Description of the attraction
The church of Nikolai Pritisk is one of many erected in Podil in honor of this saint. The origin of the name of the temple today raises various rumors. So, one of the versions says that the name comes from the pier (butt) that previously existed here. Another refers to an ancient legend, according to which a thief who sneaked into the temple was crushed (squeezed) by a large icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
The modern church of Mykola Pritisk is a synthesis of Ukrainian Baroque and earlier traditions. The temple was built in 1695-1707 on the same place where the wooden church of 1631 stood earlier. Outwardly, this stone temple is quite simple, however, the features of the best examples of Cossack temples made of wood are guessed in it. Already in 1718, the church of Nikolai Pritisk was damaged by fire, but was soon restored. At the end of the 18th century, a bell tower with a warm Sretenskaya church was added to the temple. The completion was carried out quite competently, since its authors tried to give it the same features as that of the temple.
This temple was not spared by the fire of 1811, during which all the wooden buildings in Podol burned down, and the stone ones were badly damaged, but by 1819 the church of Nikolai Pritisk was rebuilt, and the work was supervised by Andrey Melensky, a famous architect of that time. Despite the official ban on the use of national forms in religious architecture, the architect tried to recreate the temple in its original form as much as possible. Later, the temple was reconstructed several times, so today some of its parts and murals do not create a single composition, which makes the church of Nikolai Pritisk very original.
Like many churches in Kiev, this church was closed during the years of Soviet power, and this was done more than once, which is why the temple gradually fell into decay. However, after the restoration work, it was restored in the 80s of the twentieth century.
