Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the three active Catholic churches in the Russian capital. Built in neo-Gothic style at the beginning of the last century, it rises on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street, impressing with its unusual for Orthodox Moscow silhouette. The shape of the temple is expressively outlined by slender towers with elegantly drawn spires topped with silver crosses and a multifaceted dome. The cathedral is wonderfully viewed from afar and is incredibly spectacular in artificial evening light. It is open to the public and is widely known as a venue for organ music concerts.
Video: Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Contents- Highlights
- History of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Cathedral today - Practical information
- How to get there
Highlights
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the largest Catholic church in the country, has seen its fair share of turmoil. It received the first believers in 1911, and the interior decoration was completed just before the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. The cathedral had to fully experience the hardships brought by decades of militant atheism. The symbolic revival of the church began in December 1990, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, when Mass was celebrated on its steps for the first time after a 60-year break.
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Major restoration work continued at the cathedral from 1996 to 1999. The church was restored to its authentic neo-Gothic appearance, and today you can admire its magnificent facade, designed on the model of Westminster Abbey, and crowned with slender spires towers, giving it a resemblance to Milan Cathedral.
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The heart of the Catholic church is the organ of the legendary Swiss firm Orgelbau Kuhn AG, built for the Protestant cathedral of Basel and given to Moscow as a gift to the Catholic community in 2002. The instrument sounds great, and many prominent Russian and foreign performers enthusiastically agree to take part in organ concerts that are regularly held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
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The repertoire includes both classical works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and rock compositions by, for example, Pink Floyd. Here they are not afraid to experiment, and at concerts one can often hear the solemn melody of the organ intertwined with drum trills, guitar strumming or the sounds of such extravagant instruments as the Alpine horn or Armenian flute. Images of the performers are projected onto a multimedia screen.
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History of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The construction of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary began at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At that time there were only two small Catholic churches in Moscow, whose clergy was cool to the idea of establishing close relations with Rome. The faithful of the French community attended St. Louis Church, and the parishioners of the oldest Roman Catholic church in Moscow, dedicated to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, were mostly Poles.
.The foundation of the Peter and Paul parish dates back to 1692, but historians cannot confirm this, as the archival church documents were destroyed in the fire of 1812. The church of Peter and Paul was also damaged. It was rebuilt only in 1845 in Milyutinsky Lane, eventually becoming the center of the religious Polish community in Moscow. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built as a branch of this church, because by the end of the XIX century it could no longer accommodate the increasing number of parishioners. By that time in Moscow there were about 30,000 inhabitants who professed the Catholic faith.
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The author of the first project of the temple was architect Leon Dauksha, a master of Art Nouveau. But the cathedral was not built according to his drawings. Approved the plan of the famous Moscow architect of Polish origin Tomasz (Thomas) Bogdanovich-Dvorzhetsky, although his version still provided decorations for the exterior. Dauksha also made his contribution by designing an openwork metal fence around the future temple. The ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary took place in 1899.
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The church, capable of accommodating up to 5,000 worshippers, was solemnly consecrated in November 1911. Total construction costs amounted to 290,000 rubles in gold – more than $210,000,000 in today’s terms. The funds came from Catholic parishes scattered throughout the Russian Empire. Additional donations were collected for the finishing work, which lasted until 1917. However, the decoration did not fully correspond to the original plan. Instead of laying marble floors poured concrete, decorative spires on the facade were missing, they were installed presumably in 1923.
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After the Bolsheviks came to power, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception operated for another 20 years, but most of the garden surrounding the basilica was given for development. In 1919 Father Michael Tsakul became the rector of the church. A Catholic priest, the prominent Symbolist poet Sergei Solovyov, later repressed, also preached here. Mikhail Tsakul was detained several times, but then released. After the last arrest in 1937, the priest was accused of espionage and shot, and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was closed. Its property was looted, the altar and organ were irretrievably lost. At first the church was used as a vegetable storehouse, then its premises were divided by ceilings into 4 levels and turned into a dormitory.
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In 1995, employees of the Institute desperately resisted eviction, although the order to transfer the church to the believers of the newly established parish of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was signed as early as 1992. Disputes were accompanied by violence and calls to law enforcement. Finally, in 1996, reconstruction began here. In 1999, a lavish ceremony was held to re-consecrate the cathedral, attended by the Holy See’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
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Cathedral today
The main octagonal tower topped with a cross is 30 meters high. The spires of the two side towers bear the emblems of Pontiff John Paul II and Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the head of the Minsk-Mogilev diocese. They played a key role in returning the cathedral to the Catholic community and restoring this architectural gem.
On the left side of the facade in the arcade are placed five bells connected to an automatic system, the mechanism is controlled from the sacristy room. The bells were made by Polish craftsmen at the factory in Przemyśl. The largest weighs 900 kg and is dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima.
.Above the lancet entrance arch is a decorative triangular pediment with ornamentation and a gilded monogram “VMIC” (Virgo Maria Immaculata Concepta), which in Latin means “Virgin Mary Immaculately Conceived”. Above is a circular rose window with a diameter of 3 meters. A multi-colored stained glass window is inserted into the interweaving of finely crafted stone patterns.
.https://trevaladvisor.com/img%img/Sobor-Neporochnogo-Zachatiya-Presvyatoj-Devi-Mariireterte/caption-_3_.jpg” alt=””/>‘ USA in 1999. Then a disassembled 74-register Kuhn brass organ, a gift from the congregation of the Lutheran cathedral of the Swiss city of Basel, was delivered here. It became one of the largest in the country. The huge instrument with four manuals and 5,563 pipes was assembled in early 2005. On January 16, a solemn mass preceding the opening of the International Organ Music Festival took place. At the closing concert, listeners enjoyed Bach’s works performed by James Gottsche, the Pope’s liturgical organist and principal organist of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican..
The landscaped area adjacent to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary has flower beds. Sprouts are grown in greenhouses arranged here. At the church kiosk luxurious roses bloom. The grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, located near the curia, is also covered in flowers. The church has its own mini zoo with animals that you can feed. Cute goats and other animals are the participants of the creche, which is organized every year at the right facade of the cathedral at Christmas.
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Practical information
The doors of the basilica open at 07:45 and on Sundays at 08:30. Several services are held daily under the vaults of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated by the priests of the Congregation of St. Francis of Salska. The main liturgical language is Russian. Services are also conducted in other languages, including Polish, English, French, Korean, Spanish. Masses of the Latin Tridentine rite and solemn services of the Armenian rite are celebrated on Sundays.
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Between services on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, guides from the charity organization Art of Kindness give free tours to tourists. Charitable contributions are welcome. Groups are formed by advance reservation.
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