Description of the attraction
On the site of the Church of Varlaam Khutynsky, until 1780, there was a small stone church, dismantled and rebuilt right up to the foundation. It is known that the church, named in honor of the abbot of the Transfiguration of the Savior Khutynsky monastery Varlaam Khutynsky, was built with the money of a local merchant Uzdelnikov.
Varlaam Khutynsky was born into a noble and wealthy Novgorod family. While still a young man, he tonsured his tonsure at the Lisich Monastery and soon became a hermit living on the Khutyn hill near the Volkhov River. In 1192, he built a stone church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on the right bank of the Volkhov River, becoming the founder of the monastery and abbot.
We have received a supplementary letter that belonged to Varlaam Khutynsky and was written on a parchment sheet, which is an ancient Russian act that has survived to modern times in the original. According to this charter, Varlaam handed over to the monastery, which he himself founded, hayfields, arable land and other lands, as well as the territory on which the monastery was located. Varlaam Khutynsky is canonized by the Orthodox Church.
The Varlaamo-Khutynskaya church, which exists today, reflects the true influence of St. Petersburg's early classicism, which is considered a new architectural trend, which took the beginning of its spread to the city of Vologda at the very end of the 18th century. It can be assumed with great confidence that this church may not have been built, but designed by a rather outstanding master. This fact is evidenced by the perfectly worked out details of the temple decoration and a rather slender and easily rising small bell tower. In its architectural position, we can say that the church stands quite lonely among the position of the other fifty churches in Vologda; the only exception will be the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, located on Sennaya Square. But it is worth noting that the presence in the city of Vologda of civil-type buildings of the same style may suggest that the chief architect could be a local resident.
The famous Church of Varlamm Khutynsky is quite small, but two-story. The west-facing façade with the main entrance is beautifully decorated with a semi-rotunda, which is staunchly supported by four Ionic and incredibly slender columns. Above it, in a rusticated deaf cube, rises a rather high and end-to-end ringing quadrangle of a small bell tower, the edges of which are slightly concave; the cut corners are shaped like pilasters and paired Corinthian columns. In addition, it is the pilasters that support the light and modest frieze. The wedding of the bell tower is carried out in the form of a complex pyramidal dome with the thinnest and pear-shaped spire. Of considerable interest is the dome located above the eastern part of the temple building in the form of an oval and rather unusual graceful lantern with a small dome. Two chapters of the main volume are presented in the form of decorative vases, located on pedestals, decorated with stucco garlands, which make the vases even more elegant. This unique use of decorated vases perfectly matches the secular character of the decorated architecture of the temple.
The appearance of the church of Varlaam Khutynsky slightly spoils the appearance of the especially wide buttress, which was added in the middle of the 19th century from the left side of the rotunda. The part of the church building on the left has slightly moved away from the bell tower, which gives the impression that it is literally built into the church, because independent strong walls run to the ground. In this regard, a crack formed, due to which it was necessary to strengthen the side of the wall. In addition to this building and some other minor alterations, most likely, the exterior of the temple has survived to this day in the same form as it existed in 1780, but this cannot be said about the interior decoration of the church.
