A team of artists from St. Tikhon's Orthodox University for the Humanities has restored the iconostasis of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which burned down in August 2018 in Kondopoga, Republic of Karelia, an object of cultural heritage of federal significance, a monument of 18th-century Zaonezhsky architecture. Then the iconostasis with icons from the end of the XVIII century and the unique icon-painted ceiling-sky with the rare plot "Divine Liturgy" were destroyed in the fire.
The decision to restore the Assumption Church in Kondopoga was made immediately after the tragic events of 2018. People who are not indifferent to the fate of the damaged monument began to transfer money for its restoration. The Northern Spiritual Way Charitable Foundation, which already had experience in building a chapel for charitable donations, took over the fundraising work. A Board of Trustees was established at the foundation and a special account was opened. Thanks to the support at the federal level, funds for the development of the project for the restoration of the Assumption Church and for the restoration work were allocated from the federal budget. It was decided to use the funds raised from a special-purpose charity account to recreate the icons of the Assumption Church iconostasis that were lost in the fire. Without the restoration of the interior of the church, including the pre-altar iconostasis and the "sky", the reconstruction would not have been possible to the fullest extent. However, the restoration of the paintings of the temple in Kondopoga does not have state support and is funded only from charitable sources, since the works are not registered with government agencies as independent movable monuments of art. In response to an appeal from representatives of the Northern Spiritual Way Foundation and the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of the Republic of Karelia, a creative group was formed at the Faculty of St. Tikhon's Orthodox University for the Humanities. The team began research work on the creation of a project for the reconstruction of icons in October 2022.
The icon painters of St. Tikhon's University managed to reliably recreate all 46 icons of the main temple iconostasis. To do this, the experts gathered the most possible information about what the iconographic decoration of the church looked like, and developed a preliminary draft concept for the reconstruction of the icons of the iconostasis. Based on the results of the research, the scheme of the pictorial composition of the iconostasis was reconstructed, the icons fixed in the temple before the fire were reconstructed, with the selection of analogues to replenish the icons, information on which is not available or insufficient.
The archives of the National Museum of Karelia, the Shchusev State Scientific Research Museum of Architecture, the funds of the Museum of Fine Arts of Karelia and the Kizhi State Historical, Architectural and Ethnographic Museum-Reserve provided assistance in recreating the icons. To ensure that the copying of icons was accurate, experts consulted the electronic State Catalog of Russia, studied many articles and other materials on the topic of interest. As a result, convincing and closest to the historical original analogues of icons were selected for the reconstruction of these monuments.
In addition, one icon has survived — "The Nativity of the Virgin" — from the festive row of the Assumption Church. At the time of the fire, it was under restoration, and during the reconstruction of the iconostasis, a copy was also made from it and used as a reference.
The sketch of the central icon of the picturesque complex of the Assumption Church was executed by Evgeny Maksimov, People's Artist of Russia, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, world-renowned muralist.
The icons of the restored iconostasis were presented for the first time in the art workshop of the Faculty of Church Arts of St. Petersburg State University. The work of the team of artists was appreciated by Svetlana Kuspak, a representative of the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Karelia, and Maria Smirnova, an expert restorer at the Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Karelia.
"A lot of work has been done over the years, which has brought together the museum and art history community of Karelia and the icon painters of the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities," said Svetlana Kuspak, curator of the restoration project. — Icon painters have manually executed dozens of sketches for each icon, and several reconstruction options have been proposed for some of the icons being recreated.
The first stage was completed in October 2025, when the craftsmen restored half of the lost icons, and today we saw the completion of the work — the most complex and voluminous images were reconstructed. Thus, the entire complex of icons of the iconostasis of the Assumption Church was convincingly and reliably recreated. And we see that these works are not just as close to the originals as possible — the icon painters managed to reproduce the aura of the lost originals."
Until the restoration of the Assumption Church itself, the icons will remain in responsible custody at the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities, as they require special conditions. Perhaps it will be possible to organize an exhibition of them and thus attract public interest and funds for the restoration of the icons of heaven according to the established methodology, without which the restoration of the Assumption Church will not be complete.
Six icons — "Theotokos" and "Apostle Matthew" from the deisusic order, "Nativity of Christ", "Ascension of the Lord", "Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord" and "Introduction of the Virgin into the Temple" from the festive one - have been in the Kondopoga parish of the Nativity of the Virgin since 2024, where they are being adapted to the future conditions of their stay under the supervision of specialists. the temple.