Transfiguration Cathedral, Odesa
Odesa's main church, founded together with the city, destroyed in 1936 and rebuilt in 1999–2010; damaged by a russian missile in 2023, being restored with Italian funding via UNESCO.
The church was founded right after Odesa itself, as the Church of St Nicholas on the square that the city's first engineer, Franz de Volan, planned as the centre of Odesa; in 1808 it was consecrated as a sobor, and in 1837, when Odesa became a diocesan seat, it gained cathedral status (archive.od.gov.ua). After the rebuilding of 1900–1903 the church, 90×45 m with a 72-metre bell tower, held up to 9,000 people (archive.od.gov.ua; travels.in.ua). In 1936 the cathedral was destroyed by blowing up the bell tower so that it brought down the main structure (archive.od.gov.ua; travels.in.ua). The present building is a reconstruction on the old foundations, uncovered by excavations in 1996: construction began in September 1999 and the cathedral was consecrated in July 2010; the main bell, 3 m high, weighs over 14 tonnes (archive.od.gov.ua; travels.in.ua gives the rebuilding as “from 2002”). On the night of 23 July 2023 a russian missile hit the altar section and pierced the floors two storeys down (suspilne.media; odessa-life.od.ua). The restoration is funded by Italy through UNESCO (€2 million): about 3,000 m² of roof, the windows and doors have been replaced, the central and two side iconostases and the heating restored; still to come are the stucco, gilding, murals and the right-hand chapel of St Peter, which suffered most (suspilne.media, 12.03.2024; odesa.novyny.live, 23.07.2026). The cathedral belongs to the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate), to which it was transferred in 2005 (suspilne.media; archive.od.gov.ua).
Address: 3 Soborna Square, Odesa (travels.in.ua, 04.09.2025; mapcarta.com); the drama theatre is 250 m to the east (mapcarta.com). The cathedral is open: the first Easter liturgy since the damage was held on 12 April 2026 (odessa-life.od.ua, 11.04.2026), but interior restoration continues — the stucco, gilding and murals are not yet restored (odesa.novyny.live, 23.07.2026). Sources give no visiting hours; telephone +380 48 704 3660 (travels.in.ua). Odesa continues to come under attack: a night attack on 6 October 2026 damaged a company building (suspilne.media) — go to a shelter during alerts.