Holy Trinity Cathedral, sometimes shortened to Trinity Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. Built between 1818 and 1839, the building served in several roles throughout the history of Imperial Russia, the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and

Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. The church is currently managed by the Metropolitanate of Yekaterinburg.

Description

The plan for the construction of what would become the Holy Trinity church began in the early 19th-century. The church was heavily promoted by the Old Believers. This association with the Old Believers (who were viewed as being outside the main Russian Orthodox Church) led to complications during the building of the church. Construction on the church began in 1824, with the church being designed in the Classicalist style by prominent architect M.P. Malakhov. Notable among the patrons of the construction project was the Ryazanovs, a family of merchants and miners based in Yekaterinburg. One member of the family, Yakim Ryazanov, was particularly notable for his role in getting the church built. Though he was a member of the Old Believers, Yakim decided in 1838 to change the churche's denomination from the Old Believers to the common Orthodox church. The first section of the church was completed in 1839 and the building was consecrated that same year. Upon its partial completion, the new church proved to be popular and drew many worshipers. To accommodate this increased number of practitioners a second chapel was built in 1849. Construction also continued on the main church, which was completed in 1852, and the church's bell tower was added in 1854. At the time of its completion, the church's towers were among the tallest structures in Yekaterinburg and have been cited as an example of early high-rise development in the city.''Structural and compositional features of high-rise buildings: Experimental design in Yekaterinburg''. Yulia Yankovskaya, Yuriy Lobanov, Vladimir Temnov. E3S Web Conf. 33 01029 (2018) DOI: 10.1051/e3sconf/20183301029 The church remained popular for the rest of the 19th century, with 1,945 parishioners being registered at the church in 1899. Following the Russian Revolution and the subsequent formation of the

, the church began to be negatively affected by the new government's Atheistic policies, which included the closure of many religious institutions. The Holy Trinity church was eventually ordered to close by the Yekaterinburg government and the building was eventually vacated. The former church would go on to host a cinema and a coat factory during the Soviet era, with many parts of the building sustaining damage. In 1930 the church's original domes and belfry were demolished. An effort by the local palace of culture to maintain the building began in the 1970s. In 1994 negotiations began to restore the church to the recently the Orthodox diocese of Yekaterinburg, eventually resulting in the Orthodox church regaining the church in 1995. The first religious service in the new church was conducted in 1996, and further efforts to restore the building began that same year. The cathedral remains in use to the present day.

References

{{reflist 1839 establishments in the Russian Empire Churches in Sverdlovsk Oblast Russian Orthodox cathedrals in Russia Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Sverdlovsk Oblast