The Church of St. Onuphrius is the main cathedral of Anapa. It was founded in 1828, after the conquest of the Turkish fortress of Anapa. Russians built this temple one of the first on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Russia waged numerous wars with Turkey for access to the Black Sea. After the Crimea was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1783, the Turks built a fairly powerful Anapa fortress in the same year. The most fortified bastions of the fortress were located on the site of the Gorgippia Museum. To this day, only the Russian Gates have survived from this fortress, which are located 50 meters from Church of St. Onuphrius.
Russian troops stormed Anapa fortress 4 times in the period from 1791 to 1828. The fortress was captured and destroyed, but after the conclusion of another peace treaty, these lands were again ceded to the Turks, and they restored the fortress. The last assault on the Anapa fortress took place on June 12, 1828, after which Anapa and the lands of the Taman Peninsula forever became part of Russia.
July 12 is the day of Saint Onuphrius, an early Christian hermit saint who lived in the 4th century in the Thebaid desert of Egypt. By order of Tsar Nicholas I, in 1830, the construction of the first Christian church in Anapa began. It was built in 1837 and consecrated in honor of St. Onuphrius. In Soviet times, the temple was closed, and the building was transferred to the Museum of Local Lore. This saved it from destruction. In 1991, Church of St. Onuphrius was returned to the church again.
