404 Meredith Rd. NE, Crescent Heights
St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church has city-wide landmark value as a highly visible building with distinctive copper domes and a large rose window. It stands on the slope of a promontory overlooking downtown Calgary from across the Bow River.
The building and its site have symbolic value to Calgarians of Ukrainian descent, a group that comprises approximately 7.1 per cent of the city’s population. The Bridgeland-Riverside district, to which it is adjacent, was an important centre of Ukrainian settlement and community life in early twentieth-century Calgary. The congregation’s original building stood on the site of the present church from 1938-85. (That church was damaged by fire in 1976.) The building’s domed cruciform plan, iconostasis (altar screen), hand-painted icons, and other features have symbolic value through their expression of Ukrainian tradition and the Orthodox faith. The principal dome represents Jesus Christ, while the four smaller domes represent the four evangelists.
The building has institutional value to Calgary’s Ukrainian Orthodox faith community as the home of St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church congregation. Established in 1929, it is the City’s first and, to date, only parish of that denomination. As an institution, the church is linked to an adjacent cultural centre that includes social, cultural, and educational functions. The centre’s Ukrainian library is one of the largest outside Ukraine.
St. Vladimir’s is associated with significant activities for the city’s Orthodox faith communities. As Calgary’s only Ukrainian Orthodox church, it is the sole place of worship for that faith. The adjacent cultural centre, part of the same institution as the church, is the venue for social, cultural, and educational activities. As the city’s largest Orthodox church, it is a popular wedding venue for members of other Orthodox denominations.
The building has value evident in its style, design and construction. Byzantine Revival (Eastern European) is the traditional architectural style associated with Ukrainian Orthodox churches. The dominant exterior design features are its five-copper clad banyas (domes) that create the striking skyline silhouette. The interior walls act as a canvas for very extensive and traditional iconography. Executed by artisans, these hand painted features are rare examples of craftsmanship and construction techniques that also form part of the tradition of church construction.
Article and photos provided courtesy of Discover Historic Calgary resources via calgary.ca.
