Assumption Cathedral

Solemn summer services are held beneath these vaults, and in winter they are moved to the neighboring Nativity of Christ Cathedral. The red brick of the walls is pierced by tall windows, and the broad interior held the congregation for whom the earlier church had become too cramped. Gunpowder was once stored on this site. That earlier Assumption Cathedral is now known as Nativity of Christ Cathedral.

In sixteen ninety-six, Yakov Bukhvostov was kept here in irons for many weeks. He was a serf peasant, released by his owner on quitrent, and he earned money through stone-construction contracts. In Ryazan, Bukhvostov undertook to bring the new main cathedral of the Ryazan Diocese to completion.

The first attempt had already ended in disaster. The old Assumption Cathedral, now Nativity of Christ Cathedral, had become too cramped for a large city. So a more spacious summer church was begun nearby, on the site of a former gunpowder store. In the spring of sixteen ninety-two, the nearly completed building collapsed. Perhaps the ground at the site of a filled-in pond gave way; perhaps the masters made errors in their calculations. The documents did not preserve the exact cause.

Metropolitan Avraamy, head of the Ryazan Diocese and the client for the construction, announced new bidding. Bukhvostov received the contract together with three companions. His work bore little resemblance to that of a present-day architect. The contractor took an advance, hired crews of masons, bought materials, issued money and provisions to the workers, and was responsible for deadlines and quality with his own capital. Bukhvostov paid part of his earnings to his landowner as quitrent. A mistake on such a construction project threatened him with ruin and corporal punishment.

Three years later, a major “damage” occurred in the new cathedral—the term used in the documents for serious damage to the masonry. Researchers suppose that the vaults collapsed again. Avraamy ordered the contractor to be put in irons and kept at the construction site. No other master was appointed in Bukhvostov's place: the work continued, the damage was repaired, and by sixteen ninety-nine the metropolitan saw the cathedral's stone section completed.

The church was called Assumption in honor of the Dormition of the Theotokos, a church feast devoted to her death. The large building was intended for solemn services in warm weather. It is used that way now as well: services are held here in summer, and when the cold sets in, they are moved to the neighboring Nativity of Christ Cathedral.

The nearly completed church that collapsed in sixteen ninety-two no longer exists. The present red-brick cathedral is the second attempt, completed after another major damage and the weeks Yakov Bukhvostov spent in irons at this construction site.