Architecture + Design: Holy Protection Cathedral Rivne city, Ukraine.
Greetings friends!
I live in Rivne, in the northwest of Ukraine.
This is a small city, which is gradually fading away, young people leave to study in the capital and, as a rule, there remains.
The city is small and there are not many architectural masterpieces in it.
It is difficult for him to compete with such fabulous cities as Lviv, Oldessa and Kiev, but something can be found on the streets of the city.
I decided to show you one of the landmarks of our city, which is located a few blocks from my house.
I have long wanted to take a series of photographs, but I waited for the night rain and the morning with a blue sky.
I would like you to see how the golden domes of the Holy Intercession Cathedral play in the sun, which is a relatively young building, the construction was completed in 2001.
But, I am sure that after a few decades, this building will be included in the number of architectural monuments.
This building is grand and it is one of the largest cathedrals in Ukraine.
For a small city, this is a great gift.
As I said, I waited for rain and I waited for it.
The Holy Protection Cathedral is reflected in the surface of the puddle.
Usually, I approach the building from the front door. but, yesterday, I decided to go the other way, which would explain why this building is needed, what goals were pursued by its builders and architects, everything has its own goal.
But, to begin with, I must say that this is an Orthodox church of the Ukrainian Patriarchate, in the architecture of which the Byzantine style is guessed, but the true intention is a little deeper.
I love how the green of the trees is combined with the gold leaf of the domes and the whiteness of the cathedral walls. And I found the greenest route to the cathedral.
I walked along the paths through the old cemetery which borders the cathedral.
On its territory there is a small chapel where the departed are seen off on their last journey.
Behind it, you can see the majestic cathedral which is intended for those who are still alive.
Yes, you always have time to lie down in the shade of the trees to the ringing of bells, but you will not hear him.
But before it happened. you can enter the doors of the place where God's Kingdom is prepared for you.
Repentance is so little, but sometimes it is so difficult.
For those who have already entered the small chapel, the copper bells on the towers of the cathedral do not ring, no, for them the chime music is emitted by the scraps of cylinders that once stored oxygen in themselves. or carbon dioxide suspended between two wooden posts.
Now that the general architectural concept is clear, you can get closer to the cathedral.
I approached from the west and the rising sun was shining in my eyes.
The facade of the building was in the shadows, but we will try to see everything that interests us.
In this small alcove there is a vat of holy water, which is used during Christian holidays and for baptism.
This is what this bathhouse looks like.
So we see the main dome which symbolizes Jesus Christ.
In total the cathedral has 21 domes.
The middle domes symbolize the 12 apostles, and the 8 small domes symbolize the little apostles.
The gold leaf plates look like fish scales and it is not surprising, the fish is one of the symbols of Christianity.
Note the entrance to the cathedral. There are three of them. This wooden ornament is the Ukrainian symbolism that can be seen on embroidered shirts.
But it should be noted that on the shirts, embroidered by hand, pagan decorations were applied, in no way connected with Christianity.
As you can see, the architectural design of this structure is very modest.
You will not see small details like on the walls of a Catholic church in the Gothic style.
Here you see something that looks like stained glass.
Central entrance to the upper part of the cathedral.
This cathedral consists of two parts, an upper and a lower, each of them can accommodate 3000 parishioners.
For all the modesty of the decoration, all the lines of the cathedral are very graceful.
At every corner of the building we see precious domes and bell towers.
You are now looking at the observation window in the central compartment at 51 meters above ground level.
As I said, this cathedral is one of the tallest cathedrals in the country.
The mosaics are great.
You need to be an excellent roofing specialist to create something like that. The joints on this arched, intersecting roof are ideal.
A wide black marble staircase leads to the main entrance to the cathedral.
Pay attention to the windows, they look like embroidery elements.
The tall arched vaulted windows were somewhat dilapidated. The cathedral is undergoing renovation work.
This is how the lower part of the cathedral looks like in which services and other events are also held, for example, Sunday school.
The high plinth is trimmed with marble slabs.
I started walking around the building now we look from south to north.
The shadows are gone and you can carefully examine the details of the building.
Pompous minimalism, as I would call this architectural style.
The lines of the building take me to the sky.
We come to the side entrances to the cathedral.
Closer to the side entrance there is a colonnade that holds the terrace in front of the upper cathedral. It is a shady and cool place, perfect on a hot, sunny day.
I've always liked mosaic artwork. This is how the side entrance to the lower cathedral looks like.
Above it we see a gold cross and a stylized embroidered shirt.
Let's take a closer look at the cross. It is slightly different from crosses which can be seen in most Orthodox churches.
This mosaic depicts Ukrainian metropolitans and a bishop.
There are two saints in the second mosaic.
Prince Ostrog and Princess Olshanskaya are patrons of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The entrance to the lower temple, services are often held there, but most likely, there are planned repairs. I was there on Christmas Eve.
A bustling world extends beyond this pomp.
Blue sky and divine presence.
I didn't climb theasu but photographed the marble steps leading there.
This cross is decorated with rays of light and is different from the crosses we saw earlier.
Now, we look at the cathedral from west to east.
Round windows are also decorated with an ornament similar to that of embroidered shirts.
Mothers and brides applied designs to the shirts of their sons and grooms before the fighting.
It was kind of amulet and as I said, this is a contradiction for Christianity since it is paganism, but the Orthodox Church of Ukraine considered it not essential.
Let's take a closer look at the window.
I will always love these atmospheric views.
Ease of maintenance of the roof and hard-to-reach places of architectural structures this is an important task for architects.
You need to make it as inconspicuous as possible and fit into the big picture.
The sky and this temple are relatives.
This symbol puzzled me a little. I have nothing against the sun, but there must be a cross.
The setting sun sees the cathedral like this!
I think as a kid, everyone loved looking at shiny candy wrappers, lol.
Even today, I can forever admire the beauty of the golden domes.
I'll fire the architect who designed the roof of my house lol.
And so, we came to the place from which this post began, but this is another photograph and a different angle of the cathedral, which is reflected in a puddle.
Let's see what's going on on the north side of the cathedral.
I must point out, that at least one minister of this church is a very modest person who denies himself the benefits of this world.
You can say, that this car is self-flagellation lol.
Let's take a look at the modest lines of the exterior of the cathedral.
I don't see anything superfluous.
A huge amount of money was invested in the construction and, apparently, they decided to save on this, but from this, the cathedral does not lose anything. A very wise decision.
Perhaps one day there will be frescoes here, or mosaic.
In this photo, you can see that not all bell towers have bells.
Apparently, this is also a cost saving.
But the brackets are installed and this makes it possible to hang the bells.
Another great roof slope.
This gutter system claims a gothic style).
There is never too much chocolate and too many golden roofs lol.
In the courtyard of the cathedral I saw a stone statue of the crucified Jesus Christ and a dove sitting on it.
This is symbolic, in Christianity the dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit.
It's a bit chilly here, it's no wonder we're on the north side of the cathedral.
This side is a little hidden from prying eyes and is being renovated.
Steel spears of the fence separate the cathedral courtyard from the cemetery.
Many of those who have a kest on the grave have never visited the tsekov, but this, as they say, is their own business.
It's time to go outside the territory of the cathedral through the northern entrance.
I took some pictures through the wrought-iron gates that shield the cathedral courtyard from the world.
The cross at the top of the gate is very similar to the knight's cross and it differs from all the crosses that we saw on the cathedral.
This is what this gate looks like.
We see the excellent work of the blacksmiths.
Steel, stone and sky!
Everything has its own meaning, perhaps our life is like a twisted spiral.
This flower looks like a shield that protects good from evil.
Three petals of a lily, something it reminds me.
The central part of the gate looks like a spine, am I wrong? the spine is our support and the church gives this support in the Spirit.
Finally, I decided to walk along a shady alley along the courtyard of the cathedral, outside of it.
There is a divine aroma that blooming peonies exude.
Dandelion, it looks like our life, its last days. We never know when Peter will blow and tear off the fuzz of life from our head, which will swirl in the air and fly away, far away, long away.
Firefighter beetle, this is a small bonus to this Holy Protection Cathedral Rivne city, Ukraine story.
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Photos taken with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX300 camera
I edited a photo in the program PhotoDirector, which I also installed on my smartphone.
For my publications, I do not use stock photographs, it is fundamentally important for me to use photographs that I have made with my own hands for publication and I can name them - authorial work.