Kiliia / Kiliya / Chilia Ukraine
Ukrainian Orthodox
The church, in the center of the old part of town, is on the UNESCO list of international cultural monuments. It was first built in 1476 on the site of an earlier church dedicated to St. John. The church was built during Turkish occupation when churches were limited to being no taller than 2.5 meters. To get around this, the builders excavated and built the church down in to the ground another 2.5 meters so the building could have a proper height. There are just three churches remaining in the region built that way. During Soviet years, the interior was destroyed and the building used as a coal warehouse, then as a garbage dump for a factory. By 1970 it was beginning to collapse. At that time a citizen group worked to restore the church. Work took place in the 1980s, with the first service in 1992.