Floating Chapel-Buoy of St. Nicholas

The floating chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is a small Orthodox chapel on a pontoon moored in the Irtysh near its mouth, where the river joins the Ob, not far from Khanty-Mansiysk (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra, Tyumen Oblast). It is both a chapel and a navigation mark: a lighted buoy that guides vessels at the confluence of the two largest rivers of Western Siberia.

History

The chapel-buoy on the Irtysh was built in 2013 on the initiative of S. G. Sandulov, general director of the Aganrechtrans shipping company. Patriarch Kirill consecrated it on 19 September 2013.

The dedication to St. Nicholas is fitting: he is venerated as the patron of sailors and rivermen. Floating churches bearing his name have a precedent in Russia. In the 1910s a floating church of St. Nicholas served the 12-foot roadstead in the Caspian Sea; it was converted from the Pirat, a British-built tug and passenger steamer of 1858, and ministered to fishermen and sailors of the lower Volga and the northern Caspian.

Design

The chapel is an octagonal pillar with a single dome, set on a square pontoon held by an anchor. It stands about 8 metres tall and weighs about 10 tonnes. There is no way inside; instead, an icon is fixed to each of the eight faces of the facade.

What sets it apart from an ordinary chapel is that it works as a floating river beacon. A lamp is built into the base of the cross on the dome and is clearly visible at night, so boat crews can spot the chapel from afar.

Seasonal navigation

The chapel stays on the river only during the navigation season. When the season ends in autumn, the pontoon is towed into a backwater for the winter. In spring, once the ice has gone, the chapel is set back in place together with the other floating navigation marks. It can therefore be seen on the Irtysh roughly from late spring until autumn.

Getting there

The chapel stands on the water, so it can be seen up close only from a boat. From Khanty-Mansiysk, ships go down the Irtysh towards the confluence with the Ob.

Good to know

• The chapel is on the river only during the navigation season; in winter it is not there.
• It is a working floating navigation mark rather than a church for services: it cannot be entered.
• For the map: the mouth of the Irtysh near Khanty-Mansiysk, at about 61.088° N, 68.821° E.