Description of the attraction
The Church of the Presentation of the Lord is located on Naberezhnaya Street in the historic district of the District of the city of Vologda. The Church of the Presentation is a pre-existing Orthodox church built in 1731-1735. The last reconstruction of the temple was carried out in 1830. Sretenskaya Church is one of the most interesting monuments in Vologda. First of all, the church attracts attention with an emphasized elegant and decorative appearance, which so distinguishes it from other temple buildings in the District.
The exact time of the construction of the originally wooden Sretenskaya Church has not been established, although information has come down to us that already in 1656 it took place. In memory of the pre-existing wooden church, which has three thrones, three bulky hewn stones with crosses located at the top were exhibited on all sides of the stone church of the same name. The stone Sretenskaya Church on the Embankment was built in the first half of the 18th century. We have not received information about who exactly was the master who built the church. The warm church was consecrated in 1735, the cold part of the church was consecrated in 1837.
The Church of the Presentation of the Lord is considered one of the most beautiful in the entire city, because it is she who personifies a new stage in the achievements of stone architecture, and also reflects that elegant and colorful example of the late Baroque in Moscow, which in the first half of the 18th century was widespread in the Russian North. The most important part of the temple is a strongly elongated upward cube, which is crowned with five chapters on thin drums. The refectory room is connected to the western part of the bell tower and the porch. The decoration of the facades is carried out by a wide cornice with a figured brickwork in the form of small towns-brackets. The same motif is used on the drums of the domes, on the three-tiered bell tower and on the facade of the refectory. The corners of the building are designed in the form of paired pilasters. On the casing, pilasters, under the cornice and on the pediments, inserts of figured glazed tiles are placed - this is a unique detail inherent in the Vologda churches of that time. The window frames are incredibly rich and combine the motifs of Russian ornamentation with the introduced new "Peter's" forms.
Some famous icons originate from the Church of the Presentation of the Lord, which are currently in valuable collections of museums in the Russian Federation. From the art criticism side, we can say that the icon "Descent from the Cross", dating back to the 16th century, is of particular interest; the icon is in the Tretyakov Gallery. It is worth considering that the manner of writing is quite peculiar - graphic and planar, where liquid local paints literally fill the cells strictly and clearly outlined with a contour, like ancient Russian cloisonné enamels. The shine of colors is realized, as in the Novgorod school, only the lyricism of the work, so uncharacteristic for the city of Novgorod, points towards local origin. Also, we can say that the similarity with some outstanding works relating to ancient Russian painting, for example, "Descent from the Cross" from the album collection of IS Ostroukhov, "Mourning" and "Descent into Hell", which are in the Tretyakov Gallery, "Secret Vespers”,“The Beheading of John the Baptist”, which are in the Kiev Museum of Russian Art, gave many researchers reason to suppose that all of the listed icons had a common place of creation - the Russian North, and not Nizhny Novgorod, as was mistakenly assumed earlier. The temple icon of the church is considered to be an icon called "Meeting", which dates back to the 16th century and was created long ago under the leadership of the Moscow school.
