In 2021, an underground room was found during the restoration of the Holy Kazan cathedral, the oldest church of Almaty. According to priests, orthodox Christians used to pray there secretly during Stalin’s repressions, when all religions were prohibited. The premise was restored and now it is the only cave temple in Kazakhstan.
The Holy Kazan cathedral was founded in 1871 and has been rebuilt many times over a long life. After a large earthquake of 1887, the building was so damaged that it had to be fully reconstructed. Thus, a rock temple appeared instead of the wooden church, and it has retained its image until now. Since then, the cathedral has been repeatedly repaired, yet nobody has ever thought that there was another underground church under the basement of the building.
A few years ago, underground premises were found under the Holy Kazan cathedral during the full-scale reconstruction of the church. The cave consisted of a few rooms, and, according to cathedral ministers, it was the place of church services in the 30s of last century, when the Soviet government fought religion, also by repressions.
The Holy Kazan cathedral was closed in those years, and the church building served as the ancillary accommodation: it was used to show films, hold dance parties, and even store vegetables. In 1942, during the World War II, the cathedral was opened again for believers and church services were allowed.
The underground room is located right under the altar, a place in the eastern part of the temple with the iconostasis. According to church rules, only the clerical order may walk up the altar and only during particular church services, not all the time.
The priests of the Holy Kazan cathedral believe that the underground room could not be found for so long because the place was sacred: people rarely walked up the altar and the place did not need any major restoration for a long time. Another question is why the underground room was never mentioned in church documents, although the church was fully restored a few times? The question remains unanswered.
After the thorough study of the underground room under the Holy Kazan cathedral, it was decided to establish the second temple – cave temple. The premises were decorated with rocks, the roof was reinforced, electricity was installed, and all necessary church attributes were installed.
A separate passage was caved in so that visitors could easily reach the underground sanctuary via the lateral side of the cathedral. The cave temple is not recommended to be visited by people with claustrophobia: only one person at a time can pass through the narrow passage, and low ceilings do not allow straightening upright.
The path from the passage to the altar is a small museum, which displays orthodox artefacts behind stained glass windows: antique icons, candlesticks and books in the Church Slavonic. They were brought there later, when the temple was equipped.
An ancient brickwork and a crawl way leading either to the church crawl space or ending with a cul-de-sac can be seen behind one of the stained glass windows. No church worker could explain where the way led to.
The cavity temple is dedicated to churchmen who suffered during Stalin’s repressions. According to church rules, they are usually called new martyrs, i.e. saints who died as martyrs in the relatively recent times.
In Kazakhstan, there is even the day of remembrance for deceased priests, August 16. Many of them were prisoners of Karlag – Karaganda correctional labour camp, and deceased in the 30s of last century.
The space around the altar can contain no more than a dozen of visitors, while the temple decoration is rather ascetic: a few icons, benches for visitors, church candlesticks, and a big wooden cross.
In addition to ancient church artefacts, the cave temple keeps the particles of relics of Orthodox saints and priests who have died in Stalin’s camps.
A table sits aside and church members can request a prayer for good health or remembrance of a loved one by writing their names on a paper. They leave money, at their discretion, next to their papers.
All photos by the author