Plans Underway To Build 4th Orthodox Church In Chechnya

Plans are underway to build a new Orthodox church in Grozny, the capital city of the Chechen Republic, republic head Ramzan Kadyrov said in a recent interview with Izvestia.

Upon completion, there will be just four Orthodox parishes in the entire republic, and two active parishes in Grozny.

“There is now a proposal to build a new church in Grozny, a large, beautiful church on a 2-hectare territory. I gave instructions to the government and the mayor of Grozny to work on this issue. We treat all religions equally, we create the same conditions,” Kadyrov said.

There is one active church in Grozny today—the Church of the Archangel Michael. It was founded by the Terek Cossacks in 1868 and stood until the 1990s. The church was damaged as a result of a number of military conflicts in the mid-1990s, and was restored in 2004.  

There is another church in Chechnya designed for 500 parishioners, located in the Naursk Region. The republic’s third church, dedicated to the Great Martyr St. Barbara, in the northeastern Chechen region of Shelkovskoy, is under construction, set to be opened sometime this year.