#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. All religious buildings in Norilsk were built in the 1990s. The first one was a modest Baptist church on Nansen street, built in 1991.
In the same year, at the intersection of Pushkin and Kirov streets, on the site of the old fire tower, the Orthodox Church of All Who Sorrow Joy, was laid, the construction of which was completed in 1997. The third was the Muslim mosque. Its construction began at the end of 1993.
The project author was the local architect Yevgeny Solnyshkin. He gave the mosque a northern design. For example, minarets are usually made in the form of round towers. The minaret of the Norilsk mosque is square, faceted so that the brickwork does not freeze through.
All design work was carried out according to the sketches of the Norilsk artist Nikolay Sivenkov. As a result, the project received a third degree diploma at the International Biennale of the Architects Union in Moscow.
The construction was organized and sponsored by the entrepreneur Mithad Bekmeyev, an ethnic Tatar and a native of Norilsk. He named the mosque Nurd-Kamal in honor of his parents, father Nurudin and mother Gainikamal.
In September 1998, the representatives of the local Muslim community gathered for the opening of the world’s northernmost mosque, and the Supreme Mufti of Russia Ul-Islam Talgat Tadzhuddin arrived. The first imam was the young priest Aydar Hazrat.
However, the construction continued for two more years, and the building of the Norilsk mosque was commissioned in 2000.
We also wrote about the Far North Agriculture Institute. It moved to Norilsk from Leningrad in 1957.
For other issues of our photo project about the history of the city and the combine, go to the History spot section.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
