After in October 1831 by the forces of the Russian army under the command of Count I.F. Paskevich was suppressed by a rebellion that broke out in the Kingdom of Poland, Lithuania, Right-Bank Ukraine and partially Belarus, the population of Siberia was replenished with exiled, endless stream arriving from these areas. For many of them, Tobolsk became a place of residence for many years. The Church of the Holy Trinity, located on Rosa Luxemburg (formerly Epiphany), is a monument to those long-standing events.
House of Prayer for Exiled Settlers
With difficulty settling in new places for them, the exiled settlers, the vast majority of whom were Catholics, created their own religious community. In 1843, its members appealed to the provincial authorities with a request to allow the construction of a house in which they could perform services in accordance with their confessional characteristics.
After considering the issue and lengthy coordination with the metropolitan authorities, permission was obtained, and in 1848 the exiled Catholics had their own house of prayer. Since their number did not decrease, and in view of a number of political conflicts, it even increased, in 1868 an independent parish was formed from them.
Wooden building - the forerunner of the temple
Soon, a small wooden house built for worship received the status of a parish church. His rector was a Polish priest, ordained in Warsaw, but, like most of his parishioners, who did not voluntarily reside in Tobolsk.
The Church of the Holy Trinity - as the house of prayer of political exiles was now called, in those years it was a small wooden structure that differed from the houses of local inhabitants except for a cross on the roof. Over the years, it dilapidated and, moreover, could not accommodate the flock that had grown over the years.
Temple - the brainchild of Catholics of Russia
The need to build a new large and, if possible, stone structure became more and more obvious every year, and finally, in 1891, the newly appointed abbot, father Vincent Pzhesmycki, became concerned about obtaining permission to build a stone church.
From time immemorial, the bureaucracy’s wheels have been spinning extremely slowly in Russia, and the petition of the Tobolsk priest traveled from office to office for six years, until finally in 1897 a positive answer was received.
Three more years were required to raise the necessary funds. We can safely say that the Church of the Holy Trinity (Tobolsk) was the brainchild of all Catholics of the empire. From everywhere, even from its most deaf ends, there were transfers to a distant Siberian city. The main donors were, of course, representatives of capital. It is known, for example, that the widow of a large Ural industrialist and trader Alfons Poklevsky donated 3 thousand rubles to the construction fund - huge money for those times.
Bishop's trial and temple closure
The Church of the Holy Trinity (Tobolsk) was built over seven years, and its solemn consecration took place in September 1907. For this purpose, the Catholic Bishop Jan Tseplyak arrived in the city. After the October coup, this minister of the Church of Christ was arrested by the Bolsheviks, and in 1923, a Moscow court sentenced him to death for allegedly counter-revolutionary activities. Only thanks to the intervention of the international community, to the voice of which the rulers of the country were still listening, the death sentence was commuted to ten years in the camps.
In the very days when the trial of the disgraced bishop was ongoing in the capital, a wave of anti-religious campaign was growing in Siberia. Church of the Holy Trinity (Tobolsk) - a monument of architecture of the early XX century was closed, the towers demolished. The building itself was originally used as a dining room, and then - film distribution offices.
Temple revival
In the early 1990s, Tobolsk took the baton of democratic transformations in the country. The Church of the Holy Trinity was again returned to believers, and, after a number of restoration and restoration works, they celebrated the first Mass. In 2004, an organ was installed in its premises using funds donated by one of the German charity organizations. Since then, classical music concerts are regularly held there, which are rightfully famous for Tobolsk.
The Church of the Holy Trinity, restored and restored, is a red brick structure erected in a neo-Gothic style. The belfry rises above the central part of the facade, and its edges are framed by two side towers.
From the western part of the building there is a semicircular apse, inside which an altar is placed. The Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity, the description of which is supplemented by the photographs placed in the article, fits perfectly into the surrounding landscape and successfully harmonizes with the Tobolsk Kremlin located nearby .