The Transfiguration Church () is a Moldovan Orthodox church located in

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ; formerly known as Kishinev) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Moldova, largest city of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the coun ...

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

History

Originally named after SS. Constantine and Helen, the church was part of the now disappeared Michael the Brave " gymnasium" for boys, built between 1898 and 1902 by the architect Mihail Seroținski. The church was not built at the same time as other buildings of the gymnasium. Its construction completely relied on the initiative of the protector of the establishment, the public figure and philanthropist Constantin A. Namestnik. He sought by any means to achieve the construction of the monument, to such a point that he engaged his responsibility for the good progress of the works on his own fortune. Construction began in 1899 under the authority of Seroținski. The church was consecrated on 19 May 1902. During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

the

space race The Space Race (, ) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between t ...

was raging between

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. After the success of

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful Human spaceflight, crewed sp ...

in 1961 a great propaganda campaign was initiated across the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and many

planetaria 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 planetariums is t ...

began to appear. Churches, useless as the gospel was generally forbidden, were sometimes transformed into planetaria because of their domes. This was the fate of the Transfiguration Church from 1962 until a fire ravaged it in 1990. The devices for the planetarium were too expensive to make the rebuilding profitable and the attraction closed for good on 24 October 1991. The wrecked building was eventually handed back to the Orthodox Church. After several refurbishment works during the post-Soviet years, the church is now completely renovated and open to the public.

Gallery

File:Schimbarea la Faţă a Mântuitorului (Alta data).jpg File:Schimbarea la Faţă a Măntuitorului - Side2.jpg File:Schimbarea la Faţă a Măntuitorului - Side.jpg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schimbarea la Fata a Mantuitorului Religious buildings and structures in Moldova 20th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings Churches completed in 1902 Buildings and structures in Chișinău Christianity in Chișinău