2023-07-23 19:36:16
Destroyed twice, on Stalin’s orders first and by Putin’s armed forces now. So the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa, which was founded by Metropolitan Gavril Banulescu-Bodoni in 1794 under the reign of Catherine the Great. Its construction went on until 1808, when the Duke de Richelieu was governor of Odessa. The building was blown up by Soviet authorities in 1936 and was rebuilt thanks to private donations after Ukraine regained its independence between 1996 and 2003.
It was reconsecrated in 2010, after its reconstruction, by the Patriarch of Moscow and head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill. Because the cathedral which in the night between yesterday and today was hit by a Russian missile attack which destroyed its roof is still under the Patriarchate of Moscow. And Kirill, Putin’s ideological partner who defends the aggression against Ukraine, is the patriarch of the Cathedral of Odessa.
Unesco heritage since the beginning of the year, the Transfiguration Cathedral is the largest Orthodox church in Odessa and is located in its historic center, also on the list of places to be protected by the UN agency. Also known as Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi, it was consecrated in 1809. In the neoclassical style, it was built with an interior decorated with polychrome marble. Between 1825 and 1837 the bell tower was built to a design by the Italian architect Francesco Frapolli.
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