Transfiguration Church in Velikiye Sorochintsy description and photo - Ukraine: Mirgorod (Topic)

Savior Transfiguration Church in Velikiye Sorochintsy description and photo - Ukraine: Mirgorod. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

The Transfiguration Church in Velyki Sorochintsy, Mirgorodsky District, Poltava Region, is a striking example of church architecture in Ukraine of the 18th century. Its interior is decorated with a unique seven-tiered carved iconostasis with more than a hundred icons.

The Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior was erected in 1728–1734. Its history of creation begins in 1718-1719, when the Mirgorod Colonel D. Apostol begins the construction of a temple in his family estate - Bolshoye Sorochintsy. According to the research of the famous Ukrainian scientist P. Beletsky, the foundation of the church was timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the colonel, who planned to perpetuate the memory of himself with the construction of a temple and arrange a family tomb in it. The pious plan of building the temple was completed only after D. Apostle received the hetman's mace in 1727. As a sign of such grace of fate, the newly elected hetman not only completes the church in a short time, but also seeks to decorate it most luxuriously. The main role in this plan was assigned to the future iconostasis, which in its magnificence was supposed to, if not surpass, then at least equal to the best iconostasis in the capital.

Initially, the stone church had nine domes, but after a fire that broke out in 1811 from a lightning strike, only five of them were restored. S. Kovnir became the architect of the Transfiguration Church, the walls of which, by the way, are 1.5 m thick. The iconostasis was carved by craftsmen from Gadyach and Glukhov. The icons were painted by hieromonk Alipy from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and the artists of the Borovikovsky school of Mirgorod. Hetman Cossacks helped build the church. Remains of Hetman D. Apostol, his wife Juliana and children are in the crypt under the temple, where all the passages are buried. The hetman's coat of arms has been preserved on the wall of the Transfiguration Church. In 1809, the famous writer N. Gogol was baptized in this church.

In 1955, the Transfiguration Church was closed. It was returned to the believers only in 1989. There is a library and a Sunday school at the church.

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Topic: Transfiguration Church in Velikiye Sorochintsy description and photo - Ukraine: Mirgorod.