Temple of John the Baptist Kerch. Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in the city of Kerch Church of St. John the Baptist Kerch

I often visit Crimea, and one of my favorite cities is Kerch (my wife Ulyanka was born here). This city attracts a huge amount attractions, unique energy. During my first trip, I was struck by one of the main attractions of the city - the Temple of John the Baptist. One of the most beautiful and...

A little history

Concerning the date of construction of the temple, disputes among scientists and historians do not subside. Some believe that the first church buildings on this site were erected in the first century. This is argued by the slab preserved at the base, with the imprint of a foot, possibly of St. Andrew the First-Called. What confuses scientists is that some parts of the temple were brought from Greece. And they date back to different centuries.

At the same time, there is evidence from Professor Makarova - the temple was built in the 6th century. Surprisingly, the church was not damaged even when ancient Kerch was captured by the Turks. The Khazars also did not destroy the shrine. It was first seriously damaged in the 10th century as a result of a fire. The restoration work was extensive. Lasted for sixty years, until the mid-11th century.


After the capture by the Polovtsy in 1117, the shrine was empty, no one cared about it anymore, and this continued until the mid-14th century. At this time the Genoese arrived, and the church again underwent another large-scale reconstruction. When the Ottoman Turks captured the city, the Church of John the Baptist became a mosque, and this is what saved it from destruction.

When Crimea joined Russia, first of all, the church decided to give it its previous appearance. We approached the issue thoroughly and began by strengthening the foundation. It was at this moment that eight steps were installed down to the entrance to the temple - it is located in a recess. Already in 1834, an extension with three naves was added. In 1845, they added a belfry on two tiers and a vestibule to the north of the temple.

The next large-scale reconstruction was carried out in 1974, it lasted for four whole years. At the same time, the masonry was restored, made identical to the original, the dome was strengthened and partial renovations were carried out inside the temple.


Description of the Church of John the Baptist

They amaze with their beauty and uniqueness, however, like any other places that deserve the close attention of tourists. And the Church of John the Baptist is no exception. In the middle of the (inner) courtyard there is a slab with the footprint of St. Andrew the First-Called, well, at least that’s what many historians say.

There are also Doric columns and individual elements of ancient decor. Despite the fact that the central part of the church was rebuilt, it completely retained its appearance and Byzantine style. This effect was achieved through the use of the same building materials that were used in the original construction of the shrine.


Today, here you can see frescoes left by the students of Theophanes the Greek on the walls. During the period of Tatar rule, they were covered with a large layer of plaster, which was removed during the last reconstruction.

The temple ideally combines the nineteenth-century extension, the northern and western vestibules, as well as the belfry. This project was created by architect A. Digby, who had undoubted talent. It is thanks to him that all parts of the temple fit together perfectly. Subsequently, it was he who became one of the founders of the neo-Byzantine style in architecture. Of course, it is very difficult to describe in words all the charm and power of this place. Until you see everything with your own eyes, you will not understand how amazing this structure is.

How to get (get there) to the Church of John the Baptist

It depends on how you travel. If in your own car, or borrowed, then navigate the map and coordinates at the bottom of the article. If you arrived in Kerch on public transport, for example, on, then from the bus station take route 5 or 6. Get off at Lenin Square. From railway station You can get to the square by bus number 6.

Photo


Photo inside the Church of John the Baptist

Church of John the Baptist in Kerch It is considered the oldest Orthodox church on the entire Crimean peninsula. The church was created in the image and likeness of the temples of Byzantium. Such “striped” buildings of white stone with layers of flat brick were erected to make them stronger and more reliable, capable of withstanding any earthquake.
Sasha Mitrakhovich 07.02.2018 09:10


Who built Church of John the Baptist in Kerch- unknown, the temple dates back to the 9th-11th centuries. There is a version that the Church of John the Baptist was built on the site of an ancient basilica. Most likely, it burned down when the Khazars were expelled from these places, since researchers found traces of burning on the ancient masonry. It seems that the builders of the Church of the Baptist took the surviving columns from that first basilica.

The antiquity of the temple is confirmed primarily by ancient amphorae from the 8th century found in its masonry. These amphorae were used as voice boxes. In architecture, hollow vessels were often used, placing their necks outward. This eased the pressure on the building's supporting structures and improved acoustics.

When hordes of Mongol-Tatars poured into Crimea, the invaders turned the Church of St. John the Baptist into a mosque.

The Genoese came to this land towards the end of the 13th century, when the city began to actively develop trade relations with the outside world. Under them the city became large shopping center. It seems that it was then, under the Genoese, that the Baptist Church again became Christian.

And at the end of the 15th century, the Turks firmly settled in Kerch; the Greek community was very small under the Turks, so it was difficult to maintain and repair Church of John the Baptist there was no one and nothing. It is not surprising that it began to deteriorate.

Fortunately, none of the alterations that the temple underwent during its existence could completely destroy its frescoes. Even the specific Muslim plaster mixed with wool did not “kill” them. Fragments of the paintings have survived to this day. Experts believe that at one time the students himself worked on them.

At the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, when Kerch became part of Russia, the Church of John the Baptist was handed over to the Greeks, who at about the same time began to actively settle on the southern borders of the empire.

In the early 1820s, according to the plan for the reconstruction of Kerch, the Church of John the Baptist was to become its dominant feature. It is not surprising that the Kerch temple in the name of John the Baptist became the richest in Crimea.

After the revolution, most of the church buildings, the chapel over the crypt of the entrepreneur K.I. Mesaksudi, as well as the monumental tombstones of the cemetery were demolished. Nevertheless, services in the church continued until 1937, when the temple was finally closed, and the building itself was transferred to a branch of the Central Anti-Religious Museum of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

No matter how paradoxical it may sound, but, as a rule, the transfer of churches to such museums was perhaps the only chance to preserve an architectural monument. Money immediately came from the republican budget for painting and plastering the walls, updating the roof, gutters and unveiling the frescoes discovered by the restorers of the Tretyakov Gallery.

But the war began. First, looters walked through the temple, then, during the occupation of Kerch, services resumed in the church. By the end of the war, it was included in the historical and cultural reserve.

In 1963, the temple finally received the official status of an architectural monument of republican significance... and a fish market under its walls.

Over the decades in the 20th century, the unique ancient Church of St. John the Baptist fell into disrepair. Finally, in the 1970s, a decision was made to restore it.

In the 1990s, the Church of John the Baptist was transferred to the Church, and sacred prayers began to sound within the ancient walls again.
Sasha Mitrakhovich 07.02.2018 09:18


The Church of John the Baptist is considered one of the oldest Orthodox churches not only in Crimea, but throughout Eastern Europe. And thus it represents a link between the “mother” architecture of Byzantium and the architectural schools that emerged after the 10th century in Orthodox powers such as Kievan Rus or Georgia.

From an architectural point of view, the church, as they say, is a textbook example of a four-pillar, three-apse cross-domed church, where the only dome is carried by cruciform vaults supported by pillars, which, in turn, transfer the load to the columns. As a result of the alterations of the 19th century, when the church was “overgrown” with two vestibules and a bell tower, the appearance of the temple seemed to “blur”, became complex, more horizontally oriented and, as it were, “pressed to the ground.”

But the original Byzantine church is emphatically vertical. The variety of sizes of apses and lowered corner parts of the quadrangle is brought to a common denominator thanks to the highly elevated nave and transept, forming an equilateral cross.

The vertical impulse is emphasized by flat pilasters and textured perspective arches that highlight window and door openings. The elegant light drum with a hemispherical dome crowning the structure also corresponds to the general design.
Sasha Mitrakhovich 07.02.2018 10:13


The Baptist Church of Kerch stands among a number of special buildings that organically combine both basilical and cross-domed architectural systems.

There is an assumption that the temple could have been built on the site of an older religious building; elements of capitals characteristic of the 5th century and traces of burning dating back to the 9th century are cited as proof.

The church was expanded in the 19th century and now consists of two parts: the ancient temple and a larger extension.

The remains of ancient frescoes, uncovered during the restoration of the 19th century, have been preserved. And the restorers of the twentieth century brought the ownerless temple back to life. To avoid destruction of the vaults and the drum, it was necessary to strengthen its structure with a metal frame; it is clearly visible in the interior of the church.
Sasha Mitrakhovich 07.02.2018 10:25

If you are asked: “Which of the Orthodox churches in Russia is the most ancient?”, answer with confidence: “Church of St. John the Baptist in Kerch. The pride of Crimea and the whole country!” In pre-revolutionary Russia there was only one older temple - St. John Chrysostom near New Athos. But today this is the territory of Abkhazia. And therefore the palm rightfully belongs to the Kerch temple in the name of the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John, built in the 8th century.

The basis for this dating is the Greek inscription on one of the columns supporting the vault of the church: “Here lies the servant of God, the son of George. He reposed in the month of June on the third day, from Adam in the year six thousand two hundred and sixty.” According to the Gregorian calendar, this is the seven hundred and fifty-second year after the Nativity of Christ. In addition, amphorae from the 8th century were found in the masonry of the walls, which were used as voice boxes for better acoustics.

Today the temple is a complex architectural complex, finally formed only by end of the 19th century century. The composition of its oldest part exactly corresponds to early Byzantine religious architecture. The massive walls are made of alternating rows, which consist of four stripes of white stone blocks and four stripes of flat red brick - plinths. This technique gives the Church of John the Baptist not only elegance, but also helps to withstand earthquakes.

Inside, the temple is decorated with columns and capitals made of grayish marble with blue veins. This type of marble was mined only on the island of Proconnesse in the Sea of ​​Marmara. And the fact that the quarries there were closed by the end of the 8th century is another confirmation of the time of construction of the temple.

Over the centuries of its existence, the temple has seen a lot. Peoples and states changed around, and he remained a silent witness to history. The well-being of Christian Byzantium, the rule of the Khazars, who professed Judaism, the pagan Cumans, the Genoese Catholic rule... For almost seven centuries, the church in the name of the Baptist John served as a parish church for the Orthodox Greek community of the city, until in the middle of the 15th century, with the entry of Kerch into the Crimean Khanate, it became a mosque .

In 1774, Kerch was included in the Russian Empire, the church was returned to the Orthodox and consecrated in honor of the Beheading of John the Baptist. Its parishioners included Crimean Greeks and immigrants who arrived from Russia.

During the 19th century, the temple was repeatedly repaired and completed. In 1801, a small porch was added to the west. At the same time, apparently, ancient tombstones discovered during excavation work were built into its southern wall. These ancient tombstones can still be seen today. In 1842, according to the design of the architect Alexander Digby, a two-tier bell tower was added to the narthex. The architect tried to give it forms as close as possible to the architecture of Byzantine churches.

Speaking about the history of the Church of St. John the Baptist in the 19th century, it is worth remembering that it was here on May 13, 1877 that the future Crimean Saint Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), a native of Kerch, was baptized in infancy. A memorial plaque at the main entrance now reminds of this event.

Until it was closed by the Bolsheviks in the 20s of the 20th century, the church remained cultural and religious center Greek community. It maintained Greek and Russian parochial schools.

Sacred relics were kept at the church: a Greek handwritten Gospel of the 11th century, a handwritten “Apostle” of the 12th century, ancient icons of the Mother of God, the Savior and John the Baptist. All these shrines, unfortunately, perished in the fire of the revolution.

They remembered the temple again in the 60s. It attracted the attention of Soviet researchers as a monument of the Byzantine era. At that time, the ancient Orthodox Church was a sad sight. With broken windows and bushes growing on the walls and roof, she stood humiliatingly among the noisy fish market bustling around her.

In 1963, the Church of John the Baptist was given the status of an architectural monument. And in 1972, the temple began to be restored. The restorers tried to preserve all the ancient parts, replacing only those that were completely destroyed. Despite the lack of permission, a cross was installed on the dome of the temple. After the reconstruction in the Church of John the Baptist, a collection of stone exhibits of the Kerch Historical and Cultural Reserve was opened.

The modern history of the Church of John the Baptist began in June 1990, when it was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.

At present, like twelve centuries ago, the most ancient temple Russia is the center again religious life Kerch. And her spiritual heart.

Between Mount Mithridates and the embankment there is the most important architectural landmark of Kerch - the Church of St. John the Baptist. This is a monument of Byzantine architecture and the oldest stone temple of Kievan Rus. It reminds us that Russians lived in Crimea long before many “indigenous” peoples.

It was built in the 10th century, but the marble columns and slabs at its base were taken from an earlier temple (Christian?).

Kerch Church of St. John the Baptist

The temple was built in the traditional East Slavic style and is a three-sided cross-domed temple. He is almost all that remains in our memory from the heyday of the Tmutarakan principality (X - XI centuries), which at that time owned vast territories on both shores of the Kerch Bay.

Interesting architectural solution- alternating red brick and white stone blocks was often used by the Byzantine temple school, not only because it is beautiful, but also because it gives the building high seismic resistance.

After the capture of Crimea by the Tatars, the church was turned into a mosque. It was returned to the Orthodox only in 1774, when, according to the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty, it was transferred to the Russian Empire. Exactly then old temple received its current name. A little later, in 1886, the western façade of the building was lengthened and a bell tower was added.

Under Soviet rule, the temple was closed and was returned to believers only in 1990. True, it received the status of an architectural monument back in 1863, and a little later a serious restoration was carried out.

Nowadays, services are regularly held in the Church of St. John the Baptist. But even if you are indifferent to religion or adhere to a different faith, be sure to look into this unique building.

It is believed that traces of frescoes on its walls were presumably painted by students of the famous icon painter Theophanes the Greek. Notice how ingeniously the lighting was invented - small round windows provide enough light to illuminate the entire temple even in cloudy weather.

In Kerch, an architectural monument of early medieval Byzantine architecture. According to legend, the construction of the church began with the blessing of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called. It is suggested that the temple was built in the 8th–9th centuries; this is confirmed by the Greek inscription on one of the columns supporting the vault of the temple: “Here lies the servant of God, the son of George. The mummy reposed in the month 3 (days) 10 hours (in summer) from Adam 6260 (from R.X. 752).” Amphoras from the 8th–9th centuries were discovered in the masonry of the temple. They were used as voice boxes.

The temple is described in the inscription of the so-called “Tmutarakan Stone”, which is kept in the Hermitage: “In the summer of 1576, Benindict 6 Gleb, the prince measured the sea on the ice from Tmutarakan to Karchev 10,000 and 4,000 fathoms.” In those distant times, the temple stood at the very shore of the sea. The builders gave the temple an unusual and therefore unforgettable appearance. They built the walls from white limestone blocks alternating with rows of red brick. This is a cross-domed, three-apse temple with a hemispherical dome on a high drum. It was consecrated in honor of Saint John the Baptist and Baptist of Christ.

In the courtyard of the ancient temple there is preserved stone plate with a depression reminiscent of a human footprint. Tradition claims that this is the trace of John the Baptist himself.

During the period of rule of the Crimean Khanate on the territory of the peninsula, the Church of John the Baptist in Kerch was turned into a mosque, and Orthodoxy reigned there again only after the return of Crimea to the Russian Empire in 1774.

The temple consists of two parts: ancient church and extensions made in the 19th century, which completely changed its appearance. In G. Moskvich’s guidebook, the Church of John the Baptist is described as follows: “The church is below ground level and therefore there is a staircase of eight steps to enter it. Inside the ancient temple, a heavy vault is supported by four dark gray columns with beautiful Corinthian style capitals. The icons of the Savior and the Mother of God are remarkable for their antiquity and very ancient painting, but the temple icon of St. John the Baptist, presented in a special icon case on the right side of the solea, is distinguished by its greatest antiquity. Among the ancient objects worthy of attention are a wooden bowl dating back to the 6th century, with barely visible images of the Savior, the Mother of God, St. John the Baptist and the Crucifixion, two silver bowls, one from the 16th–17th centuries, and the other from the end of the 18th century.” The church library contained two manuscripts written in Greek: the Gospel of the 11th century and the Apostle, which was dated back to the 12th–13th centuries.

The ancient temple was small, so in 1834 the narthex and western wall were dismantled and a three-nave vestibule was added in a pseudo-Byzantine style. In 1845, another two-tier bell tower was added to the church, and later the northern porch, turned in 1893 into a chapel, consecrated in honor of St. Catherine and St. Nicholas. Three years later, in its place, according to the drawings of the architect A. Karapetov, a new northern aisle was built. During the reconstruction of the temple in the 30s of the 19th century, frescoes depicting two saints were discovered under the dome of the temple. Academician I. Grabar suggested that they were painted by students of the famous medieval artist Theophanes the Greek.

IN Soviet time The Church of John the Baptist was declared an architectural monument. It was not destroyed, but it was not particularly taken care of either. The building was dilapidated, there were no crosses on it for a long time, the dome was gradually collapsing, but it still attracted the attention of tourists. In the 60s, a market appeared around the temple where they sold fish. The smell of fresh fish, the shouts of sellers praising their goods: Black Sea sprat, fat gobies, tender red mullet and sturgeon, and above all this is a temple. With broken windows and bushes growing on the walls and roof, it was a sad sight in those years.

Finally, in the 70s, it was decided to restore the temple. Architect E. Lopushinskaya became the author of the reconstruction project. To prevent the remains of the dome and drum from collapsing, a metal frame was made to support them. First, the walls of the extensions and the bell tower were restored. And in 1972 they began to revive the ancient temple. The artists tried to preserve all the ancient details, replacing only those that had completely collapsed. Restorers had to study ancient samples of tiles, plinths - flat and wide bricks, and make the same ones. They picked up the same limestone stone from which the temple was built twelve centuries ago. The artists fixed the paintings and the remains of ancient plaster. Around the southern and eastern facades of the ancient temple, the ground surface was lowered to the original level. A cross was installed on the dome, despite the fact that there was no permission for this. After restoration, the lapidary collection of the museum was opened in the temple. Only in the 90s the ancient Church of John the Baptist was returned to the church, and today services are held there.

How to get there?

The temple is located in the center of Kerch. To get there, you need to get to the street. Sverdlov.

Address: Kerch, lane. Dimitrova, 2, tel.: +7 36561 222-93.

 

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