Cathedral of Mikhail Arkhangel in Sochi
The Cathedral of Mikhail Arkhangel is the oldest Orthodox church in Sochi, built in honor of the victory in the 1864 Caucasus War.
In 1871, Grand Duke Romanov Mikhail Nikolaevich, then a governor of the Caucasus, drove the entire Black Sea district to find out the needs of new settlers and help them if possible. During a visit to the Navaginsky fortification, he saw the ruins of an ancient church built under the Byzantine Empire and ordered the construction of a new church in its place. In 1874, they laid the first stone in the construction of the Cathedral of Mikhail Arkhangel.
The head of the Black Sea District Dmitry Vasilievich Pilenko, who found the construction manager of the St. Petersburg adviser, took a huge role in the construction of the temple. Vereshchagina. Vereshchagin previously founded a partnership of landowners for the development of the lands of the Caucasus and for construction promised to attract only private funds. One of these investors was merchant C. AND. Mamontov and Count F. F. Sumarokov-Elston, also Vereshchagin gave all the money for the construction from the sale of the house in Smolensk. The project of the future temple was completed by the architect from Moscow A. WITH. Kaminsky. According to the project, the length of the temple should be 25.6 meters, a width of 17.1, and a height of 34 meters. Due to various circumstances, the construction was very protracted and was completed only in 1890.
Soon, a spiritual center formed around the Cathedral of Mikhail Arkhangel: a church and parish school, a parish house with various buildings, a large garden, a chapel were built nearby. All this was called the Church Quarter together in everyday life. With the advent of Soviet power, a company began to close religious institutions, and in 1929 the cathedral was closed, making a warehouse in it, but already in 1944 the temple was returned to believers. In 1981, the state took protection of the temple, and in 1992 restoration began, which returned the former appearance of the Cathedral of Mikhail Arkhangel.
