Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas, Białystok

Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Białystok
Sobór św. Mikołaja Cudotwórcy
53°07′57.87″N 23°09′16.37″E
Location	5 Lipowa Street, Centrum District, Białystok
Website	soborbialystok.pl
Architecture
Style	Russian Revival

Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Białystok (Template:Lang-pl) is an Orthodox cathedral in Bialystok, the main temple of the Bialystok-Gdańsk diocese of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the seat of the Bialystok parish of St. Mikołaj (in the deanery of Białystok).

The building was erected in the years 1843–1846 on the site of an older Uniate temple probably built in the first half of In the 18th century, in the year of completion of construction works, the building was consecrated by the Vilnius and Lithuanian metropolitan Józef. It was the largest of the Orthodox temples of Bialystok. In the interwar period one of two active churches in the city. From 1951, it was the cathedral of the Białystok-Gdańsk diocese. Since 1992, the relics of St. Gabriela Zabłudowski. The building represents the classical style, typical of the church architecture of the Russian Empire in the second half. 18th century and the first decades of the 19th century

The cathedral is located in the center of Białystok at Lipowa Street 5. It entered in the register of monuments on January 24, 1957 under the number A-200.

History

The first church of St. Nicholas

The first church of St. Nicholas in Bialystok, located near today's cathedral was a branch of the temple in Dojlidy. According to some sources, it already existed in the 16th century. According to others, the marriage of Jan Klemens and Katarzyna Barbara Branicki founded the Uniate church of St. Nicholas before 1727 - this year comes a document in which Branicki offered 25 zlotys for her pastor for the deceased from his family. This is the oldest mention of the functioning of the temple of this rite. Probably, however, the foundation of the Uniate church took place at the end of the 17th century, in the years 1694–1696, during the dynamic development of the city. Funding it, Stefan Mikołaj Branicki built a church for new residents arriving in the city. Such a hypothesis, presented by Przemysław Czyżewski, is evidenced by the inscription on the church antimine, which was signed by bishop Leon Załęski in 1708.

The building was located at Choroska Street, at the Choroska Gate [4], was wooden, painted yellow and gray, with red domes. From 1748 comes the first information about the vicar parish in Dojlidy, whose duty was to service the church of St. Nicholas. In 1773 the building was described as follows:

wooden, plastered with lime, roofed tiles, with three domes, with iron crosses, gold-plated knobs.

In the same description, which is part of the inspection protocol of the Dojlidy parish, it was written that the temple had three altars: the main one with the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary with two silver crowns and two side ones, dedicated respectively to Christ the Savior ("Spasytel") and Saint. Nicholas. Architecturally, the church was very similar to the Roman Catholic churches emerging at the same time: it had a square vestibule on the west side, a rectangular nave and a narrower presbytery. It was 14.2 meters long and 6.2 meters wide.

Under the Russian partition

The construction of the new temple was associated with the increase in the number of inhabitants of Białystok as a result of the development of local industry and with the increase in the number of Orthodox Christians, resulting from the liquidation of the Uniate Church in the Russian Empire (outside the Diocese of Chełm) and the influx of Russian officials. In October 1838, the design of the church was entrusted to the architect, Mikhailov, but there is no clear evidence that he is the author of the building plan [4]. In 1840, a new temple design was approved. On March 21, 1843, the superior of the new church was dedicated by the superior of the monastery in Supraśl, Archimandrite Nikodem. In the years 1843–1846 a new one was erected next to the wooden church, and after the works were completed, the older building was demolished. The cemetery, which originally surrounded the church of St. Nicholas, and the preserved tombstones were moved to the hill with the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene. The total cost of construction was over 36 thousand. silver rubles, of which less than 3 thousand transferred the state treasury. The new temple from the beginning of its existence was the seat of the Orthodox parish, taking over the functions of the chapel of St. Alexander Nevsky in the Branicki Palace.

The new temple was built in the classical style, with elements referring to the architecture of antique, as well as to Byzantine cross-dome temples. Dawid Zabłudowski managed the construction works. In 1846, the temple was commissioned and blessed by the Vilnius and Lithuanian metropolitan Józef, who had previously particularly supported efforts to build it. She became the second cathedral of the Vilnius and Lithuanian eparchy, in the rank of council. By 1850, she obtained a set of necessary equipmen . According to the equipment list from 1859, five bells were located on its belfry, while the Bialystok Icon of the Mother of God was the object of worship of both the Orthodox and Catholic people. The first renovation of the facility took place in the years 1868–1872. Twelve years later, the faithful funded the insertion of the icon of St. Alexander Nevsky, which was to commemorate the coronation of the emperor Alexander III and his wife Maria Feodororny.

On August 25, 1897, the church was visited by Emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexander Fyodorovna. In remembrance of their visit, the Council received gifts from private donors for the purchase of a silver Gospel. From the beginning of its operation, the interior of the cathedral was decorated with frescoes, but the first composition, made during the years of construction, was destroyed before 1910. In the aforementioned year, a group of Russian painters under the leadership of Mikhail Avivov made a new decoration, modeled in their work on the frescoes of Viktor Vasnetsov from the Cathedral of St. Włodzimierz in Kiev. In 1910, the church roof was renovated .

In 1900, due to the change of administrative borders of the eparchy, the church in Bialystok was included in the Grodno eparchy. Again, it became the second cathedral of the eparchy . On October 24, 1910, after renovation, the building was consecrated again by Bishop of Grodno and Brest Michał.

In independent Poland

After Poland regained its independence, most of the Orthodox religious buildings in Bialystok were recognized as symbols of Russification policy and revised for the Catholic Church.

On July 11, 1936, the Pochaiv Icon of the Mother of God was brought to Bialystok; in a service held before her in the church of St. Mikołaj was attended by one and a half thousand people. Two years later, the building celebrated the 950th anniversary of the baptism of Rus.

Until 1951 the church of St. Nicholas in Bialystok was an ordinary parish temple. On September 7, 1951, when the Council of Bishops of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church founded the diocese of Białystok-Gdańsk, it received the status of cathedral cathedral. In the years 1955–1958 the building was renovated and modernized. At that time, the outer walls and the presbytery were renovated, and the church of St. Serafina from Sarów. In the first years after World War II, the Ministry of Public Security conducted surveillance of the clergy serving in the Council as part of the object case codenamed Mikołaj. From 1975 to 1976, the inner walls of the church were renovated. It turned out then that renewal and preservation of Avivov's frescoes was not possible, so it was decided to remove them and make a completely new painting decoration. Only in the presbytery a fresco of Avivov with the figure of the Risen Christ was preserved. The author of the paintings, which replaced the work of Russian painters, is Józef Latviaowski.

In 1987, the council was visited by Constantinopole Patriarch Dmitri, and a year later the millennium of the baptism of Rus was celebrated under the leadership of the metropolitan of Warsaw and all of Poland Basil. In June 1991, the visit to the church was part of the program of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Poland.

In the years 1988–1990 the cathedral was renovated again. During this renovation, the exterior plasters of the building were replaced, the kiots and the iconostasis were renovated and gilded, the roof and domes were covered with copper sheet. From 1991 to 1995, work was carried out on developing the immediate surroundings of the cathedral.

On September 21–22, 1992, the Council took place the ceremony of transferring the relics of St. Gabriela Zabłudowski, until then kept in Grodno and handed over to the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church by Bishop Grodno and Wołkowyski Walenty. In the procession from the city limits to the cathedral over 70 thousand. faithful and nine Orthodox bishops, from the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Belarusian Exarchate, as well as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bialystok Edward Kisiel and the Bialystok Voivode.

In June 2010, the Council was visited by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, August 18, 2012 - head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Cyril I, August 21, 2016 - Patriarch of Antioch, Jan X, in August 2018 - the metropolitan of America and Canada, Tikhon Mollard, head of the Orthodox Church of America , and September 21-22 of the same year, Alexandrian Patriarch Theodor II.

External links

Media related to Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Białystok at Wikimedia Commons