Church of St Cyril of Turau and All the Patron Saints of the Belarusian People Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Belarusian Memorial Chapel
Church of Saint Cyril of Turaŭ and All the Patron Saints of the Belarusian People
Царква Сьвятога Кірылы Тураўскага і ўсіх сьвятых заступнікаў беларускага народу
The Belarusian Church in 2016
Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
Location	Barnet, London
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
Website	belaruschurch.org.uk
History
Dedication	Staint Cyril of Turaŭ
Consecrated	17 December 2016
Architecture
Architect(s)	Tszwai So
Completed	2017

The Church of St Cyril of Turau and All the Patron Saints of the Belarusian People (Belarusian: Царква Сьвятога Кірылы Тураўскага і ўсіх сьвятых заступнікаў беларускага народу, romanized: Carkva Śviatoha Kiryły Turaŭskaha i ŭsich śviatych zastupnikaŭ biełaruskaha narodu), also known as the Belarusian Memorial Chapel, is a special wooden church in Woodside Park, London. It's the first wooden church built in London since the Great Fire way back in 1666!

This church is also important for several other reasons:

It's the first church of its kind (called an Eastern Catholic Church) built specifically for its purpose in London.
It's the first memorial in Western Europe dedicated to the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
It's the first Belarusian Uniate church built outside of Belarus.
It's the first church building in London made mostly from special cross laminated timber panels.

The church is located right next to the Francis Skaryna Belarusian Library and Museum and the Marian House. These places are important community centers for Belarusian people in Northern London.

Building the Church
Church Design
- Awards for the Design
Inside the Church
- Burials at the Church
Gallery
See also

Building the Church

Belarusian Catholics have had a community in London since 1947. For many years, they used a small chapel inside a building for their worship. They didn't have a separate church building of their own.

Building the new church started in November 2015. The foundation was finished by January 2016. A special stone, called a cornerstone, was brought from a church in Druja, Belarus. This stone was placed during a ceremony on February 7, 2016. Important church leaders attended this event. The church was officially opened and blessed on December 17, 2016.

The church after its walls and roof were put up in June 2016.
The blessing of the cornerstone for the new church in London on February 7, 2016.

Church Design

The church's design was inspired by the beautiful old wooden churches found in the countryside of Belarus. The builders used only wood and glass for the main materials. The outside of the church is covered in timber, with small, high windows and frosted glass. This design makes the inside feel peaceful and focused, which is common in the Byzantine church style. The way the outside walls are designed also comes from the traditional vertical timber look of Baroque churches in Belarus.

Awards for the Design

Tszwai So, the architect who designed the Belarusian Memorial Chapel, won the Young Church Architect or Surveyor of the Year award.

The Belarusian Memorial Chapel has won many awards for its unique design:

It was shown at the 2017 London Festival of Architecture.
It received the RIBA London Regional Award 2017 from the Royal Institute of British Architects. This is a very important award for buildings in London.
It was also chosen as the "People's Choice" at the New London Awards 2017.

The Royal Academy of Arts picked the chapel as one of the top 10 buildings to see during Open House London in 2017. A website called Architizer named it one of the "10 Catholic Churches Designed to Uplift and Inspire." In October 2018, ArchDaily included it in their list of the 32 best chapels they had featured.

The chapel was even nominated for the EU Prize in Contemporary Architecture - Mies Van der Rohe Award 2019. This is one of the highest honors a building can receive in Europe!

Inside the Church

Inside the church, you'll find an iconostasis, which is a wall of icons and religious paintings that separates the altar area from the rest of the church. The icons here were painted in 1926 by Duchess Olga Bennigsen and Mr Eric Ward. Some other icons came from a Belarusian Catholic church in Chicago that is now closed.