Bakhchysarai, July 13, 2016
The Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel
The Minister of Culture of the Crimea Arina Novoselskaya has said she will take the restoration of the fourteenth-century Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel in the village of Kudrino of the Crimea’s Bakhchysarai region under her control, reports Interfax-Religion with reference to the press service of the regional Ministry of Culture.
The minister has also determined the time of holding of an on-site meeting which will include visiting of unique objects of the federal importance in the Bakhchysarai region for determination of concrete measures regarding their conservation and making them into museums.
The church was built in 1328 and is a single-nave basilica with slot-like windows, constructed of pre-fabricated cut stone and facing the east.
The church was heavily damaged during the hostilities of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; there is written evidence of its restoration in 1594, probably on the funds provided by Russian tsars.
The church is famous for its many wall inscriptions depicting crosses, various undecipherable monograms, Greek words and numerals.
According to the Ministry of Culture, today only the church foundations and fragments of the walls survive, the roof completely caved in, and the site is surrounded by a cemetery with gravestones of different shapes most of which date as far back as the seventeenth century.
By order of the Government of the Russian Federation in 2015 the church was included in the list of objects of cultural heritage of the federal importance as well as the national register of historically and culturally significant monuments of the peoples of the Russian Federation.
