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| Church of Cosma and Damian |
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| Embassy of Belarus |
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| Maroseika, 12 |
The church of the Unmercenary Healers of Cosma and Damian stands on the corner of Maroseika St and Starosadsky Lane (Side-Street). Both streets are very close to my heart, as this was one of the routes to the State Historical Library in Starosadsky Lane where I went religiously between 1997 and 2003. Next door to the church is the building that used to house the Tax Police Service; nowadays there is located the Federal Drug Control Service. In the early 2000s, the street was shown on TV many times when the TV series “Maroseika, 12” was aired. And right opposite the church sits the opulent buildings that has for years been housing the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus. I secretly relish the thought of living there, if it ever becomes available.
The church was built on the site of a wooden one that dated back to 1625. The church-goers themselves collected the money, and the building was entrusted to the architect Matvei (Matthew) Kazakov. He worked on the site between 1793 and 1803. Among the famous attendants of the church were the poet-diplomat Fyodor Tyutchev and the writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
The church is built in the style of classicism. The chancel and the side-chapels of the same height are combined with the cube refectory and two-level bell tower. The buildings almost do not have decorative details except for two double-column porticos from the side of the street (from Russian Church). The church used to be famous for its miracle-working icon “The Healer of the Paralytic”.
The story of the church during the Soviet era is surely to startle the listener: it was used as a motorbike club, an archive, a storehouse, an administrative and educational institution, and the library. Nonetheless it survived, was given back to the Church in 1988, and since 1993 was open to the pious public.
I managed to make a photo of the interior of the church, showing the altar. As you may notice, inside the church is barely decorated, which does not seem to do with the Soviet expurgations. Simply, having been built in the early 19th c., it was not painted with any frescoes. Although the level of literacy had still left a lot to be desired, the church decor no longer played the part of delivering the message.
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| Inside the church of Cosma and Damian |
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| The back of the church, seen from Starosadsky Lane |
