Description of the attraction
The Church of St. Nicholas on Vspolye was built between 1803 and 1813. Initially, the temple was located on the site of ancient wooden temples dating back to the 17th century, which were located on land belonging to the old Sretensky Monastery. To date, almost no reliable information has reached us about the Sretensky monastery, but it is still known that two churches operated under it, one of which was called Sretensky, and the second was called Nikolskaya - both churches remained in existence after the monastery was closed … It is these two churches that are mentioned in the 16th century due to the fact that Tsar Ivan the Terrible decided to donate to the parish St. Nicholas Church territories intended for haymaking or reaping.
In the middle of 1803, a large-scale construction of a large spacious St. Nicholas Church was started on the territory of formerly burnt-out wooden churches, and the Sretensky chapel was arranged inside it. The necessary construction and finishing work continued until 1811. After the completion of the work, the consecration of the temple, following tradition, did not take place immediately, which is explained by the war that began at that time, which lasted until 1813. It is known that even the finishing works were completed in 1811, because the documents found indicate that at the end of the spring of this year, the process of formation of the iconostasis began. It is important to note that the largest number of guidebooks indicate that it was 1813 that marked the end of the construction of the St. Nicholas Church, but in fact this year was the year of its consecration. There is also information that some minor finishing work continued after the solemn ceremony of consecration of the temple, because in March 1813 Nikolai Yakovlevich Podyachev, a peasant from the village of Terekhovskoye, only added porticoes on the southern and northern façades. At the end of 1816, the church was completely painted, and over the next thirty years, the building of the temple continued to be replenished with new icons - new icons were painted, old ones were renewed, and the process of making patterned frames for them was carried out. The largest number of church icons were old, even today icons dating from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries are still preserved.
If we judge the Nikolskaya church from the point of view of the architectural component, then it is made in the best and most popular traditions of classicism at that time. The main volume is made especially high and is built according to the type of "octagon on a quadruple", which came to Russian classicism from the Eastern Baroque. With the help of a large dome, a wide massive octagon is covered, and on top of it there is a light drum, the wedding of which is carried out with the help of a small chapter. The refectory room is built somewhat squat and especially long, which is why it is hidden against the background of the main volume and the elegantly executed bell tower. The church bell tower deserves close attention, because it looks literally weightless or delicate, equipped with large arched openings in the upper tiers, with a slender and surprisingly beautiful spire in the upper part.
Nikolsky Church has always been famous for the presence of the holy icon of the Mother of God called "Tenderness", which until the time of Soviet power was kept in the Annunciation Cathedral. Beginning in 1910, the icon became known as miraculous, because numerous cases of complete healing of the sick were recorded. The very first to sleep was the 10-year-old daughter of the Lepeshkin family, Liza. After this incident, large groups of pilgrims began to come to the holy icon. In 1911, Archbishop Tikhon himself came to the miraculous icon, and in 1913 the Tsar's family visited the Nikolsky temple, traveling to Kostroma for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the formation of the Romanov dynasty. After the destruction of the Annunciation Church in 1930, the Nikolsky Church was also closed. It is still unknown how the miraculous icon ended up in the church, but there is information that in 1943, divine services were resumed in the church of St. Nicholas.
To date, the interior of the temple has been preserved, which is especially valuable.
