St. Nicholas Cathedral

St. Nicholas Cathedral is the last reminder of the once rich Russian spiritual life in Iran. Today, the Teheran Orthodox community is small – there will not be 100 people, but within the walls of the cathedral these people feel their spiritual community and connection with their homeland.

At the end of the XVI century, Hieromonk Nicephorus founded the first Russian parish on the land of Ancient Persia. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Russian Spiritual Mission was operating in Iran, and by 1917 there were about 50 Russian Orthodox churches here. Over the next three years, everything that had been created for more than three centuries was lost. Only in the mid-40s, on the donations of Russian emigrants in Iran, a Russian church appeared again - St. Nicholas Cathedral. The building was designed by architect N. L. Markov. In 1944, with a large crowd of people, the solemn laying of the first stone took place. Frustrated parishioners threw Russian gold coins of royal coinage at the base of the church. On March 8, 1945, crosses were placed on the domes of the temple. In the new church was installed the iconostasis of the Alexander Nevsky Embassy Church. On the east side, at the same time with the temple, a two-storey church house was built, where the office and the apartment of the father were located.

In 1979, the cathedral was closed because the Russian Church Abroad no longer sent priests. Only since 1995, divine services have resumed here, the domes of the church played with gold, and restorers from Moscow gave the original appearance of the iconostasis and decorated the cathedral vaults with new paintings.