Epiphany Cathedral (Kazan, Russia)
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The Epiphany Cathedral (
Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...
: Богоявление чиркәве) is an
Orthodox church Orthodox Church may refer to: * Eastern Orthodox Church, the second-largest Christian church in the world * Oriental Orthodox Churches, a branch of Eastern Christianity * Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a confessional Presbyterian denomination loc ...
located in the Kazan subdistrict and is part of the Kazan and Tatarstan Diocese. The church is situated in the Vakhitovsky district of Kazan on Bauman Street. Its bell tower is a prominent landmark of the city and a monument of religious architecture.


History

The
Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: Psychology * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany seaso ...
wooden church was built in the place of the old Prolomny Gate in the 17th century. The adjacent Novaya Sloboda, also known as the Epiphany Sloboda, was built along Prolomnaya Street. The Church of St. Andrew the First-Called was built in 1701 next to the Church of the Epiphany. The stone church of the Epiphany and the belltower were built by merchants Ivan Afanasievich Mikhlyaev and Sergey Alexandrovich Chernov in 1731-1756. In 1741 the church was destroyed by fire and only the walls remained. It is believed that the construction of the stone church began after the fire. The construction of the temple was completed in 1756 with the addition of the
refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monastery, monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminary, seminaries. The name ...
to the Epiphany Church, which almost doubled its size.См.: ''А. В. Рощектаев.'' Путеводитель по святыням Казанской епархии. Часть 3: Храмы Казани. 17 February 2009. Thus in the 18th century the Epiphany complex was built. It consisted of the main church, a heated winter church named after St. Andrew the First-Called on the northern side, a low two-storey bell tower with a hipped roof on the side of Ostrovsky Street, a
clergy house A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...
built at the end of the 18th century on the western side and another house of the church on the Bolshaya Prolomnaya Street's side (where nowadays the Chaliapin Monument is situated). In the pre-revolutionary period the Epiphany parish was one of the largest in Kazan. Among its members there were not only ordinary citizens, but also the aristocracy and prominent salesmen. In 1892, Ivan Semyonovich Krivonosov (1810-1892), deputy director of the Kazan City Public Bank, honorary citizen of Kazan merchant of the first guild, died. He bequeathed 35,000 rubles to the Epiphany Church, where he was a lider in 1852-1863. His will stipulated that 25,000 rubles of this sum should be used for the construction of a new bell tower. In July 1893, the newspaper "Volzhsky Vestnik" announced a competition for the best design of a new bell tower in the Russian Revival style. It was expected that the project would be about 32
fathoms A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an international standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally accepted non-SI unit. H ...
high. The authorship of the new bell tower is disputed due to the loss of the original design with the author's signature. According to some sources it was the architect Heinrich Rusch, according to others it belonged to the architect and construction manager Mikhail Mikhailov. G.B. Rusch, who submitted the project and received a 150 rubles prize, was named the winner of the competition in Soviet local history publications. After the publication of B. Yerunov's research in 1986, post-Soviet publications named M. D. Mikhailov as the author of the bell tower project. The Kazan archives have also preserved documents on the dispute between Rush and Mikhailov over the authorship of the project. The project of the bell tower was exhibited at the All-Russia Exhibition 1896. Construction of the new bell tower began on November 24, 1893, but only the foundation was laid and excavation was done to a depth of five fathoms from the surface. Construction resumed in the spring of 1895 and the bell tower was completed on August 17, 1897. The scaffolding was then removed. The old bells were the first to be hung in the bell tower. The heaviest of them weighed 217
poods ''Pood'' ( rus, пуд, r=pud, p=put, plural: or ) is a unit of mass equal to 40 ''funt'' (, Russian pound). Since 1899 it is set to approximately 16.38 kilograms (36.11 pounds). It was used in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. ''Pood'' was first ...
and 32 pounds. On October 1, 1900, a new bell weighing 526 poods was ceremoniously hoisted into the bell tower and delivered to the city by rail. On the same day, a two-meter octagonal gilded iron cross weighing 17 poods was installed. Newspaper reports of the time indicate that the bell tower was built with almost two million bricks and its final cost was 50,000 rubles, 10,000 of which was spent on deep foundations. The 1907 statement of the Epiphany Church records that the bell tower was built with a donation of 30,000 rubles from Kazan merchant Krivonosov, and the remaining 1,000 rubles came from church funds. The bell tower of the Epiphany Church has gained independent architectural value and has become more famous than the church itself. It is the highest bell tower in Kazan and one of the highest Orthodox church bell towers in the world. The register of the Epiphany Church states that "on the second storey of the bell tower there was a room for a church apparatus in memory of the benefactor Krivonosov, who contributed to the construction of the bell tower. In 1902 in this room a temple was installed and consecrated on May 20, 1904 in memory of the 3rd anniversary of the discovery of the beautiful head of St. John the Baptist (May 25)". In 1901, during a violent thunderstorm, the bell tower was struck by lightning. The newspaper of the time reported:
The bell tower was briefly illuminated by multicolored sparks. At the same time, the ceiling of the third level caught fire and the beams under the big bell went up in flames. A lightning strike caused a large hole in the wall, one and a half quarters deep and one
arşın The arshin or arşın is an old Turkish and Russian unit of length ( or ) The Turkish "market arşın" was about long. The masonry arşın was 75.774 cm on average (mason's arşın = 24 parmak = 240 ḫaṭṭ) The usage of arşın was gradual ...
wide. Fragments of bricks and whole bricks filled the stairs and the floor of the second storey and broke two columns. Some brick fragments were even thrown into Prolomnaya Street.
The old
tent A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using g ...
-shaped bell tower was demolished in 1909 due to dilapidation.So by 1917 the Epiphany Church complex included three churches. The main one: cold, two-domed in honor of the Epiphany of the Lord with the side chape of the Holy First Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen. The second one: warm, two-domed in honor of St. Andrew the Apostle with the side chapel of the Holy Martyrs of Prince Michael of Chernigov and his Boyar Fyodor; the third - cold, single-domed. And the third one: cold, single-domed, built in 1902 on the second level of the new bell tower in honor of the Third Epiphany. The Epiphany Church served as the city's
cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
during the Soviet period, from 1920 until it was closed in 1935. The church of St. Andrew the First-Called was demolished in the 1930s. Later a five-storey residential building named after H. Yamashev and owned by the Kazan Fur Association was built in the place where in the 1950s the menagerie of the
Kazan Zoo The Kazan Zoological and Botanical Garden () sometimes called the Kazan Zoo, is a mixed garden in Kazan, Russia. It displays over 1,000 and 160 species of plants and animals, respectively. As of 2014, the garden was reconstructed and additional s ...
was located. After the church was closed, the main rooms of the church were used as a warehouse, and in the bell tower there were shops and an optician's shop. The Church of the Three Kings was given to the sports hall of the
Kazan Federal University Kazan Federal University (; ) is a public research university located in Kazan, Russia. The university was founded in 1804 as Imperial Kazan University, which makes it the second oldest continuously existing tertiary education institution in Rus ...
in the 1950's. As a result, the decoration of the building was seriously damaged and the chapels were destroyed due to over-plastering. The bell tower of the Epiphany Cathedral was declared an architectural monument of local importance in 1960. It was repaired in 1973. In 1995, the Epiphany Cathedral was included in the list of federal historical and
cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by socie ...
of all-Russian significance as a monument of town planning and architecture. The Epiphany Cathedral was returned to the
Russian Orthodox Church 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 ...
in 1996-1997. Since then the church holds daily services. The bell tower is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture of
Tatarstan Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan, sometimes also called Tataria, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is a part of the Volga Federal District; and its capital city, capital and largest city i ...
. It houses the Old Russian Art Exhibition Hall of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan. In 2001, the Chaliapin Chamber Hall was opened in the bell tower.


Architecture


Cathedral

The
cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
is at the back of the courtyard. The temple was originally cube-shaped with five domes and three chapels with semicircular vaults. Later, a
refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monastery, monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminary, seminaries. The name ...
with a chapter house was added to the main structure. The Epiphany Church was highly decorated before the Revolution. The six tholobates and all three
apses In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In Byzanti ...
of the
altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...
were surrounded by brick armour belts, which extended for tens of meters under the roof of the massive building. The outer walls are decorated with images of saints, while the domes are decorated with gold. The temple was once surrounded by a classical metal fence, complete with a gate and a chapel (which no longer exists). The central tholobate was the only remaining part of the five chapters as in the mid-1990s. However, the domes have since been restored. The interior does not contain any preserved antiquities. The
iconostasis In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis () is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a Church (building), church. ''Iconostasis'' also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere withi ...
and the icons are modern. The temple is not yet been fully restored.


Bell tower

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 ...
is a tall, tiered structure that stands out on the central street. It is between 62 and 74 meters high, depending on the source. It dominates the surrounding buildings and the historical environment of Kazan. However, the new bell tower of the Epiphany Church was not only built for its intended purpose. On the first floor there is a small room known as the "conversation room" for the Old Believers, as well as a church store. On the second floor there is the church in honor of the discovery of the venerable head of St. John the Baptist. The two-storey square was laid out in a rectangular shape along the street, with two-storey wing volumes topped with faceted turrets over hipped roofs and petal chapels. Turrets with five crosses (partially lost) were located above the eastern and western risaliths of the quatrefoil. Originally, the design included a passage from the street to the Epiphany Church through the first level, which was built during the Soviet period and opened in the 1990s. The temple volume was located above the first level, and a grand staircase in the northern wing led to it. The bell tower has an eight-sided plasticized octagonal column with two tiers of bells. Large
arches An arch is a curved vertical structure span (engineering), spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th mill ...
cut through the column and it is completed with a tinned steel chapter on a faceted tholobate. The decorative style of the building is a skillful combination of ordinary and shaped red brick with white stone composition. It is based on a pictorial combination of modernized Old Russian patterns with geometric forms from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The design features arched openings with keel-shaped
cornices In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
,
kokoshniki The kokoshnik ( rus, коко́шник, p=kɐˈkoʂnʲɪk) is a traditional Russian headdress worn by women and girls to accompany the sarafan. The kokoshnik tradition has existed since the 10th century in the city of Veliky Novgorod. It sprea ...
corbel-like decorations and semi-columns with overlapping on the ribs of
octagonal In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a hex ...
, repeated in different versions of the
blind arcade Blind often refers to: * The state of blindness, being unable to see * A window blind, a covering for a window Blind may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Blind'' (1987 film), a documentary by Frederick Wiseman about t ...
.


Other interesting facts

* In 1854-1862, Archpriest Mikhail Zefirov, a theology professor who later moved to the Imperial Kazan University, served as the church's priest. From 1862 to 1886, he was followed by Evfimiy Alexandrovich Malov, a renowned ethnographer and missionary. Malov was the author of the two-volume work "Historical Description of Kazan Churches" and a linguist who actively participated in the publication of the
Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
with a parallel Russian translation. * On February 2, 1873 Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was baptized in the Epiphany Church, according to the metrical book. He was born on February 1. Later Chaliapin sang in the church choir. In 1998 a monument to him was erected near the cathedral. The hotel located in the restored building of the former Sovet Hotel is named after Chaliapin, called "Chaliapin Palace Hotel".


References


Bibliography

* * * * {{Cite book , title=Республика Татарстан: Православные памятники (середина XVI — начало XX веков) , year=1998 , location=Kazan


External links


Photo report: viewpoints in Kazan: Epiphany Bell Tower on Bauman Street

The Epiphany Cathedral
Russian Orthodox cathedrals in Russia Kazan