the Mother of God, which in the period 1853-1918. annually brought to Nikolaev in procession and exhibited for a month in different churches of the city.
The construction of the cathedral began in 1904 according to the project of the capital's architect Professor Fyodor Ivanovich Eppinger, a student of the famous architect K. A. Ton. In 1908 the cathedral was consecrated, and in 1916 it was opened.
The building of the temple of the Kasperovskaya Icon of the Mother of God is an elongated rectangle 22.5 m wide and 45 m long, oriented along the west-east line, according to the Orthodox tradition. The walls of the cathedral are decorated with carved details in the style of Old Russian architecture of the 16th - 17th centuries, as well as cornices. The seven domes of the temple, according to the Orthodox canon, symbolize the seven church sacraments.
In the twentieth century, the fate of the Kasperovsky Cathedral was very dramatic; it suffered during the campaigns to confiscate church values. In 1934, the church was closed, and the building was transferred to the shipyard for the club. At the same time, the upper part of the bell tower was demolished, and later the domes were destroyed. During the Great Patriotic War, divine services were restored in the church, but in 1949 the building was again taken away from the believers in order to resume the work of the club.
In 1992, the premises of the cathedral were transferred to the community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, after which services were resumed in it, and reconstruction began. To date, the original appearance of the Cathedral of the Kasperovskaya Icon of the Mother of God has been almost completely restored.
