Holy Trinity Cathedral (Lymanske)


Holy Trinity Cathedral – is a ruinate church in the German Catholic settlement of Kandel, now Lymanske in Rozdilna Raion, Odessa Oblast, Ukraine.

Description

In 1892 Holy Trinity Cathedral was built in Neo-Roman style and consecrated by Bishop Anton Zerr. In contrast to the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in nearby Selz, which was built with bricks, Holy Trinity Cathedral was built of limestone, a common material of the Black Sea region at that time. The church had a beautiful marble altar, many sacred statues made by H. Ad. Vogl from Hall in Tirol near Innsbruck. The Stations of the Cross and Holy Tomb were by Ferdinand Stuflesser and other statues from St. Ulrich Gröden adorned the inside of the church.

History

In 1808 by order of Tsar Alexander I went forth “About providing assistance and headright to foreign sodbusters in Novorossiya. This order was the beginning of the second colonization wave by German settlers to Novorossiya at that time. The colonists named their settlements according to the places left in their native land. On the territory of modern Odessa oblast there were two colonial districts: Libentalskyi and Kuchurhanskyi. All colonies were planned according to traditional German villages: with a Lutheran or Catholic church, volost administration, and school in its center.
Kuchurhansklyi colonial district was founded in 1808 out of six colonies with administration center in Selz, today urban-type settlement Lymanske. The district included six Catholic colonies. An administration center, as well as German colony Kandel was founded the same year by colonists from Alsace who were mainly Catholic. At that time in Kandel there were nearly 3,000 settlers, two schools.

Destruction of the cathedral

In the summer and autumn of 1919 German colonists from Odessa initiated the revolt against Prodrazvyorstka and mobilizing to the Soviet Red Army. After the troops of Denikin's volunteer army entered southern Ukraine, Germans formed a special colonial battalion, that weakened the strength of the Red army.
After defeat of the revolt the cathedral as well as the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in nearby Selz were closed. But its current condition is much worse. During the Soviet period it was used as grain storage, later it suffered a fire that nearly destroyed it – the ceiling fell down, and today only walls and columns are left. Today it is used by the local orphanage as coal storage.

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