Description of the attraction
The Church of Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa is one of the most interesting architectural monuments of the city. The wooden church of Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa on Torgovishche was originally built in 1156 by "overseas merchants", that is, a corporation of Novgorod merchants who were engaged in overseas trade. In 1191, a certain Constantine and his brother re-erected a wooden church of the same name. Finally, under 1207, the Novgorod chronicles report the completion of the stone church, erected again by overseas merchants."
Despite numerous reconstructions at different times, the church of 1207 has survived enough to represent its original appearance. Being, like the earlier monuments of Novgorod, a single-domed building of a cubic type, the Church of Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa differs from them in a number of features that gave it an unusual appearance for Novgorod. On three sides, the building was adjoined by three vestibules, somewhat lowered in relation to the main cube of the building. At the corner of the northern vestibule, as well as at the northeastern corner of the main cube of the building, powerful stepped blades have been preserved, completely unusual for Novgorod architecture, but widespread in the architecture of ancient Smolensk. Equally unusual for Novgorod is the shape of the side apses of the Church of Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa, which have a rectangular, rather than semicircular, shape on the outside - a feature that is also related to the Novgorod church with the monuments of Smolensk.
