The Ascension Cathedral in the city of military glory Velikiye Luki is a landmark with a rich and largely tragic history. In 2014, the city celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the restoration of the temple.
Ancient Monastery and Time of Troubles
Despite the fact that, in fact, the new building is the modern Holy Ascension Cathedral, the Great Luke keep a memory of its ancient origin. Initially, the Ilyinsky Monastery was located at the place where the temple now stands. The history of this not preserved monastery is drowning in the darkness of centuries, and, unfortunately, very scarce information has reached us today. It is only known for certain that the monastery was burned by Polish troops in the Time of Troubles, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries.
Alas, after the ruin, the monastery could not be reborn, and for almost a century the remaining buildings were dilapidated, and the territory was desolate.
New life in the old place
The Elias Monastery was officially abolished in 1632, although in fact it has not been operating for many years. Only in 1675 did life revive here. On the site of the remains of the old monastery overgrown with grass, a new Ascension Monastery was founded. The initiator of its construction was the Metropolitan of Novgorod and Velikiye Luki Cornelius. The basis for the construction of a new monastery complex in the city was the application of the nuns from the Vvedensky monastery destroyed by the Lithuanians.
Initially, the monastery was rebuilt in a tree, but these buildings did not last long. The fire of 1719 almost completely destroyed them. For the second time, solid, solid buildings were erected.
An invaluable contribution to the development of the monastery and its construction was made by its fourth ruler, Mother Superior Margarita. Her efforts in 1752 erected a church in the name of the Ascension of the Lord, from which the Holy Ascension Cathedral subsequently grew. Great Luke enriched with a magnificent stone building.
Plan and architectural features
According to its architectural decision, the church was a typical building in the style of Moscow or Naryshkin baroque. On a rectangular basement, or quadrangle, an octagonal volume rose - an octagon, covered by an onion dome.
These forms of architecture start from the Russian wooden church architecture. At the end of the 17th century, they switched to stone construction. Although by the beginning of the construction of the Holy Ascension Cathedral St. Petersburg and Moscow had already taken over the new style of classicism, in provincial cities this type of church was built until the end of the 18th century.
The modern church plan includes a western gallery, a narthex, side aisles, a five-sided apse, a refectory, as well as a three-tier bell tower. The latter was a special pride of the monastery, which stood out and towered above the city of the Holy Ascension Cathedral.
Great Luke, like many ancient cities, from the moment the monastery was founded and the construction of the cathedral was overgrown with different-time and multi-style buildings. Against this background, the architecture of the church is lost. However, this dissonance does not prevent the city from enjoying the revived monument and spiritual center.
Holy Ascension Cathedral (Velikiye Luki) and 20th century history
The monastery lasted until 1918. The turbulent vicissitudes of modern history have not spared neither the Great Luke, nor the cathedral itself. After the revolution, it was abolished, although the temple still operated for some time. In 1925, it was closed. The 18th-century building was given over to commercial warehouses, and gradually it began to collapse. Before the war, the bell tower was dismantled, removing and melting the bells.
Surprisingly, during the hostilities the cathedral was practically not damaged, but in subsequent years it was systematically destroyed, trying to bring it into a non-cult form. To do this, the central octagon was demolished, and from the former splendor of the cathedral, only a rectangular box of underlays remained. In 1990, the cathedral was restored and began to act again as a parish church.