The Church of the Life-Giving Spring was an Orthodox church that stood in The Kremlin, near Zachatyevskaya Tower. Founded in 1702 as a monastic church, it was converted into a parish church in 1764; its stone building in the Neoclassical style was erected in 1819–1821. The church was demolished during the Soviet period; the site where it once stood is now located in front of Zachatyevskaya Tower, which was reconstructed in 2012.[3]

Foundation and Early History

In 1702, the fourth Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod and Alatyr, Isaiah, founded a men's monastery beneath Zachatyevskaya Tower of the Kremlin, with a wooden church dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God "Life-Giving Spring". According to tradition, the metropolitan was healed of an eye ailment by the water of the spring; a pool fed by the spring was constructed before the church's icon.[1] A special stairway leading down from the bishop's residence in the Kremlin to the monastery was built.[3] The location of the wooden church has been established from an archival plan: it stood to the east of Zachatyevskaya Tower, below the Kremlin walls — by present-day landmarks, between the Red Barracks (Nizhny Novgorod) and the The Chkalov Staircase.[1]

In 1764 the monastery was dissolved and the church became a parish church. The spring continued to flow and was venerated by Nizhny Novgorod residents; in place of the demolished Zachatyevskaya Tower, a "descent to the Life-Giving Spring" was arranged.[1] In the early nineteenth century the wooden church burned down; the site of the dissolved monastery was marked by a chapel.[3]

The Stone Church and Its Merchant Benefactors

A new stone church was built in 1819–1821 on a plot adjacent to the Kremlin gate, on the site of Zachatyevskaya Tower, in the then-prevailing Neoclassical style.[3] In 1830, the Nizhny Novgorod merchant Kliment Mikhaylovich Michurin enlarged the church by adding a refectory with two side chapels and once again installing a pool before the icon. Michurin's sons — Kyriak and Vasily — built the bell tower in the 1830s.[1]

The Nizhny Novgorod Landslide destroyed part of the Kremlin wall and severely damaged the Church of the Life-Giving Spring: its walls began to crumble, the spring ran dry, and services ceased.[3] In 1848–1850, Vasily Klimentovich Michurin (later Mayor of the city — twice, in 1852–1854 and in 1864–1866) carried out a major renovation of the building, cleared and restored the spring, after which services resumed. He also built a two-story stone house for the clergy, a two-story stone shop, and a church watchman's lodge.[3]

A contemporary account describes the interior: the iconostasis of the main altar, set within an arch, was adorned with elaborate carving and gilded with red gold; the icons were executed in the Greek style. Before the icon of the Mother of God of the Life-Giving Spring, spring water flowed into a pool shaped like an enormous vase and then passed into a second, outdoor pool used by parishioners and soldiers from the neighboring barracks. The bell tower, finished to resemble unwhitewashed brick with columns of various orders and white-stone ornaments, was considered by contemporaries to be the most beautiful in the city.[1]

Parish Life and Closure

In 1907, the Nazaryevsky Orphanage and a church parish school were opened on the church's grounds, housed in a purpose-built three-story building that survives to this day at Kozhevennaya Street, 4.[3] The church gave its name to two adjacent streets — Verkhnaya Zhivosnosnaya (now Kozhevennaya) and Nizhnyaya Zhivosnosnaya (no longer extant).[3]

The Church of the Life-Giving Spring was demolished during the Soviet period; along with it, the spring disappeared for many years, and the site fell into neglect.[1]

Archaeology and Memory

Excavations in 2011 on the site of the ruins of Zachatyevskaya Tower uncovered fragments of the Holy Spring's drainage system, remains of a drainage network, and the foundations of the tower itself — finds that confirmed the tradition of the healing spring.[3] Research led by archaeologist I. O. Yeryomin uncovered a brick arch and a stone water channel through which water still flows today; it is identified with reasonable confidence as that very legendary spring.[1] The reconstruction project for Zachatyevskaya Tower that existed at the time of the excavations did not provide for the preservation of the spring, as it had been drawn up before the archaeological research was conducted.[1] Zachatyevskaya Tower was reconstructed in 2012; the Church of the Life-Giving Spring had previously stood on the same site.[3]

Sources

  1. zemlyann.ru — Church of the Life-Giving Spring — Zemlya Nizhegorodskaya Foundation (archive)
  2. opentextnn.ru — Davydov A. I. Church of the Life-Giving Spring — OPEN TEXT (archive)
  3. kostelsvatehomikulase.cz — Church of St. Nicholas (archive)