First Russian Orthodox Church

65, Svetlanskaya Street / 2, Pushkin Street

Assumption Cathedral

The first Russian Orthodox church was constructed in Vladivostok in 1861, during the first year of the earliest settlers. This Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin was a wooden structure topped with a tiny wooden cross which was the only sign that it was a church. Although simple and with an iconostasis painted only on canvas, this building served as the only church in the city for many years. (The iconostasis is the partition--usually richly decorated with icons and other holy pictures--that separates the sanctuary from the main part of a Russian Orthodox church.)

By 1876 the need to construct a masonry building had become great, for the old church could not meet the demand of Vladivostok’s growing population. Due to financial difficulties, the city could not afford a new church, but the local Military Governor addressed the Governor General of Eastern Siberia, who in turn addressed the Minister of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg to call for donations from the whole Russian empire. Ten years later the construction began, and in December 1899 the new Cathedral of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin was dedicated by Bishop Gury.

Designed by architect Miller and situated on the slope overlooking the Bay of the Golden Horn, the new building looked beautiful, especially from the sea. It was a masonry structure with a main dome 35 meters high (just under 110 feet). From the first years of its existence the Assumption Cathedral was one of the main attractions in Vladivostok. Sadly, it shared the tragic lot of most of the Russian churches in the post-Revolutionary period: in the 1930s, it was first closed and then torn down (1932, 1938). On its spot--indeed, on part of the old foundation--there rose the present brick building which was first used as a residential quarter and now houses the city’s Art School. The only reminder of the Assumption Cathedral is a small building which used to house the church library and administrative offices.

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