Schedule of services Church of John the Baptist Kerch. Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in the city of Kerch. Visiting the temple and route to it
Church of John the Baptist in Kerch (Russia) - description, history, location. Exact address and website. Tourist reviews, photos and videos.
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In the very center of the city of Kerch, at the foot of Mount Mithridates, is located the Church of John the Baptist - a wonderful example of architecture, made in the traditions of Byzantine architecture. It is considered one of the oldest Christian churches not only on the Crimean Peninsula, but also in Europe, and its picturesque, elegant appearance noticeably distinguishes it from a number of Orthodox churches. Architecturally, the church building is a three-apse temple with a single flat dome resting on cruciform vaults, which in turn are supported by four pillars. The entire structure is strengthened by columns, they are crowned with Byzantine-Corinthian capitals. The masonry of the walls of the eastern part of the temple uses alternating rows of white stone and red brick, a technique typical of Byzantine architecture. By the way, this “layer cake” not only looks impressive, but also performs an anti-seismic function, which has helped the building reach our times.
The Church of John the Baptist is considered one of the oldest Christian churches not only in the Crimean Peninsula, but also in Europe, and its picturesque, elegant appearance noticeably distinguishes it from a number of Orthodox churches.
History of the temple
The question of the exact time of the appearance of the Church of John the Baptist is not yet completely certain. The most common belief is that the temple was built in the 8th or 9th century. According to one legend, construction began with the blessing of St. Andrew the First-Called. Already in those days, the Church of John the Baptist was very famous: they say that the Kerch Strait was then called the Strait of St. John, and Kerch itself was the port of St. John. During the era of the Crimean Khanate, the Church of John the Baptist, like most Christian churches, was converted into a mosque, and over time fell completely into disrepair. It again became an Orthodox church in 1774, when Crimea was annexed to the Russian Empire.
In the 19th century, the church underwent a slight reconstruction; a three-nave porch in the pseudo-Byzantine style was added to it, and later a two-tier bell tower and a northern porch. At this time, instead of being called the “Greek Church,” the temple received its real name - the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist.
In the church courtyard you can see a block of stone with a depression in the shape of a human foot print. As legend says, this is the trace of John the Baptist himself.
The 20th century was not very kind to the temple, which shared the fate of many Orthodox shrines of that time: in the 30s. it was closed, according to the official version, due to lack of parish. The Great Patriotic War brought the loss of many sacred relics to the church, and the building itself was badly damaged by fire. Overgrown with bushes, with broken windows, the partially destroyed Church of John the Baptist made a depressing sight, with a noisy fish market around it.
Church of John the Baptist
Restoration of the temple
The revival of the church began in the 1960s, when it was declared an architectural monument of republican significance. Ten years after this event, large-scale restoration work began, which took four years. First, the walls of the extensions and the bell tower were restored, and only then they began to put the ancient temple building in order. Due to the strong subsidence of the foundation, it was necessary to clear the ground deep around its base.
Temple today
After the restoration was completed, a lapidary exhibition of the Kerch Historical and Archaeological Museum opened in the Church of John the Baptist - a collection of ancient stones with inscriptions carved on them. Only in the summer of 1990 the temple was transferred to the Kerch Orthodox community. Now it is a functioning church where services are held regularly.
Address and directions
Address: Kerch, st. Dmitrova, 2
From the bus station to the church you can take buses No. 3, 5, 6, 19, 28 to the Lenin Square stop.
Address: Kerch, st. Dmitrova, 2.
An amazingly beautiful temple located in the central part Kerch, invariably captivates the eye with its original appearance. This is an ancient Christian church, dedicated John the Baptist. So ancient that history has not preserved even reminders of its first builders to this day. This is the oldest operating Orthodox church not only on the Crimean Peninsula, but throughout Eastern Europe.
History of the creation of the Church of John the Baptist
There are different versions about the time of construction of the shrine. Most often it is dated to the 8th century, since inside the temple there is a column with an inscription in Greek. It follows from it that a man who died in 752 rests here. In addition, golosniks (special vessels that are used in construction to increase strength and improve acoustics) dating back to the 8th century were discovered in the church walls. But there are also adherents of the point of view, according to which the temple was built in the 9th or 11th centuries.
The ancient church is steeped in legends, one of which says that John the Baptist himself was involved in its founding. According to another legend, the construction of a sacred monastery in this place was blessed by the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. In the temple, a stone slab was preserved as a special relic, with a depression similar to a human footprint. They said that this was the trace of John the Baptist himself. During celebrations in honor of the temple holiday, the imprint was taken out of a special case and filled with water, which could then be drawn by all those who were suffering in order to be healed of illnesses.With the help of archaeological research, only one thing has been established reliably - the structure that has come down to us was erected on the site of an older basilica, from which parts of the foundation have been preserved.Church of John the Baptist built in the traditions of Byzantine architecture. In architectural terms, it is a four-pillar cross-domed building, similar to other religious buildings that once existed in the Asian regions under the rule of Byzantium. The unique masonry gives a special flavor and beauty to the building. The facades are made of limestone blocks, interspersed with rows of flat red bricks (plinths). This is also a characteristic feature of the works of Byzantine architects, who in this way not only created a unique appearance, but also strengthened the stability of the building in case of seismic disasters.A single hemispherical dome is mounted on a tall light drum. Inside, the structure is supported by four columns of dark gray marble, which are decorated with elegant capitals in the Corinthian style. It is assumed that these columns were taken from an older temple.Over the long history of its existence, the temple has seen a lot and changed its owners more than once. Thus, in the XIII - XV centuries, when the Black and Azov Seas were under the rule of the Genoese, the church in honor of St. John the Baptist enjoyed great fame. This is probably why the city itself that stood here was called the port of St. John and the strait between the seas was also called. During the period of the Crimean Khanate (XV - XVIII centuries) this church was completely turned into a mosque. The temple found its true purpose - serving the Orthodox faith - in 1774, after Kerch, being part of Crimea, became part of the Russian Empire. Then the temple was transferred to the Greek community, and for some time it was called Greek.
During the 19th century, the Church of St. John the Baptist went through several alterations. In the early years, a modest-sized chapel was built on the western side. In 1832 - 1834, a three-nave aisle was built, for which it was necessary to dismantle the narthex and the western wall. This significantly increased the internal volume of the premises. The craftsmen completed the extension in a pseudo-Byzantine manner, and it harmoniously fit into the appearance of the ancient shrine. In 1845, a porch appeared on the north side and a low belfry in two tiers.
Hard times came for the stronghold of Christianity in the post-revolutionary period. Sharing the fate of most Orthodox shrines, it was closed (due to “lack of parish”) and abandoned for many years. Many church relics were then irretrievably lost, but the Gospel written in Greek, created in the 11th century, and the Apostle, dating from the 12th - 13th centuries, were once kept here. There were many ancient icons, the most ancient of which were images of the Savior, the Mother of God, and the temple icon of St. John the Baptist.
Church of John the Baptist in our time
The magnificent building, which managed to survive through the centuries, despite many trials, was noticed in the 1960s, when the temple was given the official status of an architectural monument of republican significance. True, by that time it was a rather pitiful sight with broken windows, collapsing walls and a collapsing dome. The building remained in this deplorable state for about ten years, until restoration work finally began in 1974. Then the dome was strengthened with a metal frame, the walls were restored using stones and bricks close to the original, and the paintings inside were partially recreated. At their own peril and risk, without receiving official permission, the craftsmen even placed an Orthodox cross on the dome of the temple, although, of course, no services were held there. After restoration, the building was given over to the lapidarium of the Kerch Historical Museum.
The revival of the temple as a religious shrine took place in the 1990s, when it was returned to the Orthodox community. Today it is both a historical architectural monument and an active temple, where both tourists who want to come into contact with antiquity and believers who feel a special grace in these prayed-up holy walls flock.
The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in the city of Kerch (Dmitrova St., 2) is the oldest stone church in Russia and Eastern Europe. The unique Kerch Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is the only architectural monument that has survived from the heyday of the Tmutarakan principality (X-XI centuries).
The Church of John the Baptist is one of the oldest monuments of early medieval architecture: it seems to combine two architectural systems - basilica and cross-domed Byzantine layout, like the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople or its copy in the neo-Byzantine style like the Naval St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kronstadt. The temple is an outstanding work of architecture, the only Byzantine church to miraculously survive. It is believed that the Church of John the Baptist was built in the 6th-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 mentioned in the inscription of the so-called “Tmutarakan Stone”, which is kept in the Hermitage: “In the summer of 1576, Prince Benindicta 6 of Gleb measured the sea from Tmutarakan to Karchev with 10,000 and 4,000 fathoms.” In those distant times, the temple stood at the very shore of the sea.
According to legend, the Apostle Andrew the First-Called himself blessed the construction of the temple on the banks of Kerch, the then Bosporus, in 65 AD. in honor of his first teacher John the Baptist. It was at this time that the Apostle Andrew, according to the notes of monk Epiphanius, arrived for the first time to preach in this area. This was confirmed by the revered shrine - a stone with the imprint of the foot of the First-Called Apostle, which was located near the temple until the revolutionary time of 1917. During the revolutionary years, the stone disappeared and its further fate is unknown.
Of the ancient objects found in the cathedral, 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 Cathedral of John the Baptist consists of two parts: the ancient Church of John the Baptist itself and an extension built in the 19th century. In 1834, the narthex with the western wall was dismantled and a three-nave porch in the pseudo-Byzantine style was added. In 1845, another two-tier bell tower was added to the church, and later a northern porch, illuminated in honor of St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia. During the reconstruction of the temple in the 30s of the 19th century, frescoes depicting two saints were discovered under the dome of the ancient temple.
In the 60s of the 20th century there was a market around the temple where they sold fish. With broken windows and bushes on the walls and roof, it was a sad sight in those years. After restoration, the lapidary collection of the museum was opened in the temple. Only in the 90s the ancient temple was returned to the church, and today services are held there. The cathedral is under UNESCO protection.
HGIOLThe ancient part of the temple is a building of the 6th century after a major reconstruction of the 10th century with partial dismantling of the ancient structure. In the 19th century, a vestibule and a bell tower in the neo-Byzantine style were added to the temple. At the same time, the ancient part of the temple, even after all subsequent rebuilding and reconstruction, retains its Byzantine cross-domed layout.
The temple is a monument of Byzantine art from the reign of Emperor Justinian I, and the reconstruction of the temple in the 10th century, which gave its final appearance to the ancient part of the temple, makes the church the largest monument of the Russian Principality of Tmutarakan.
The inscription on one of the columns of the temple reads: “Here lies the servant of God, the son of George. The mummy reposed in the month 3 (days) hours 10 (in summer) from Adam 6260,” which corresponds to the year 752 from the Nativity of Christ. This inscription determined the traditional date for the construction of the temple in the 8th century, which is also displayed on the security sign on the temple. However, classical dating does not take into account that the column was brought from an older structure.
The results of excavations carried out under the leadership of T.I. Makarova, published in 1982, say that in fact, an extensive temple was originally built in the form of a basilica in a cross-domed layout, which also had a baptistery 20 m away, with the actual dating of the construction in the 6th century, which is identified by description with the Church of the Holy Apostles, which is reported by the monk Epiphanius, who visited it between 815 and 843: “A seaside city, where we came. Seeing the miracles performed by the apostle, the Bosporans soon believed, as they themselves told us. They showed us an ark with an inscription named after the Apostle Simon the Canaanite, dug into the foundation of a very large church of St. The Apostles, containing the relics and gave us part of them." As follows from Epiphanius’ message, the temple can be associated not only with the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. Probably, it contained the relics of the Apostle Simon the Canaanite, who suffered martyrdom not far from this place
In general, archaeological data and a comparison of its results with written sources indicate that the columns of the temple are 200 years older than previously judged by the inscriptions on them made later, and date back to the period of Justinian I, which, as is known from sources, was in the same period in Kerch built a powerful stone fortress Bosporus. The temple and the citadel were built according to a single plan, since excavations show that the quarters were built taking the temple into account. In particular, this is indicated by the direction of the medieval street leading to the northern entrance to the church.
In the 7th century, the baptistery was destroyed as a result of Khazar raids. In the 9th century, a major fire occurred in the temple; the building did not collapse, but was severely damaged. Under the Principality of Tmutarakan, the Russians and their allies the Byzantine Greeks decided to carry out a large-scale reconstruction of the temple. In this case, most likely the original building was partially dismantled and reassembled using an ancient foundation and columns. Therefore, the current appearance of the ancient part of the temple is a construction around the 10th century during the Tmutarakan principality using structural elements of the temple of the 6th century:
In this regard, the mention of the church in the inscription of the Tmutarakan stone, located in the Hermitage, is interesting. “In the summer of 6576 of Indictment 6, Prince Gleb measured the sea on the ice from Tmutorokan to Korchev 14,000 fathoms.” A number of researchers have indicated that this distance is greater than the width of the Kerch Strait and rather corresponds to the distance between the Church of John the Baptist in Kerch and the Church of Our Lady on the Taman Peninsula, which is no longer preserved. Makarova notes that the Church of Our Lady in Taman was in many ways similar to the Church of John the Baptist in Kerch: the same red sandstone was used during construction, burials were also performed in stone boxes. This indicates a common community of cities of the Tmutarakan principality.
In 1829, the remains of the ancient walls of the Bosporus fortress around the temple were demolished, as they interfered with the development of Kerch.
In the 30s of the 20th century, the temple was closed. The official reason is lack of arrival. Only in the late 1950s did people start talking about the church again as a monument of Byzantine architecture. In 1963, it was given the status of an architectural monument of republican significance. However, this did not prevent the opening of a fish market near the temple.
The church itself is made in a cross-domed Byzantine layout like the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople or its copy in the neo-Byzantine style like the Naval St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kronstadt. Although there are columns in the middle of the temple, many of them do not play the role of load-bearing structures, but stand freely without load and are a decorative element. The drum of the dome in reality rests mainly on the walls of the temple through the apses.
The oldest part of the temple is made of rows of white stone and flat bricks. Striped white and pink masonry is typical of Byzantine architects - this is how builders strengthened buildings in case of seismic shaking.
The Church of St. John the Baptist in Kerch is famous, first of all, for its antiquity. It was erected no later than the 9th century by the Byzantines. Of all the temples existing on the territory of Russia, this is the most ancient.
Church of St. John the Baptist, Crimea
History of the foundation of the temple
The time of creation of the temple is not precisely determined. The possible date refers to an interval of two centuries, between the beginning of the 8th and the end of the 9th century.
About Orthodox Crimea:
On one of the church columns there is a Greek inscription: “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.” This is 752 AD. Therefore, the church is conventionally attributed to the 8th century.
However, historians believe that the column remains from another, more ancient temple, which stood in the same place and was then dismantled due to dilapidation. Instead, the Church of John the Baptist was built, most likely in the 9th or even 10th century.
Interesting! Historians correlate the appearance of the temple with the liberation of Crimea from the Khazars and the increased influence of Byzantium in these lands. The craftsmen were most likely sent from Constantinople.
Years under the Turks
In 1475, part of the peninsula, including Kerch, was captured by the Ottoman Empire. The next three centuries were very difficult for the Christian population of Crimea. During this time, the Church of St. John the Baptist was converted into a Muslim mosque. The fresco painting that was there originally, and was, according to one version, the creation of the students of Theophanes the Greek, was carefully scraped off the walls.
After the period of Turkish rule, only the image of two saints remained in the temple, which was discovered already in the 19th century under a thick layer of plaster.
In 1774, after the first Russian-Turkish War, a peace treaty was concluded between the two countries. The Crimean lands, according to its terms, gained independence, and 9 years later they were annexed to Russia. Orthodox services began to be held again in the Kerch Church of John the Baptist. Its parishioners were mainly Greeks.
Church of St. John the Baptist, Kerch
In Tsarist Russia
In the 19th century, extensive construction work was carried out in the temple. Gradually, the church was supplemented with a western limit, a three-nave vestibule, a northern vestibule and bell towers. Until its closure in the post-revolutionary years, this temple served as a center of spiritual life for the local Greek population. Many pilgrims flocked here.
Interesting! Among the most revered temple shrines at that time was one unusual stone with a depression reminiscent of a human footprint. People believed that this trace was left by a saint, according to one version, the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, according to another, the prophet of the Lord John.
This stone has gained extraordinary veneration among the people. Among numerous pilgrims there was a tradition of pouring holy water into the “footprint” and drinking it. This stone has survived to this day. Now it can be found in the temple courtyard.
Before the revolution, the church had two primary schools for children from Greek-speaking and Russian-speaking families. One of the most famous saints of the 20th century, Archbishop Luke Voino-Yasenetsky, was baptized in this church. He was still a baby then.
Read about the Crimean saint:
Soon after the revolution, the temple was closed. From that time on, it began to gradually deteriorate. During the Great Patriotic War, the temple lost the iconostasis, many ancient images and two most valuable liturgical books of the 11th and 12th centuries.
At this time, the country was at great risk of losing its oldest architectural monument forever. But, fortunately, historians finally noticed him in the 50s. By that time, the church was already significantly dilapidated, and next to it there was a fish market. Excavations were carried out under the leadership of archaeologist T. Makarova. It was then that traces of the existence of earlier religious buildings of the 6th century were discovered at this place.
In the 70s, enormous restoration work was carried out in the temple. After that, it housed a historical exhibition.