The Transfiguration Cathedral of the Savior-Euphrosinievsky Monastery

Spaso-Efrosinievsky convent is the center of Belarusian Orthodoxy in ancient Polotsk.

It was founded in 1125 by Princess Euphrosyne of Polotsk. It was with her participation that the stone Holy Transfiguration Church was erected in 1161. It is amazing that the church has survived to this day. It is now the oldest building in the monastery. According to legend, the church was built by the architect John.

The style of the temple includes different directions of architecture of the time. The main difference of this temple is the aspiration upwards, which was characteristic of Western Russian architecture. But we can say that then the architects who built temples on the territory of Polotsk had their own unique style, which distinguishes churches from others.

Princess Ephrosyne presented the Holy Transfiguration Church with a gilded cross with particles of the relics of the saints. But in the XIII century, the cross was taken out, and only under the reign of Ivan the terrible cross could be returned.

After the revolution, the temple was closed, and the cross of Ephrosyne was taken to Minsk, and then to Mogilev, where he disappeared without a trace during the Great Patriotic War. After the war, the temple was the only one where the service was held. During the revival of the monastery, the temple received a second birth.