The Annunciation Cathedral ( uk, Свято-Благовіщенський кафедральний собор) is the main Orthodox

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

. The pentacupolar Neo-Byzantine structure with a distinctive 80-meter-tall

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 tow ...

was completed on 2 October 1888, from designs by a local architect, Mikhail Lovtsov. The church was consecrated in 1901, and the earlier Annunciation church was then pulled down. The candy-striped cathedral supplanted the older Assumption Cathedral as the main church of Kharkiv and was one of the largest and tallest churches of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

. The icon screen used to be of

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence. Its mot ...

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

. The church was

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...

ed in a style derived from St Vladimir's Cathedral in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

. On 3 July 1914 the church became recognized as the city's cathedral. The cathedral was closed to worshippers in 1930, but it was reopened during the German occupation in 1943. The church was then in the hands of the

Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC; uk, Українська автокефальна православна церква (УАПЦ), Ukrayinska avtokefalna pravoslavna tserkva (UAPC)) was one of the three major Eastern Orthod ...

and harbored a school, though claims abound that it was later used as a

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of citie ...

. Since 1946 the cathedral has been the seat of the Kharkiv and Bohodukhiv

eparchy Eparchy ( gr, ἐπαρχία, la, eparchía / ''overlordship'') is an ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity, that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. Eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the ...

of the

Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) The Ukrainian Orthodox Church ( uk, Українська православна церква, Ukrainska pravoslavna tserkva; russian: Украинская православная церковь, Ukrainskaya pravoslavnaya tserkov', UOC), common ...

, while the Intercession Convent has served as the bishop's residence. The Ecumenical Patriarch Athanasius III and several saintly bishops are buried in the cathedral.Official website
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References

{{Cathedrals of Ukraine Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in Ukraine Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) cathedrals Churches completed in 1901 20th-century Eastern Orthodox church buildings Byzantine Revival architecture in Ukraine Cathedrals in Kharkiv Church buildings with domes

See also

References