Dormition Church, Kondopoga, Orthodox wooden church in Kondopoga, Russia
The Dormition Church was a wooden church on a promontory in Kondopozhskaya Bay of Lake Onega. Its main volume consisted of two octagons with flared eaves set on a quadrangle, with a rectangular altar annex and two hanging porches. The central tower rose 42 meters to a steep, faceted tent spire; the building measured 24 meters long and 14.6 meters wide.
The first record of a Dormition church on this site dates to 1563; the fourth and last wooden church was built in 1774 in the Prionezhskaya tent-style school, possibly in memory of those who took part in the Kizhi uprising. It was restored in 1927, the 1950s and 1999. On 10 August 2018 a fire destroyed it completely; reconstruction began in July 2022.
The church was built in memory of the victims of the Kizhi uprising, which included farmers of the Kondopozhskaya township. Its ceiling, a painted "sky," showed the Divine Liturgy with Christ as the Great High Priest in the central medallion, surrounded by cherubim, seraphim and angels moving from west to east. This was the only surviving example of that composition in an active church.
The church sat along the shoreline where lake vessels could spot it easily. Its bell tower, built between 1829 and 1831, also served as a lighthouse to guide navigation on the water.
The church was built in memory of the farmers and residents of Kondopozhskaya township who took part in the Kizhi uprising. Its interior held the only known composition of the Divine Liturgy painted on a church ceiling, with Christ as the Great High Priest at the centre and angels moving in a circle from west to east.
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