New Life: 6 Revitalized Spaces in Minsk
28.07.2023 - 19:34 / 34travel.me / Maria Gulina
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The fate of the Minsk churches has never been easy: a lot of them did not live through the20th century. We’re unveiling the stories of the most famous churches of Minsk.
The Red Church
plošča Niezaležnasci, 15
In the years 1887-1903 two children of Minsk noble Edward Vajnilovič died: son Symon from scarlet fever and daughter Alena from pneumonia. According to the legend, Alena drew a sketch of the church she had once seen in a dream. In memory of the children, Vajnilovič donated funds for the construction of the church: he wanted the building to be unique for Minsk.
Edward Vajnilovič chose the Neo-Romanesque style as a memory of the times when Christianity was not divided into Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The tower of the church was at that time the highest in the city, and the church itself was the largest temple in Minsk.
During the Soviet times, there were no services in the church, a portrait of Lenin appeared in the window, the building turned into the “Soviet Belarus” film studio (the classics of Belarusian Soviet cinema and documentary films were filmed here), and the icon of the Mother of God painted for the church went to the museum. But people began to come there to pray.
The adventures of the church did not end there: in the 1960s, it was almost transformed into a cinema or a toy store in accordance with the plan of the square reconstruction. As a result, the church was preserved, but the movie house in the building was nevertheless created (even Hollywood films were screened there).
In 1990, the church was returned to the Catholic community. The remains of the patron of arts Vajnilovič are now located by the entrance to the church.
The Holy Spirit Cathedral
vulicaKiryła iMiafodzija, 3
In 1633 on the site of the present Cathedral there was a temple of the Catholic Bernardine monastery. A hundred years later, the monastery was damaged in the fire, the building was rebuilt and by 1860 it had become an Orthodox church.
The main legend of this place is about how the icon of the Minsk Mother of God was found in 1500. It is believed that it was the apostle Luke who created such an image first. Prince Vladimir brought the replica of the icon to Kyiv in the 9th century, and it was kept there until the 15th century, when, during the Tatar invasion, all the ornaments were removed from the icon and thrown into the river Dniapro. Then it appeared in the Svislač on August 13, 1500. The image of the icon appeared on the emblem of Minsk in the 16th century.
The Church of Aliaksandr Nieŭski
vulicaKazlova, 11
This church in the Byzantine style has almost completely preserved its original appearance since 1898. The temple originally was built to honor of the soldiers who died
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