Church of the Intercession (Mary)

The Pokrovskaya Church is a Russian Orthodox Church in Mary, Turkmenistan built around 1900 by Russian forces when they seized the city of Mary in 1884 and guarded the city with a military garrison against frequent attacks by British forces and Afghan armies. Early records of the church are scarce, but there are records of baptisms being performed by priest Tikhon Protasov and the deacon John Ilyichev in 1917. Following the Russian Revolution and the Establishment of the Soviet Union, religious freedoms were curtailed and by the 1930s, the church was closed and the building was repurposed as a club and eventually a military warehouse. The church returned to its original function in 1947, following the end of World War II.

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).