The Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ is located in the centre of Riga and is the largest Orthodox church in the city. The idea to build a new cathedral in the city was conceived in 1872. After holding a competition for the construction of a temple with a capacity of 2000 people, at the end of 1875 the project of R.K. Fluga.
The foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid by Bishop Seraphim of Riga in May 1876. The construction was supervised by architect N.V. Chagin. According to the project, the church should be 5-domed, and the domes largely exceeded the height of the buildings. Initially, a bell tower was not planned for this temple, however, towards the end of construction, Emperor Alexander III presented the cathedral with 12 bells cast at the factory of the Moscow merchant N.D. Finlandsky by the famous master of that time K. Verevkin. For the bells the project of the belfry was made, built in the same style as the church. The belfry fit perfectly into the original plan of the temple, combining with the cathedral in style and composition. The belfry was connected to the cathedral by a covered passage.
The decoration of the temple inside consisted mainly in ornamental painting, executed in the "Byzantine style", supplemented by font compositions in the arches. Icons were painted at the Academy of Arts by such famous artists as F.S. Zhuravlev, K.B. Venig, A.I. Korzukhin, V.P. Vereshchagin. The utensils were ordered from factories of I.A. Zheverzheev, I.P. Khlebnikov, etc.
The construction of the church was completed in 1883, the next year the Riga Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ was surrounded by an openwork fence and a public garden was laid out on the inner territory. The consecration of the cathedral took place on 28 April 1884. А Three days later on Saturday all 12 bells rang for the first time over the city. Quite quickly the cathedral became a recognised spiritual centre, not only of the Latvian capital, but also of the whole region. There is information that in the autumn of 1894 John of Kronstadt, who is now ranked among the saints, performed divine services here in the autumn of 1894.
In 1918 the Riga municipality closed the church, and services were forbidden. When Archbishop John Pommer visited the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ, at the invitation of the All-Latvian Council of Orthodox Parishes, he found the temple in a catastrophic state. The windows were broken, the bells were gone, the iconostases cut and piled in a heap, the paintings destroyed, the crucifix thrown in the rubbish.
The difficult road to the restoration of the temple began. Archbishop John, in order to prevent further destruction of the cathedral, and, if possible, to gather and tidy up what was left, settled in the basement of the temple. Gradually, at the cost of a difficult struggle, and with the help of Riga residents and Russians, the restoration of the temple began. Daily services, conducted in Church Slavonic and Latvian, began on Christmas Day 1922. By the mid-1930s, the church was again becoming the spiritual centre of Riga, the murals were renewed, and there was a struggle for the return of the former property of the cathedral. The World War II brought a new wave of destruction, after which the cathedral was gradually rebuilt again, becoming the spiritual centre of the city.
By order of the Council of Ministers on 5 October 1963, the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ was closed. Only the walls remained of the cathedral, everything else was either destroyed, or looted. In 1962, the building of the former cathedral was turned into a planetarium.
Only in July 1991 began the difficult road to the third resurrection and the restoration of the cathedral. The first divine service, under difficult conditions, was performed by His Eminence Vladyka Alexander on 6 January 1992. From that time onwards, services began to be held regularly, and day by day the repair and restoration works were carried out. Now the temple is covered with magnificent paintings, made a new roof, domes covered with copper, although there is still much to do. Families of benefactors Vladimir Ivanovich Malyshkov and Igor Vladimirovich Malyshkov donated a beautiful iconostasis.
Today, the "thrice resurrected", as it is popularly called, Riga Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ occupies a worthy place in the cultural and spiritual life of the capital of Latvia. During his visit to Latvia in May 2006, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksei Alexis of Moscow and All Russia Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia conducted a divine service here.
