Church of John the Baptist description and photo - Crimea: Kerch (Topic)

Church of St. John the Baptist description and photo - Crimea: Kerch. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

The Church of St. John the Baptist of the 10th century is the oldest ground Christian church in Eastern Europe, which has survived and is still in operation. According to legend, the temple was erected on the site where the Apostle Andrew preached, who founded the first Christian community here. In 1999, archaeologists discovered an ancient image of a Christian cross here, dating from the end of the 1st - the beginning of the 2nd century.

This is a small, graceful, Byzantine-style church with a single dome on a high drum. The massive walls are composed of alternating stripes of white stone blocks and red bricks. The vault of the temple rests on four dark gray marble columns that have survived from an older temple. A stone bell tower from the mid-19th century is attached to the west.

In the 80s, the church building was reconstructed. The author of the restoration project is the architect E.I. Dopushinskaya. The churches returned the lost appearance of a masterpiece of Byzantine architecture, and by 1990 it became active again.

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Topic: Church of John the Baptist description and photo - Crimea: Kerch.