Russian architects of the Moscow architectural Institute has fully prepared a draft Russian-Serbian temple in the city of Banja Luka in Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The design of the project began with the blessing of the Bishop of Bath Buzuluk Ephraim in August of 2017. In September of the same year at the construction site of the temple had carried out the preparatory work. The authors of the project were the Russian architects and graduates of the Department of Church architecture Moscow architectural Institute Alexey Kapustin and Alexander Skabichevsky.
14-16 January 2018, an official visit to Banja Luka the delegation of the Moscow architectural Institute, headed by rector D. O. Shvidkovsky, which was held a number of meetings and official transfer of the architectural project of the Serbian side. Was signed the cooperation agreement between the Moscow architectural Institute and a Buzuluk eparchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the realization of the project of construction of the Russian-Serbian temple.
Meeting of the delegation of MARCHI Bishop of Bath Buzuluk Ephraim
The Bishop of Bath Buzuluk Ephraim, personally supervising the construction, expressed special gratitude to the rector of the Moscow Institute of architecture and young architects for the high level of preparation of project documentation.
After that, work began on a zero cycle of construction.
To date, the Foundation of the temple is almost finished, and already discern its outline.
The temple is located in one of picturesque places of Banja Luka, and, according to local experts, will be one of the biggest temples in the city. The construction of the temple dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Royal family.
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The draft five-domed Church with a belfry formed one of the ancient Russian temples. In the temple there are three chapels: in the name of the Transfiguration, the Royal martyrs and saints. Simeon and Sava of Serbia, the founders of the dynasty nemanjic. At the meeting with the architects from Moscow, Vladyka Ephrem stressed that, despite the fact that the idea of building a similar temple in Banja Luka almost 100 years, it has now acquired a special meaning, because the temple will be dedicated to the memory of St. Tsar Nicholas II and his family of famous Russian and Serbian churches, not just as a token of gratitude to the Russian Emperor.
The first initiative to build a temple-monument in gratitude to the Russian Emperor Nicholas II spoke Serbian veterans of the First world war. Many Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina were drafted into the Austrian army, and, once on the front, or were voluntarily surrendered to the Russian army. Many of them became part of the formed Slavic and Serbian corps and ended the war in the ranks of the liberators of the Motherland. These veterans were eager to build a temple in gratitude to the protector of fellow Slavs Nicholas II, murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918
However, this idea did not materialize due to economic difficulties and the outbreak of the Second world war. In times of Socialist Yugoslavia, this project was impossible to carry out for political reasons, as the next attempt of its implementation was interrupted by the war 1992-1995.