Irkutsk is a truly amazing place on the map of the globe. Lets climb onto a small bridge, which rises 7 meters above the level of the roadway, which, by the way, equal to the height of the walls of the old Irkutsk wooden fortress, and look at the panorama that opens before us. At this point, the brown waters of Irkut River merge with the purest stream of the Angara. In a good weather, and especially in winter, you can see stones at the bottom of the river, despite the 6-meter depth. And the speed of the current is so fast that even in 40-degree frosts the river does not freeze. Although, until January 1952, the river was seized by ice, starting from this place, which caused frequent and serious winter floods. As a result of these cataclysms, the water went deep into the city sometimes up to 400 m, leaving behind an ice captivity. Today the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station has regulated the flow of Baikal waters and the Angara has stopped freezing and flooding.
Consequences of the winter flood
We are not only at the confluence of two great Siberian rivers, we are at an ancient crossroads on the path of human migration across the globe. This movement began about 2 million years ago in eastern Africa. On its way, humanity made stops, and the first such crossroads was the territory in the valley of the Indus River, where mankind, about 90 thousand years ago decided to divide its ways and move towards Europe, Australia and North Asia. The second such fateful place was next to the future Irkutsk. 50 thousand years ago, at this place, people split up again, making the final decision to move towards North America, the Far East (Manchuria, Korea, Japan) and the Urals. Since then, the place of Irkutsk has been inhabited for decades of thousands of years and has never been abandoned by people for a long time. Over the years, new rivers and mountains have appeared here, hundreds of nations have changed. And if there are a lot of ancient cities in the world, then there are only four places like the capital of Eastern Siberia on the Earth map: Tbilisi, Paris, Tokyo and Lvov.
Map of early human migrations
No wonder that the name Irkutsk can be literally translated from the ancient Turkic language as eternal. From Mongolian эрхYY the name of the city could be interpreted as wayward.
Now lets walk up from the embankment to the monument towering over the place where in the summer of 1661 Cossacks rowboats docked on the bank with the intention of building a new city. It was installed in 2011 in memory of the founders of the city of Irkutsk: Yakov Pokhabov, Petrushka Tyulshin and the Yeniseisk commander Berezovsky. They did not choose this place occasionally, but made that because it was surrounded by water on all sides: from the north the Angara River, from the east the Ushakovka River, from the south a small lake, from the west impenetrable swamps. Since then, the landscape of the settlement has changed a lot and today only waterways limit the heart of the city.
Monument to the founders
Once on the site of this monument there was a picturesque Tsaren Pavilion, installed on the day of the arrival in Irkutsk of the heir to the Russian throne, Prince Nikolas, on June 23, 1891, who stayed in Irkutsk for two days. Besides him from the royal family, the city was visited by Alexey Alexandrovich Romanov in 1872 and Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov in 1909.
Tsaren Pavilion
Epiphany Cathedral
And so, we are standing at one of the main temples of the Irkutsk-Angarsk diocese and the first church built outside the wooden fortress this is Epiphany Cathedral. To this day, it is one of the most unusual religious buildings in Russia.
Epiphany Cathedral
Lets start with the fact that creating of that temple began in 1718, when officially any stone constructing was prohibited without a special buyout, because all the material went to the making of St. Petersburg, but the Irkutsk residents did not spare almost 3 thousand rubles for bricklayers. However, since they paid, they decided that they could be content with the principle: its too high to God, and too far to the Tsar and started to build this temple in violation of all the rules and regulations of Orthodox architecture.
Epiphany Cathedral
First of all, a tent-roofed bell tower appeared, which became a forbidden fruit for builders already at the end of the 17th century. But here the nature was not on the side of the architects. And in 1742, just a year after the completion of the work, during a strong earthquake, the tent roof collapsed and a wooden onion with a spire was arranged in its place in 1746.
Epiphany Cathedral
A second moment is that the temple has two bell towers, one of which was built as a result of the fact that the old belfry, located above the main temple, could not bear the weight of the largest bell in the history of Irkutsk weighing 12.5 tons, which was cast especially for it in 1797. And Irkutsk people who were responsive to any charitable cause, without hesitation, decided to build another bell tower nearby, which was consecrated in 1816.But the bell did not served long. On December 31, 1861 in the afternoon, it rang out for the last time, when the echoes of the Kudara earthquake on Lake Baikal (about 7 Mw) reached Irkutsk. The bell fell off the yoke, split into pieces, and, since material was required to restore many other structures in the sufferer city, it was poured onto metal.
Map of Lake Baikal before 1862
Thirdly, on the walls of the temple you can see the most interesting ornaments that gravitate towards the traditions of Buddhism and even paganism. In addition, the Epiphany Cathedral is one of three churches in Siberia, where you can find glazed tiles with images of Slavic mythology: basilisks, unicorns, centaurs and even the famous bird Gamayun.
Tiles at the Epiphany Cathedral
The church suffered very seriously from the activities of the Irkutsk bakery, which had been located here since 1934. Therefore, in 19671985, during the restoration of the church by the Moscow architect G.G. Oranskaya, it was decided to remove the most damaged later layers, dismantle the bell tower and return the monument to its original appearance. At the same time, began restoration of the paintings, which continues to this day.
Before restoration of the Cathedral
Opposite the cathedral, you can see busts of the most famous saints of the city of Irkutsk, because ten holy men blessed this land with their steps: Righteous Elder Gerasim of Irkutsk, St. Innocent Kulchitsky, St. Sinesy Ivanov, St. Sophronius Crystalevskiy, St. Innocent Veniaminov, St. Meletius of Kharkov, St. Gerasim Dobroserdov, St. Meletius Yakimov, Holy Martyrs Bishops Parthenius and Ephraim.
Today, there are only three sculptures here, but every year a new monuments appear, starting in 2017, when it was 220th anniversary of the birth and 40th anniversary of the canonization of Apostle of Siberia and America Saint Innocent of Moscow. In 2018, on the 100th anniversary of the glorification, a bust of St. Sophronius Crystalevskiy appeared, and a year later, on the 215th anniversary of the canonization the image of St. Innocent of Irkutsk. I would like to believe that this will become a good tradition.