The Transfiguration Cathedral

The Transfiguration Cathedral is the pearl of the historical center of the city of Rybinsk.

The progenitor of the Transfiguration Cathedral was a wooden church in honor of the Apostle Peter, the patron saint of fishermen. In the XVII century, on the site of a dilapidated wooden building, a stone one was built, in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which became cathedral in 1778, then it was rebuilt and in 1804 a new stone bell tower was erected next to it. The gaze of the townspeople appeared to the sky almost a hundred-meter candle decorated with columns.

The project of the cathedral, before it was in Rybinsk, participated in the competition for the construction of St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg and took third place there. In 18831-1851, according to the project of a group of St. Petersburg architects headed by A. I. Melnikov, the Savior-Preobrazhensky Cathedral was erected on the site of the church of the same name of the XVII century by Peter and Paul. The construction work took thirteen years, but the result exceeded all expectations. A huge building in the shape of a cube was crowned by powerful domes, resting on massive drums, the northern and southern facades were decorated with high columns.

The interior of the cathedral also stunned his idea. The floor is lined with granite slabs, the walls are decorated with white marble. For interior decoration spent more than five hundred kilograms of gilded silver. Master from Rostov the Great V.M. Bychkov made a huge four-tier iconostasis for the cathedral, in which there were ancient icons of the XV century. In the center of the cathedral, under a velvet canopy, the main relic of the city was put - an elegant chair made especially for the arrival of Catherine II.

Today, the Transfiguration Cathedral is perceived as a single architectural ensemble created according to a single project. However, the five-tier bell tower was built 50 years earlier than the temple itself, presumably according to the project of the Kostroma self-taught architect Stepan Vorotilov. Its architecture is characterized by a soft picturesque baroque, and elegant restraint of classicism, in contrast to the majestic architecture of the Cathedral.