Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

If you don’t quite like the somewhat frivolous monuments of modernity, go to see the grand Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To find an ancient temple, erected in honor of the Virgin Mary, it is easy to find in every major city in Europe. But on the territory of the capital this one is almost the only one acting and, moreover, the largest of all the Catholic ones in Russia. The cathedral is very beautiful and majestic, and in the dark, illuminated by illumination, it is impressive to frost on the skin.

Where is: st. Small Georgian, 23/17

Opening hours: the cathedral is active, services are regularly held here in Russian, English, French, Spanish, Polish, Armenian and even Korean, there is an organ and choirs for singers

Features of the object:

At the end of the 19th century, Catholics were not particularly favored in the Orthodox capital. At that time, only two temples of the Roman Catholic Church operated in the capital. The project for the construction of the third was officially confirmed in 1894 with a number of conditions and reservations. The author of the project F. O. Bogdanovich-Dvorzhetsky violated some of them, but the cathedral was still erected mainly at the expense of the Polish Catholic community, officially consecrated and opened in 1911. At that time, the total cost of building the monastery was about 300 thousand gold rubles. Finishing work was carried out on further donations of Catholics living in Russia, and lasted until 1917.

The temple successfully survived the Revolution, but with the beginning of the Second World War it was closed, looted and transformed into - it is difficult to believe, given the scope of construction and decoration of the cathedral, - the hostel. Then, as usual, bombs were dropped on the temple, transformed into scientific research institutes, destroying priceless frescoes, luxurious sculptures and stained glass windows, fortunately, the matter did not reach.

Services to the temple resumed only in 1990. Since then, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary has operated continuously, although it was not until 1996 that the temple area was completely won back from the Research Institute “MosSpetspromproekt”. Capital restoration of the cathedral was completed in 1998, and the official consecration of the representative of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican took place in 1999.

The current appearance of the cathedral is different from the original look, preserved in the photo before 1938. But still it impresses with the scale and luxury of the restored bas-reliefs, stained glass windows, colonnades, arches, chapels and altars. It is not only the largest, but also the most beautiful Catholic church in Russia. In total, he is able to place up to 5 thousand worshipers, the choirs are designed for 50 singers, an organ also works in the church, and charity concerts of organ and sacred music are regularly organized. Even when the church operates a shop with church goods, a library, here is the office of the magazine Catholic Herald, a branch of the international organization Caritas and the Art of Goodness charity foundation.