Kazakhstan: Almaty – Ascension Cathedral

One of the main attractions in otherwise unremarkable city is the Ascension Cathedral. The five-domed and three-aisled cathedral with a built-in bell tower was built in 1907 entirely out of wood and without a single nail, making it to this date the second tallest wooden building in the world. Interestingly, quite a serious earthquake hit Almaty in 1911 with many buildings ruined, but the cathedral withstood zero damage despite not having a single nail – this was immediately attributed to divine intervention and it’s quite revered now by the city’s Russian orthodox part of the population (the secret was actually based on science and the construction technology essentially being anti-seismic – wooden beams were fastened with rolling brackets and during the earthquake the walls were moving smoothly providing stability and absorbing the shock. The j terror is very lavish and colorful with all the painting and iconostasis were made in Moscow and Kiev at the time. During the entire Soviet rule, the cathedral was closed and plundered and used as a warehouse and then a museum until restored as a church in 1994. It stands on the middle of Panfilov military park in the center of city.
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