Elokhovo Cathedral

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The Epiphany Cathedral in Elokhovo, Moscow (1835-45)

The Epiphany Cathedral at Elokhovo, Moscow is the vicarial church of the Moscow Patriarchs. The surviving building was designed and built by Yevgraph Tyurin in 1837–1845.

[edit] History

The original church in the village of Elokhovo near Moscow was built in 1722-31 for tsaritsa Praskovia Ivanovna. It was there that Alexander Pushkin was baptised in 1799.

The present structure was erected in 1837-1845 to a Neoclassical design by Yevgraph Tyurin. The architecture is typical for the late Empire style, with some elements of European eclectics. The riotous opulence of the interior decoration is due to a restoration undertaken in 1912.

Upon closing the Kremlin Cathedrals (1918), the destruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (1931) and the Dorogomilovo Cathedral (1938), the chair of Russian Orthodox Church was moved to Elokhovo, the largest open church in Moscow. Patriarch Sergius I of Moscow was buried in the Cathedral in 1944.

The church was well-maintained, even in Soviet age, and is known to have a 1970 air conditioning system using deep subterranean water from a 250 meter deep artesian aquifer.