Annunciation Cathedral, Eastern Orthodox Cathedral in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
The Annunciation Cathedral is a Byzantine-influenced church in Kharkiv, Ukraine, rising to 80 meters (262 feet) with red and white brick patterns along its outer walls. Several domes crown the structure, which extends over 71 meters (233 feet) in length.
The first wooden Annunciation church stood from about 1655; a stone church replaced it in 1794. The present cathedral was begun on 2 October 1888 to Mikhail Lovtsov's design, funded by merchant donations and about seven million bricks, and consecrated in 1901. It became the city cathedral on 3 July 1914, was closed in 1930, reopened in 1943 and was damaged by a Russian rocket on 23 January 2024.
The name refers to the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. The side apses keep the dedications of the earlier church, to Saint John the Warrior and Saint Barbara, and the lower baptismal church has an altar to All Saints. The marble iconostasis was carved by Vasily Orlov, and the 29 main icons were painted by Andrei Danilevsky of the Imperial Academy of Arts.
The cathedral stands at the corner of the striped facades facing the ornamental gateway with mosaic panels; the 80-metre bell tower rises on the right of the main volume. Visitors enter through the gateway and the low wall with railings in front. The interior holds 3,500–4,000 people, so services are crowded on major feast days.
The cathedral holds the tomb of Ecumenical Patriarch Athanasius III, who died in Kharkiv in 1653, along with several saintly bishops. Its five domes follow the traditional Russian pentacupolar scheme, while the 80-metre tiered bell tower is neo-Gothic in detail. The brickwork alone consumed about seven million bricks.
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