Church

This pretty orange and red-domed, wooden church is built on the site of several previous places of Christian worship. After the town was founded, services were first held here in a yurt. A subsequent stone church, no doubt intended to be more permanent than the quakeproof yurt, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1890 (its granite foundations are still visible). The new wooden cathedral was completed in 1895 but suffered during the secular 1930s when its onion domes were removed and it was turned into a club. Rebuilding was completed in the early 1990s and the cathedral was first deconsecrated in 1991 (again in 1997). Today Karakol's Batiushka Vladimir (Father Vladimir), who lives with his family in the grounds, oversees the entire Issyk-Kul diocese and a local flock of ethnic Russians.
   The cathedral's greatest treasure is an icon of the Gentle Virgin Mary, originally from Tyup, 27km away. The icon is said to have shed tears and blood in 1916 when monks at Svetly Mys (see day trips from Karakol) were murdered. It is also venerated for having repelled the bullets of rebel soldiers in an attack of the same time. The icon shone with an ethereal light and its would-be destroyers were so overwhelmed that nobody touched it afterwards. Several copies of the icon have been made, many of which are said to have healing properties. The best time to visit is on Sundays before 10am, when the chanting of the choir, rising above a painted wooden iconostasis, adds to the incense-and-candles fuelled Old Russian atmosphere.
   A 1$ entrance fee is charged for foreign visitors. It is, of course, free for everybody who comes to take part in services, or to pray.