Church of Archangel Michael, Russian Orthodox church in Kursk, Russia
The Church of Archangel Michael is a brick, single-domed Orthodox church in Kursk built in 1762–1767 in the classicist style, of the octagon-on-quadrangle type, with a three-tier bell tower. Its rectangular, squat main building has facades with an even rhythm of openings linked by horizontal rustication and four-column porticoes of the incomplete Tuscan order; the west portico was later rebuilt as a narthex. The round bell tower sits on a square lower tier and is topped with a spire.
The Church of the Ascension with a chapel of Archangel Michael was first mentioned in 1635. The current brick church was built between 1762 and 1767 on the northern edge of the Cossack Settlement; after Kursk received Catherine II's 1782 town plan, the settlement moved north and the church found itself surrounded by housing. Side chapels were added in the late 1830s, and the church was closed in 1940, reopened in 1941, closed again in 1961, and returned to the diocese in 1990.
The church was renamed after the Ascension altar was moved to a new church in Kazatskaya Sloboda in 1888. A memorial sign to sailors lost on the battleship Novorossiysk was consecrated in the churchyard on 26 May 2002, funded by the Kursk maritime club Kayut-Kompaniya.
The church stands in the Central District of Kursk, in the former Kazatskaya Sloboda, near Mikhaylovsky Lane and Karla Libknekhta Street. Services resumed on 15 May 1990 and continue today, so visits are best timed outside service hours. The building is a working parish church, not a museum with fixed opening times.
A memorial sign in the churchyard, unveiled and consecrated on 26 May 2002, honours Kursk sailors who died on the battleship Novorossiysk; it was funded and built by members of the local sea club "Kambuz-Kompaniya".
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