Annunciation Cathedral

The Kharkiv Cathedral Mosque was first built in 1906, destroyed in 1936 by the Soviet authorities and rebuilt in 2006 on the same site. The construction of the first mosque was made necessary by the considerable growth of the Muslim community in Kharkiv in the second half of the 19th century. It is believed that this growth was due to the deployment of the Tatar-Bashkir cavalry in the city during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878).

The Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God was the most important Ukrainian Orthodox church in Kharkiv until the construction of the Annunciation Cathedral in 1901. The first mention of the cathedral in written sources dates back to 1658. However, the present cathedral was built in the years 1771-1777 in the style of Russian Baroque. To commemorate the victory over Napoleon, a 90-metre high bell tower was built in the years 1821-1844. In 1929, the atheist authorities closed the cathedral, demolished its domes and removed the bell from the tower. The decorative elements of the façade were also destroyed. In the 1950s, however, several renovations took place. A tornado damaged the tower in 1975.

The current structure of this church is a reconstruction, built on the ruins of the old church that was destroyed by the Soviets. The original church was constructed in the 17th century. The church follows the traditional Ukranian design and includes 9 domes.