"academy is the first one in the capital city"

Shmidt

"Pokrovsky Temple
The oldest surviving temple in Bryansk was built at the end of the 17th century on Pokrovskaya Mountain above the Desna. During Soviet times, it changed its purpose many times, from a school and an archive to a House of Creativity. In our time, it has been returned to believers. The five-domed two-story temple has adorned the city. There are also several other church buildings on the mountain, including a pilgrimage center."

Sergey Kuznetsov

"Old Bryansk, mentioned in the chronicle in 1146, was completely destroyed by the Tatar-Mongols and rebuilt in a new place. It is known that after the revival of the city in the middle of the 13th century, its center was located on Pokrovskaya Hill. Apparently, the hill on the bank of the Desna River received this name then - at least, the first Pokrovsky Church arose here around this time. It was this natural fortification that was the center of the city, it was from here that ancient Bryansk began. Its first ruler was Prince Roman Mikhailovich, under whom, perhaps, the first, still wooden Pokrovsky Church was built, which gave the name to the hill where the fortress stood. In 1500, Bryansk, which then belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was taken by the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III, after which he annexed it to Moscow; the fortress Pokrovskaya Church was then turned into a cathedral. After Bryansk began to develop as an important center on the busy route from Moscow to Little Russia, at the end of the 17th century, the Pokrovsky Cathedral was rebuilt in stone, and it acquired the appearance we are familiar with.

The "military" status of the Pokrovsky Cathedral provoked its rapid abolition after the revolution of 1917. While many churches in the country continued to operate throughout the 1920s, until the atheist hysteria reached its peak, the Pokrovsky Cathedral immediately passed into the hands of the Bolsheviks. It is known that already in 1918, services were not held in the cathedral, and by the end of the 1920s it was disfigured - the dome and bell tower were demolished, the interior decoration was completely destroyed. The interior was adapted for the archive of the October Revolution, and the fact that quite recently it had been the house of God was now only reminded by the characteristic elevation of one of the parts of the building. The building was used for "economic and cultural activities". No one looked after the condition of the former temple, and thus it gradually fell into disrepair. By 1970, the building had fallen into disrepair - it was restored and redesigned once again. There was no talk of returning the temple to its historical appearance, much less resuming worship services in it - after the restoration, the former church was adapted for a regional center of folk art. Nevertheless, that restoration may have saved the temple from even greater destruction and ultimately preserved it for a future revival, which - although few people could have thought of it then - was only some two decades away."

Дядя Фёдор