The history of Irkutsk and Orthodoxy are inextricably linked. The first detachments of the Cossacks, who came to the land in the 17th century, carried Orthodox shrines with them: icons, banners, crosses on their chests, and prayer books. And they immediately built a chapel, later temples, first wooden, then stone. Today there are more than 40 parishes, temples and chapels in Irkutsk.

After the revolution, all the temples were confiscated: many were destroyed or rebuilt beyond recognition - they housed workers' hostels, clubs, and museums; in others, sometime it was allowed to serve. In the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War for the country, the Soviet authorities returned some temples in Irkutsk to restore the national spirit: Krestovozdvizhensky - in 1943, Michael-Archangel - in 1944, Znamensky - 1945. After the persecution of the church the services continued again.

In the 90s, people began to be baptized in droves. Donations of believers went to the restoration, construction of new churches; chapels, temples in hospitals, military barracks began to open.

Epiphany Cathedral in Irkutsk

Epiphany Cathedral is one of the most expressive architectural monuments of Irkutsk. The original temple of the Epiphany was built in 1693 and was wooden. During a serious fire that broke out in 1716, this temple was destroyed. Two years later, the construction of a stone church began in the same place. And, despite some delays and interruptions, by 1731 the construction was completed.

The new temple stood a little more than half a century and suffered again - this time from the earthquake that destroyed the bell tower tent and damaged one of the domes, which was removed several years later. In 1812, construction on the second bell tower began, on which the largest bell in the city was to be hung. The bell was cast in 1797, weighed more than 12 tons and hung on the pillars until the bell tower was completed. In March 1815, the bell finally found its place in the new bell tower, built in the style of Russian classicism.

In 1934, the divine services in the cathedral stopped and it was closed. For a long time, the temple stood in desolation, the threat of destruction hung over it, until in the 1960s and 80s this decision was not changed and restoration work began. Now it appears to the eyes of residents and tourists almost in its original form. Architecturally, the Epiphany Cathedral is a kind of link between the forms of the old Russian church and the Baroque methods. Its facades are decorated with multi-colored glazed tiles with images of flowers and mythical animals and are a real decoration of the city.

Address: st. Sukhe Bator, 1A

Kharlampiyevskaya Church in Irkutsk

Kharlampievskaya church is a special place on the map of Irkutsk. Not only because it was the largest in the city for a long time: it was here that sailors who sailed traditionally received the blessing.

Back in the nineteenth century, parishioners of the church, representatives of the largest trading dynasties of Irkutsk, organized and financed naval research expeditions to Kamchatka, the Kuril and Aleutian islands. The Great Russian navigator Grigory Shelikhov was a parishioner of the Kharlampievsky church, and the oceanographer, the polar explorer and later the supreme ruler of Russia Alexander Kolchak was married here.

Kharlampiyevskaya church remembers other glorious names. For example, for a short time, a descendant of the founder of Moscow, Prince Nikolai Dolgoruky, who served in disgrace, served here as a watchman.

The maritime theme is traced in the architectural design of the temple: snow-white walls, a flying silhouette, a general outline of a structure resembling a ship. Baroque decorations and frame platbands, decorated with oriental patterns, give the structure originality and sophistication.

During the years of Soviet power, the church was closed and redeveloped into a student dormitory. Restoration work and the revival of the church began in 2006: the first cross was erected and the biggest bell cast by the tutarist masters, Blagovest, was erected; and then began the first service. To date, the thrones of the holy martyr Harlampy, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Myrrh-bearers have been consecrated.

The bell on the second tier of the bell tower was placed in the first place and only then the walls were restored around it, otherwise the huge Blagovest simply would not have passed through the small windows.

Visitors to the temple can not only admire its beauty and magnificent interior decoration, but also enjoy spiritual singing. In 2016, the choir directed by the regent of the church became the winner of the international competition of choral groups.

Address: 5th Army st., 59

Trinity Church in Irkutsk

The temple was erected in 1778 and since its construction has not undergone significant restructuring and "renovations." This is a rare case for the architectural monument of Irkutsk.

The single-storey three-altar Trinity Church was built on the site of a wooden one. On July 19, 1763, a stone church arch collapsed during the work. The main temple was completed in 1778 (the lighting ceremony took place on September 22).

In the 1930s, the church was closed. On September 28, 1949, in violation of the resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers, the Irkutsk Regional Executive Committee handed over the Trinity Church for the construction of a planetarium. Currently, under the project of G.G. Oranskoy and B.A. Shutov temple was restored, after reconstruction transferred to the Irkutsk diocese.

Baroque style, which came to Russia at the end of the XVII century, immediately acquired a bright Russian peculiarity. A prominent place among the architectural monuments of the Siberian baroque has the Holy Trinity Church.

Of the total number of buildings, the church is distinguished by its unusual spatial structure. The composition of the building can be traced to wooden long-layered temples with a wide octagon, which became widespread in the Irkutsk region in the middle of the 18th century. The tiered bell tower, slightly exceeding the height of the temple, along with the chapels and the altar is compositionally subordinate to the core. The decoration of the platbands was influenced by the Old Russian architecture (paired, tied columns), Baroque (drawing cartouches), and local traditions of window arrangement in multi-stage rectangular niches: clearly traced cornices with a number of profiled crackers, vanes with depressed panels of various geometric shapes.

Address: 5th Army st., 8

Polish Church in Irkutsk

In the historical place of Irkutsk, where the Savior Church and Epiphany Cathedral were located, the Polish Church was built, one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Of course, it is not surprising that Irkutsk, in which there were a large number of churches of almost all denominations, was sheltered by a Roman Catholic church. Already in 1815, there were 238 Catholics in the province and Irkutsk itself, and in 1820 an independent Irkutsk Roman Catholic orphanage was established.

Contemporaries noted the magnificent interior of the temple, openwork arches, the department of carved wood, lacquered benches, and the beautiful sound of the harmonium, drawn from the US in 1896. The cathedral looked very nice and naturally fit into the architectural ensemble of the main city square.

A tall Gothic tower above the church building, a long stone fence with metal bars on one side and a stone base with openwork cast-iron bars on the other created a kind of avenue that led to the two oldest religious buildings of Irkutsk - the Church of the Savior and Epiphany Cathedral. Next to the church stood the wonderful chapel of St. Innocent, in which, according to legend, Bishop Innokentiy (Kulchytsky) stayed. It was founded on September 17, 1868 and consecrated on January 16, 1877 by Bishop Benjamin. At this time, the Irkutsk Diocese celebrated its 150th anniversary. Irkutsk church was surrendered to various institutions after closing in 1938 for a long time. In 1978, a magnificent organ was established, and now it is used as a concert hall of organ music.

Address: st. Sukhe Bator, 1

Irkutsk Synagogue

Speaking of the Jewish synagogue and the history of its creation, one cannot but touch upon the history of the Jewish community in Irkutsk. The era of the birth of this community and its initial development dates back to the 60-80s of the XIX century and is associated with the name of the merchant Yakov Savelevich Dombrovsky, who in 1859 was allowed to settle in Irkutsk. Soon after arriving in the city, he found a house specifically for the chapel, and all Jews began to gather here, because there was no constant prayer house then.

The building of the first synagogue in Irkutsk was founded in 1878. It was built on money donated by the future parishioners of the synagogue and the Jews. The synagogue was a T-shaped structure. Unfortunately, the building existed quite a bit. They managed to do just one service - a prayer of gratitude to Alexander II, after which a huge fire happened here that destroyed the Irkutsk synagogue in 1882. By the end of the same year, it was possible to restore it with donations.

By the mid-1890s, its own library was formed, which was considered one of the richest in the city — it contained more than four thousand books. In 1932, during the Stalinist "godless five-year plan," the synagogue was closed, and most of the book stock was transferred to the city libraries. The rest of the property was distributed between local history and art museums. The building was transferred to the city to house various institutions. During the war years, a branch and a dormitory of a medical institute were located within the walls of the Irkutsk synagogue.

After the end of the war, the second floor of the synagogue building was returned to the Jewish community, but until 1981 its activity was not resumed. Only in 1993 the synagogue officially returned its status as a cult object.

Address: st. Karl Liebknecht 23

Spassky Church in Irkutsk

Spassky temple is the heart of Irkutsk, its first shrine and the first monument. This temple endured much in its lifetime: fires, earthquakes, long years of oblivion and devastation. Spassky church was founded in 1706. From the old wooden one to the new church a banner with the image of the Savior was transferred. With it, according to legend, a Cossack detachment came to install the Irkutsk prison. The royal gift, an icon in an expensive robe, granted by Peter I, was transferred here.

The wooden church existed until 1716, when a strong fire "perpetrated" in Irkutsk. Not only the Savior Church was destroyed by this fire, but also the wall between the two stone buildings: the command house and the stone building of the Church of the Savior. The bells of the burned-out church were transferred to the Sergiev tower of the fort. The stone church begins to be built in 1706. Immediately after the fire, voivode A. S. Sinyavin, with the assistance of wealthy Irkutsk citizens, contributes to raising enough money to build a stone building of the Spassky Church. In 1706, the construction of a two-storied church without a bell tower began in the eastern wall. The manufacture of tiles and the decoration of the buildings of the church were performed by the Irkutsk townsman, the workman Ivan Kirpichnik. The first was solemnly consecrated on August 1, 1710, the upper throne of the Savior of the miraculous image. On this day, from the wooden building of the Savior Church, solemnly accompanied by a church clergy, a banner with the image of the Savior and an icon presented by Tsar Peter in an expensive robe were transferred.

The two-tier building of the Savior Church with a tall, cube-shaped, pillarless quadrangle, with the refectory and an apse adjacent to it on one level, goes back to the type of the early Posad church. The bell tower crowned with a gold spire was built in 1758-1762. In the place of the bell tower there used to be a porch; from it departed to both sides of the gallery-gulbische, encircling the building at the level of the second tier. Now the portals of the second floor "hang" in the air. At the beginning of the XIX century, the Savior Church was painted, and not only inside but also outside.

Address: st. Sukhe Bator, 2

Vladimirskaya Church in Irkutsk

The Prince-Vladimir Church was founded in 1888 in honor of the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Russia by Prince Vladimir at the expense of the merchant Vasily Litvintsev. In the folklore this temple was called "white" or "Litvintsevsky". The project of the temple was made according to the desire of the builder (Vasily Litvintsev) by the project of the architect Vladimir Kudelsky. The monastery was opened on July 28, 1903 in the territory of the Znamensky suburb of the city. During the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905 the monastery housed a hospital of the Red Cross.

At the monastery there was a men's poorhouse, a church-teaching seminary and a men's school. The opening of the church teaching school was held in 1900. Graduates of parochial schools were enrolled in a school with a three-year course. In 1905, a school for 50 students was transformed into a seminary and housed in a newly rebuilt building. In addition to the seminary, a two-year exemplary school for 75 students was located at the monastery. The almshouse was operated at the monastery.

By its architecture, the Vladimirskaya Church stands somewhat apart in the series of works of Siberian baroque. First of all, it stands out for an unusual volumetric composition with a monumental five-domed temple, reminiscent of the architecture of ancient Russia. The four-light church was completed with a two-tier small octagon under the eight-pavement and smaller octagons above the corners of the quadrangle. The decor reflected the influence of local artistic traditions. The facade composition is dominated by vertical articulations, which significantly distinguishes the plasticity of this building from the decoration of other temples of the Siberian baroque. At the corners of the temple and the refectory, the scapula is filled with native Siberian recessed relief cruciform and rectangular panels.

Znamensky Convent in Irkutsk

Znamensky Convent in the city of Irkutsk is one of the oldest monasteries in Siberia. The construction of the monastery, consecrated in honor of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos, began according to literacy, which was given by the Metropolitan of Siberia and Tobolsk Paul in 1689. They decided to erect the church not far from the Irkutsk burg, on the right bank of the Angara River. By 1693 the first wooden church was erected, which was not only monastic, but also parish.

Wooden churches were quickly deteriorated. Therefore, in 1757 a stone church was laid in honor of the Sign of the Mother of God. In 1797, the superior building was built, and in 1858 a second floor was added to it. The second temple is in the name of Sts. Demetrius and Trifon was also erected and consecrated in 1818.

At the end of the second half of the nineteenth century Znamensky Monastery was a large economic entity. In 1872, a hospital for monastics was opened at the monastery. In 1889, a classic school for women’s theological college began to operate here. In addition, a hospice also worked at the monastery, and after a while a school for girls was officially founded.

In 1926, the Irkutsk Monastery was closed. Znamensky temple became parish. In 1929, he was given the status of a city cathedral. In 1936, the temple was closed and a little later aircraft repair workshops were placed in it. In 1945, the Znamensky Cathedral was returned to the Church, after which it again became the cathedral. The life of the monastery was revived in 1994. To date, only the church, the holy gates, the rector's cells and the monastery fence have been preserved from the monastic buildings.

Address: st. Angarskaya, 14

Irkutsk Cathedral Mosque

The mosque in Irkutsk is the center of the Baikal muftiat. It unites the Muslim community of the region and the city.

The mosque was founded in 1897 by the Tatar merchants Shafigullin brothers. Of all their considerable property, they donated a manor in the city, along with buildings. In the same year, the mosque was already open, and for the first time the adhan sounded. A school was opened at the same mosque.

However, at the first stage a small wooden building could not meet the needs of the Muslims of the city. And therefore, funds for the construction of a large stone mosque immediately began to be collected. Construction was completed in 1905. The high minaret and the building interesting from the point of view of architecture became real decoration of Irkutsk, and all Russia.

The mosque was closed in 1939. But in 1946 it was reopened. However, the Muslim community was given only part of the building. After some time, the remaining rooms were equipped with living rooms, and then for warehouses and storage facilities. In the late 50s the minaret was dismantled.

Address: st. K. Liebknecht, d. 86

Church in the name of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God in Irkutsk

The laying of the church building took place on July 27, 1885 in the Craft Sloboda, along Znamenskaya Street, near the Ostrogny Bridge. At 11 o'clock in the morning from the Irkutsk Kazan Cathedral, the procession began. On April 9, 1892, the consecration of the church was accomplished by His Grace Bishop Macarius. The right chapel in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was consecrated during the early liturgy by the cathedral archpriest.

After the revolution, the Church of Our Lady of Kazan remained in force for eighteen years. But in 1936 it suffered the same fate as many churches of Russia - it was closed. Since 1936, many masters have changed in the church, and each of them contributed to its destruction. There was a warehouse of the book publishing house, and cinema mechanics courses, and the Siberian Souvenir Plant. In the late 1980s, the Irkutsk Regional Council of People’s Deputies decided to restore the monument.

The volume-spatial composition of the building differs sharply from all previous religious buildings of the city. The volume of the church, generally compact, is divided into a series of subordinate volumes grouped around a central pillar. The core of the temple ends with a twelve-sided drum with a faceted dome. Lower altars, apse and bell tower are crowned with the same shape octahedral drums in the form of arbors under the domes.

In the Kazan Church, new motives are introduced into the familiar logic of building a cult building, making it difficult to read the functional purpose of the parts. An even greater complication of the volumetric composition is the location of additional towers along the diagonals of the core, completed with tents. The decor of the facades is ample and made in complex forms of the “style” architecture of the late XIX century. Kazan Church is a vertical dominant among the surrounding low-rise buildings and therefore has retained its importance in the planning of the city, visually linking its individual areas.

Address: st. Barricadnaya, 34/1

Pokrovskaya church in Irkutsk

The Church of the Intercession was rebuilt from a stone dwelling house built in the beginning of the XIX century by one of the Irkutsk merchants. Work on the restructuring of the house in the temple began in 1824 and included the construction of the altar ledge from the east, the porch from the west and the bell tower. In 1826, the church was consecrated in honor of two Orthodox feast days for the Prest, the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God and the Meeting of the Lord.

After the closure in 1934, the church was transferred to the carpool under the club. Currently, the building is in emergency condition, because for a long time it was used as a premise for the metal repair shops of a car repair factory.

As for architecture, the church was designed in a very original way - the main element of the composition was not a temple, but a massive bell tower, topped with a large faceted baroque dome. The facades were decorated in the style of provincial classicism with some elements of baroque. The walls were partly made of brick, partly of wood. Wooden are just those parts that were attached to the former merchant's house. Once there was a vast basement with a stove under the church, but nowadays it is completely filled up. Inside the walls were decorated with paintings.

Since 1990, the Pokrovskaya Church has been included in the list of monuments of regional significance. Currently, worship in the temple resumed, in parallel, restoration work is underway.

Address: Rabochego shtaba st., 29 lit. B

Savior Transfiguration Church in Irkutsk

The facility is located in the Right Bank urban district. An Orthodox church belongs to one of the famous temple complexes that have a long history of existence.

Construction of the Transfiguration Church began at the end of the XVIII century. The construction was carried out at the expense of the Siberian merchants Stefan Ignatiev and Ivan Sukhikh. The consecration of the new church took place in 1811. In the middle of the 19th century, a stone fence with cast-iron gratings was erected around the temple complex. Also, the old wooden roof was replaced with a metal one.

Within a decade from 1845, church premises became the place of residence for the families of the Decembrists S. G. Volkonsky and S. P. Trubetskoy. In the church, the daughters of Volkonsky and Kuchelbecker were married. The funeral of P. Mukhanov and N. Panov was conducted in it.

In 1940, by order of the Soviet government, the church was closed. The modern history of the temple began in 2000, when, after a half-century break, services were resumed in it.

Address: Volkonsky lane, 1

Prince Vladimir Church in Irkutsk

This Orthodox monastery is an architectural monument of local importance. They founded the temple in 1888; the occasion was the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Russia by Prince Vladimir. Construction was carried out on the money of the merchant Litvintsev. The people called the church “white” or in honor of the benefactor-patron “Litvintsevskaya”. The monastery was opened in July 1903 within the Znamensky suburb of Irkutsk.

During the years of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the Red Cross Hospital was based in the temple. At the monastery they organized the men’s gracious, church-teaching seminary and school (again, men’s). The creation of these institutions left the money all the same Litvintsev; the amount was 4 hundreds of silver rubles.

The church school was opened in 1900, graduates of church parishes were taking on the training; the course lasted 3 years. After 5 years, the school with 50 pupils grew to a seminary and moved to a new building. In addition to the seminary, the monastery has a two-year school with 75 students. The regime at school was strict, there were even corporal punishment.

The monastery lasted until 1922, and then it was abolished, after which the cavalry regiment of the NKVD, the children's home and the laboratory of the geological department occupied the territory of the monastery. Only in the late 90s of the last century, the monastery buildings were handed over to the Irkutsk Diocese Office, which allowed the revival of the monastery.

Address: st. Kashtakovskaya, 52

Holy Cross Church in Irkutsk

By the middle of the XVIII century, Irkutsk had become such a rich city that it rightfully contested the title of the Siberian capital in Tobolsk. There was even a local school of architecture in the city that developed one of the Siberian baroque styles. The Irkutsk Exaltation of the Holy Cross church became the crown, the unsurpassed masterpiece of Siberian baroque.

The church was founded in 1747, and in 1757 the main cold chapel was consecrated in the name of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. In 1860, the old porch was replaced by a 2-storey Empire style porch. At the end of the XIX century changes were completed. The church was built at the expense of the Irkutsk merchant-navigator Fyodor Shcherbakov on Krestovsky hill, at the foot of which stood an ancient wooden cross for a long time.

Successful placement of the temple on a hill, at the intersection of the main streets of the city, provides a holistic perception of the monument among the preserved wooden buildings. Even now, the church remains one of the main dominants of the city center. The volumetric composition is distinguished by an original solution with the placement of two side-chapels in a wide refectory. In external forms, this was reflected in the picturesque layout of the crowning octopuses of the side-altars, which are subordinate to the main temple.

On the west side there is vertical longline bell tower. The two-light quadrangle of the cold temple ends with three contrasting diminishing octagons. The figured dome of the temple and the pear-shaped weddings of the octagonal chapels have a very complex and tense outline and plastic. In the overall composition of the church is seen principle, inspired by Buddhist architecture. But the Holy Cross Church received its fame, after all, not because of an interesting space-planning solution, but due to the unique decorative plastic of the facades. A rich ornament fills the entire field of the temple wall, leaving almost no free planes. The most complicated patterns are created by various combinations of geometric shapes. The nature of the ornament and the sculptured plastic of the wall evoke associations with oriental motifs.

Address: st. Sedova, 1

Entry-Jerusalem Church in Irkutsk

The First Entry-Jerusalem Church was built in 1793-1795. It was a small stone temple, which by the middle of the XIX century had seriously deteriorated and was partially destroyed by an earthquake. A new temple on the site of the destroyed one was built in 1835.

The new church was built on the highest point of the city, offering a magnificent view of the city with its many temples and monasteries. The construction was delayed for several years and was carried out rather slowly. This was due to a number of difficulties, both financial and technical. For example, in 1823, a vault built with errors suddenly collapsed in an almost completed church building. Alterations were spent a few more years. The main construction work was completed only by 1830, and the next five years were spent on interior design. In 1890, two chapels were added to the temple from the south and from the north in addition to the existing one.

During the years of Soviet power, the temple was seriously injured - the domes were demolished, and the building itself was rebuilt. The temple was set aside for a police warehouse, which was then followed one after another by a hostel, a ski base, and even a school of culture. The church cemetery was closed in 1932, and destroyed in 1957. Nowadays, the efforts of the parish community are being restored and the church gradually acquires its original appearance.

Address: st. Fighters of the Revolution, 15

Church of the Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and Their Mother Sophia in Irkutsk

The idea of building the church and its implementation belong to the deputy of the city duma Viktor Ilyichev. In 2005, a competition was announced for the design of the temple. When designing this temple, there were special conditions: it should be small, not more than ten meters in diameter, designed for about a hundred parishioners. And there was one more condition - not to cut down a single tree in the park. Therefore, they had to choose a site for a long time.

They built the church with the whole world. The cost of building the temple was 45 million rubles. Architects came up with a sketch of the project of the future church in one night. The white color of the temple was chosen by chance. White color symbolizes celebration. The initiators assumed that the townspeople would marry in this temple. In addition, the church stands in the park, which is saturated with natural colors, so any other color would simply be lost on this background. The dome of the temple is golden. A cross about four meters high was made by experts from the Chelyabinsk region.

Precisely in order not to damage a single tree, this temple, one might say, went up; it was designed in three floors. On the first floor there is refectory, on the second - Sunday school, classes, library. On the third floor is the temple itself. This temple does not have the usual church fence. It just fit into the park.

Address: Baikalskaya st., 165

Church of the Transfiguration in Irkutsk

The Church of the Transfiguration in Irkutsk is one of the attractions of the city and one of the oldest Orthodox churches of the entire region. It is located in the Right Bank District of Irkutsk in Volkonsky lane.

The temple was founded in 1795 with funds donated by Irkutsk merchants - Stefan Ignatiev and Ivan Sukhikh, who were the main initiators of the construction of the church. It is assumed that the author of the project of the temple was the famous Irkutsk architect Anton Losev.

The ceremonial consecration of the main church in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord took place in August 1811. The temple fence, the sacristy and porch from the northern part of the church, as well as the iron roof, which was put in place of the original wooden one, was equipped in 1849 with funds donated by an Irkutsk honorary citizen, stately advisor E.A. Kuznetsov. From 1845 to 1855 the Decembrists S. P. Trubetskoy and S. G. Volkonsky lived in the parish of the Transfiguration Church. The son of the Decembrist Mikhail Kuchelbecker and the daughter of the Volkonskys, Elena, were married in this church.

According to archival data, in October 1937 the parish of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord was the largest of the three active Orthodox churches in Irkutsk. It numbered 1505 parishioners. In addition to all this, the church was the center of education, since a parochial school was opened here, and on the contrary, there was the Syropitiate House of E. Medvednikov.

In Soviet times, a library and archive were housed in the church building. Outside the church has lost two side extensions. Divine services in the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord were resumed only in 2000.

Address: per. Volkonsky, 1a

Church of St. Xenia of St. Petersburg in Irkutsk

The temple was built on the initiative of the entrepreneur from St. Petersburg, Viktor Matyashov, who had a child in the Ivano-Matreninsky Children's Hospital. Therefore, the temple it dedicated to St. Petersburg saints.

Construction began in 1997; the temple was laid on August 4, 1997. Since 2000, the lower aisle has functioned in the name of John of Kronstadt, but this aisle was consecrated by the bishop on October 8, 2006. The first one was consecrated by Xenia of Petersburg - on October 12, 2003.

The Church of St. Xenia of St. Petersburg and the holy righteous John of Kronstadt is a small wooden church, the parish of which numbers about 300 people, the youth part of the parish is 1/3 of the total number of the parish.

The revered saints of the temple are the holy blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg and the holy righteous John of Kronstadt. These are temple saints, which are served weekly on Wednesdays by water-holy prayers with the akathist reading. In addition, the parish especially honored St. Matrona of Moscow.

At its core, it is a hospital church, whose clergy actively nourish the Ivano-Matreninsky Children's Hospital and its branches. The parish organized a nursing service to care for sick children, disabled people and lonely elderly people.

At the parish, active social work is being carried out - a canteen for homeless people has been created, a parish farmstead for rest not only for parishioners, but also for disabled people of Dikul center, as well as children from orphanages of Irkutsk and low-income families.

Address: Sovetskaya street, 57a

Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God in Irkutsk

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God has the status of a cathedral in the Diocese of St. Joseph. He is headed by Kirill Klimovich. The church regularly hosts concerts of organ music.

The history of the cathedral begins in 1820, when a Catholic parish was formed in the city. It includes people who were exiled from other countries to the territory of the city. Lithuanians, Poles, Belarusians and many other representatives of European nationalities began to visit the Catholic parish.

At the beginning of the 19th century, a wooden church was built by common efforts, consecrated in the name of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, but already in 1879 the building burned down. A new stone structure opened seven years later. The church was built in the neo-gothic style typical for the Catholic branch of Christianity.

With the advent of Soviet power, the parish was liquidated, and all priests were repressed. The building was ravaged and used for various purposes. Only in 1978, the philharmonic was opened here, which is still in effect.

It is interesting that, despite the fact that the parish was restored in the city, but when in 1998 the community asked to return the building to them, the city administration refused to the Catholics. However, they allocated a plot of land for these needs.

The new cathedral was built with the money of the communities of not only Russian cities, but also Italy, Slovakia, Poland and Germany. The opening of the new cathedral took place in September 2000 at the Nativity of the Virgin.

Address: st. Griboedov, 110

Alexander Nevsky Church in Irkutsk

In 1996, Mikhail Kornev, artistic director of the Irkutsk City Theater of Narodnaya Drama, became a deputy of the Irkutsk City Duma. In its program, which had a spiritual and socio-cultural orientation, there was an item about the need to build an Orthodox church in the district, which included the Primorsky, Yubileiny micro districts, Mukhina, Yakobi, Anosova, Zakharov streets. The district has more than 30 thousand people.

Given the need for an Orthodox church in a socially disadvantaged area, as well as the lack of funds for the construction of a new church building, they stopped at a variant of the wooden old room at ul. Jacobi, 3, which could be adapted to the needs of the temple.

A great contribution to the construction of the temple was made by the Drama National Theater team. The architect of the Theater V. Semenov made a project of the iconostasis of the temple. Artists and carpentry works on the installation and manufacture of the iconostasis were performed by actors of the Theater. They also made a bell tower, a dome and a cross. The interior decoration was performed by the future parishioners themselves.

The Church of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky became the first church in Irkutsk in honor of the holy warrior.

On April 27, 2000, the Great Four with the Divine Liturgy, the Church of Alexander Nevsky was consecrated. The temple was consecrated by Vladyka Vadim, Archbishop of Irkutsk and Angarsk.

Address: st. Jacobi 3

Church of the Twelve Apostles in Irkutsk

The parish in honor of the Twelve Apostles in Irkutsk was established in 2002 with the blessing of the Archbishop of Vadim, the Governor of the Irkutsk Diocese. The parish did not have its own temple, and at first the believers gathered for joint prayers in the room of a nearby hospital. In 2012, a chapel was built and consecrated with an altar arranged in it in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Vsetsaritsa”. In the chapel the Liturgy is regularly served, baptisms, weddings and other sacraments are performed. For big holidays the chapel does not contain worshipers. Every Sunday, prayers are offered in front of the Vsetsaritsa icon, for which believers come to pray for those who suffer from cancer and other diseases.

Since 2014, construction of a seven-headed stone church in honor of the Twelve Apostles began on the territory of the parish. In the basement there is a lower aisle of the church, a Sunday school, a library and ancillary rooms necessary for the statutory activities of the parish. Divine services will be held there until the main chapel is built.

Address: b. Ryabikova 31

St. Nicholas Church in Irkutsk

The temple was built on the site of the wooden Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, designed by architect Fedor Fedorovich Kashtal in eclectic forms in 1910. The church, which was in tsarist time, was built in memory of the soldiers of the 28th Siberian Rifle Regiment (on the walls inside the temple were placed 20 boards with the names of those who died in the battles for Port Arthur of the regimental officials headed by the commander of the 7th East-Siberian rifle divisions, Major General RI Kondratenko). The initiator of the creation was a regimental priest, Fr. P. Krahmalev. The icons are made by artist-officers according to V.M. Vasnetsov. It was located on the territory of a military town at the barracks of the regiment at the intersection of the 5th Jerusalem and Zagoskin streets.

Church of the 28th Siberian Rifle Regiment in the name of St. Nicholas was a truly unique structure - both in its architecture and in the history of creation. For its construction were collected more than 25 000 rubles of voluntary donations. In March 1910, the solemn laying of the temple took place, and in December of the same year, its consecration took place. The main attraction of the church was twenty boards with the names of the heroes of the Battle of Port Arthur: “the regimental soldiers who put their stomach on their heads, led by their unforgettable hero-chief Roman Isidorovich Kondratenko”. The officers and soldiers, as well as the builders of the temple, were confident that they had perpetuated the names of the fallen. However, in the late 20s of the last century, the Nicholas Church was destroyed. But after almost 100 years the church was restored.

Address: st. Piskunova, 146/61.

Church of the Holy Blessed Great Prince Dimitri Donskoy in Irkutsk

The temple in the name of the Holy Blessed Great Prince Dmitry Donskoy is an Orthodox church in Irkutsk, located on the territory of the former Irkutsk Military Aviation Engineering Institute. It is known not only to the Irkutsk people, because in the temple there is a particle of the Cross and the Holy Sepulcher, a particle of the Mauritian oak, particles of the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Blessed Matron of Moscow. The parish priest is Nikolai Denschikov.

Since 2003, the beginning of the formation of the parish of Dimitri Donskoy took place. At first, a group of believers’ parishioners gathered in a hotel on the territory of Irkutsk Military Aviation Engineering Institute. They were engaged in reading the Holy Scripture, its interpretation, explanation of worship. Later there were proposals to build a temple on the territory of a military town. The head of the institute, Igor Ivanovich Velichko, allocated space for the celebration of worship in the building of the cadet club. The parishioners began to equip it under the temple. Vladyka Vadim blessed to name the parish in honor of the Holy Blessed Prince Dmitry Donskoy, who is the patron saint of the Russian army.

On the memorial day of Dimitri Donskoy, on June 1, the parishioners of the church went to a procession of prayer in the room provided for them, in which by that time they had already made major repairs. Six months remained before the consecration of the temple. During this time, it was necessary to redevelop the room under the typical interior of the temple, to raise funds for furniture and church utensils. To this end, the clergy regularly from August to Saturday held a baptism for all comers, opened a church shop.

Address: Sovetskaya street, 176

Church in the name of Michael the Archangel in Irkutsk

The history of the existence of the Archangel Michael Church is inextricably linked with the history of the Ascension Monastery. In 1867, the monastery allocated land for the hermitage at the Innokentievsky spring.

None of the documents mention the reason for choosing this particular place for the foundation of the skete, according to popular legend it is believed that the choice was not accidental - St. Innocent of Irkutsk often stopped at a clean source of water, heading to the village of Malaya Yelan, where it was built the chapel and monastic ministers engaged in arable farming. This spring with living, healing water and the place associated with the name of the Prelate became the reason for the construction of the skete here, and the source was later called Innokentyevsky.

In 1872, on June 1, by the archpastoral blessing of Bishop Parfeni, expressed in the Decree of the Irkutsk Spiritual Consistory of April 26, No. 1965, in the elevated part of the area a wooden church in the name of St. Archangel Michael was laid and started to build it on the donation of devout church lovers God's sum.

Address: st. Academician Obraztsova, 1

Church of the Nativity in Irkutsk

In 1999 they consecrated the Church of the Nativity of Christ in Irkutsk. It was erected at the crash site of the aircraft "Ruslan", which took 72 lives.

The Church of the Nativity of Christ was designed by architect Alexander Yakovlev. It is made in the traditions of ancient Russian religious architecture, which is rare for Siberia. The author explained his creative plan with the fact that it was necessary to build not just a parish, but a church-monument, a memorial. So it should be different from its sisters.

Construction work was carried out by Agrodorspetsstroy. The dome of the temple and belfries, crosses and lanterns made at the aircraft factory. A memorial stone in record time was made in the stone-cutting workshop of Sosnovgeology.

Address: st. Mira, 122A

Chapel "Blessed sky" in Irkutsk

In the air terminal of the domestic air lines of the Irkutsk airport the consecration of the “Grace of Heaven” chapel took place., the construction of which was conducted from February 2009 to March 2010. The consecration ceremony was held by the Vladyka of Irkutsk and Angarsk Vadim.

The date of the ceremony, March 19, was not accidental: this day is the day of the celebration of the icon of the Mother of God “Blessed sky”, in which honor the chapel was erected.

The erection of the chapel in the air terminal is a joint initiative of the Irkutsk Airport and the Irkutsk Diocese. The decoration of the temple and church utensils were purchased with donations collected. During the consecration ceremony, Vladyka Vadim presented letters of thanks to all who helped in the implementation of this good undertaking. Among them are the leading airlines of Russia, the business structure of Irkutsk. Passengers made their contribution to a good cause. They left donations in special boxes that were installed in the lobby of the terminal.

The Blessed Sky Chapel is open daily, on the second floor of the domestic terminal.

Address: st. Shiryamov, 13