The Church of Nativity of the Theotokos

Address: Tatarbunarskaya str., 34
Year of construction: 1897

On the Tatarbunarskaya street (formerly – Kovrichnaya Str.) is a single-faith church of Nativity of the Theotokos. In the Soviet period it was one of the monuments of architecture that are under state protection.

The Holy Synod approved the founding of a single-faith parish in Izmail in early 1895. Until that time, services were temporarily held in the fortress in St. Nicholas Church.

The parishioners obtained permission to build their temple, it was erected as soon as possible – already on October 2, 1896, a new wooden church on a stone foundation was consecrated. But after 5 days the church burned down due to arson, only a wooden cross miraculously survived. Fortunately, the temple was insured.

The second attempt was already made in 1897. In the spring, the construction of a new church began, the project for which was created by the provincial architect Lozinsky Grigory. In the same year on November 16 it was consecrated by His Grace Bishop of Akkerman.

The building is brick, plastered, with wooden floors, three-part, single-head; It consists of the apse, the central part and the narthex with the adjacent bell tower. Apse five-sided, blocked by a conch from a tree. An octagon rises above the central four, resting on walls, transverse arches and sails, crowned by a helmet-shaped head with a glaucus. The rectangular narthex is covered with a wooden arched arch. The architecture of the building is archaic, without any decorations.

The temple is 12 fathoms  long (25.6 m), 6 fathoms wide (12.8 m)  in the refectory, and 12 fathoms in height with crosses (25.6 m). Decorated with 11 domes and painted outside with gray paint. Inside the temple was plastered with limestone mortar and whitewashed.

After the opening, a parish school operated at the church.

In 1961, the temple was closed and transferred to school number 5. For 40 years, the building has not been used for its intended purpose – it held labor and physical education lessons. During this time, all church shrines were stolen. Also, a wooden ceiling was built in the temple, dividing the room into 2 floors.

In 1998, the church was returned to the Orthodox by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and from 2000 to 2007 it was renovated and restored.

Today, The Church of Nativity of the Theotokos serves the unity of the Old Believers and the Orthodox, uniting two churches into one. This is the only temple where the marriage between the Orthodox and Old Believers is consecrated. Therefore, it is also called single-faith church.