Cathedral of Christ's Nativity
Neoclassical metropolitan cathedral of the 1830s, standing with its rebuilt belfry in Cathedral Park.
The Cathedral of Christ's Nativity was raised between 1830 and 1836 as the centrepiece of the newly planned upper town of Chișinău, then the capital of the Russian province of Bessarabia. The design, chosen by competition, came from Avraam Melnikov and is late neoclassical: a compact cruciform building set on a square about twenty-seven metres across, with four matching porticoes of Doric columns and a broad central dome. Three altars were dedicated to the Nativity, to St John the New and to St Nicholas.
A free-standing belfry accompanied the church from 1836, built in part to house a heavy bell cast from captured Turkish cannon, and a clock was added to it in 1842. The cathedral was damaged in the Second World War and by earthquakes, and the Soviet authorities demolished the belfry in 1962 and used the church as an exhibition hall. Services resumed in 1989, restoration continued until the reconsecration of 1996, and the bell tower was rebuilt from photographs and completed in 1997.
Highlights
- Late neoclassical design by Avraam Melnikov, consecrated in 1836
- Four Doric porticoes around a compact cruciform plan
- Belfry demolished in 1962 and rebuilt from photographs in 1997
- Set in Cathedral Park beside the Triumphal Arch
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