The history of the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God in Parkhomivka
In the second half of the 18th century Parkhomivka became the property of the well-known transport engineer, Actual State Councillor Viktor Holubiev, who later turned the estate into a model farm. After the landowner’s death in 1903, the heirs – his sons Viktor and Lev – decided to perpetuate their father’s memory by building a church. The majestic church, designed for two thousand worshippers, does not quite match the present size of the village, but it preserves an inscription in Old Church Slavonic: “The church in honour and memory of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God and the great martyr Viktor was built in 1903–1906”.
The architecture of the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God in Parkhomivka
The imagination of the project’s author Volodymyr Pokrovskyi, who was later awarded the title of Academician of Architecture for this building, confused the official church authorities. For more than two years they refused permission to consecrate the church in the village of Parkhomivka, explaining the refusal by the incompatibility of the architectural solutions with church canons. The clergy were not mistaken: there were no similar churches in Orthodoxy at that time.
That is why the Church of the Intercession, located on a barely noticeable hill by a pond, was consecrated only in 1908, and the ashes of Viktor Holubiev were reburied in the attached chapel. The Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God in Parkhomivka resembles an Orthodox church only at first glance, and then only partly. In fact it is an amazing and rather bold architectural mixture of Gothic, Eastern – Asian – and even pagan cult forms.
Many ancient symbols are carved on the church walls and on the marble slabs, and the only fresco painting, by the artist Vasyl Perminov, placed in the altar part of the church, contrasts dramatically with the whitewashed walls and vault. Experts believe that the reason for the creation of such a unique church in Parkhomivka lies in the fact that Viktor Holubiev, Volodymyr Pokrovskyi and Mykola Roerich were close to the ideals of the East, and this largely influenced the result. The ensemble of the Church of the Intercession was completed by the priest’s house and a fence with a gate.
In 1929 the Parkhomivka church was closed, and in the pre-war years the fence around the church, stylised as defensive walls with loopholes, was dismantled. During the German occupation in 1941 services in the church were resumed, and they continued until the 1950s. Later the church building was used as a warehouse for seed material, and poisonous chemicals were stored in the cellars. In 1979 the church was given the status of an architectural monument, and in 1982 restoration work began, which was later largely stepped up thanks to the involvement of Raisa Gorbacheva, wife of the last leader of the Soviet Union. Since 1992 services of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate have been restored in the church, and in 1994, a few dozen metres from the main facade of the Church of the Intercession, a stylish monument to the former owner of Parkhomivka, Viktor Holubiev, was erected.
How to get to the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God in Parkhomivka
It is best to get to the village of Parkhomivka from Bila Tserkva. Minibuses regularly depart in the direction of the village of Parkhomivka from 1-a Kutsenka Street (the bus station in Bila Tserkva) (the fare should be checked when boarding). You can also reach the village of Parkhomivka by your own car.
