Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir-Volynsky
The oldest monument of church architecture in Volhynia - the white-stone Assumption Cathedral - towering above the city a little away from the center behind the ramparts of the citadel, was founded in the 12th century. Mstislav Izyaslavich (the future Grand Duke of Kiev). "Mstislav Temple" was founded in the time of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, four years after the baptism of Russia, in 992, and was the residence of the Volyn bishops and the family burial vault of the Mstislavich princes. The temple was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, it was robbed by busurmans, and the last restructuring of 1900 gave it ancient Russian forms. On the territory there is a bell tower (XV century), the house of bishops, monuments to ancient Russian princes. The Nikon chronicle about the events of 1160 (6668) reports: “In the summer of 6668, Prince Mstislav painted the holy church in Vladimir and decorated it with amazing saints and expensive icons and books, and many amazing things, and sacred gold and silver dishes with beads, and stones precious. " Vladimir-Volyn diocese Along with the Belgorod, Novgorod, Chernigov, Polotsk and Rostov eparchies was one of the first. Under the prince of Lutsk Mstislav Danilovich, the Assumption Church became “amazing and famous in all the surrounding regions, like which was not in the entire northern land from east to west. ” King of Galicia Lev Danilovich restored the unity of the Galicia-Volyn kingdom, and his son and successor Yuri Lvovich in 1303 achieved from the Byzantine emperor Andronicus II Palaiologos the establishment of a separate from Kyiv Galician metropolis (Galician, Kholmsk, Przemysl, Lutsk, Vladimir-Volynsk and Turov dioceses ). In subsequent centuries, the cathedral went through hard times, it was robbed, the owners changed. The church was capitally rebuilt by the Bishop, later the Uniate Metropolitan of Kyiv, Lev Zelensky. The Napoleonic Wars (August 17.1812, the church was robbed by one of the detachments of Napoleon's army), the lack of funds and the continued destruction of the roof doomed all attempts to restore the cathedral to failure: the temple was turned into a warehouse of hay and firewood. On the eve of the celebration of the 900th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, they started talking about the restoration of the cathedral. The ruins of the temple were examined by prominent scientists of that time: in the main altar, where the windows were laid, the researchers found ancient frescoes, during excavations they found many burials of various eras (the remains of Prince Vladimir Vasilkovich were identified).
Throughout the 20th century The Mother of God miraculously protected her temple. The parish church was neither destroyed during the wars, nor closed and defiled by the atheistic authorities. On May 3.1996, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the ancient Vladimir-Volyn diocese was separated from the Volyn and now the Vladimir-Volyn Assumption Cathedral is again a cathedral.
