Mikhailovsky Cathedral

Mikhailovsky Cathedral is located in the city of Zhytomyr, Ukraine. It is built in the Baroque style, and its domes are painted in an unusual blue color for this style.

Initially, a church was located on the site of the modern Mikhailovsky Cathedral. It was built in 1856, at the expense of the merchant M. Khabotin. The cost of the temple was poured into a whopping amount of 37,000 rubles at the time, which was almost twice the entire annual budget of the city. After the death of the merchant, he was buried under the altar of the church. During the Soviet Union, his remains were barbarously excavated.

The temple was recognized as one of the outstanding architectural monuments of the entire XIX century. On the walls of the building still survived fragments of icon painting of those times. It is worth noting that the famous pianist Svyatoslav Richter was baptized in the Mikhailovsky Cathedral.

In the period 1917-1927, the church operated as a church of the autocephalous Orthodox community, and soon, under the guise of renovation, was closed and used as a warehouse. In 1942, the temple was given to believers by the Germans, and was used until 1960, when the Soviet authorities destroyed its domes and bell tower, and the temple itself was given to the puppet theater.

The new birth of the temple took place in 1991. It was restored and given to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.