Tour of the Ascension Cathedral-2. Conversation hall, 2-meter clock and climbing the light drum!
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On May 20 of this year, after visiting the village of Starocherkasskaya, a logical continuation of our journey was a visit to the Novocherkassk Ascension Military All-Cossack Patriarchal Cathedral. Moreover, my old friend and comrade Father Andrey serves in this cathedral, who agreed to give us an extended tour of the entire temple from its main halls up to the bell tower, and down, where none of the tourists have ever been allowed...
This is the second part of the tour and in it we will visit the conversation hall and find out what it is for, see the mechanism of the clock that controls the bell strike, and also climb the light drum...
Before the founding of Novocherkassk, the Resurrection Military Cathedral in Cherkassk served as the main temple of the Don Army.
The Ascension Cathedral was founded and consecrated during the foundation of the city of Novocherkassk in 1805, on the Ascension Day. In fact, construction began only on October 1, 1811. The author of the project was the architect Aloisy Ruska. Before the construction of the temple, large-scale land management works were carried out to level the avenue adjacent to the future temple (now Platovsky Avenue). After the Ruska brothers left Russia in 1818, the construction of the cathedral was continued by the architect Amvrosimov. In 1846, when the main dome was being brought down, part of the temple unexpectedly collapsed. The same thing happened in 1863 with the second version of the cathedral, built according to the design of Ivan Valprede. In 1891, the Cossacks decided to begin construction of the third version of the cathedral, the design was developed by academician of architecture Alexander Yashchenko. On March 24, 1891, the design was approved by the highest authority. The construction and decoration of the temple was fully completed by 1904, but the building as a whole was consecrated and opened only on May 6, 1905.
The Novocherkassk Military Ascension Cathedral with seven domes was built in the neo-Byzantine style. It rose to a height of 74.7 m, second in size only to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and St. Isaac's Cathedral, and holds about 5,000 parishioners. The dimensions of the temple: length inside - 72.5 m, length outside - 76.8 m, width inside - 57.6 m, width outside 62 m, full height inside the temple - 51.2 m, with a cross - 74.7 m. Each portal was supposed to have six columns 13 m high and 1.5 m in diameter.
The construction costs amounted to about 2 million rubles. Nine bells with a total weight of about 33 tons were placed on the bell tower. The bells were raised manually with ropes.
Initially, all the domes of the cathedral were covered with red gold, and the main cross was inlaid with rock crystal. The gilding of the domes was carried out by the firm of Semyon Abrosimov from St. Petersburg. The height of the central dome with the cross reaches 74.7 m. In 1902, the Altschwager firm installed a clock with a diameter of about 2 m on the facade of the cathedral. The clock mechanism was inside the cathedral.
After the completion of the construction of the Cathedral, in connection with the approaching 100th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War of 1812, on October 4 (17), 1911, the Cossack military heroes of the Patriotic War of 1812, the ataman of the Don Cossack army, Count General M. I. Platov, Count General V. V. Orlov-Denisov, General I. E. Efremov, and the hero of the Caucasian wars, General Ya. P. Baklanov, were reburied with honors in a new tomb in the lower Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God.
Since September 1888, Zakharia (Lobov), a future holy martyr (in 1903-1923 he was the key keeper of the cathedral), served as a cleric of the church.
During the Soviet era, the gilded copper covering was removed from the domes, and the temple was supposed to be covered with iron sheets instead, but this was not done for a long time, and the building was constantly exposed to environmental influences - it was flooded, covered with snow. The heating system was disabled. In 1934, the Ascension Cathedral was closed, and the building was used as a warehouse.
The cathedral was reopened in 1942, during the German occupation. In the post-war years, a food warehouse was located in the basement, and church services were held upstairs.
From 1986 to 1994, Archimandrite Modest (Potapov) served in the Ascension Cathedral. In 1989, he was appointed rector of the cathedral. Archimandrite Modest began the process of restoration and renovation of the cathedral.
In 2001, large-scale restoration work began. In 2005, for the 200th anniversary of Novocherkassk and the 100th anniversary of the opening of the cathedral, the restoration of the building's façade was successfully completed. A lighting system and projections of biblical scenes onto the façade were installed.
In 2010-2011, the domes were again covered with gold sheets, and a ...