Foros Church of the Resurrection of Christ

The Foros Church is a pearl and visiting card of the southern coast of Crimea, a mountainous corner where Heavenly and Earthly forces meet, where it seems that God is stepping on his light air foot, or touching burning diamonds, a transparent palm to his creations. Walking along the alleys of the park, along the streets of the village, guests and residents of Foros certainly pay attention to a unique structure - the Foros Church, built on a protruding mountain cliff. The temple was given the status of an architectural monument of the late XIX century. You look at the church from the Baidar Gate or from below, from the new Yalta-Sevastopol highway, and you are amazed. A golden rose blooms in front of you on the multicolored backgrounds of rocks, forests and the sky. The Foros church, which rose to heaven on a lonely sheer Red Rock at an altitude of 400 meters above sea level, has such a romantic appearance that involuntarily gives rise to a lot of questions and assumptions from the viewer. The first of them – who and why built this temple away from the village, and even at such a height? There are many legends about this. One of them tells how once mad horses carried a stroller from a mountain pass, which was a young daughter of a rich merchant. The horses rushed to the abyss, and the beautiful girl was already mentally saying goodbye to life. But... there are miracles! The horses suddenly stopped at the edge of a rocky cliff. After a quick descent, they seemed to freeze in front of the beauty that opened before them. And then the merchant in honor of the salvation of the beautiful daughter ordered to build a temple of the Resurrection. However, legends, and archival documents tell about another story. The development of the lands of Foros began in the early 50s of the XIX century after Yalta and Sevastopol were connected by a highway built by military builders. In honor of the completion of its construction, a portal is being built on the pass - a gate, named Baydarsky after the name of the valley with the village of the same name. The lands of tsarist officials near Foros began to be quickly bought up and built up. In the early 90s of the XIX century, at the request of Orthodox nearby villages, the "tea magnate", who had tea plantations in Ceylon, A. G. Kuznetsov (the former owner of the Foros estate) ordered a church project to the famous academician of architecture Nikolai Mikhailovich Chagin. The church was dedicated to the miraculous events that occurred on October 17, 1888 at the station of Borki Kursk-Kharkiv railway: there, during the crash of the train going from the Crimea to St. Petersburg, the Emperor Alexander III and his family were saved. The train derailed, but the emperor was not injured. Shocked by the news of this incident, the largest Russian tea merchant and porcelain producer Alexander Kuznetsov asked the highest mercy to build a church in Foros in honor of the emperor’s salvation. She was often visited by the royal family. The church was built in 1892 in the Byzantine style of the cross-domed temple. In the fourth century. The cross became a Christian emblem, and the shape of the cross was laid in the basis of religious buildings. The temples were built in terms of a rectangular outline, in which the cross is inscribed. A dome was built over the middle crest. Byzantine architects used the technique when the dome was based not on the outer walls, but on a ring of columns and pillars located inside the building, over which the drum was placed. The dome space was expanded by adding a bypass for this ring. The dome cut through the perimeter of its base and was flooded with daylight. The dome head, crowning the temple, gave it a pyramidal and high-rise composition, was the basis of the bright expressive appearance of the building. The service was held in the center of the building, under a dome symbolizing the heavenly vault. The altar was located in the eastern apse, as on the stage, the entrance from the west side. The main building material was burnt brick - plinth - low, almost flat rectangles. The laying was carried out on a lime mortar with the addition of a brick crumb, alternately rows of red brick and yellow stone were alternated. In Byzantine temples, the interior was rich, even luxurious, creating an appropriate religious atmosphere. The greatness of the temple was promoted by multicolored marble cladding, mosaics on a golden background, fresco paintings, decorative stone motifs. The cathedral is built in the Byzantine style, but with the use of numerous domes like Russian wooden churches, so the Foros Church resembles Moscow churches of the late XVIII century. Foros temple is an instructive example of the talented placement of a small, but peculiar in silhouette of the structure, put on the pedestal of the rock, as if for general viewing. Modest in size, the temple seems really raised to a subcloud height. Near it does not make a great amazing impression, which the viewer feels from the lower points of view. The architect successfully focuses on the central entrance of the temple, as if inviting you to enter it, where among the many picturesque paintings, a prominent place was occupied by the canvas of A. I. Korzukhin with the image of Christ the Savior. In the interior of the temple there were also other paintings - "Annunciation", "Last Supper", "Prayer for the Cup". Such masters of the brush as K. E. Makovsky worked on the painting of the interiors of the temple, who wrote "The Nativity of Christ", "The Resurrection", "The Mother of God", N. E. Sverchkov and others. Unfortunately, the paintings have not survived. To perform mosaic works, the creative group of the workshop of the famous Italian from Venice A. Salviatti was invited. The construction of the temple cost the owner of Foros more than 150 thousand rubles. Of course, a rich and businessman A. T. Kuznetsov, building a temple on a rock in gratitude to heaven for the successful outcome of the railway disaster for the royal family, expressed loyal feelings, but then as an advertisement he placed her image on his products - tin boxes with tea. It is also assumed that on the part of A. T. Kuznetsov, this church could be a kind of "recruitment", since the breeding and sale of tea were considered the monopoly of the royal family. Until 1917, a literacy school worked at the church, then a parish school. The first rector of the church was Father Paul Undolsky. In 1924, the church was beheaded. Gilded crosses were removed from the domes, the bells were sent for melting. Famous masterpieces written by artists on biblical themes have been replaced by revolutionary propaganda. Barbarously destroyed on the walls amazing, the colors of gold, mosaic. The building was used first as a warehouse, then there was a restaurant, where, as the old-timers assure, Nikita Khrushchev, who passed by, once came. Then the building was abandoned. From the fire, divorced by tourists, almost all the paintings disappeared. In 1981, the Kiev Department of Restoration and Painting ("Ukrrestoration") for the first time conducted a comprehensive survey of the condition of the roof, painting, remains of interior decoration. At that time, the church stood without windows, without doors, without domes. Local residents say that during the reign of Gorbachev, when a state dacha was built near Foros, there was an intention to blow up the church in general, so that it either did not distract, or, on the contrary, did not attract attention. Since 1987, the team of specialists of the Sevastopol section "Ukrrestavratsiya" under the leadership of Yevgeny Ivanovich Bartan began to perform restoration work. After the first stage of restoration work, the church was returned to the faithful. The rector of the parish was the hieromonk Father Peter (1966-1997). Restoration was resumed in the early 90s of the twentieth century: services were carried out simultaneously with restoration work. In the following years, the Foros Church became a real symbol of rebirth. It attracted not only pilgrims from all over the country, but also those who, with the onset of changes, reached for religious "exotic". It was here that wealthy people from Moscow, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kiev wanted to be blessed, receive absolution of sins, be baptized, get married. On April 22, 2004, during a visit to the Foros Church, former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma instructed to restore it at the level of the best churches in Ukraine. From June 1 to July 28, 2004, repair and restoration work was carried out here. In particular, the appearance of the facades was updated, the mosaic floor was repaired, the stained glass windows, the heating and electrical system were completely replaced, work was carried out on the internal painting and gilding of the interiors of the temple, restoration was carried out and the stone fence around the church was restored. On August 4, 2004, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ was opened, the opening ceremony was attended by former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. He also took part in the first divine service in the new church, which was held by Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea. The former head of state presented the icon of the Mother of God to the Foros Church, noting at the same time that this is a gift "in honor of the return of the original form to the temple." The church is currently open and open to the public. At the entrance to the church hangs a marble plaque informing tourists that the money for the restoration of the temple was donated by Leonid Kuchma. In front of the temple there is a viewing platform (400 m above sea level), with which the sea expanses and the coast are covered with one glance: a delightful panorama of the resort of Foros, located below the sea between the capes of Chekhov and Nikolai near the picturesque Tikhaya Bay, where a six-kilometer descent leads. The sight is breathtaking and the throat shrinks from the desire to sing or just scream! Believers, seeing the temple from passing buses, are baptized, guests of the resort are surprised to consider and ask questions, but no one when meeting the Foros miracle remains indifferent.