The Saviour's Transfiguration Cathedral ( uk, Спасо-Преображенський кафедральний собор, russian: Спасо-Преображенский собор) is the main Orthodox church of

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

History

The foundation stone was laid on by

Catherine II of Russia , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

and Austrian Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...

, during Catherine's Crimean journey. The event is described in the memoirs of comte de Ségur. Prince

Grigory Potemkin Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (, also , ;, rus, Князь Григо́рий Алекса́ндрович Потёмкин-Таври́ческий, Knjaz' Grigórij Aleksándrovich Potjómkin-Tavrícheskij, ɡrʲɪˈɡ ...

envisioned the church as one of the spiritual centres of

New Russia Novorossiya, literally "New Russia", is a historical name, used during the era of the Russian Empire for an administrative area that would later become the southern mainland of Ukraine: the region immediately north of the Black Sea and Crime ...

.Gorod.dp.ua
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Ivan Starov Ivan Yegorovich Starov (russian: Ива́н Его́рович Старо́в) (23 February 1745 – 17 April 1808) was a Russian architect from St. Petersburg who devised the master plans for Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Pskov, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, ...

submitted to Potemkin his designs for a Roman-style

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

, but construction was postponed until the end of the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histo ...

. In the early 19th century, Potemkin's plans were revived and updated by

Duc de Richelieu Duke of Richelieu (french: duc de Richelieu) was a title of French nobility. It was created on 26 November 1629 for Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu (known as Cardinal Richelieu) who, as a Roman Catholic clergyman, had no issue to pass it dow ...

, but construction did not start until 1830. The cathedral was built on a smaller scale than originally planned and was consecrated in 1835. The design is attributed to

Andreyan Zakharov Andreyan Zakharov (russian: Андрея́н Дми́триевич Заха́ров; 19 August 1761 – 8 September 1811) was a Russian Imperial architect and representative of the Empire style. His designs also alternated neoclassicism with eclec ...

, chiefly on the ground of its similarity to Zakharov's cathedral in

Kronstadt Kronstadt (russian: Кроншта́дт, Kronshtadt ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt or Kronštádt (from german: link=no, Krone for " crown" and ''Stadt'' for "city") is a Russian port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city ...

. The church was closed to worshippers in 1930 and housed a museum of

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

between 1975 and 1988. The building was damaged by an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

in 1888 and by bombs during the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

.UA.vlasenko.net
/ref> File:NSH Dnipropetrovs'k Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy sobor 001.JPG, The belltower File:Sviato-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral Dnepropetrovks 2.jpg, The interior File:Spaso Preobrazhensky Cathedral Dnepropetrovsk. 03.JPG, The

Eye of Providence The Eye of Providence (or the All-Seeing Eye of God) is a symbol that depicts an eye, often enclosed in a triangle and surrounded by rays of light or glory, meant to represent divine providence, whereby the eye of God watches over humanit ...

on the pediment File:Преображенский Собор.jpg, One of the gates to the cathedral compound File:Sviato-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral Dnepropetrovks 3.jpg, Candles burning

References

External links

3D-model ''Transfiguration Cathedral, Dnipro'' in the '3D Buildings' layer inside Google Earth
Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in Ukraine 19th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings Buildings and structures in Dnipro Churches completed in 1835 Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) cathedrals Tourist attractions in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Neoclassical church buildings in Ukraine {{Ukraine-EO-church-stub