When you want to learn about the historical journey of a certain city or country, you can go and visit the museums, theatres, or even the cathedrals. There you can find many facts and information related to the events happened to a certain city or country. For example, when you are in Washington DC, The Smithsonian Institution is a museum you must visit. This museum, which popular nickname is the Smithsonian, is named the nation’s attic for its broad-ranging of 154 million items’ holdings. The institution also has 19 other museums, 21 libraries, 9 research centers, zoos, as well as historical and architectural landmarks. The Smithsonian’s popularity is undeniable which is proved by its 30 million annual visitors.
Another museum who is not only internationally-recognized but also the city’s central landmark is the Louvre Museum. It is located in Paris and is the world’s largest art museum. The Louvre Museum started to open on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings. Now, it has approximately 38,000 objects dated from the prehistoric era up to the 21st century time. If you are visiting Paris, you can find this museum in the Louvre Museum, a castle built in the 12th century.
There is also another museum where you see many findings of the archeological site. This one is the Acropolis Museum, which located in Greece. Every artifact found and housed in this museum is from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. From its opening on 20 June 2009 until now, this museum has a collection of 4.000 objects. What makes this museum very distinctive is its location on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis hill, which is led to the classical times’ “sacred rock”.
As stated before, when you want to learn about historical events, one of the places you can get information from is the cathedrals. Cathedrals are indeed places for Christians to pray and attend sermons. But, it is also the house of an architectural journey as well as the historical facts of both the cathedrals and its city or country. Among the many cathedrals all over the world, one of them is Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. So, what you need to know about Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Novosibirsk? Let’s find out about that.
The Beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
- An Honor of Saint Alexander Nevsky
When you read the name of the cathedral, what pops up in your mind must be “Who is Alexander Nevsky?”. He is the popular figure of the medieval Rus’ because of his military victories over German and Swedish invaders. Because of his legendary triumph, he even got canonized as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to the Chronicle of Novgorod, the Swedish Army had occupied the confluence of the rivers Izhora and Neva. But, thanks to Alexander and his small army who suddenly attacked and defeated them, the Novgorod was saved from a full-scale Swedish-Novgorodian Wars. The win over the Swedes in the reason Alexander, who was only 19 years old at that time, gained the sobriquet ”Nevsky”, which means “of Neva”.
As mentioned above, Alexander Nevsky also made a significant win over German invaders. At that time, the Germans and Estonians already invaded Pskov, a city in northwestern Russia. The Novgorod authorities sent for Alexander to take care of the situation. He gathered an army and forced the invaders out. The force was succeeded in defeating the German knights and the Estonian infantry. Until now, this victory is considered as one of the significant events in the Russians’ history.
- The Architectural Style
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is one of the first stone buildings in Novosibirsk. The style of the building adopted the Neo-Byzantine architectural style. You see the style is being used a lot for the construction of religious, institutional, and public buildings. Besides that, elements associated with Eastern and Orthodox Christian are also included. This whole style appeared in Western Europe in the 1840s and peaked in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century.
The Neo-Byzantine architectural style is not the only thing that influenced the construction of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. This cathedral’s design is also influenced by the design of the Church of Our Lady The Merciful in Saint Petersburg which built a few years earlier. This church was built with the Late Neo-Byzantine architectural style with stone and brick as its main materials. The 42-meter building has a wooden chapel where an icon of Our Lady the Merciful is housed. The whole complex of the church is surrounded by a garden. Around it, there is a metal fencing on a granite base.
- A Monument To Tsar Alexander III
The construction of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a monument to Tsar Alexander III. Why? Because this particular emperor of Russia is the initiator of the Trans-Siberian Railway’s building. This 9.289 kilometers railway is the longest in the world which connects Moscow with the Russian Far East. There are even branch lines which connect to Mongolia, China, and North Korea. Another result of the Trans-Siberian Railway’s building is the appointment of Novosibirsk as a new railway station.
- Closed By The Soviet Authorities
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was opened and consecrated on December 29, 1899. It was finally declared as a cathedral in 1915. Years later, in 1937 to be exact, the Soviet authorities closed down the cathedral. Thankfully, on the 1000th anniversary of the Christianization of Kievan Rus’ in 1988, a movement was taking place in the hope to restitute the cathedral. This movement resulted in the reopening of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in 1989.
Now, we have learned about what you need to know about Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Novosibirsk. Put this cathedral on the list of places you are going to visit during your next vacation!