Paraskeva Pyatnitsa Chapel
Encyclopedia
The Paraskeva Pyatnitsa Chapel is a Russian Orthodox
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...

 Chapel, situated on the top of Karaulnaya Mountain, in Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third largest city in Siberia, with the population of 973,891. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia's largest producers of...

, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It is dedicated Paraskevi of Iconium
Paraskevi of Iconium
Saint Paraskevi of Iconium is venerated as a Christian virgin martyr. According to Christian tradition, she was born to a rich family of Iconium...

 (Paraskeva Pyatnitsa).

History

Before the arrival of the Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...

s, a pagan temple of the Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...

 was located in the current place of the chapel. The Cossacks placed on the top of the mountain a watchtower to notify citizens about hostile raids.

In 1805 a merchant named Novikov constructed a wooden chapel on that place out of gratitude for being saved from a whirlpool of rapids. Another version about the construction of the building states that the local inhabitants built the chapel due to the deliverance of their ancestors from their enemies. However this building became decrepit after some time.

In 1852 the bishop of Tomsky, Afanasy, gave permission to the city Duma for the building of a stone chapel. Between 1852 and 1855 it was built by architects Ya. Alfeev and Ya. Nabalov from the funds of the prominent owner of gold mines and patron of art, Pyotr Kuznetsov. In 1887 the Russian scientist and radio inventor Aleksander Popov observed the solar eclipse
Solar eclipse
As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...

 from the chapel. In memory of this in 1977, on the East front of the building a granite memorial plaque was placed.

The chapel was abandoned during the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 era. Between 1973 and 1975 the building was restored with the projects of A.S. Brusnikin.

The Paraskeva Pyatnitsa Chapel Today

Since 1980 the building has been an architectural monument of local significance. It is in fact one of the major symbols of the city. The Chapel is today a important place of pilgrimage by citizens and visitors of Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third largest city in Siberia, with the population of 973,891. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia's largest producers of...

. A prominent number of brides and fiancées make their way towards the Chapel to make a declaration of love to each other. The Chapel, as a symbol of the city, decorates the 10-rouble notes.

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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