Description of the attraction
One of the Orthodox sights of Kaliningrad is the Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, built with donations from organizations and parishioners in May 2007. The one-domed stone church in the style of Pskov-Novgorod church architecture of the seventeenth century was designed by architects A. M. Archipenko and S. V. Sychev.
The construction of the church in the name of St. Andrew began in October 2005 with the blessing of Metropolitan Kirill of Kaliningrad and Smolensk. At the foundation of the church was laid a capsule with earth brought from the Greek city of Patras, where the Apostle Andrew was crucified. Andrew was one of the first disciples of Christ, for which he was called the First-Called in the scriptures, and the oblique cross, on which the apostle was martyred, has since been called St. Andrew's. In Patras, on the site of the crucifixion of the apostle, rises the largest cathedral in Greece, built in honor of St. Andrew the First-Called, where the land for the Kaliningrad temple was taken.
In September 2006, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II visited the construction of the temple and consecrated the domes, and in May 2007, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk performed the ceremony of consecration of a new Orthodox church. The ceremony was attended by over one and a half thousand people.
Nowadays, the temple accommodates more than four hundred believers, active missionary work is being carried out. In the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called, services are systematically held, the sacrament of baptism is performed and conversations are regularly held with those wishing to convert to Orthodoxy. Next to the temple is the building of a Sunday school and an Orthodox kindergarten.
