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Abstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of how the sacred space is formed in modern Orthodox churches. The authors show that this process is often focused not only on church parishioners, but also on much broader social circles: pilgrims, organized tour groups, and occasional visitors. The research focuses on the process of creating a unique church hierotopia through the accumulation of unusual relics and infrastructure facilities. They can act as powerful cultural attractions that involve not only believers, but also secular tourists. The object of research, therefore, is the current practices of creating hierotopia (sacred space) in Russian Orthodox churches, specifically the church objects that play the role of tourist attractions. The aim is to demonstrate how the space and infrastructure of Orthodox churches are changing in the 21st century under the influence of tourism practices. Using a specific example – the miraculous Icon of the All–Merciful Savior from the town of Tutaev and the practice of ritual passage through a special “healing manhole” organized around it – the authors show how a religious relic transforms into a multifunctional object. For believers, it remains a shrine to which they turn with prayer and which participates in the practices of the appropriation of grace. For tourists, the same actions can turn into an element of the excursion program, akin to tossing a coin or making a wish at the sights. The attractiveness of such a multifunctional shrine influenced the replication of the image and the practices associated with it, and their reproduction in a new context: in 2008, a copy of the image with a similar “healing hole” was created in the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Nizhny Novgorod. This “transfer” demonstrates that the strategy of constructing a unique church environment is now being consciously used by Orthodox actors for many purposes, including to attract a wide range of people and build a church economy.
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