Description of the attraction
Church of St. Alexy, the man of God is an Orthodox church, a monument of history and culture, located in Kostroma, on Katushechnaya street, 14. Church of St. Alexy, the man of God, was built in 1653 in Gasheeva Slobodka, on the northern outskirts of the Anastasia Monastery, to which this settlement was allocated for a cow yard.
In the second half of the 18th century, on the site of a dilapidated wooden church by that time, priest John Fedorov, with the blessing of Bishop Damascene of Kostroma, at the expense of parishioners, built a two-story stone church in honor of Venerable Alexy. The temple was erected in two stages: the main work on the construction of the temple was carried out in 1759-1762, and in the 1770s the refectory and the lower bell tier were completed.
In the first half of the 19th century, the two upper tiers of the bell tower and a porch on the western side of the temple were built.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the clergy of the church consisted only of a priest and a psalmist. In 1929, the Alekseevsky temple was closed by the Soviet authorities. The building of the temple was first used as an isolation ward by the education department. In 1930, there was a hostel here. In the same year, the porch, the upper bell tiers, the drum were dismantled, until 1988 the living quarters were located in the temple.
In 1988-1992, restoration work was carried out in the temple under the leadership of I. Sh. Shevelev, during which the original appearance of the temple was restored. In 1992, the church was returned to the Kostroma diocese, and on May 3, 1992, the first divine service was held here, which was conducted by Bishop Alexander of Kostroma and Galich.
In 1993, the Alekseevskaya church was transferred to the Kostroma Theological School, which in 1996 was transformed into a seminary. Initially, divine services were held only in the lower church. Since 1994, the upper church began to be used for divine services, where the restoration of the paintings on the vault had just finished. Thanks to the help of benefactors, the church fence has been restored today, new bells have been installed on the bell tower.
Today is a church in honor of St. Alexy, the man of God, is a place of liturgical practice for future church and clergymen and the spiritual center of a large parish. The rector of the church is Archpriest John.
The main feature of the architecture of the Alekseevsky temple is the crown-shaped dome on the bell tower. In this regard, there was even a legend in the city that the bell tower was decorated in honor of the visit to Kostroma in 1767 by Empress Catherine.
The building of the temple is a quadruple stretched from east to west, transversely oriented by a refectory with rounded corners and a three-tiered bell tower. The quadrangle of the temple has a semicircular apse, equal in width, and ends with an octagonal drum with a roof and a cupola. Above the two-storey square lower bell tier, two cylindrical tiers rise, the third tier encircles a circular balcony.
A porch with an open staircase of two flights with a tent on the upper platform adjoins the temple from the west. The temple has two chapels: an upper and a lower one. The lower one with thrones - in honor of St. Alexy, the man of God, and Basil the Great. The upper side-altar with one altar - in honor of St. Dmitry, Metropolitan of Rostov, and St. Savvaty and Zosima of Solovetsky. The murals on the walls of the temple were made with glue painting in the style typical of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
In the church, a large wooden cross in a gilded robe and decorated with pearls and an icon of St. Alexis of ancient writing, transferred from an old wooden church. The image of the Monks Zosima and Savvaty of Solovetsky was also especially revered in the church.
