The Church of Saint Barbara the Great Martyr was an Orthodox church that stood in Nizhny Novgorod on Varvarskaya Street (now Figner Street), beside Varvarskaya Dam. Built in 1757, it was demolished in 1958. The church is connected to the biographies of the grandfather and mother of Alexei Maximovich Gorky: it was here that Alyosha Peshkov was baptized, along with his mother Varvara Vasilyevna and his grandfather Vasily Kashirin.[1]
History and Appearance
Varvarskaya Street was planned in 1770, with the intention of lining it exclusively with stone buildings. The section running from Blagoveschenskaya Square (now Minin and Pozharsky Square) to Kovalikhinsky Ravine was laid out by 1787, and the street took its name from the church that stood along it. In the mid-nineteenth century, the local historian Nikolai Khramtsovsky wrote: "The Church of Saint Barbara stands on the right side of the street, by the dam."[1]
The parish was substantial: as of 1916, it had 400 male and 980 female members.[1]
Fate After the Revolution
In 1937, the archpriest and the priests serving at the church were arrested on charges of participating in the "Gorky branch of a church-fascist organization, created on the instructions of Metropolitans Sergiy Stragorodsky and Feofan Tulyakov." Almost all of the clergy were executed. The church itself was closed; the building subsequently housed a housing management office, construction and urban improvement firms, and then an archive.[1]
In 1958 the church was declared structurally unsafe and dismantled for bricks. By that time the street already bore a different name: after the revolution it had been renamed in honor of Vera Figner — a People's Will activist who had served a term of exile in Nizhny Novgorod under police surveillance.[1]
What Stands on This Site Today
In 1972, a political education center was built on the site of the demolished church using a standard design. From the early 1990s, the building served as the city's main concert venue and was transferred to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Nizhny Novgorod Region. In 2013, the concert hall was closed and sold into private hands. After reconstruction, the Jupiter concert hall opened here, with exhibition galleries, a bar, a restaurant, and a conference room.[1]
Sources
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Where did the church on Varvarskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod disappear to, June 28, 2022 (archive)
- stbarbara.prihod.ru — Church of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara — Official parish website (archive)