Christ the Redeemer Church, Eastern Orthodox church in Irkutsk, Russia.
The Church of the Saviour is a white-walled Orthodox church on the site of the lost Irkutsk Kremlin. Its oldest part is a quadrangle; the main building was completed by 1710, and the bell tower and spire were added in 1758–1762. A dark green onion dome with a gold cross crowns the main body, whose left wall bears a large faded mural. The bell tower rises in stacked white tiers with arched openings, topped by a green spire and cross.
A wooden church built in 1672 by Cossacks under Ivan Maksimov stood here until it burned on 3 August 1706. That same year the stone church was founded by voivode A. S. Sinyavin, with the main building finished by 1710 and the bell tower and spire added in 1758–1762. The architect was Moisey Dolgikh of Moscow. In 1861–1862 an earthquake damaged the church, and in 1879 it survived the fire that destroyed three-quarters of Irkutsk.
The exterior frescoes date from the early 19th century and are the only ones in Siberia painted on outside walls. On the east facade, three scenes include a baptism of local Buryat people, the baptism of Christ in the Jordan, and a group witnessing a canonization, possibly of Innokenty Kulchitsky, Irkutsk's first bishop. Under the cornice are Saint Nicholas and Saint Mitrofan of Voronezh.
The church stands at ulitsa Sukhe-Batora 2, just north of Kirov Square near the outflow of the Irkut into the Angara. Since 2006 it has belonged to the Irkutsk and Angarsk eparchy, so entry follows church custom; the building also served for decades as a branch of the Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. A monument to Saints Peter and Fevronia was placed in front of the entrance after the 2010–2011 restoration.
The church holds a large collection of bells, including rare Gilev bells cast at the Gilev factory in Tyumen province. In July 2003 the crown on the cross above the dome shifted in a strong wind, and specialists needed five hours to remove it. Excavations beside the walls in 2007 uncovered an old cemetery and remains of the Irkutsk Kremlin.
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