Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, Russian Orthodox temple in Salzburg, Austria
The Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos is a Russian Orthodox church in the Lehen district of Salzburg, built in 1964 to a constructivist design by engineer Evgeny Salpius. The city required a flat roof instead of the planned tented dome, so the building has no onion domes. Inside, a two-tier iconostasis carved in 1970 by E. Teufl's workshop after a sketch by A. M. Bogalits stands in the prayer hall.
The parish traces back to a secret Liturgy served on 7 January 1945 by Archpriest Fyodor Raevsky in the Stakhovich house. After the war the community moved to St. Michael's on Residenzplatz, then to the Parsch camp, where a fire on 6 June 1950 destroyed its church. A plot in Lehen was bought on 29 May 1959, and the present building, designed by engineer Yevgeny Salpius, was consecrated on 26 June 1964.
The parish grew from a refugee community: after 1945 Russians, Serbs and Bulgarians worshipped at St. Michael on Residenzplatz, and the Intercession parish was founded in the Parsh camp. The two-tier iconostasis was carved in E. Teufl's joinery workshop after a sketch by A. M. Bogalits, replacing a temporary one in 1970.
The church stands in the Lehen district near the Salzach, on ground bought in 1959 on a lot cleared by an American air raid. It is a working parish, not a museum, so visits fit around services; the parish received legal status only on 15 February 2013, and a new church has been planned since 2010, so parts of the grounds may be a construction site.
The iconostasis now in the church was carved in E. Teufl's joinery workshop after a sketch by A. M. Bogalits and replaced a temporary one in 1970. The earlier iconostasis had been brought from a side chapel of St. Michael's Church, itself set up in a camp barrack.
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