The Seraphim House of Charity for Elderly Clergy was a charitable institution of the Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas Diocese, built in 1904–1905 on Piskunova Street (house 49/6) in Nizhny Novgorod. The institution was organized on the initiative of, and built at the expense of, Alexander Priezzhev, a hereditary honorary citizen of Nizhny Novgorod. During the Soviet period the building was rebuilt and lost its original appearance; it later became part of the teaching buildings of the State Academy of Water Transport.[4]
Construction and layout
The building's design was developed by the architect Nikolai Veshnyakov; it was approved in March 1904. Construction took place on the grounds of the Makaryev Almshouse: the cornerstone was laid on 2 May 1904, and the grand opening took place on 19 July 1905.[4]
The building had two floors and a basement. Elderly clergy and church servitors lived on the first and second floors, while the basement housed the refectory.[4]
House church
The house had its own church, located on the second floor. The church was consecrated by Bishop Nazary (Kirillov) and had a bell tower topped with a small cupola bearing a cross.[4]
Fate after 1917
In the early years of Soviet rule, the buildings of the Makaryev Almshouse and the Seraphim House of Charity for a time housed the Nizhny Novgorod Eparchial Council. The building was then rebuilt: a third floor was added, the bell tower and cupola were demolished, and the interior was reconfigured. It subsequently became part of the teaching buildings of the Volga State Academy of Water Transport; the premises of the former church came to be used as a classroom.[4]
Sources
- nn800.ru — Eparchial Seraphim House of Charity for Elderly Clergy — I Discover Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- cuzk.gov.cz
- adalbertinum.cz — For Children and Youth (archive)