As professor Alexander B. Shmidt said history of the southernmost Orthodox Church in the world started 10 years ago, when on the basis of the project of Altay architects S. Rybak, P. Anisiforov, and K. Khromov there was built Life-giving Trinity church in Antarctic. As a place for construction there was chosen the Russian Antarctic station “Bellingshausen”. Then, in 2004 A.B. Shmidt had a chance to work upon the construction part of the project as a chief engineer of the project and later to participate in its execution.
Students and professors present at the lecture learnt about the stages of construction, church transportation from the Altay to Antarctic on board of the scientific research ship “Academician Sergey Vavilov”.
“When designing the church I proposed several construction variants of the church foundation. This foundation had to resist heaviest puffs of gale-force wind, - said chief engineer of the project Alexander B. Shmidt. – At the end I chose a monolith foundation with a system of chain haulage used as an anchor. This makes construction more stable even under wind pressure of 45 meters per second”.
When church was finished, there was held a small consecrating ceremony of the church. And only 10 years later on February 14, 2014 there was held a grand ceremony of consecration of the southernmost Russian Orthodox Church in the world.
Alexander B. Shmidt also reminded participants of the conference of 1820 when Russian seafarers F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev discovered Antarctica during their journeys on boats “Mirniy” and “Vostok”. This was one of the greatest geographic discoveries of the 19th century. Systematic study of Antarctic in the second half of the 20th century led to creation of scientific research stations and bases for long stay of scientists and specialists.
World history of pioneers is inherently connected with that any new area of living started with construction of a church of the confession practiced in their countries. Almost 50 years of Russian experience in Antarctica suffered losses. At the Russian stations there are cemeteries where they rested souls of pilots, polar explorers, scientists and specialists of various professions whose selfless work stopped in Antarctica. That’s why erection of the Orthodox Church allowed paying tribute to dead polar explorers in Antarctica”.
Having visited Antarctica 10 years after the construction A.B. Shmidt could investigate the foundation, church timber and came to the conclusion that they are still in good state and many years ahead can preserve the original look in spite of the severe climate.
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Photo: Dmitry Sutyrin