Description of the attraction
The Church of St. Andrew the First-Called, located in the city of Tobolsk on Volodarsky Street, is an Orthodox church, which is one of the cult sights of the city.
The history of the temple began in 1646, when the first wooden St. Andrew's Church was erected here by the Cossacks. By 1740 the church was badly dilapidated, so in 1744 it was decided to build a small stone church in the name of St. Andrew in its place. The temple was built with money donated by the merchant Abraham Sumkin, according to the project of the architect K. I. Perevoloka. In 1749, the first chapel was consecrated in honor of Abraham the Recluse. The second chapel in the name of St. Andrew the First-Called was consecrated in 1755.
Ten years later, the church was rebuilt. In 1759, a refectory, a chapel and a bell tower appeared in the church. In 1806, large cracks formed on the bell tower, so it was dismantled and replaced with a new one of smaller size. Then the temple took on its final form. After some time, a parish school began to operate at the temple, a stone fence was erected.
After the revolutionary events of 1917, the church community was liquidated. All church utensils, valuables and icons were confiscated and transferred to the state treasury. In 1930 the temple was closed.
For quite a long time, the church was used as a warehouse for Toboltorg, a public catering department and a garage for the Transcontrol. During all this time, no restoration work was carried out in the temple. In the early 90s. it was finally abandoned. As a result, only bare walls remained from the temple.
In the spring of 2001, the local public organization "Good Will" approached Archbishop Demetrius with an initiative to revive the church. The Archbishop supported this initiative. Responsible from the diocese for the restoration of the church was appointed a teacher of the Tobolsk Theological Seminary, priest of the Church of the Seven Youths of Ephesus, Priest Vadim Bazylev. The Church of St. Andrew the First-Called began to gradually revive. A prayer room was set up in the narthex under the bell tower.
