Sirotkin Prayer House on Minin Street is a private Old Believer prayer house of the Belokrinitsa Concord, attached to the mansion of the merchant Sirotkin Dmitry Vasilyevich. It was set up in 1912–1913 in a remodeled stone house on Minin Street (no. 8A; at that time Zhukovskaya Street, at the corner of Georgievskaya Square). The building has survived; the prayer house is no longer in use.[1]
History of the establishment
In late 1912, Sirotkin purchased a stone house on Zhukovskaya Street from Arapovskaya and began reconstructing it to set up a private Old Believer church. The legal basis was the 1906 decree of Emperor Nicholas II, which granted Old Believers the right to profess their faith freely and to build houses of prayer; in the first seven years after the decree, more than five thousand Old Believer churches and prayer houses were built across Russia.[1]
The establishment of the prayer house met with opposition from the Orthodox clergy. On February 14, 1913, Nikolay Avrov, the priest of the neighboring Georgievskaya Church, appealed to Bishop Joachim of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, pointing out that Sirotkin was "building a double-height hall" in Arapovskaya's house, which stood only 33 sazhens from the Georgievskaya Church, and requesting "an archpastoral clarification" on whether an Orthodox church and a "heterodox" one could stand so close to each other. In response to this appeal, the police captain of the 2nd Kremlin District took a statement from Sirotkin; the merchant reported that he did not yet have permission for the reconstruction and was petitioning for it through the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Board, and that as to the purpose of the house being rebuilt, he "refused to explain, saying there was no need for anyone to know about it." In July 1913, Avrov reported again to his superiors that the reconstruction was continuing: "vaults are being raised over the hall, which has been made double-height."[1]
Architecture and decoration
During the reconstruction, a double-height hall with painting in the Palekh manner and a tent-roofed bell tower were built in the building. The year construction was completed falls between 1913 and approximately 1915.[1][2]
Current state
The building is located at 8A Minin Street, in the immediate vicinity of the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum. The prayer house is no longer in use; the dedication of its altar remains unknown. The property does not belong to the Russian Orthodox Church.[1]
Sources
- sobory.ru — Nizhny Novgorod, Unknown prayer house of the Old Believers of the Belokrinitsa Concord at the mansion of D. V. Sirotkin (archive)
- Historical Encyclopedia of Nizhny Novgorod — Category: Old Believers of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (archive)