The Church of Saint Catherine () is a

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

church in Krasnodonetskaya ''

stanitsa A stanitsa or stanitza ( ; ), also spelled stanycia ( ) or stanica ( ), was a historical administrative unit of a Cossack host, a type of Cossack polity that existed in the Russian Empire. Etymology The Russian word is the diminutive of the word ...

'', Belokalitvinsky District,

Rostov Oblast Rostov Oblast ( rus, Росто́вская о́бласть, r=Rostovskaya oblastʹ, p=rɐˈstofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located in the Southern Federal District. The oblast ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, that belongs to the Diocese of Volgodnosk and was built in 1879. It is officially declared as object of

cultural heritage of Russia The national cultural heritage register of Russia () is a registry of historically or culturally significant man-made immovable properties – landmark buildings, industrial facilities, memorial homes of notable people of the past, monuments, cem ...

of Regional significance.

History

Katerininskaya (now Krasnodonetskaya stanitsa) was founded in 1775 by the decree of

Catherine II Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter III ...

. The founder of the village was Prince

Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (A number of dates as late as 1742 have been found on record; the veracity of any one is unlikely to be proved. This is his "official" birth-date as given on his tombstone.) was a Russian mi ...

. Initially it was situated on the low bank of

Donets The Seversky Donets () or Siverskyi Donets (), usually simply called the Donets (), is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine (Kharkiv ...

. The place was chosen unsuccessfully and in spring the village was flooded, so later it was decided to move it downstream. There was built the wooden Church of St. Catherine. Exclusively for the Church of St. Catherine was painted icon of St. Catherine of Alexandria, and the picture had a great resemblance to the Empress Catherine II. In 1835, the village was moved higher to the hills, in 1840 the church was moved there as well and was set on a stone foundation. In 1877, this church completely burned out, and in 1879 a new one was built, with two chapels: the southern one was consecrated in the name of the Ascension of the Lord and the northern one in the name of

Saint Pantaleon Saint Pantaleon (), counted in Western Christianity as among the Fourteen Holy Helpers of the Late Middle Ages, and in Eastern Christianity as one of the Holy Unmercenary Healers, was a martyr of Nicomedia in Bithynia during the Diocletianic P ...

. The church was surrounded by a stone fence with wooden bars. The building was constructed of wood, which is not typical for the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

Southern Russia Southern Russia or the South of Russia ( rus, Юг России, p=juk rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a Colloquialism, colloquial term for the southernmost geographic portion of European Russia. The term is generally used to refer to the region of Russia's So ...

. Local residents claim that the material for the church were crafted in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, and the logs were numbered and transported to the village from there. In 1886, a

parish school A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The wor ...

was built at the church. Since 1906, the church-parish guardianship began to function. In 1920, Katerininskaya village was renamed Krasnodonetskaya. In 1930–1940 the church was closed. The domes of the church, both in the main building and the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

were cut off. The church was used as a

granary A granary, also known as a grain house and historically as a granarium in Latin, is a post-harvest storage building primarily for grains or seeds. Granaries are typically built above the ground to prevent spoilage and protect the stored grains o ...

. Before the beginning of German occupation, Soviet authorities decided to blow up the church so that the Nazis would not get the grain, but local residents quickly took the grain bags to their homes and so there was no need to blow up any more. During the fighting in the village the church had not been damaged. When the Germans occupied Krasnodonetskya, the church was briefly open again. After the war, the church was closed again. It was locked and stood empty until the mid-1980s and was opened only in 1985. From the modern history of this church, it is known that scenes from two

Soviet films The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. ...

—"Ataman" and "

Dina DINA may refer to: * Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the Chilean secret police under the Pinochet regime * DINA S.A., a Mexican truck and bus manufacturer See also * Dina (disambiguation) * * DINO * DIN (disambiguation) DIN or Din or ...

"—were shot on its background. The Saint Catherine's Church is one of the two remaining churches that are declared as monuments of wooden architecture in the

Seversky Donets The Seversky Donets () or Siverskyi Donets (), usually simply called the Donets (), is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine (Kharkiv ...

Basin and objects of cultural heritage of Regional significance.

References

External links

Pictures of St. Catherine Church ― livejournal.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Catherine Church, Krasnodonetskaya Churches in Rostov Oblast Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Rostov Oblast Churches completed in 1879