The Church of John the Baptist on the Lower Posad market square is one of the oldest in Nizhny Novgorod. It is located on Narodnogo Edinstva Square at the beginning of Rozhdestvenskaya Street, near the Skoba. As early as the beginning of the 16th century, following an age-old custom, the adjacent tower of the stone Kremlin was named after the church's patron — the Ivanovo Tower.[1]

History

The church was originally built of wood. A 1621 record describes it as "wooden, of a cell-type construction with a refectory and porches" — that is, it exemplified the most common simple type of log church of the period, featuring a gabled roof, a spacious refectory, and an open porch on all sides, entered from the exterior. The wooden church is known to have existed since the fourteenth century; according to one account, it was on its porch that the Nizhny Novgorod resident Kuzma Minin addressed his appeal to the city's inhabitants.[2] During one of the church's reconstructions, an enormous burial ground was discovered — up to eleven layers of coffins stacked one atop another: this was how warriors were traditionally interred in ancient times, for the wooden church stood outside the city's fortification walls and was among the first to bear the brunt of enemy raids.[1]

The construction of the stone Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist is associated with the figure of the Nizhny Novgorod industrialist G. S. Dranishnikov, as well as with major events of the seventeenth century: the peasant war led by S. Razin and the Old Believer movement. We shall therefore begin our account by reconstructing the key milestones in the life of the church's patron-builder — a vivid representative of the era of "primitive accumulation" in Russian history, though he was known until the end of his days simply as a posad taxpaying townsman. In 1676, Gavriil Dranishnikov sought the metropolitan's blessing to build a stone church; the stone church was erected in the name of the Nativity of John the Baptist: in 1676 Dranishnikov obtained the metropolitan's blessing specifically for a church bearing that dedication, and under that name the church was consecrated in 1683.[3] after which he personally procured building materials and entered into contract agreements with stonemasons, carpenter-riggers, blacksmiths, woodcarvers, icon painters, and gilders.[2]

G. S. Dranishnikov made a defining contribution to the artistic conception of the building. However, he did not live to see construction completed. On 24 August 1679, Gavrila Dranishnikov died suddenly, having composed his will just two days before his death; by it he freed all his serfs and bequeathed his movable property — four residential homesteads, warehouses with salt, Volga barges, and other "assorted stock" — to his brother Lavrentiy, on the firm condition that Lavrentiy complete the stone church of the lower posad.

The inheritance of the wealthy Nizhny Novgorod merchant immediately attracted numerous claimants, among them Metropolitan Filaret. The protracted struggle for rights to G. S. Dranishnikov's estate resembles a detective story. Nevertheless, Lavrentiy brought his brother's work to completion. In 1683 a Nizhny Novgorod chronicler would record that in the lower posad "without ceremony a stone church of John the Baptist was consecrated, and that church was built by a Nizhny Novgorod townsman, a posad man Gavrilo Dranishnikov, at his own expense." The chronicler's account should be supplemented by the fact that a chapel dedicated to the great martyr Anna was added to the south side of the church, consecrated in accordance with the patron's spiritual testament in memory of his wife "who had gone into schism."

Thus beneath the Kremlin hill in Nizhny Novgorod there appeared a stone church, which should be regarded as a monument to the posad culture of the second half of the seventeenth century — a turbulent, little-studied period of the city's socio-economic flourishing, bound up with the events of S. Razin's peasant war and the Old Believer movement.

The church has survived. However, its present appearance does not correspond to the original. It was built according to the plan of the then-widespread architectural church type known as the "ship," but because the building was erected on a hillside, a brick "podium" was built beneath it, inside which were shops leased by the clergy to merchants.

The main volume of the church was covered with a zakomarny roof, above which rose a powerful five-domed crown clad in green glazed tiles and topped with iron pierced-gilt crosses. The bell tower rose as a square structure from its base, transitioning only at the belfry level into an octagonal drum with a tent roof, whose small cupola was likewise covered in glazed tiles. The building was constructed solidly, to last for centuries, and despite frequent fires it served as an ornament of the lower posad until the early nineteenth century. However, during the urban redevelopment works of 1834–1839, when an order was issued to clear the land adjoining the Kremlin of all manner of structures, and to demolish "the warm chapel of the Precursor Church on the Lower Posad and all shops situated beneath it," a process of structural deterioration began in the building. Where previously the pressure of the hillside on the church had been absorbed by the chapel's thick walls, after the chapel's demolition and the disruption of the ancient drainage system, underground springs gradually began to erode the foundations of the refectory chamber and to flood the vaulted cellars with water.

Repair works at the church in the 1830s–1840s were carried out successively by A. L. Leer, I. E. Yefimov, and G. I. Kizevetter. Nevertheless, in 1881–1885 major restoration works had to be undertaken again, and the bell tower was entirely rebuilt from scratch, which substantially distorted the appearance of the ancient church.

The building suffered still greater losses during the Soviet period. In Soviet times the church building housed a DOSAAF school, while a chapel built to commemorate the salvation of the tsar's family was converted into a public toilet.[3] The church was returned to the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese in the 1990s; in June 2004 a decision was made to restore its historic appearance, after which construction work began. In April 2005, in the course of the restoration works, the Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas Georgy performed the rite of consecration of five crosses for the church's domes. The crosses for the domes were manufactured from historic drawings at the Perovskiy Plant in the Moscow Region, and their gilding was carried out by the sisters of the Svyato-Troitsky Serafimo-Diveevsky Convent. As part of the restoration, the casting of a six-ton bell was planned, and the next stages were to include the production of the iconostasis and the painting of the church.[4][4][4] On 4 November 2005, the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist was consecrated by Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksiy II.

At the consecration of the church on 4 November 2005, those present included the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District Sergey Kirienko and the Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod Vadim Bulavinov; according to law-enforcement estimates, more than three thousand parishioners gathered near the church.[3] During the restoration, on 5 August 2005, the dome and cross were raised and installed on the church's bell tower — an operation that took approximately two hours; upon completion of the work, the repair and finishing of the bell tower were declared fully complete; the rector of the church during this period was the priest Dionisiy Solovyov.[5] On 19 January 2005, the day of the militia's departure from Nizhny Novgorod, a ceremonial laying of the foundation stone for a monument to Minin and Pozharsky took place in the square in front of the church: a capsule containing soil from Balakhna, where Kuzma Minin was born, and from Suzdal, where the remains of Dmitry Pozharsky rest, as well as a Message to Posterity, was lowered into a niche; the ceremonial unveiling of the monument — a reduced copy of Ivan Martos's sculptural composition, produced by the workshop of Zurab Tsereteli — took place on 4 November 2005.

Next to the church stands a chapel dedicated to the holy righteous Prince Alexander Nevsky, built in memory of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II; by autumn 2005 it had been restored to its original appearance.[2] Yet this magnificent monument still deserves to have its original form fully reinstated and its lost decorative elements restored. The ancient church, alongside the hoary stone Kremlin, will recreate yet another historic zone in our city, and together with the churches of Ilyinskaya Hill will restore the unique character of this part of Nizhny Novgorod.

Address

Phone

  • Tel. (831) 437-38-00

Official website

See also

Links

Sources

  1. rsnn.ucoz.ru — Church of John the Baptist — Mobile Tours — Museum of Urban Environment — Guide to Rozhdestvenskaya — Rozhdestvenskaya Side — Church of John the Baptist. Guide…
  2. nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis (archive)
  3. nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis (archive)
  4. nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis — In April 2005, during restoration works, Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas George performed the rite of consecration of five crosses for the church's domes. (archive)
  5. nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis (archive)