Description of the attraction
The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Novaya Ladoga was formerly part of the complex of Ioannovsky and Nikolo-Medvedsky monasteries. Initially, it was consecrated as the temple of St. John the Theologian, now, by the name of the chapel (1733), it is called the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin.
The church in honor of John the Evangelist was built, most likely, as a refectory. In its architecture, it is similar to the refectory temples of the mid-16th century. in the Khutynsky and Anthony monasteries. The church was built in 1702 and consecrated on September 25, and the chapel of the Nativity of the Virgin was built in 1733-1734. and consecrated by Archpriest Sergius on January 8, 1734.
On November 12, 1840, the headman, together with the parishioners, petitioned the vicar bishop Benedict (Grigorovich) for the alteration and repair of the dilapidated church due to the fact that the church was rather dark, some of its elements fell into disrepair, and it did not contain all the believers. Instead of a ceiling, it was supposed to build on a dome, and to expand the building - to attach a chapel in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity on the south side, symmetrically with the chapel on the north side, the middle church was supposed to be enlarged by adding an altar, and to increase the illumination in the church it was planned to make larger windows. The work was to be carried out in 1841-1842. But in response to the conversion of believers, it was proposed to design a new church. The reconstruction project was drawn up in 1848 by the architect Malinin, but it was declared "unsatisfactory".
And in 1876-1877. M. A. Shchurupov carried out the reconstruction of the church, as a result of which, to increase the height of the temple, the walls were dismantled to the window sills and the vaults of the basements; the altar wall was moved; a new wooden high dome was erected with sails on wooden circles; a porch was added to the narthex, windows were cut; changed the end of the bell tower. The side-altar with the new iconostasis has become more spacious than the main church. The renovated temple was consecrated on October 9, 1877.
The gilded wooden carved four-tiered iconostasis combines elements of the Gothic and Russian style. 43 icons for the iconostasis were painted by the famous St. Petersburg master Vasily Makarovich Peshekhonov.
On the western side of the temple there is a forty-meter octahedral bell tower, the end of which resembles the spire of the Old Ladoga St. John the Baptist Church and the Novaya Ladoga Clement Church. An iron clock was installed on the bell tower, with its dial facing the city, as well as twelve bells, the largest of which weighed 7 tons and was cast by the master N. M., Assumption of the Virgin. But, unfortunately, the bells were lost in Soviet times, today there is a bell of 1868 among the ringing.
In 1910 the temple was examined by the diocesan architect A. P. Aplaksin, who works in 1876-1877. called it a grandiose and sad alteration that distorted the ancient appearance of the church so much that it is impossible to judge what it was like before. Aplaksin wanted to add to the temple a third side-altar in the south along the entire length of the temple with the processing of the facade of the building in the style of ancient Novgorod churches, and also to replace the dome in accordance with the nature of the new extension “in the nature of the proposed extension.
In 1935, the church of St. John the Evangelist was closed; it was badly damaged during the war. In 1948, it was transferred to the use of the Nikolsky Cathedral at the request of the Chancellery of the Leningrad Metropolitan. It was restored and in 1949 it became operational again. Since 1954the temple began to be officially called the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin after the name of its chapel.
