Description of the attraction
On a high hill in the Naujininkai region, a five-domed temple rises, built in the Russian-Byzantine style according to the project of the architect M. M. Prozorov. This is the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky, or, as it is also called, the Novosvetskaya Alexander Nevsky Church. The building is small in size, lined with yellow bricks. The construction consists of three parts. The central part, the largest, with a Greek cross in plan. Above it rises a dome mounted on a round and high drum. The canopy is located in the front of the structure, with a bell tower above the entrance. On both sides of the temple there are annexes for male and female schools.
In 1895, the Holy Spiritual Brotherhood appealed to the authorities with a request to build an Orthodox church in the southern part of the city, since there was not a single Orthodox church in this area. The city authorities decided to allocate free land for the construction of a new church. In 1896, the first cornerstone was installed in the foundation of the future temple. After its consecration by Archbishop Jerome, construction began. It should be noted that the archbishop personally contributed fifteen thousand rubles to the construction. Investments in the construction were made by the Brotherhood, the School Council and the Holy Synod. The rest of the funds were collected from the voluntary donations of the parishioners.
In 1898, the construction was completed and on October 25, the Church in the name of the holy noble Prince Alexander Nevsky was consecrated. The ceremony was performed by Archbishop Juvenaly himself.
The interior of the temple is notable for the throne. It was originally built in memory of the reposed Emperor Alexander III and in the name of St. Alexander Nevsky. The first iconostasis was wooden, single-tier. Skillful carving was gilded in places. All the icons that adorn the inner walls of the church were painted in the Byzantine style: images with oil paint on a gold embossed background. External bizarre forms of the Byzantine style of temple building fascinate with their beauty of bends and lines.
A parish school was organized at the temple. For this reason, they immediately began to call it a church-school. A dwelling house for a teacher and a teacher was built near the church. The school organized its own choir, which performed in the temple during the festive services.
During the First World War, when the front line approached Vilnius, the parish school ceased to function. In 1923, the St. Euphrosyne parish was added to the parish of the Alexander Nevsky Church. The church functioned until 1937, when the Warsaw Metropolitanate ordered to give the temple and the adjacent buildings to the Orthodox nunnery in the name of Mary Magdalene. Prior to this, the monastery operated in the hospital building of the Lithuanian Theological Seminary, located on the territory of the former Orthodox Holy Trinity Monastery.
In July 1944, Soviet aviation subjected the railway station to a brutal bombardment. The church itself and the adjacent monastery buildings were badly damaged. For several years the sisters of the Mariinsky Convent had to repair the damaged buildings. In November 1951, the restored church was consecrated by Archbishop Photius of Vilnius and Lithuania.
In June 1959, the monastery was closed by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian SSR. The Mariinsky nuns were settled in different monasteries. The buildings were transferred to the balance of the Ministry of Culture. The nursing corps was given over to a colony for difficult teenage girls. In 1990, the building of the church and the two-story house next to it were returned to the believers again.
Description added:
in. Maria 2016-19-12
On May 24, 2015, the sisters of the monastery returned to the premises at the restored church in honor of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky, and nun Seraphima (Ivanova) was elevated to the rank of abbess. Divine services in the monastery are held daily.
