The Pokrovskaya Church ( rus , Храм Покрова Пресвятой Богородицы}) is a

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

Mary, Turkmenistan Mary (), formerly named Merv, Meru and Alexandria Margiana, is a city on an oasis in the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan, located on the Murgab River. It is the capital city of Mary Region. In 2010, Mary had a population of 126,000, up from 92,00 ...

built around 1900 by Russian forces when they seized the city of Mary in 1884 and guarded the city with a military garrison against frequent attacks by British forces and Afghan armies. Early records of the church are scarce, but there are records of baptisms being performed by priest Tikhon Protasov and the deacon John Ilyichev in 1917. Following the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

and the Establishment of 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 ...

, religious freedoms were curtailed and by the 1930s, the church was closed and the building was repurposed as a club and eventually a military warehouse. The church returned to its original function in 1947, following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Architecture

The present church is made entirely of brick, which at the time, was somewhat in vogue as architects in St. Petersburg and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

had begun experimenting with red-brick facades. Brick was a natural choice in the sandy deserts of the region, which lacked trees to produce wooden buildings. The monotony of the red-brick facades is broken by alternating the colors of the bricks comprising the dental moldings and arches, so that each element alternates between red and white. Inside the Church, every spare piece of wall is covered by framed icons and other religious works.

References

{{coord missing, Turkmenistan Churches completed in 1900 Eastern Orthodox churches in Turkmenistan Mary Region