Orthodox Prague

	Story completed in January 2012
	For almost one hundred years, St Nicholas' Cathedral on the Old Town Square in Prague was the centre of Orthodox life. The abandoned cathedral building was given to the Russian Orthodox Church in the middle of the 19th century. Shortly after Orthodox frescos and the splendid crystal chandelier, a gift of tsar Alexander II of Russia, appeared in the interior of the repaired Baroque cathedral. During World War I Orthodox services in the cathedral were banned by the Austrian authorities and the cathedral's priest Nikolay Ryzhkov was arrested. After the war, when Czechoslovakia became an independent state, the cathedral was given to the newly established Czechoslovakian Hussite Church. However, the Orthodox community of Prague, grown dramatically due the Russian emigrants who had escaped to Czechoslovakia from the Bolshevik Revolution, was allowed to use the cathedral regularly for their services. After May 1945 the Orthodox believers were banished from St Nicholas' Cathedral entirely. Currently, Orthodox services are held in the cathedral only once a year at the Easter. 1. Orthodox Easter procession on the Old Town Square in Prague. 2. St Nicholas' Cathedral on the Old Town Square in Prague. 3. Orthodox Easter night service in St Nicholas' Cathedral on the Old Town Square. 4. Orthodox Metropolitan Christopher of the Czech lands and Slovakia at the head of the Easter procession. 5. Orthodox Easter procession on the Old Town Square in Prague. 6. Extant Orthodox frescos of Jesus Christ in the apse of St Nicholas' Cathedral. 7. Crystal chandelier presented to St Nicholas' Cathedral by tsar Alexander II of Russia. The history of St Nicholas' House Church in Dejvice quarter in Prague began in 1924–25, when the Czech-Russian Professorial Building and Housing Condominium build there two new apartment buildings for Russian high school professors who escaped to Prague from the Bolshevik Revolution. At the same time a small house church was established in the basement of one of the buildings. When St Nicholas' Cathedral in the Old Town Square was closed, the parts of the iconostasis and the holy gates from the closed cathedral were transferred to the basement church. Thus St Nicholas' House Church become a heir to the main Orthodox cathedral of Prague. In May 1945, shortly after the Soviet Army liberated Prague, most of Russian emigrants who lived in the 'professorial' houses were arrested by the Soviet counterintelligence SMERSH and deported to the Soviet Union, where most of them were lost in the GULAG. Their apartments in Prague were assigned to the 'more trustworthy' Czech families. For long decades the only reminder of the 'Russian' origins of the 'professorial' houses was St Nicholas' House Church. At present, the church is also under the danger of liquidation. Some time ago, descendants of those Czech families, who occupied the newly vacated apartments of Russian emigrants sixty years ago, have begun a law sue against the Orthodox believers to evict them from the basement. Local inhabitants do not like that people enter the church through the main door of the building and light candles inside the church. At this time the Orthodox believers have managed to defend their rights for the basement, but the future of St Nicholas' House Church is very uncertain. 8. The priest of St Nicholas' House Church Pavlo Celič during a religious service on Ascension Day. 9. Religious service on Pentecost Sunday in St Nicholas' House Church. 10. Refreshments after the service on Ascension Day in St Nicholas' House Church. 11. Orthodox icons decorated the walls in St Nicholas' House Church. 12. The orthodox iconostasis removed from St Nicholas' Cathedral on the Old Town Square in Prague and installed inside St Nicholas' House Church. The iconostasis was too large for the small basement church so some parts of it were fixed on the church's walls. 13. Detail of the original holy gates from St Nicholas' Cathedral on the Old Town Square in Prague. The holy gates are also fixed on the wall in St Nicholas' House Church and never open for many decades. 14. The Eucharist during the service on Pentecost Sunday in St Nicholas' House Church. 15. Refreshments after the service on Pentecost Sunday in St Nicholas' House Church. 16. Annual wreath-laying ceremony to the commemorative plaques on the wall of one of the 'professorial' houses in Dejvice quarter in Prague in memory of Russian emigrants arrested and deported to the Soviet Union in May 1945. Three windows in the basement belong to St Nicholas' House Church. 17. One of the windows of St Nicholas' House Church. The relics of St Ludmila in St George's Basilica in Prague Castle are considered to be the most sacred Orthodox relics in Prague. St Ludmila was a spouse of Prince Bořivoj, the first Christian ruler of Bohemia, and a grandmother of St Wenceslas. She was killed by the order of her pagan daughter-in-law Drahomíra. St Ludmila's tomb is situated in the side chapel of St George's Basilica, which is close for public usually. Orthodox believers are allowed to hold a religious service in front of the miracle-working relics of St Ludmila only once a year. 18. Orthodox priest prays in front of the chapel, where St Ludmila is buried. 19. The Orthodox Akathist Hymn to St Ludmila in St George's Basilica in Prague Castle. 20. The Orthodox Akathist Hymn to St Ludmila in St George's Basilica in Prague Castle. 21. Orthodox believers in front of the relics of St Ludmila in St George's Basilica in Prague Castle. 22. Orthodox believers in front of the chapel where St Ludmila is buried. 23. The Orthodox Akathist Hymn to St Ludmila in St George's Basilica in Prague Castle. 24. Candles in front of the relics of St Ludmila in St George's Basilica in Prague Castle. Celebration of the Epiphany Day on the embankment of the Vltava River in Prague: 25. Orthodox Epiphany procession on the embankment of the Vltava River. 26. The priest of the Ascension Church Vasil Stojka consecrates water in the Vltava River in Prague. 27. Metropolitan Christopher consecrates Epiphany water on the embankment of the Vltava River. 28. Traditional Epiphany bathing in the Vlatava River in Prague. 29. Orthodox cross in the Vltava River. Deceased Orthodox believers rest in peace at the Russian part of the Olšany Cemetery in Prague, beside the graves of famous Russian emigrants as satirist Arkady Averchenko, poet Daniil Ratgauz, widow of military commander Alexey Brusilov, son of painter Viktor Vasnetsov, mother of novelist Vladimir Nabokov and others. Some of the most famous graves however may be freed soon, because many emigrants have been entrusted to be buried in Russia. Historian Fyodor Shcherbina, the first researcher of the history of the Kuban Cossacks, was the first signs of this trend. He escaped from the Bolshevik Revolution to Czechoslovakia and was buried in the crypt of the Dormition Church at the Olšany Cemetery in Prague. Sixty years after his death, his descendants decided to fulfil his last wish and rebury him in Russia. In September 2008, after an Orthodox memorial service in the Dormition Church at the Olšany Cemetery, the seal coffin with the remains of Fyodor Shcherbina was transferred to Krasnodar, the capital city of the Kuban Cossacks in South Russia. 30. Orthodox memorial service over the remains of Russian historian Fyodor Shcherbina in the Dormition Church at the Olšany Cemetery in Prague. After the service the remains were transferred to Russia. 31. Metropolitan Christopher leads an orthodox memorial service over the remains of Russian historian Fyodor Shcherbina in the Dormition Church at the Olšany Cemetery. 32. Graves of Russian emigrants at the Olšany Cemetery in Prague. Famous Russian satirist Arkady Averchenko is buried under the grey obelisk in the background. He also wished to be reburied in Russia, as soon as possible. Therefore Arkady Averchenko was buried at the Olšany Cemetery in Prague temporary in a special double coffin, inside a wooden coffin was an enclosed zinc coffin. 33. Graves of Russian emigrants and the Dormition Church at the Olšany Cemetery in Prague. The photographs in this story were shot from September 2003 to January 2012. This story isn't finished jet. New photographs will be added soon.
	Copyright © 2003–2012 Vova Pomortzeff