The City’s First Church
Every city has its own symbols and sacred places. Some have disappeared, others have been rebuilt. Yet even those that no longer exist are preserved, in one way or another, in collective memory. The first church built in Tashkent was the Church of St Joseph and St George. It stood near what would later become one of the city’s central avenues and a future metro station. It was erected in less than a year, with construction and consecration both taking place in 1868. Built hastily, with little attention to architectural refinement, the structure was rather unremarkable, and in 1874 a decision was made to rebuild it.
Three years later, a modest and elegant bell tower was added beside the church. Built of fired Turkestan brick, it was connected to the main building by a covered passage. The work was carried out according to the designs of the architect N. F. Ulyanov, who also designed the city park and was already a well-established professional. The church itself could accommodate only about eighty people. Standing directly opposite the residence of Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov, a member of the Russian imperial family exiled to Tashkent, it was widely assumed to be his private chapel.
In fact, the church never belonged to the Grand Duke. Although his own “hunting” palace, which still stands today, was built here only twenty-three years later. Until 1893, the church was under the jurisdiction of the military authorities, after which it was transferred to the Central Asian diocese and became an ordinary parish church. It retained this role until the 1920s, when, during the campaign against “religious prejudice”, the building was handed over to secular authorities.
Thereafter, the building served a variety of purposes. At different times it housed a puppet theatre and even a café serving dumplings and ice cream. In 1995, the building was demolished and in its place remained a small square opposite a government facility, which has since also been demolished.
A Calling Card of the City
Right beside this small church once stood another structure that effectively served as one of the city’s calling cards: the Transfiguration Military Cathedral, built in a striking “Byzantine” style. Its construction was carried out by craftsmen contracted from the European part of Russia. The foundation stone was laid on 22 July 1871. However, the original construction schedule proved unrealistic, and the cathedral was consecrated only on 14 July 1888.
The project involved Wilhelm Heinzelmann, a well-known architect of Turkestan at the time. However, not all of his decisions proved successful in this case. For instance, the dome was covered with lead, a material both labour-intensive and poorly suited to the local climate. The architect failed to account for the effects of heat and the low melting point of lead, so it quickly cracked and had to be replaced with ordinary roofing iron.
The cost of the cathedral amounted to an enormous sum for the period, around 300,000 roubles. A bell tower stood nearby, housing ten bells, all cast in Tashkent from decommissioned bronze artillery pieces. Inside, the cathedral featured an iconostasis and all the elements typical of an Orthodox church. It was also known as the burial place of several prominent figures, including its first rector, Archpriest A. E. Malov, as well as Lieutenant Generals K. P. von Kaufman and N. A. Ivanov.
The cathedral's life was, however, short. In the 1930s it was brutally destroyed, brought down by explosions and artillery fire. The site of what was once one of the city's calling cards is easy to locate today: it is the fountain complex and the platform above it on Independence Square, recently returned to residents, albeit in a reduced form.
The Church of St Panteleimon
Now, on our virtual tour bus, we pass the Kosmonavtlar metro station and head down a broad avenue towards the old Hospital Bazaar.
Nearby are still located the grounds of the first military hospital and the main Holy Dormition Cathedral of the Central Asian Metropolitan District. Their history began on 27 April 1868, when land along the Salar canal had to be purchased from local residents for the construction of a military infirmary. The acquisition alone cost more than three thousand roubles, a considerable sum at the time.
The hospital welcomed its first patients in 1870. The following year, a temporary church was built nearby. It was funded primarily by officers and soldiers of the military department, with additional donations from private individuals. The structure was made of adobe brick and later covered externally with tarred felt. On 30 September 1871, it was consecrated in honour of Saint Panteleimon the Great Martyr and Healer, to whom the faithful prayed for the recovery of their loved ones.
Photographs of this early structure have most likely not survived, or perhaps were never taken. After being expanded, the church was reconsecrated under the same name on 31 January 1879. In 1890, largely through the support of the local merchant Dmitry Zakho, a bell tower was added.
This church proved unusually fortunate in its fate. It was closed at times, and from 1933 to 1945 it was used as a sanitary warehouse by the military, and even rebuilt, yet it survived.
Beyond the Chauli
Continuing along Nukus Street and then along Abdulla Qodiriy Avenue, we reach Independence Avenue, formerly known as Lager Avenue and Pushkin Street, and proceed towards its intersection with Assakinskaya Street. It was here, on the site of today’s overpass, that another remarkable church once stood, rival to another visible from the same point.
Few people know that this part of the city was once called Zachauli, meaning the area beyond the Chauli canal. Officers, civil servants, bank employees and even generals settled here. It is no coincidence that older residents still refer to it as a “noble quarter”.
It was here that a new Orthodox church was planned. The design was approved on 5 June 1893, and the foundation stone was laid on 22 July that same year. The construction of the walls was entrusted to a Tashkent firm owned by the sons of the well-known merchant Seyid Azimbay Muhammadbaev, Seyid Karim and Seyid Gani. The craftsmanship of their masons was renowned far beyond Tashkent.
The project was designed by Academician I. I. Shaposhnikov, the father-in-law of Nicholas Roerich, together with the somewhat less well-known architect N. Latyshev. The interior stucco decoration was carried out according to drawings by Colonel-Engineer L. Kiselev, while overall supervision remained with A. A. Burmeister, then still a colonel. Construction of the church was completed within three years. Standing on elevated ground, the building, as G. N. Chabrov wrote in his Guide to Tashkent, resembled “the figure of a priest in vestments, in a posture of prayer, with arms raised”. V. A. Nielsen, for his part, noted its “expressive silhouette and significant urban presence”.
The unplastered walls were built of fired Turkestan brick laid on lime mortar with natural additives, including eggs, which perhaps explains why such churches proved so difficult to demolish even with explosives. The church could accommodate around six hundred worshippers, though its main hall seemed capable of holding at least twice that number.
The interior impressed with its refinement and richness: ganch ornamentation, abundant natural light from the windows, and an inlaid parquet floor of mulberry and walnut. The iconostasis was specially brought from the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius. Unlike the earlier churches, the bell tower here formed an integral part of the structure, with the main entrance located within it. The church had ten bells, from the largest weighing nearly five tonnes to the smallest at around nine kilograms.
The church, dedicated to St Sergius, was consecrated on 24 April (9 May, New Style) 1897 by Bishop Nikon of Turkestan. A solemn procession set out from the Transfiguration Military Cathedral, carrying relics of St Sergius and a copy of his icon. In later years, when a tramline was introduced in the city, its route curved around the church, with the terminus located just behind it. The church is also associated with the distinguished surgeon and bishop Luke, in the world Valentin Voyno-Yasenetsky, who served here and now has a monument on the grounds of the Holy Assumption Cathedral Church. At the time, he lived nearby, renting two rooms on Uchitelskaya Street, now Kary Niyazov Street.
Unfortunately, the upheavals of the early twentieth century brought the life of this remarkable building to an abrupt end. The church was first closed, then converted into a workers’ club after its crosses had been removed, and in 1932, the Trinity Church of St Sergius was destroyed.
The Alexander Nevsky Church
Not far from it, on the south-western side of the city’s central square, a five-domed church was laid on 5 May 1896. Built in just a year, it was consecrated on 22 November 1897 in honour of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky. Notably, it formed part of the Tashkent Teachers’ Seminary complex, an institution for training educators.
The church was designed by Alexei Benois, a certified artist of the Imperial Academy of Arts. Its construction was supported by Councillor Nikolai Ivanov, who at his own expense donated fifty thousand fired bricks, along with church vessels, bells and an iconostasis valued at over six thousand roubles.
During the years of anti-religious campaigns, the building was classified as “harmful and unnecessary”. The crosses were removed first, followed by the domes. In time, the upper tiers were dismantled, leaving only the ground floor. In this reduced state, the structure survived until relatively recently, when it was finally demolished.
The Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin
Another church once stood on the site of the former Yulduz garment factory, to the left of Alay Bazaar. In earlier times, a so-called “correctional” institution was established here, and on 22 December 1879 a church dedicated to the Intercession of the Most Holy Virgin was consecrated within its grounds. Services were held there only on Sundays and feast days. It was also a place where “lost” souls could repent of their sins and receive absolution from a priest.
In 1906 the church was rebuilt and reconsecrated, this time in honour of Saints Peter and Paul. Like many similar buildings, it survived only until the mid-1930s.
The Church of the Annunciation
At the intersection of Abdullah Qadiriy and Amir Temur avenues we arrive at the entrance to the Museum of Railway Engineering.It was here that the city’s fifth Orthodox church once stood, built to the design of the renowned Tashkent architect Georgy Mikhailovich Svarichevsky. This church is remarkable for one thing: neither the state, through the military authorities, nor any other ministry had any hand in financing its construction. It was built entirely with funds raised by railway workers and employees.
Its proximity to the railway proved advantageous in more ways than one. Even during construction, the church was connected to electric lighting, at a time when most other churches still relied on candles. Built from elegant imported white brick, its interior decoration became a truly collective effort: the icons of the iconostasis, for instance, were painted by the nuns of Moscow's Novodevichy Convent. The bell tower housed eight bells cast in the main railway workshops. The largest, an alarm bell weighing six tonnes, could be heard even in the city centre.
The church was built under the supervision of one of Turkestan’s finest civil engineers, Alexander Ivanovich Ursati, whose name survives in the former railway station of Ursatyevskaya, now the city of Khavast.
The church was consecrated in honour of the Feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God on 23 November 1899. Archpriest Mikhail Andreev was appointed rector, though his later fate proved rather tragic. The church itself became one of the city’s architectural landmarks, visible even from central Tashkent. It is said that panoramic photographs of the surrounding area once existed, though I have yet to come across them.
The Church of the Annunciation survived the upheavals of 1905 and 1917, but in the early 1920s it was demolished, while the architect who designed it was still alive. Today, the entrance arch to the so-called “Museum of Steam Locomotives,” as children often call it, stands on the site.
The“Lost” Church
Not far from the former Church of the Annunciation, behind the railway station along Kushkuprik Street, once known as Kazachya Street, stood the barracks of the 5th Regiment named after Ataman Moguty. Nothing remains of these handsome barracks today. First the military forbade photography, and later developers showed little interest in preserving for history the military architecture of the second half of the nineteenth century.
However, according to the management of the local Vatanparvar organisation, one of their buildings once housed a church. This was supported both by remnants of decorative ornamentation preserved beneath the roof and by the shape of the now-bricked-up window openings, which clearly pointed to the building's ecclesiastical past.
This made me wonder whether this could be the “lost” Church of Alexander Nevsky that people still speak about. So far, no documentary evidence has surfaced, only conjectures that even the chancery of the Metropolitan District can neither confirm nor deny.
As it turned out, the name Alexander Nevsky originally belonged to a tent church dating from 1865. That case is straightforward: tents do not last long. Yet there were later churches as well. One, dating from 1884, stood in one of the camp barracks on the outskirts of Tashkent.
Another church dedicated to Saint Prince Alexander Nevsky was consecrated on 23 August 1885 on what is now Yakub Kolas Street, opposite Secondary School No. 110. The barracks of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Turkestan Rifle Battalions once stood there, and the church was housed in one of them.
So where did yet another Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky disappear to? Its records clearly mention the 12th Turkestan Line Battalion, the 5th Regiment of the Orenburg Cossack Host, and the 7th West Siberian Line Battalion, even specifying the number of parishioners "of both sexes." Could this be the very church on whose site the Vatanparvar branch now stands? There is still no definitive answer, and the search through the city archives must continue.
The Church of the Future General
There is indeed only one chapel church of Alexander Nevsky in the city. It stands in Botkinskoye Cemetery, the sixth Orthodox cemetery in Tashkent. The foundation was laid on 23 November 1902, and the first stone blessed and installed on 6 December of the same year. Construction took more than two years, and the church was consecrated on 8 May 1905 by Dean Archpriest Konstantin Bogoroditsky in the presence of the region's civil and military authorities.
Two small bell towers adorned the main façade, and the bells for them were cast locally in Tashkent. Soon afterwards the church required urgent repairs, apparently because the ground had settled too heavily beneath it. In recent decades it has undergone two restorations and today looks almost new.
Here, our brief excursion into the history of Tashkent’s churches comes to an end. Before parting, however, we should mention the city’s youngest functioning Orthodox churches. There are two of them. One is dedicated to Saint Yermogen. Construction began in 1954, though the church was consecrated only on 11 December 1957. It stands at 3, 1st Oishakhonum Cul-de-sac. The second church, dedicated to Saint Prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles, stands at the Dombrobad Orthodox Cemetery. The original building dates from 1970, when it served as a hall for civil memorial services. On 23 August 1991 the Tashkent City Executive Committee transferred the abandoned structure to the Orthodox Church. Several years of restoration followed, after which Archbishop Vladimir of Tashkent and Central Asia, as the office was then known, consecrated the new church on 18 November 1999.
An Excursion into the Nineteenth Century
Six years ago, in the Kamolon mahalla, a tiny chapel dedicated to Saint George the Victorious and originally consecrated in June 1865 was restored. At first the site contained a memorial plaque bearing the names of soldiers killed during the capture of Tashkent and a monument in the form of pyramids of cannonballs. There was also a small square enclosed by an elegant cast-iron fence. Sadly, all of this gradually disappeared with time, and only by Easter 2020 was the chapel finally restored.
The Disciplinary Church
In the past there existed so-called disciplinary companies and battalions. One such unit stood on the site where five-storey brick apartment blocks now rise near the Elektroapparat factory. To provide spiritual guidance for the soldiers assigned there, a church dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker was built.
The newly constructed church was consecrated on 30 November 1901. It was a single-storey building crowned by a dome. What made it unusual was the arrangement inside the prayer hall: at the rear stood a gallery-like tiered structure containing vertically placed wooden compartments the height of a person. Prisoners stood in these individually during prayer. This was in addition to a heavy iron grille designed to prevent escape from the disciplinary compound.
Remarkably, the remnants of this structure could still be seen some fifteen years ago. By then the site housed a women's prison. More recently, however, the prison was relocated outside the city, and the remnants of both the prison and the church were demolished. Today the area is occupied by a cluster of residential buildings, now almost entirely inhabited.
