St Alexius Cathedral

An Orthodox cathedral built in 1909–1912 for the Russian garrison, stripped of its dome and bell tower in Soviet times and reconsecrated in 1996 – a handsome landmark of the city's 'European' quarter.

From garrison church to cathedral

Dedicated to St Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow, this is the main church of Samarkand's Orthodox community. It was built for the Russian garrison's military town to a standard design for army churches in Turkestan, drawn up by the architect Fyodor Verzhbitsky and the military engineer Fyodor Smirnov; the same plan was intended for churches in Termez, Kushka, Chardzhou and other towns. The foundation stone was laid in 1909, building finished in the autumn of 1911 and the church was consecrated in 1912.

Closure and revival

In the 1920s the cathedral was closed and its dome and bell tower were pulled down. Through the Soviet decades the building belonged to an army unit, which used it as a club, a canteen and a store. When the unit left it passed to the state museum-reserve, and in 1996 it was returned to the faithful. On 13 November 1996 Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow reconsecrated it, and during restoration the interior was renewed and the dome and bell tower were rebuilt.

Architecture

The church is a single-nave hall in a pared-back Russian Revival style: one unbroken space of 24 by 16 metres, free of columns, ending in a deep sanctuary beneath a tall, light-filled dome. A high bell tower, octagonal at the top, rises over the entrance, and inside there is a gallery above the main door. The cathedral belongs to the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Tashkent and Uzbekistan; its patronal feast falls on 25 February.

Did you know?

Christianity reached Samarkand long before Islam: in the early Middle Ages the city was one of the Central Asian centres of the Church of the East, often called the Nestorian church. The Russian period added several Orthodox churches – the Pokrov (Intercession) Church of 1905 keeps its original appearance, while the buildings of St George's and St Nicholas's were converted to other uses in Soviet times.