The Dormition Cathedral in Kharkiv is located in the heart of the city’s historic center. This architectural landmark consists of two structures that differ both in style and scale: the cathedral (Baroque, 1777) and the bell tower (Empire style, 1844).

Originally, the Church of the Dormition was a wooden structure; it was built inside the Kharkiv fortress in 1657.

In 1685, a stone church with a bell tower was built to replace the wooden church. The church was designed in the “Naryshkin Baroque” style, which was popular at the time. The bell tower was massive and imposing, built in the hipped-roof style that emerged in the 16th century, and stood 40 meters away from the church. At the beginning of the 18th century, a clock was installed on it.

When the church had fallen into complete disrepair, it was demolished. The new Baroque-style church was built between 1771 and 1777, though the bell tower remained the same. The church was built based on an adapted design of the Church of Pope Clement in Moscow (1762, architect Pietro Trezzini).

The iconostasis, which was moved to the art museum’s storage facility in the 1920s, was destroyed by fire during World War II. However, there is a very similar iconostasis in the same church of Pope Clement that can serve as a model for its future restoration.

Among the antiquities that were stored in the Dormition Cathedral before the 1917 revolution, it is worth noting the Gospel of the Lviv Press, dated 1636, donated to the cathedral in 1665 during the time of Timofey, the Ataman of Kharkiv.

After the victory over Napoleon in 1812, the idea arose in Kharkiv to commemorate it with a new bell tower (the old bell tower, which had stood since the 17th century, had fallen into complete disrepair by that time).

Legend has it that in the 1820s, nearly all the trees on the hill north of Kholodna Gora were cut down to erect scaffolding for the construction of the bell tower of the Dormition Cathedral and to fire bricks.

The bell tower was named Alexandrovskaya in honor of Alexander Nevsky, but the reference here was clearly to Emperor Alexander I.

Building such a massive structure required a great deal of resources, which is why construction dragged on until 1844.

Yevhen Vasilyev was the architect of the bell tower’s original Empire-style design. After his death, Andriy Ton completed the bell tower based on a revised design—the bell tower became even taller, and its proportions were altered.

Until 2006, it was the tallest structure in the city (89.5 m), not counting the TV tower and the broadcast tower at Gosprom.

Radio broadcasts began from the bell tower in 1924—it became a radio tower.

The clock on the modern bell tower of the Dormition Cathedral was installed in 1862; it was purchased in France from the Parisian firm “Borel.” By the 1890s, it had been converted to electric power, and it was replaced during the restoration of the bell tower in the 1950s.

The chimes ring out from a bell dating back to 1755, which was moved from the Zmiivsky St. Nicholas Monastery to the bell tower in 1844.

The bell tower’s interiors and panoramic views are also very impressive

The cathedral itself, however, was not so “fortunate.” All five domes of the Cathedral of the Dormition were demolished in 1929 during an anti-religious campaign.

The cathedral’s interior was divided into two floors, where a paint shop and a sewing workshop were set up.

It was not until the 1970s that restoration work began, lasting 12 years. The domes were restored, and in 1986, the cathedral opened as the House of Organ and Chamber Music, featuring an organ built by the Czechoslovakian firm “Rieger-Kloss.”

Since 1990, religious services have resumed in the cathedral. Following the opening of a new organ music hall at the Kharkiv Philharmonic in 2016, the old organ was no longer needed and was dismantled. The cathedral was transferred to the ownership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP).

As a result of the Russian missile strike on the Palace of Labor on March 3, 2022, the cathedral and bell tower sustained damage—windows and frames were shattered, the clock on the tower was destroyed, and the interiors, icons, and church furnishings were damaged.

At the end of 2025, the Dormition Cathedral was included in the International List of Cultural Properties under Enhanced Protection by UNESCO.