Penza, 27 September 2015. PenzaNews. The Penza city head Victor Kuvaytsev announced his plans to hold a church wedding with his wife in the Spassky Cathedral that currently undergoes reconstruction on Sovetskaya square.

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The official told the journalists about his plans during the first open regional Orthodox culture festival “Spassky Evenings.”

“I am sympathetic to the Spassky Cathedral. My brothers and I went to a school in Vadinsk that was located in the Kerensky church. We still maintain contact with them. It is our tradition to visit there and help in whatever way we can. But it would be much better here, I believe. My wife and I have decided: once it opens, we will hold our church wedding here,” the press service of the Penza Duma quotes Victor Kuvaytsev.

The original Spassky Cathedral was an Orthodox Christian temple and a key location of the Sobornaya square in Penza (later renamed to Sovetskaya square). It was built using government money and donations from the congregation, including members of the Russian emperor’s family. The cathedral was constructed as a two-floor, five-domed church with a stand-alone belfry. Initially, they were connected by a xystus, but the latter was rebuilt into a monastery canteen later on. It took from 1790 to 1799 to build the belfry, and from 1800 to 1824 to build the cathedral itself.

The cathedral was the location of the wonderworking icon of the Kazan Mother of God: according to the legend, it protected Penza from the nomads during the so-called Kuban Pogrom of 1717, and shielded the people’s militia during the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Crimean War of 1855.

After the Soviet revolution, the cathedral was closed on 1917, made a property of the archival bureau in 1924, and blown up in 1934.

The restoration of the Spassky Cathedral became a point of discussion during the times of Archbuship Filaret as the had of the Penza and Kuznetsk diocese (2000-2010). The reconstruction itself began in 2010, during the years of the Bishop Veniamin of Penza and Kuznetsk. The project of the new Spassky Cathedral was developed by “Penzagrazhdanproekt.”

The new cathedral will be able to fit up to 5,000 people, its top cross on the central kupola will be built 59 meters up from the ground level, while the belfry tower with the main spire and the cross will be 82.5 meters tall. The sanctification ceremony of the Spassky Cathedral will be held by the Patriach Kirill of Moscow and All Rus.