Innokentyevskaya Church - the first Orthodox church in Khabarovsk

The Orthodox Church in honor of St. Innocent of Irkutsk was the first Orthodox church in Khabarovsk. The first church was wooden, then it was rebuilt in stone. The Innocent Church of Khabarovsk has a difficult fate. During Soviet times, its domes were removed and turned into a planetarium. In the 1990s, through the joint efforts of the priests and the parish, the church was rebuilt and returned to spiritual life.

Innocent Church in Khabarovsk. View from the street Turgenev

The wooden Innocent Church replaced the chapel

In 1870, at the mouth of the Barry River (later Cherdymovka, now Amur Boulevard) on the slope of Military Hill, the second Orthodox building in Khabarovsk, after the Chapel of Mary Magdalene, was founded - the Innokentievskaya Church. The first Khabarovsk church received its name in honor of the priest Innocent (Veniaminov), who consecrated it. The Metropolitan of Moscow, an associate in the development of Siberia and the Far East, after his death was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. The construction of the wooden temple was carried out by the soldiers' guard team and lasted exactly a year. Father John Gomzyakov made the royal doors and doors in the altar with his own hands.

Wooden Innocent Church

However, this building did not serve Orthodox Christians for long. By the end of the century, it also fell into disrepair and became too crowded for parishioners.

Interesting Facts

A memorial cross was erected on the temple grounds in honor of the army soldiers who died in the Afghan and Chechen wars and lived in the northern district of Moscow, whose names and surnames are engraved on the memorial plaque of the pedestal and are regularly remembered by priests and parishioners at church services.

For more than a decade, the parish has had performances from its own theater group, which every year puts on up to 4 performances for the main Orthodox holidays. There are also trainings in acting and stage speech, emancipation in movement and disclosure of the creative potential of students in 2 groups in a theater studio, along with feasible service and glorification of the Lord through art.

Temple of Innocent in Beskudnikovo, theater group.

Interestingly, the scripts for joint performances are written by the students themselves. Classes in the studio without age restrictions are held for children and adults every week on Sundays in the assembly hall from 14:00 to 16:00.

Church of St. Innocent in stone

The fathers of Khabarovsk and the city diocese were faced with the question of building a durable and spacious stone church. In 1896, a building committee was established to select a suitable site and raise funds. Money for construction was allocated by such famous Khabarovsk merchants and philanthropists as Vasily Fedorovich Plyusnin and Pyotr Timofeevich Slugin. Ordinary parishioners also made donations within their means. The laying of the foundation took place in the summer of 1897 on the site of a demolished wooden church, and already on November 8, 1898, the temple was illuminated and opened for visits and prayers.

The church was built in a very short time. During the warm months of 1898, the building was roofed, by the fall the bell tower and five-domed domes were built, and in October 12 bells were hung on the belfry. The painting was done using a unique technique - encaustic - painting with wax paints heated to a high temperature. The temple was painted by the first Khabarovsk artist, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Sergei Afinogenovich Kazarinov.

A message in the local newspaper about the foundation of a stone church. "Priamurskie Gazette". 1897 June 29

Stone Innocent Church

So, Khabarovsk found a new house of God, a new center of spiritual life. Innocent Church is a monument of Russian architecture of the 19th century, which reflects the traditions of Russian religious buildings of the 17th century. Despite the fact that the temple was not built on the highest place in the city landscape, its gilded crosses and domes could be seen far from the Amur River and even from the railway station.

View of the Innocent Church from Srednaya Gora

Under the Innocent Church the following were created:

• clergy house - an administrative building in which church employees worked;
• building of the hospital of the Alexander-Ksenyevsky community;
• a cemetery with the remains of the pioneer builders of Khabarovka, buried between 1859 and 1874;
• parochial school, established by the Khabarovsk merchant Innokenty Pavlovich Pyankov and his wife.

Interior decoration

The upper temple is more capacious and spacious, decorated with a central large and 2 small choros, made with voluntary donations from benefactors and parishioners. From the single-tier Empire style iconostasis, a soleya is installed.

The interior walls are decorated with paintings and decorated with plaster cornices in the Empire style. The floors are laid with marble slabs.

In recent years, the lower temple has also been completely renovated using modern building materials: suspended ceilings were stretched and lighting was installed, the walls were completely plastered and painted, the floors were laid with granite tiles.

Desolation during the Soviet period

The further fate of the Innocent Church was determined in 1917. Throughout the 1920s, services were still held in the church, but the number of parishioners decreased every year. The Russian Orthodox Church did not receive financial support from secular authorities. Marxist ideology viewed the church as an accomplice of the exploiting classes and set one of its goals as the eradication of religious traditions. It became increasingly difficult for church servants to maintain the temple's economy.

In 1931, by resolution of the Dalkray Executive Committee dated July 30, the church was closed and the church parish was liquidated. The document stated: “Taking into account the desire of the community of believers to receive a cemetery church instead of Innokentyevskaya, the latter should be liquidated, and the church building should be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Khabarovsk City Council.” All movable property of the Innocent Church was transferred to the cemetery church. In 1933, the religious building was included in the State Fund, in other words, nationalized.

Even more sad is the fate of the Church Cemetery of the First Builders, on which lay the ashes of the first residents and honorary citizens of Khabarovsk, who at one time did a lot for its development:

• merchants of Plyusnina;
• mayor Rassushin;
• Governor General Khreshchetitsky;
• the first doctor of the city A.D. Nikolsky;
• icon painter S. A. Kazarinov;
• priests, officials and other representatives of the classes overthrown by the revolution.

In the 1930s, the cemetery was destroyed, gravestones and stones were used to pave the streets, and the largest ones were placed in the foundation of the Far Eastern Railway Administration, built in 1940. With such a barbaric act, the new government seemed to declare that we will build a bright future on your bones.

In 1934, the building of the Innocent Church was sold to the Office of the Commandant's Office of the Border Military District. It housed a radio and telegraph-telephone workshop for the border troops. During the war, weapons workshops were located in the temple building. Wall painting was a great nuisance for ideological communists. But the workers did not dare to scrape off the images of Christian saints, but painted over the frescoes with paint.

The appearance of the church was badly damaged in 1964, when it was rebuilt as a planetarium. The bell tower was demolished, the five-domed building was dismantled, windows and additional entrance doors were broken into the walls, internal partitions were erected and the second floor was built on. The main entrance to the planetarium was made through the altar. Where should the toilet for visitors be located? Near the entrance. But the frame of the temple was still preserved.

Khabarovsk Planetarium. The main entrance is broken in the bay window on the left

Architecture, appearance

The construction of a new temple building in a modern urban microdistrict was carried out under the leadership of Moscow architects V.I. Yakubeni and A.V. Bormotova.

The project was carried out by Arkada JSC, which tried to maximally embody the main features of the Holy Trinity Church, which was blown up in the last century, in the Zvenigorod estate of Ershovo, built in the first half of the 19th century by Afanasy Grigorievich Grigoriev in the Empire style.

The modern finished building is noticeably inferior to its prototype, although it has common features with it. The church in Beskudnikov was built on 2 floors with a symmetrical square silhouette, has 2 semicircular apses on opposite sides, and on the 3rd side there is a portico over 6 thin columns of the Tuscan order.

The entire structure is surrounded by a wide ramp along which religious processions take place. Among the decorative elements, a stepped cornice can be noted. The building is topped with a small, squat dome on a round light drum.

Revival of the Church of St. Innocent of Irkutsk

The Soviet planetarium operated until the early 1990s. In 1991, by decision of the Khabarovsk Regional Executive Committee, the building of the Innokentievskaya Church was registered with the state as a monument of religious architecture. And in 1992 it was returned to the Khabarovsk and Amur diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. From this period, regular services began in the temple. In the same year, a local religious organization was registered - the Parish of the Church of St. Innocent of Irkutsk. In 1993, Sunday school classes resumed.

The parishioners of Khabarovsk wanted to completely restore the temple. This became possible thanks to voluntary donations and sponsorship from entrepreneurs. The pre-revolutionary appearance of the temple was recreated from old photographs. In this case, the extrapolation method was used - old photographs were taken and the missing details were calculated through computer analysis.

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  Petition from the manager of the Khabarovsk diocese to the head of the administration of Khabarovsk for the allocation of land for a church

• Religious building under restoration

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  Innocent Church. View from the embankment

Finding bricks became a serious problem for builders. Modern brick differs from old brick, and Khabarovsk masonry is generally unique. Pre-revolutionary city buildings are made of gray and red brick. Gray products were imported from China and are not currently produced.

Work on the reconstruction of the exterior and interior of the church was completed in 1999. This is how, after many years of destruction and oblivion, the revived Innocent Church again became an important part of the spiritual, cultural and historical heritage of Khabarovsk.

Shrines[edit]

Icon of the Lord Jesus Christ, donated as a blessing to the temple by Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II

• Icon of the Lord Jesus Christ, donated as a blessing to the temple by Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II
• An ancient copy of the Tikhvin miraculous icon of the Mother of God
• Icon of St. Innocent of Irkutsk with a particle of his St. relics
• Icon of St. Nicholas the World of Lycian Wonderworker with a piece of his saint. relics
• Icon of St. Blessed Matrona of Moscow with a particle of her St. relics
• Icon of St. righteous Theodore Ushakov, admiral of the Russian fleet with a piece of his saint. relics
• Icon of St. Demetrius of Rostov with a particle of his holy relics
• Icon of St. Joseph of Belgorod with a particle of his holy relics
• Icon of Russian venerable saints with particles of their relics: St. Elders of Optina, Rev. Maxim Grek, Rev. Theodore of Sanaksar, Rev. Alexy, Elder of Zosimova Hermitage
• Ancient image of the holy martyr Patriarch Hermogenes
• Image of Saint Blessed Xenia of Petersburg
• Icon depicting the Council of Holy Healers, Silverless Workers and Wonderworkers
• "Cathedral of the patron saints of hunters and fishermen"
• Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary “Helper in Childbirth”

How to get there by car, public transport

The Church of Innocent in Beskudnikovo is within reach of the following public transport routes to the NII Tsvetmetavtomatika stop or Verkhniye Likhobory station.

Example:

• Bus services No. 63, 114, 149, 154, 167, 179, 191, 215 and 763;
• Route numbers 735 M and 677;
• Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line of the Moscow metro, exit from the northern lobby;
• Suburban electric train to Degunino station.

For travelers with a personal car, it is convenient to move along the 3rd transport ring to Butyrskaya Street, and then exit onto Dmitrovskoye Shosse, until the exit to Beskudnikovsky Boulevard, which will take you to your destination. You can enter coordinates for the navigator: 55.85742800, 37.56136700.

Where to stay

Near the temple, pilgrims and travelers from remote parts of the country can easily stay overnight in a small hotel or inn, as well as in the private sector.

Myhotel24 Kristalin

The mini-hotel closest to the temple is located very close on Dmitrovskoye Highway, building 64. Guests are offered accommodation in rooms with all amenities and with free Wi-Fi, satellite TV and modern TV at prices starting from 2.6 thousand rubles.

All bathrooms are equipped with a shower and hairdryer, and free toiletries and cosmetics are provided. There are family rooms with a small kitchen and seating area, some rooms have a desk or dining area.

Each room has an electric kettle or coffee maker. Guests can enjoy a rich continental breakfast each morning. There is an additional service of food delivery to the room.

Comfort Dmitrovka

The small hotel on Dmitrovskoye Highway 96 is also within walking distance of the Innocent Cathedral. 24-hour front desk and airport transfer, room service, equipped shared kitchen, playground for children.

Delicious à la carte breakfasts are prepared for hotel guests in the morning. A budget accommodation option with all amenities can be found at a price starting from 2.4 thousand rubles.

https://youtu.be/2eGkNr5WO1U

hotel Mercury

The mini hotel on Korovinskoye Highway 13 offers standard double rooms with separate beds at prices starting from 2.4 thousand rubles. Free parking, luggage storage, launderette and dry cleaning services, a beauty salon and a gift shop are available.

There is free wireless Wi-Fi throughout the hotel.

Holiday Inn Moscow – Seligerskaya

A modern spacious hotel on Korovinskoye Highway 10 with a 24-hour business center and a conference room is equipped with a parking lot. Guests are offered the services of a left-luggage office, a safe, a laundry, a beauty salon, a fitness center with an indoor pool, an ATM and a souvenir shop.

The hotel has a cafe, bar and restaurant, a common lounge area and an outdoor terrace.

You can move between floors using high-speed elevators. All modern, spacious rooms are equipped with cable TV, air conditioning, safe and minibar. A standard double room can be selected from 3.4 thousand rubles.

Apartment on Dubninskaya 5

An excellently located apartment with a balcony, washing machine and dishwasher, a modern equipped comfortable kitchen, free internet connection and TV, suitable for comfortable accommodation of 3 adults. The cost of daily accommodation in the apartment will cost 3.5 thousand rubles.

Apartment Green Gray studio in Apart Ville

A small, cozy apartment with a modern renovation offers accommodation with all the necessary amenities at a price starting from 3.7 thousand rubles.

Guests are provided with a double bed with linen and towels, kitchen and toiletries, and an excellent modern television system with cable and satellite channels.

Bright Planet Apartment

A modern, bright apartment with a balcony on Beskudnikovsky Boulevard 11, building 2, offers comfortable accommodation next to the temple at a price of 4.5 thousand rubles.

Guests are offered free wireless internet and a modern TV. The apartment has a kitchen equipped with the latest technology, a spacious dining area, a comfortable sleeping area, a bathroom with a shower, a washing machine and a hairdryer.

The apartments are perfect for families, children can be accommodated. The house has a spacious parking lot and car rental, and there is an equipped playground for children.

The temple in honor of St. Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow, appeared in Beskudnikovo not so long ago, but has already occupied a significant niche in the spiritual life of the district and the organization of youth and children's leisure, conducting pilgrimage trips to holy places for parishioners, organizing festive events for residents of the entire microdistrict.

Opening hours and schedule of services

The Temple of Innocent in Beskudnikovo is open to visitors every weekday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Sundays from 6 a.m.

Regular daily services are held here according to the following schedule:

On Sundays from 11:30 to 13:00 the Orthodox church library is open. In addition, every Saturday from 12 noon and on Sundays from 11-45 hours, various children's Sunday school classes are held, which end with a shared meal. On Wednesdays, from 5 p.m., the children's choir practices, and from 6 p.m., the youth choir under the direction of Natalya Sedova.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, the priest conducts Sambo martial arts classes for children and adults based on the Orthodox tradition:

• Children from 4 to 6 years old start at 6 p.m.;
• the teenage group from 7 to 13 years old comes to classes from 19:00;
• Pupils aged 14 and older start at 20:00.