Description of the attraction
The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a 17th century church located in the village of Varzuga, Tersk District, located in the southeastern part of the Murmansk region. It is this church that has become one of the majestic monuments of wooden Russian architecture and is an integral part of the complex of monuments in the village of Varzuga. It is noteworthy that the church was built without a single nail. If you look at the Church of the Assumption from afar, it seems that it is surprisingly perfect in its proportions and slender. The silhouette of the church harmoniously merges with the surrounding nature. It is also important that all the constituent elements of the church look amazingly proportional, which gives the monument of wooden architecture a solemn and majestic look.
The first mentions of the church can be found in the chronicle sources of 1563, although they do not say anything for sure. In the Clearing Gazette for 1674, it is said that the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos was built in 1674 under the leadership of the master Clement, which happened during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. There was a wooden cross on the southern wall of the church, which in 1985 was transported to one of the islands called Vysoky, which is 3 km from Varzuga, but this cross has not survived to this day.
The construction of the church took place during the church reform of the Great Patriarch of All Russia Nikon, as well as the great schism of believers - it was during this period that the largest number of Murmansk residents fought desperately against various kinds of innovations. This circumstance was reflected in the temple of the Assumption in the form of a classic hipped roof style, despite the fact that Nikon prohibited the use of this technique.
The construction of the Assumption Church was carried out according to the principle of the so-called "golden section". The church base consisted of a quadrangle, designed as a pillar, located in the very center, and several adjoining pipes - thanks to this technique, the church base has the shape of a cross in a transverse view. The upper part of the church consists of an eight-walled frame, a pavilion, a neck of a dome and a cupola, the wedding of which is made in the form of an eight-pointed cross.
To decorate the temple, various decorative elements were used, for example, scales and a kokoshnik - a specially designed covering of the dome, as well as its base. The beauty of the church building was achieved through the use of various kinds of carved details, represented by window frames, porch posts, ridge and barrels, as well as patterned ends of the roof, framing in the form of lace in the lower and upper parts of the dome.
The total height of the church is 34 meters. The free area for parishioners is 70 sq. meters. Three years after the completion of construction work, the iconostasis was consecrated, which included 84 icons. Some of the icons were painted specially for the newly built church in 1677 by the icon painters of the Anthony-Siysk Monastery, while the other part was painted by Solovetsky masters and remained from the church that was previously located here.
The overwhelming majority of not only connoisseurs of wooden Russian architecture, but also historians and researchers consider the temple of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary the most remarkable of all the monuments of this kind located in the Russian North.
During 1847-1848, capital repairs and restoration works were carried out in the church, while it was altered and in some part sheathed with boards. In 1860 the church iconostasis was renewed; in the period from 1888 to 1895, the largest renovation in the history of the church was carried out, about which there is even an inscription of Dmitry Afanasyevich Zaborshchikov - the son of the chief master - on the internal wooden board. In 1939, the Assumption Church lost all of its bells, which were removed and prepared for transportation on the bank of the river, which was never received, because a strong tide of water carried the bells into the river. It was not possible to return the bells. In 1973, the Assumption Church was recognized as a monument of wooden architecture, after which it was restored again. Since 1996, divine services have been held again in the Church of the Assumption.
