Church in Staraya Sarepta - The oldest Lutheran church and the oldest stone building in Volgograd

The Sarepta Kirkha is a Lutheran (originally Hernguter) church built in 1772, the oldest surviving Protestant church in Russia and the oldest stone building in Volgograd. The church (community hall) was founded on May 12, 1771, on the model of one of the churches of the Fraternal Union of Gernguters in Germany, with funds from Empress Catherine II and donations from members of the Gerngut fraternal community. Already on September 3, 1772, after the completion of construction, the church was consecrated by Bishop Johann Nichmann in the presence of the Astrakhan governor N. A. Beketov and Professor S. G. Gmelin. The Sarepta church was a one-nave hall church without a transept with a belfry tower with a town hall clock with a chime and a spire with a weather vane, typical of the Protestant North and Central European architecture of the 18th century, In Germany, clocks were usually installed on town halls, and church spiers had crosses rather than weather vanes. The appearance of the Sarepta church was intended to symbolize the unity of spiritual and secular life in the village. In 1773, a building was added on the north facade to house the preacher, his assistants, and the chairman. The interior had Herngut specifics (simplicity and austerity): a flat ceiling, almost everything, including furniture, was white. Instead of the altar and pulpit adopted from the Lutherans, the liturgical table and the pastor’s chair stood in the center; behind them on the wall hung a picture of the crucifixion. To the right of the liturgical table were the male half of the church and the male entrance, to the left - the female half and the female entrance. On the church choirs, the singers and the orchestra were placed on the left, and the organ on the right. Although the intra-communal life was well organized, and in the 19th century the Sarepta pastor took part in the work of the Russian Bible Society, which translated the Bible into modern Russian, attempts to preach among the Kalmyks were unsuccessful, which was the reason for the adoption by the Gerngut leadership in 1892 of the decision to cease activities of the Sarepta community and about the recall of the Herrnhuter brothers from Sarepta. And since Lutherans remained among the colonists, in 1894 a Lutheran community was created. After joining the community to the “Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia“, the church underwent some alterations according to the Lutheran canons. An altar, a pulpit were installed, the font was moved to the center, a weather vane began to crown a four-pointed cross. In the Soviet years, the clergy were repressed and services began to be conducted irregularly, the last pastor was arrested in 1936, and in 1938 the church was closed, the organ was dismantled, the tower was dismantled, the bells, clock faces and pendulum were removed, all the interior decoration. In 1941, the Kultarmeets cinema was opened in the building and extensions were made. Since 1967, the building housed the warehouse of the Krasnoarmeisky universal trade. In 1991, the Lutheran community (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the European part of Russia) was recreated, services were resumed. With the advent of the State Historical and Ethnographic Museum-Reserve “Old Sarepta“, the church became an integral part of the museum’s historical and architectural complex. The Sarepta community signed an agreement on the transfer of the church and the pastor’s house to the community and the supply of an organ to Sarepta. In 1995, restoration work began on donations collected by the Evangelical Lutheran community of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brandenburg and Berlin, and in 1996 the church was re-consecrated, the Meeting Center and the German Library were opened, after the establishment in March 2005 of the organ (the only one in region with live sound without electronic sub-sound), concerts of organ music are held in the church. During the restoration, all outbuildings were dismantled, the lost brick partitions were erected, the original dimensions of window and door openings were restored, the wooden structure of the tower was restored with a dome finish with sheet copper coating and a weather vane on the spire, the roofing was made of ceramic tiles. Sarepta Kirkhaは、1772年に建てられたルーテル教会（元々はヘルングーター）であり、ロシアで現存する最古のプロテスタント教会であり、ヴォルゴグラードで最古の石造りの建物です。 教会（コミュニティホール）は、1771年5月12日に、エカチェリーナ2世皇后からの資金と、ゲルングート兄弟コミュニティのメンバーからの寄付により、ドイツのゲルングター兄弟連合の教会の1つをモデルにして設立されました。すでに1772年9月3日、建設が完了した後、教会はアストラハン知事N.A.ベケトフとS.G.グメリン教授の前でヨハンニヒマン司教によって奉献されました。 サレプタ教会は、18世紀のプロテスタントの北ヨーロッパと中央ヨーロッパの建築に典型的な、チャイム付きの市庁舎の時計と風見鶏付きの尖塔を備えた鐘楼のある翼廊のない1身廊の教会でした。 ドイツでは、時計は通常市庁舎に設置され、教会の尖塔には風見鶏ではなく十字架がありました。サレプタ教会の外観は、村の精神的および世俗的な生活の統一を象徴することを目的としていました。 1773年に、説教者、彼の助手、および議長を収容するための建物が北のファサードに追加されました。 インテリアにはヘルングートの特徴（シ&#