What to See in Voronezh - Top Sights and Attractions

Towering Russo-Byzantine church. The Annunciation Cathedral in Voronezh is one of the tallest Eastern Orthodox churches in the world.

The existing five-domed building of the cathedral with an attached bell tower was erected between 1998 and 2009. It was patterned after St. Vladimir's Cathedral, built in the late 19th century in a Russo-Byzantine style harking back to the works of Konstantin Thon and demolished by the Bolsheviks in the 20th century.

The church takes its name from the eponymous Ukrainian Baroque cathedral that was built in 1718–35 in place of an earlier church commissioned by St. Mitrofan of Voronezh; it was destroyed by the Soviets in the 1950s. The existing bell tower echoes the one designed for the old cathedral by Giacomo Quarenghi.

A monument to St. Mitrofan, whose relics are kept inside, was unveiled in front of the church in 2003.^[2]

Petrovsky Square is a public garden in the center of Voronezh in front of the Southeastern Railway Administration. Bounded by Stepana Razina Street, Revolution Avenue, and 20 years of Komsomol Street, area 0.5 ha.

The square got its name in honor of Russian Emperor Peter I - the founder of the regular Russian military fleet in the Voronezh region.

In 1860 on the territory of the square was established Monument to Peter I (sculptor A. E. Schwartz, architect A. A. Cui - by the idea of D. I. Grimm). During the Great Patriotic War the monument in bronze was taken by German occupants from the city, and in 1956 the monument was renewed by sculptors N.P.Gavrilov and G.A.Shults which had survived from the photos. The pedestal on which the sculpture of Peter I, preserved since 1860, is made of pink granite Pavlovsk. Near the monument there are 5 ship's guns. In 1901 in the park was created fountain and installed 40 benches.

In 2007, in connection with the construction of the shopping and entertainment complex was reconstructed square.

At the moment, the square is one of the main meeting places for lovers and young people.

House No. 21 on Prospekt Revolutsii is situated near Petrovsky Prospect, which was built for the Treasury Chamber in 1786-1787 on the project of Giacomo Quarenghi as a part of the unrealized complex of public buildings. In 1784 Vasily Alekseevich Chertkov, governor-general of Voronezh, ordered the architect Quarenghi to design the provincial administration and provincial offices. It was to consist of three buildings connected by semicircular galleries: a one-storey mansion of the Governor's Administration in the center, and two-storey buildings of the Treasury Chamber on the right and the Civil and Criminal Chambers on the left. The complex was supposed to be placed in the territory of the present-day Petrovsky garden. The construction work was supervised by the provincial architect I. Volkov. Only the building of the State Chamber was erected since the beginning of the Russian-Turkish War resulted in a temporary ban on the construction of stone buildings all over the country.

In 2011, for the 425th anniversary of Voronezh, Russian Post issued an envelope with the image of the monument to Peter I in Petrovsky Park.

The I.N. Kramskoi Voronezh Regional Art Museum is one of the largest cultural centers of Voronezh and the entire Chernozem region. I.N. Kramskoi is one of the largest cultural centers of Voronezh and the whole Chernozem region. The museum is located in a palace, built in 1777-1779 in the Baroque style by the provincial architect N. N. Ievsky for the Voronezh governor, Lieutenant-General IA Potapov. The building is an architectural monument of federal importance.

The size of the museum fund is more than 20 thousand items. The museum has a unique collection of works of Ancient Egypt, antiquity, Russian and Western European painting of the XVIII-XX centuries, icons, graphics, decorative and applied art, sculpture, paintings of famous countrymen - I.N. Kramskoy, A.A. Buchkuri, E.A. Kiseleva, works of modern Voronezh artists. The I.N. Kramskoy Museum has the largest exhibition hall in Voronezh, with an exhibition area of 1000 square meters.

The museum's collection of ancient Egyptian art is the oldest in Russia. It was assembled in Egypt in 1815 by the Derpt traveler and Orientalist Otto Friedrich von Richter and became the object of scientific interest of many Russian orientalists - B.A. Turaev, E.S. Bogoslovsky, O.D. Berlev, S.I. Khodzhash, V.V. Solkin.

The director of the museum is Ryabchikova Olga Alexandrovna.

Voronezh Regional Museum of Local Lore is one of the leading museums of Voronezh. The museum funds include more than 170 thousand items. The most valuable are: an ethnographic collection, a collection of numismatics, faleristics, bonistics, sphragistics, philately, a collection of porcelain, ceramics, a collection of weapons and a collection of rare books. Exposition and exhibition area of the institution is 2615 m².

The museum conducts scientific and educational work. In recent years, the museum staff has published a number of booklets, teaching aids and collections of scientific works. Among them: Voronezh Regional Museum of Local Lore (booklet). - Voronezh, 2006. Voronezh - the Cradle of the Russian Navy. Voronezh, 2006. - 16 с. House-Museum of A. L. Durov / compiled by I. Boikova. I. Boikova. Voronezh, 2006. - 16 с. Exhibition "The Weapon of the Eight Centuries. XIII-XX centuries" (booklet). Voronezh, 2006. Vivat, Voronezh! (Methodological Guide for Teachers). Voronezh, 2007. - 48 с. Excursion Work Methods. Voronezh, 2008. - 27 с. Collection of scientific papers on the 30th anniversary of the Durov House-Museum. Voronezh. 2008. - 160 с.

The Temple of Samuel the Prophet is an Orthodox church of the Voronezh diocese, located in the historic center of Voronezh. The one-domed church is 26.1 m high and is in baroque style, with a "ship" base, and occupies an area of 0.1247 hectares. It was built in 1808 with the participation of the merchant Samuel Nikitich Mescheryakov. The merchant was popularly called the Cast-iron one for his physical strength. Next to the temple there is Ascension cemetery, it was called Chugunovsky after the nickname of the merchant benefactor.

Next to the temple of Samuel the Prophet there was a cemetery church - Ascension church (with two bounds in the name of the Holy Apostle John the Evangelist and in honor of the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God). The church was made of stone in classical style and had a three-tiered bell tower. The church was built in 1808-1813. Services in it were held only in summer, as the building was not heated in winter. But both the Ascension church and the church in the name of Samuel the Prophet were served by the same priests, so they were always perceived as one whole.

The Chugunovskoe cemetery has been the largest in Voronezh since the 19th century. In fact, it had several subdivisions: on the right were Lutheran burials (territory of modern Telecenter), in the center was a military cemetery (modern Third International Street), on the left were buried patients and prisoners (near the city prison).

During the years of Soviet power the church lost its value. In 1929 the church of Ascension was closed, the temple in the name of Samuel the Prophet in 1930 became a shelter for homeless children, Chugunovskoye cemetery began to destroy in 1931. During the Great Patriotic War, the church building was badly damaged. From 1943 to 1951 there was a glass factory inside the church. By the end of the 1950s the church was actually dismantled brick by brick. In 1960 on the territory of the former Chugunovka cemetery the construction of a sports complex "Jubilee" began. In the early 1990s, dilapidated buildings housed workshops of artists and sculptors.

It was not until 1993 that the church was transferred to the Voronezh diocese. Today the church is a monument to the frontier guards who died defending the borders of their homeland.

On April 30, 2016, five new domes of blue color were installed on the temple, and the old golden dome was dismantled.

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The Chizhovka bridgehead is a memorial complex in Voronezh dedicated to the Voronezh soldiers who defended the city during World War II. The modern monument was opened May 5, 1975 near the Vogresovsky bridge on the territory of Chizhovka. The final work was completed by the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory, in April 1985. It is located in the Leninsky district of the city. The memorial was designed by sculptors A.A. Tolmacheva, O.P. Tolmachev and architect V.K. Selyutin. Ensemble of burial complex consists of a mass grave and "Hall of Memory", where the walls are carved the names of the defenders of Voronezh. On a high podium there is a sculptural group in the form of three soldiers covered with sheet bronze, saluting the dead. The wind flutters cloaks behind their backs.

In 2007, the administration of the Leninsky District of Voronezh completed a certification of the monument of history and culture "Brothers' Grave No. 1" ("Chizhovsky Platzdar"). (The heating system was repaired, and the pedestal of the monument was faced with marble slabs. The main improvement and repair works of the monument "Chizhovsky foothold" are included into the municipal target program "Preservation and development of culture and art in Voronezh city district in 2007-2010" and will be performed by the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory.

The Church of the Nativity is a partially destroyed and reconstructed Orthodox church in the city of Voronezh. It is located in the former sloboda Pridacha. It is the oldest surviving building on the left bank of Voronezh and one of the oldest churches on the left bank.

The church was closed in the 1930s and began to be used for industrial purposes. During re-equipment drum with dome, volumes of side churches, upper tiers of bell tower and vaults of refectory were destroyed, the upper floor was equipped. By the beginning of the XXI century brick rectangular volumes of the church, refectory and bell tower with a gable roof were left of the church. In early November 2015, the private owner of the church building, Vibor Construction Company, began its demolition. By that time, the old church was not included by the Voronezh authorities in the list of historical and cultural heritage sites of the Voronezh region. As a result, the apsidal part of the temple that contained the altar was partially demolished. Due to the publicity given to this fact in the media, the destruction of the church was halted; the Church of the Nativity and the area of 2.8 thousand square meters under it were given to the Voronezh diocese on a free-of-charge basis. In February 2016, the church held its first service since 1930.

Currently, the church is located in the center of the old part of the former sloboda Pridacha, on Dimitrova Street, at an angle to the red line of the street. Originally located at the intersection of Bolshaya Road and Kuznechnaya Street. Images of the temple, except for some fragments, before it was adapted for household needs for a long time was not found, in 2017, local historians of the city found an old photo of the temple.