St. Alexander Nevsky Church, Ashgabat: A Russian Orthodox Parish Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Turkmenistan
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Russian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page4 sections
History
Imperial Foundation
St. Alexander Nevsky Church is a Russian Orthodox church in Turkmenistan, founded in 1882 and consecrated in 1900. Dedicated to Alexander Nevsky, the thirteenth-century prince of Novgorod and Vladimir who became a major saint and military-religious figure in Russian Orthodox tradition, it served as both the parish church and field church of the 1st Taman Regiment of the Kuban Cossack Host. This military formation of the Russian Empire combined military service with settlement-related duties.
General Aleksey Kuropatkin, a senior Russian imperial commander, ordered the church’s construction at a cost of 14,740 rubles. The building originally stood outside Ashgabat’s city limits, in the village of Koshi. Koshi was annexed to Ashgabat in 2013, bringing the former village within the city’s administrative area.
Soviet Conversion and Religious Return
In 1918, the church was deconsecrated and converted into a warehouse on a military base. It returned to church use in 1989 and then underwent extensive renovation. The building was reconsecrated in November 1993, restoring its religious function after more than seven decades of secular use.
The church is affiliated with the Patriarchal Deanery in Turkmenistan. Its patronal feast days are observed on September 12 and December 6. As of 2019, Archpriest Ioann Kopach directed the church, with Priest Vadim Proskurovich serving as a cleric.
Remains
The church has a cruciform plan and is built of white fired brick. A wooden dome rises beneath an iron or tin roof, and the original design provided space for 350 worshipers. The building is in excellent condition following the extensive work carried out after its return to religious use.
Renovation reopened two doorways that had been bricked in, replaced the roof, replastered the interior, repainted the icons, and reconstructed the bell tower and domes. A replacement iconostasis, the screen of icons separating the sanctuary from the main worship space in an Eastern Orthodox church, now occupies the interior.
The original iconostasis was made from carved limewood in the Rococo style. It had been purchased for 1,000 rubles from A. I. Kuklin of Torzhok in Tver Governorate, but disappeared during the Soviet period. The church also possesses a list-copy of the miraculous Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God, brought from Pochaev Lavra, a major Orthodox monastic center associated with the icon’s veneration. Its sacred collection includes fragments of relics associated with Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Saint Anna of Novgorod, Venerable Anthony the Great, Venerable Kuksha of Odessa, the fathers of the Kyiv Caves, Great Martyr Theodore Tiron, and Saint Luke of Crimea, together with a fragment of the Lord’s Cross.
