Minsk. Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Church
Belarus, Minsk region, Minsk, Pobediteley Avenue, 82
Description
The Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located in the Vesnyanka neighborhood of Minsk, is an important spiritual and cultural center. The history of the place where the temple was built goes back to the distant past. Previously, this territory was a village called Kruptsy, which had its own unique features. There was a spring near the settlement, which became famous due to the legend of the appearance of the icon of the Mother of God in 1612. This event has been preserved in people's memory for many years, and has become part of the historical heritage of these places.
The architectural appearance of the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos is made in the style of ancient Russian architecture, which emphasizes its grandeur and harmony with the traditions of Orthodox architecture. The temple building impresses with its size: its height, together with the cross, is more than 45 meters.
Categories
Historical
Architectural monument
Comments
Reviews to the Place
1Yaroslav Sg
16.03.2025
Minsk. Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos
The history of the Intercession Church began more than four centuries ago, when it was separated from Minsk by five versts, and endless mowing fields stretched around. The Krupetsky spring, known to many, was located on this territory, but not everyone knows the details of its consecration, as well as the circumstances under which the temple appeared here.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the Petro-Pavlovsky Monastery was built in Minsk, which became an important center of Orthodoxy. For the construction of a monastery, an almshouse, a school and a courtyard, Princess Avdotya Grigoryevna Drutskaya-Gorskaya donated three plots of land in the city center, near the Svisloch River. The donation of land did not end there: Nikolai Varonich provided the monks with hayfields in Kruptsy. There was a spring in one of these fields, near which, it is believed, the image of the Mother of God appeared to the monks on the feast of the Intercession. After this event, the icon was painted, and the Intercession community was formed around it.
To keep the holy icon, it was decided to build a wooden chapel, which became a place of prayer for those who sought solace and protection from the Queen of Heaven. Believers often visited the Krupetsky spring, considering it curative.
Two centuries later, the chapel fell into disrepair, which led to its replacement with a new wooden building. In 1856, it was decided to build a full-fledged temple in its place. The construction was completed in 1857, and the church was named after the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, when the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, worship services were banned, and 18 years later the temple was completely destroyed. For many years, Orthodoxy and other faiths were banned and persecuted.
In 1992, events related to the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary entered a new stage of development. With the advent of a more loyal attitude of the state authorities to religious issues, a cross was erected at the Krupetsky spring.
It was only in 1997, on the feast of the Intercession, that the laying of a new temple began on the site of the destroyed one. A year later, Metropolitan Filaret consecrated the church of the Krupetskaya Icon of the Mother of God. Over the next four years, an administrative building, a bell tower and a dome with a cross were built, which became an important step in the revival of the spiritual life of the region.