Description of the attraction
The once huge Armenian Cathedral of St. Nicholas, and nowadays - only the ruins left from it, amazes with the grace of fragments of the church fence and stuns with the monumentality of the bell tower preserved by a miracle. The religious building is located in the center of the quarter of the Old City, where, since the 14th century, the Armenian Kamianets-Podolsk community lived.
Historians disagree about the time of the construction of the temple. So, according to one version, the temple existed even before the foundation of the city by the princes Koriatovich. According to other sources, the Church of St. Nicholas was built in 98 in the 14th century by Sinan Kotlubey, and when a stone church in honor of St. Nicholas was erected at the end of the 15th century, the old church began to be used as a chapel of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and only in 11 19th century was turned back into a church with a dedication to St. Nicholas. Another historical version says that the church was built by the masters Kirem and Khachik in 1495, allegedly not on the site of the previous wooden church, but in a completely different place.
The bell tower with loopholes and observation towers at the top, erected in 1555, is like a defensive tower. In 1672, during the Turkish siege of Kamenets, the temple was destroyed and rebuilt only in 67 of the 18th century. And from 1791 he began to act as a Uniate.
The majestic temple in the style of Byzantine architecture was built with an octagonal dome and covered galleries around the perimeter. The eastern altar was the main one, and part of the western side was decorated with a Greco-Roman pediment. The reason for the rebuilding was the return of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God in Podillia, which was in Lviv, which was in the restored church until 67 of the 18th century. This icon is one of the most revered relics of the historical heritage of the Armenian people. In the 30s. In the 20th century, the cathedral was blown up. Today, the foundations of the church have been cleared, and in the preserved bell tower there is a small chapel of the UAOC.
