Description of the attraction
Between the cell building and the Assumption Church, in the center of the Alexander Kremlin, stands the Intercession Church with a refectory adjoining the ancient quadrangle from the west. The refectory was built on earlier cellars, in the 17th century. it took the place of a vast chamber of the 16th century, traces of its corrugated vault remained in the north aisle.
The ancient part of the church, in addition to the octagon with a tent above it, the eastern part of the basement and the northern chamber, is located inside the 17th century building. Its ancient octagon with a squat squat tent, which is considered the prototype of all future hipped-roofed temples, drowned in these buildings. It is not known when the Intercession Church was built. A. I. Nekrasov believed that the time of its construction was the 1550s, in his opinion, this temple was the home church of Tsar Ivan IV. Modern studies date the construction of the church to an earlier time - approximately 1525-1529.
In the central apse, in the tent of the church and in the slopes of the western window, frescoes of the 16th century have been partially preserved. In 1863, with funds allocated for the temple by the merchant Zorina, the walls of the temple were covered with mediocre painting. The old iconostasis was replaced with a new one.
The refectory chamber from the west is adjoined by a four-tier bell tower. Above it is a bell octahedron with a hipped roof. A clock was previously installed on the bell tower, the principle of operation of which was based on the reckoning of time by sunset and sunrise. Some parts of their mechanism are now in the watch cell and the local museum.
The bell tower of the Intercession Church is the simplest version of the Moscow type of bell towers of the second half of the 17th century. In some places it is decorated with colored tiles. Through it, a staircase leads to the refectory.
Under the western wall of the quadrangle in the basement of the church, there is a niche that resembles an arcasolium in ancient temples. Presumably, someone from the royal or princely family was buried here. Currently, Arcasolium is empty, so it is not possible to establish who exactly was buried here.
In 1960-1964, the Intercession Church was restored by employees of the Vladimir Scientific Restoration Workshop. They restored the white-stone cellars, the pillar of the church, the refectory, the basements. The roof of the refectory was redesigned to have a four-pitched roof. The tent was overhauled - it was re-covered with a ploughshare - with aspen planks (in the 1980s the ploughshare was changed again), the basement of the building was dug and a concrete blind area was made, the approach to the church was laid out with slabs, crosses and chapters were gilded. The room was insulated with mineral wool slabs.
In the mid-1980s - early 1990s. The Church of the Intercession was restored again. The interior of the main space of the church and the frescoes of the tent were restored. A big problem was caused by the deformations of the northern wall of the building, as a result of which in the second tier of the main room of the refectory the floors had deep cracks. The floors in the refectory were replaced, the carpentry fillings of the windows were replaced, and work was carried out to restore normal temperature and humidity conditions. The general repair works on whitewashing and putting in order the premises for the placement of the museum exposition were completely done, the roof and the facade of the main building were renewed.
Scientific leaders and architects who took part in the restoration: Sherstobitova L. E., Efimov D. V., Dvoeglazova T. A., engineers Shchelokov O. O., Ershov E. Ya. soaking, as well as deformation of ancient basements.
In the 1990s.in the Church of the Intercession by probing the plaster outline by the famous scientist V. V. Kavelmakher discovered the remains of a stone portal of extraordinary beauty. Careful opening of the portal confirmed the assumption that Italian Renaissance masters also took part in the construction of the temple. It became possible to more accurately determine the time of the construction of the temple and all stages of its construction. Such a find became key for the reconstruction of the church building and made a significant contribution to the study of the history of Alexandrova Sloboda.
The white stone portal was museumified and became an exhibit and part of the architectural structures and the interior of the temple.
