Church of St. Nicholas (Taganrog, Russia)

Nikolsky temple, the main one, in fact, the temple of the southern Russian Taganrog was built in 1778. According to legend, it was erected on the site where Emperor Peter the Great set up his camp when he arrived at Cape Taganiy Rog to choose a place for a new naval base. The building of the temple itself symbolized the successes of Russia at sea: its wooden walls were built from the skeletons of captured Turkish ships, and the main bell was cast from captured Turkish cannons. After the completion of construction and consecration, the temple received the status of an admiralty cathedral. In 1845, a 3-tiered brick bell tower in the name of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva was added to the church, the adjacent territory was landscaped. Later, a refectory was added to the chapel.

During the Crimean War on May 20, 1855, an Anglo-French squadron entered the Taganrog Bay. On May 22, Taganrog came under massive artillery fire. The St. Nicholas Church also suffered - to this day, two stuck nuclei can be seen in one of its walls.

During the Great Patriotic War, the wooden part of the church was completely burned down. And during the period of post-war persecution of the Church, the temple was almost completely destroyed. In 1957, the upper tiers of the bell tower were blown up. A tennis court was alternately located on the church grounds, stable, garages and auto repair shop, woodworking shop.

In 1989, the building of the temple was handed over to the believers. In the early 90s, the bell tower was restored and a new brick building was erected on the site of the burnt one. Now the temple is protected as a monument of history and culture of the 18th century.

The lives of many famous people are associated with the history of the Nikolsky Church. So, during his service in Taganrog, Theodor Ushakov was an officer of the Azov flotilla, a parishioner of the temple, who later became an admiral and canonized by the Church. Now in the Nikolsky Church there is an icon of the holy righteous Theodore Ushakov with a particle of his honest relics.

But, perhaps, the most amazing parishioner of the temple was the holy righteous Paul of Taganrog. In 1999, the glorification of St. Paul in the face of locally revered saints took place, and his honorable relics were transferred to the St. Nicholas Church. Pilgrims from many parts of the world go to the relics of the saint.

In February 2016, by the decision of the Consecrated Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, the church-wide glorification of Paul of Taganrog in the face of the righteous took place. The church-wide glorification of Elder Paul, so far the only glorified ascetic of piety in the South of Russia, made the St. Nicholas Church one of the centers of the spiritual and cultural life of Taganrog and everything Don Territory.