The Nativity of Christ Cathedral ( lv, Kristus Piedzimšanas pareizticīgo katedrāle, russian: Христорождественский кафедральный собор),

Riga, Latvia Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Bal ...

was built to a design by Nikolai Chagin and

Robert Pflug Robert Pflug ( lv, Roberts Pflūgs; 1 May 1832 – 30 November 1885) was a Baltic German architect. Robert August Pflug was born in Saint Petersburg as the son of a merchant. He studied at the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology, Tech ...

in a

Neo-Byzantine Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Orthod ...

style between 1876 and 1883, with decorations made by the firm of August Volz, during the period when the country was part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. It is the largest Orthodox cathedral in the

Baltic provinces The Baltic governorates (russian: Прибалтийские губернии), originally the Ostsee governorates (german: Ostseegouvernements, russian: Остзейские губернии), was a collective name for the administrative units ...

built with the blessing of the Russian Tsar Alexander II on the initiative of local governor-general

Pyotr Bagration Prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration (10 July 1765 – 24 September 1812) was a Georgian general and prince serving in the Russian Empire, prominent during the Napoleonic Wars. Bagration, a member of the Bagrationi dynasty, was born in Tbilisi. His ...

and bishop Veniamin Karelin. The Nativity of Christ Cathedral is renowned for its

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

s, some of which were painted by

Vasili Vereshchagin Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Вереща́гин, October 26, 1842April 13, 1904), was one of the most famous Russian war artists and one of the first Russian artists to be widely recognised ...

. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

German troops occupied Riga and turned its largest

Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

cathedral into a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

church. In independent Latvia, the Nativity of Christ Cathedral once again became an Orthodox cathedral in 1921. Archbishop

Jānis Pommers Archbishop John ( lv, Аrhibīskaps Jānis, russian: Архиепископ Иоанн, secular name Jānis Pommers or Ivan Andreyevich Pommer, russian: Иван Андреевич Поммер; 6 (18) January 1876 – 29 September (12 October) ...

, a native Latvian, played a key part in the defence of the cathedral, including defence from the Latvian government which was extremely unfriendly to Orthodox Church in the first years of an independent Latvia. In the early 1960s, Soviet authorities closed down the cathedral and converted its building into a

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

. The cathedral has been restored since Latvia regained independence from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1991.

Gallery

File:Riga Russisch-Orthodoxe Kathedrale Christi Geburt 3.JPG, Side door File:Riga Russisch-Orthodoxe Kathedrale Christi Geburt Kuppel.JPG, Central dome File:Riga Petrikirche Blick vom Turm zur Christi-Geburt-Kathedrale 2.JPG, From St. Peter's Church File:Pareizticīgo katedrāle, Rīga, Brīvības bulvāris 23.JPG, Prior to gilding File:Catedral de la Natividad de Cristo, Riga, Letonia, 2012-08-07, DD 06.JPG, Dome interior File:Catedral de la Natividad de Cristo, Riga, Letonia, 2012-08-07, DD 09.JPG, The iconostasis File:Riga1900Kathedrale.jpg, Ca. 1900

External links

About Nativity Cathedral on the portal Other Riga
Churches in Riga Cathedrals in Latvia Eastern Orthodox churches in Latvia Byzantine Revival architecture in Latvia Churches completed in 1883 19th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings Church buildings with domes 19th-century churches in Latvia {{Latvia-church-stub

Gallery

See also

External links