Getting there
City centre, in the Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen. Best reached on foot.
A wooden cathedral that survived disaster because it knew how to sway.
It was built in 1904–1907 to a design by Konstantin Borisoglebsky. The engineer Andrei Zenkov ran the construction and reworked the design considerably, which is why locals often call it Zenkov's Cathedral.
In the winter of 1910–1911 the city was hit by a massive earthquake. The cathedral held. “Its bell tower swayed and bent like the top of a tall tree,” Zenkov wrote. A corner of the bell tower sank, the cross bent, the windows blew out, and that was all.
The popular legend of a building raised “without a single nail” is false: there is plenty of metal in the structure. The walls are anchored to the foundation, and through-bolts run vertically through the bell tower. It was this pairing of wood and steel that saved the building.
In Soviet times it housed a museum and a radio station. It was returned to the church in the 1990s, and the last major restoration ended in 2020.
- Built
- 1904–1907
- Material
- wood on a concrete base
- Bell tower
- up to 54 m, sources differ
- Restoration
- 2017–2020
