Elokhovo Cathedral

The Epiphany Cathedral at Elokhovo, Moscow is the vicarial church of the Moscow Patriarchs. The surviving building was designed and built by Yevgraph Tyurin in 1837–1845. 
The original church in the village of Elokhovo near Moscow was built in 1722-31 for tsaritsa Praskovia Ivanovna. It was there that Alexander Pushkin was baptised in 1799. 
The present structure was erected in 1837-1845 to a Neoclassical design by Yevgraph Tyurin. The architecture is typical for the late Empire style, with some elements of European eclectics. The riotous opulence of the interior decoration is due to a restoration undertaken in 1912. 
Upon closing the Kremlin Cathedrals (1918), the destruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (1931) and the Dorogomilovo Cathedral (1938), the chair of Russian Orthodox Church was moved to Elokhovo, the largest open church in Moscow. The enthronements of Patriarchs Sergius I (1943), Alexius I (1945), Pimen (1970), and Alexius II (1990) took place there.
The church has been well-maintained, even in the Soviet era, and is known to have a 1970 air conditioning system using deep subterranean water from a 250 meter deep artesian aquifer. 
The Christmas and Easter night services, which featured President Boris Yeltsin and Patriarch Alexy II, were aired on national television until the consecration of the rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2000.
== Burials ==
* May 1944 - Patriarch Sergius I of Moscow; the granite tomb is by Alexey Shchusev
* 9 December 2008 - Patriarch Alexy II of Russia.Russian Orthodox Church appoints interim leader, ABC News Online, 6 December 2008
==References==
==External links==
* An amateur site devoted to the cathedral
* Map and photographs: www.pravoslavie.ru
* Epiphany Cathedrals in Moscow www.pravoslavie.ru
Category:Cathedrals in Moscow
Category:Cathedrals