Description of the attraction
"Nikola Podkopay" - this was the popular name for the church of St. Nicholas in Podkopaevsky Lane. There are several versions of the origin of such an unusual toponym. The simplest explanation is the existence of the village of Podkopaeva in the 15th century. And the most interesting versions are connected, of course, with tunnels, robbers and miracles.
So, recently it turned out that under the temple there is an abandoned underground room with passages leading into it, it is not known by whom and when dug. According to another version, robbers tried to get into the temple through the tunnel. According to another legend, Nikola the Pleasant himself, who appeared in a dream, allowed the ruined merchant to dig the tunnel. The Savior ordered the merchant to remove the rich salary from his image, to improve his financial situation with his help, but then to do exactly the same and put it in place if the merchant gets rich.
The first mention of St. Nicholas Church in Podkopaevo refers to the end of the 15th century, in the middle of the 16th century it was rebuilt, and a hundred years later it was already mentioned as a stone one. Around the middle of the 18th century, a bell tower was added to the temple.
In 1812, the temple was ravaged by the French and then remained without renovation for several decades. The “rebirth” of the temple took place in 1855, when it was set aside for the construction of the Alexandrian Patriarchal Metochion. The restoration of the temple was supervised by the architect Nikolai Kozlovsky, and the work was financed by the parishioners from merchants Nikolai Kaulin and Alexey Shevelkin. The next renovation of St. Nicholas Church took place in the second half of the 19th century - including the construction of the chapel of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, funds were provided by the rector of the courtyard, Archimandrite Gennady.
Nikola Podkopai was closed in 1929. Its building was stripped of its heads and crosses, and priests and some parishioners were arrested. Until the 90s, the building belonged to the chemical industry, which opened a tool shop in it. At the same time, in the 90s, the restoration of the temple began. Currently, the temple is functioning and is an object of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation.
According to the main altar, the temple can also be called Kazan (in honor of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God). One of its chapels was consecrated in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker, and the second was built in honor of Sergius of Radonezh.
