Description of the attraction
Nicholas Kremlin Church is located on the site of the old Vladimir Kremlin. Judging by the preserved historical information, the Nikolskaya Church once stood here, because in the descriptive book of the Vladimir Kremlin for 1626 the temple is referred to as "the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with a refectory and a side-altar." There is information about the presence of a warm church in honor of Simeon the Stylite. Both temples at that time were built of wood. Patriarch's books for 1628 mention the temple of St. Nicholas. It is also known that in 1719 the Nikolo-Kremlin Church was burned down.
In the middle of 1721, numerous parishioners purchased a wooden church in the village of Pogrebishchi, from which a winter church was made. Nikolskaya Church was built in 1747, which is proved in the topographical description of the city of Vladimir for 1761. In 1761, construction work began on the construction of a stone church with a side-altar. According to the preserved documents from 1762, only in 1769 was the side-chapel built and the work on the four-tiered bell tower was completed. Throughout 1850, a side-altar was added to the St. Nicholas Kremlin Church, consecrated in the name of Simeon the Stylite.
At the moment, the temple is located in the central part of the city of Vladimir on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street. On the east side, the wall of the large Rozhdestvensky monastery adjoins it, and on the south side there is a small square.
Nicholas Kremlin Church consists of the main volume, the refectory room, which is adjoined by a four-storey bell tower. There are two aisles on the south and north sides.
Initially, the temple building consisted of the main volume, a refectory and a high bell tower with a northern aisle. Particular attention is drawn to the four-tier bell tower, which stands out clearly in the entire spatial-volumetric composition. The bell tower is vaulted and ends in a high spire.
The main volume is a pillarless quadrangle, which is indicated in the plan by a square and covered with a four-slot vault, ending with an octagonal double drum with a bulbous cupola. Painting has come down to us, preserved in the main volume. The main volume is adjoined by the space of the altar apse, which is covered by a conch.
The refectory room is represented by a rectangular room, covered with a corrugated vault with small stripping over the eastern and western arched openings.
The bell tower is adjacent to the refectory. Its lower tier is a square, covered with a vaulted formwork that leads to the refectory room, and then to the north aisle. The existing side-altars are combined with each other in the form of arched openings. The refectory room is connected to the side-chapels into a common rectangular room, somewhat elongated from the north side. At the same level with the refectory and the main volume, the side-altars are somewhat partitioned off by temporary walls.
The aisle window openings are located at the refectory level. The window frames are double and made of wood. Window openings have deep slopes. The walls of the temple are plastered under lime. In the main volume of the quadrangle, painting has survived to this day. The altar part is connected to the volume by means of three arched openings, while the central part is slightly wider and higher than the rest. As of today, the arches have been laid.
The floor in the temple is cement and has overlapping in the form of a boardwalk, on which linoleum is laid. Koncha participates in the overlap of the altar of the chapel located on the south side. The north aisle is designed in the form of a rectangle. On the north side there is a porch lined with white stone. Lime mortar can be seen between the brick joints. The decorative pattern is distinguished by its plastic expressiveness, but at the same time it has a graphic dryness and rigor in the processing of some details. For example, the pilaster side-chapels, which correspond to the supporting arches, are mirrored with the apse pilasters.
The St. Nicholas Kremlin Church is a typical example of a posad pillarless temple of the mid-18th century.
