KHUJAND, April 23, Asia-Plus — A new Orthodox church will be constructed in Khujand, Sughd province by design of Moscow architect V. Kanavin, Asia-Plus has learned at the Russian General Consulate in Khujand.
The source at the Russian General Consulate said that the estimated budget for construction of the new church is some $450,000. “However, there are no enough funds and collection of donations has been announced in the province,” the source said.
Some 30,000 Russian-speaking people currently live in northern Tajikistan, and many of them visited the Orthodox Maria Magdalena Church in Khujand that was built in 1878 already and destroyed by fire in January 2005. The new church will be built in the place of the Orthodox Maria Magdalena Church.
We will recall that two nuns from a monastery in Tashkent died in the fire in the Orthodox Maria Magdalena Church. One of the nuns, Maria, was 78 years old and the other, Elikonida, was 72 years old.
The church burned to the ground, including the 100-year-old archive. The blaze destroyed icons, including those dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.
