10 most extravagant and creative Orthodox churches that break the mold

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Orthodox churches are not as conservative buildings as they might seem at first glance. Most of them, of course, are built in the traditional style, but among the temples there are so extraordinary and striking in their originality that it remains only to throw up your hands and marvel at the creativity of those who erected them. We present to you a kind of rating of the most unusual Orthodox churches from different parts of the world.

1. Temple of St. Anthony the Great, Kenya

This Orthodox church is located in the Kenyan town of Ishamar. Kenyan priests serve here, among the parishioners are also local residents (more than a hundred people in total).

There is an Orthodox school at the church. To get into it, many children have to walk several kilometers every morning.

2. Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris

This Orthodox church of the Korsun diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, built two years ago near the Eiffel Tower, was designed by the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte. The cathedral was built of light French stone, which from time immemorial was used for the construction of many Parisian buildings.

The cathedral is a complex of buildings, which includes the temple itself, an elementary school, an exhibition center, a diocese administration and a concert hall.

3. Trinity Church "Kulich and Easter" in St. Petersburg

The temple in honor of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, located in the northern capital, received the nickname "Easter cake and Easter" for quite objective reasons. The owner of the estate behind the Nevskaya Zastava, a confidant of Catherine II, Prosecutor General Vyazemsky, instructed the architect to build the temple in the form of Easter dishes.

Liturgies are held in the church building, shaped like a cake and surrounded by 16 columns. And the building of the bell tower (Easter), built in the form of a pyramid, is divided into two tiers: in the lower one there is a baptism, in the upper one there is a belfry.

4. Nizhny Novgorod temple of the icon of the Mother of God "Reigning"

The temple, popularly dubbed the "blue carriage", appeared in the city about 13 years ago. After the local railway workers handed the carriage to the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, the higher clergy decided to find a practical use for the gift and make a temporary church in it - for the period while a new, stone one is being built nearby. A dome with a cross was installed on top of the temple-carriage, and an ordinary staircase was attached to the entrance. Subsequently, it was decided to use the trailer as a utility room.

By the way, this is not the first time in Russia when railway cars were used for the temple, but perhaps the most famous one.

5. Church of St. Nicholas in Yekaterinburg

The temple in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on the Blue Stones is located right in a residential building in Yekaterinburg. Along one wall there is an inscription - the words of the Apostle Paul from chapter 13 of the Epistle to the Corinthians. Along the other is a bright childish drawing depicting a child in a bell tower.

Despite its very simple appearance, the parish has a very busy life - there are holidays, classes, joint trips to nature, among the parishioners there are a lot of families with children.

6. Temple of the Life-Giving Trinity, Antarctica

This temple is the southernmost Orthodox church on our planet: it is located at the Bellingshausen station in Antarctica. The courtyard was founded 15 years ago.

The temple was cut down by carpenters in Altai and transported to Antarctica on the research vessel "Academician Sergei Vavilov". The priests of the temple, as well as the staff of the station, change every year.

Penguins are frequent visitors to these places, in October skuas and gray gulls arrive here, and in winter, fur seals migrate through the territory of the polar station.

7. "Rainbow Temple" "Life-giving source" near Saratov

The "Rainbow Temple", located near the village of the 3rd commune in the Saratov region, was built in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Life-giving source" by the efforts of the artist Alexander Shadrin and his wife. And the reason to build it was a dramatic event that happened in their family. The Shadrins' son, having fallen from his horse, received a severe head injury and was taken to the hospital in an almost hopeless condition. However, the spouses believed in recovery, prayed and soldered the boy with water from a local holy spring. The child recovered, after which both parents had a vision at night that a chapel should be erected near the source. The artist also saw what it should be in a dream.

The temple was soon erected. In the construction, the spouses were helped by the villagers, friends, and the local clergy.

True, after some time the temple, at the request of the abbot, still had to be repainted, because, according to Orthodox canons, it cannot be so colorful.

8. Temple of three horsemen, Crimea

On the plateau of the cave city of Eski-Kermen there is a temple, carved right in an oval block that has come off the mountain range. Nearby there is a smaller stone, inside which there is a sacristy, and an ancient necropolis. Archaeologists and historians attribute this cave temple to the XII-XIII centuries.

The ancient fresco located inside the temple-stone depicts three holy warrior-riders, in one of which George the Victorious is clearly guessed. There are very different versions of the other two. There is even an assumption that this is St. George in three guises: dragon fighter, savior and protector. Therefore, it is customary to call the church simply "The Temple of the Three Horsemen".

Most likely, the construction of a cave church in honor of St. George was associated with the threat of an invasion of the Tatars on the peninsula.

9. Znamensky temple in Dubrovitsy

The Church of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos near Podolsk, in the village of Dubrovitsy, looks more like an old European Catholic cathedral than a traditional Russian church.

It is built in the Rococo style and richly decorated with stucco. The open porch is richly decorated with stone carvings. The windows are framed with volutes, images of shells and vines. The temple is decorated with sculptures of Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great and images of the twelve apostles.

Presumably, the rear was built under the first owner, Golitsyn. In the 1840s, the temple was restored. In 1931, the Bolsheviks blew up the bell tower with the church of Adrian and Natalia, but the main church itself miraculously survived. Divine services are being held here now.

10. The project of the temple in Yekaterinburg

A couple of years ago, one of the architectural bureaus proposed to build the Cathedral of St. Catherine on the site of the unfinished TV tower in Yekaterinburg. According to this idea, it had to look very original and would allow to preserve the tower and at the same time give it a new life - Orthodox.

The bold project had both supporters and opponents. In the spring of this year, the tower was nevertheless demolished. But if the project of the temple is ever realized, it will become not only one of the most extravagant, but the tallest Christian temple in the world.

Other religions also have an extraordinary temple. Here seven of them are recognized as outstanding examples of modern architecture.