Church of Saint Elijah (Ivanovo)

 Church of Saint Elijah (Ильинская Церковь) (Ivanovo)

 

Location: Ulitsa Kolcova 19A

 

Description of the Church of Saint Elijah in Ivanovo

Church of Saint Elias (Ильинская Церковь) is a functioning temple of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in the city of Ivanovo (Koltsova str., 19A).

 

History

The history of the Church of the Holy Prophet Elijah is intertwined with the history of the city of Ivanovo. Since the end of the 18th century, cotton printing has become the leading production in Ivanovo. After 1812, when the industry of Moscow was devastated by Napoleon's army, Ivanovo became the center of cotton production. A large merchant Alexander Alekseevich Lepetov, a native of local peasants, traded in muslin and cotton yarn. He bought land from the landowner E. I. Barsukova, who owned the village of Vorobyevo. Four years later, the first buildings appeared: this was the beginning of Vorobyovskaya Sloboda. With the opening of enterprises, the population of Vorobyovskaya Sloboda has grown significantly. In 1838, at the expense of A. A. Lepetov, the construction of the church of Elijah the Prophet began here. The land for the temple of Elijah the Prophet was donated by the merchant Ivan Diomidovich Kiselev.

Soon the inhabitants turned to the Archbishop of Vladimir Parthenius with a request to rename the settlement to Ilinskaya. Stone work was completed in 1841, and the church was consecrated the following year. Made in the traditions of late classicism (the northern and southern facades are decorated with four-column porticos; the central volume of the temple is composed of a base cube and a crowning cylinder, completed with five domes; a bell tower adjoins the temple on the western side), probably according to the project of the Vladimir provincial architect E. Ya. Petrov, the church became the main architectural dominant of the settlement. Subsequently, a fence appeared around the temple, a building of an almshouse and houses of clergy were built.

In 1893, at the expense of the manufacturer A. I. Garelin, the grandson of A. Lepetov, according to the project of the famous Moscow architect A. S. Kaminsky, the internal reconstruction of the temple was carried out: the summer and winter halves of the temple separated by a wall were connected into a single room. In the aisles of the Nativity of the Virgin and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (who still exist) new iconostases were installed. The wall paintings were made by the famous Palekh artists Belousovs, who renovated the painting in the Faceted Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin.

On August 29, 1935, the temple was closed by local Soviet authorities, and its building was transferred to the regional archive. For more than half a century the temple stood without crosses. From the darkness and dampness, the faces of saints looked inconsolably at the shelves with documents. Ancient frescoes were crumbling, the walls were covered with mold, the vault of the temple was black from the soot of kerosene lamps.

 

In Soviet times

The Church of Elijah the Prophet was returned to believers in 1989, in 1990 - to the Ivanovo diocese. The head of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk and Kineshma diocese, Archbishop Ambrose, asked the then sacristan of the Transfiguration Cathedral, Hieromonk Nikandr (Shamov), to head the new parish. Repair and restoration work has begun.

 

Return of the ROC

The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on January 7, 1990, on the Nativity of Christ. The service took place in the basement, now the basement of the baptismal church, the throne of which was consecrated in honor of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt. In the temple itself, on the throne in honor of Elijah the Prophet, the Heavenly patron of the church, the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on July 21, 1990, on the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. From archival sources it became known that the opening of the temple in 1842 also took place on the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Then they brought a list of the miraculous Kazan icon, adorned with precious stones.