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Photo: Aleksandar Jovanović
Nis will never forget October 12, 2001, when the Cathedral caught fire around 4.30 in the morning.
The news quickly spread throughout the city, so that the great world gathered at the front, and at the head was the then Bishop of Nis, Irinej. Everyone watched in silence as the fiery element swallowed the symbol of Nis.
Bishop Irinej somehow endured, but occasionally rubbed his eyes as if to keep the tears from running down his cheeks. He had to be strong for the parishioners who were there, right next to him. Everyone was powerless at the time.
The burned Cathedral was his painful subject, probably until his death.
To this day, it is not known how the fire started at dawn when the adaptation workers left the day before.
– The first signs that something unusual was happening were heard around 4.30 when the smallest bell rang and then the largest, which are otherwise connected to the church alarm. I ran to the port and headed for the church. Through the small south door, I noticed a fire inside the temple that was not yet visible outside. Firefighters arrived quickly, they had trouble entering the port due to the narrow front door, and by the time they managed to enter the other side, the fire had already engulfed the entire building and only modest fire extinguishers could be used outside. It wasn’t even possible to look inside, Irinej declared at the time.
According to him, the fire uncontrollably swallowed the temple.
– After about forty minutes, the ceiling and the walls collapsed and explosions of gas cylinders were heard, which were used by the masters in charge of the final work to adapt the interior of the temple. After that, the south wall also fell, endangering a fire truck and firefighters. We were left without the symbol of this city, built under the Turkish yoke, when some 12,000 inhabitants of Nis parted with their mouths to build a magnificent Orthodox church – said Bishop Irinej.
When asked what to do next, the future head of the Serbian Orthodox Church said that faith and hope remain.
– We have faith and hope in the citizens, in our church, the government, the brothers in the diaspora, to renew our cathedral as soon as possible – Archbishop Irinej testified at that time.
In less than an hour, the fire engulfed the exceptional old church building almost to the ground, which in many ways was a symbol of the city of Nisava, and whose construction began in 1856, at the time of the Turks , for about 12,000 Serb nis.
Serbian patriarch Irinej (91) passed away this morning at 7.07 am at the Kovid Military Hospital “Karaburma”, where he was being treated for a corona virus infection.
(Kurir.rs/MS)
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