Wednesday, 9 October 2019

Izium. The Oldest Orthodox Churches of Slobozhanshchyna

Izium is a city in Kharkiv region with the oldest churches of Slobozhanshchyna preserved and still in use. Believers come to its sacred buildings, springs and relics from all regions of Ukraine to bow before the shrines and the miracle-working icons.

Izium. Kharkiv region. Holy Transfiguration Cathedral. 1684

In the central part of the old town, the five-domed Holy Transfiguration Cathedral (Staroposhtova Street, 12) has for centuries remained the architectural dominant.

Built in 1684 in the Ukrainian Baroque style on the territory of the fortress, the church was part of the fortification. One of the oldest stone buildings in the city, it was erected with the funds of the Cossack colonels of the Izium regiment, Kostiantyn Donets-Zakharzhevsky and Fedir Shydlovsky. Military regalia won in campaigns and victorious battles adorned the walls of the church.

The bell tower was built in 2018 with parishioners' funds

The similarity of the designs and architectural details to the churches in Kharkiv, Baturyn and Nizhyn indicates that the shrines were built by one and the same masters.

In the 1930s the cathedral was closed, plundered and turned into a warehouse. In the mid-1950s the church was restored using shaped brick.

If you turn onto Soborna Street and walk about one kilometre north to its beginning, you will see the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, founded at the beginning of the 18th century (Soborna Street, 5).

Izium. Church of the Exaltation of the Cross. 1821

The first two wooden churches were destroyed by fire and time. In 1821 a new stone church was built in the Classicist style with parishioners' funds.

Destruction and rebuildings violated the strict classical canons. In the Soviet period a furniture shop occupied the place of prayer. Despite all the rebuildings, the ornamental painting of the dome and the oil painting done in the 19th-20th centuries by artists of the school of V. M. Vasnetsov have been preserved, and their restoration is ongoing.

A Sunday school operates at the church.

Izium. The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross. The Sunday school

A clergyman of the church is buried in the church courtyard.

Izium. The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross. A priest's grave

There is a water pump, which is always useful both for parishioners and for the traveller.

Izium. The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross. The water standpipe

In the former hamlet of Pisky, which has merged with the city, the sky-blue Holy Ascension Cathedral rises (Moskovska Street, 30).

Holy Ascension Cathedral. 1826

The first mention of the church dates to 1754, when the Pishchanska Icon of the Mother of God appeared to St. Ioasaf. He directed that the holy image, kept in a far corner of the vestibule, be cleaned and placed in a prominent spot.

According to legend, it was this very image that kept the Sloboda land safe from enemy raids. At that time the church stood in the Zamostia suburb, where the floods of the Siverskyi Donets River were destroying it. In 1792 the church, together with the icon, was moved to Pisky.

In 1826 the new church was consecrated, and to it flocked believers who had heard about the miracle-working properties of the holy image.

At the beginning of the 20th century a two-tier bell tower and two altars were added: on the left — in the name of the holy wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian, on the right — in the name of the Kazan Icon and the Pishchanska Icon of the Mother of God.

The church is tightly surrounded by buildings; shops and trading stalls have pressed themselves against the place of prayer. Vendors have set up with their goods right at the entrance to the shrine.

Izium. The Holy Ascension Cathedral. Trading by the church entrance

500 metres from the cathedral is the Kyrychenko well, named after the Cossack who dug it.

The Kyrychenko well

The serviceman had a blind daughter; the father prayed to the Holy Mother of God for the girl's healing and received a revelation to dig a well. The stream of water that burst from the depths sprinkled the sightless girl, and she regained her sight. The spring has not dried up for more than a century now; travellers come to it to pray and to ask the life-giving well for health and a renewal of strength.

The pond by the well

Over the spring of healing water, with a constant temperature of +8 degrees, a chapel-bathhouse was built, and believers can visit it in any weather (Krynychna Street, 31).