Description of the attraction
The Church of St. John of the Ladder, which is part of the Nikolo-Trinity Monastery, was built in 1710 with the money of Ivan Shiryaev, one of the wealthy merchants of Gorokhovets.
The chronicle information concerning the exact date of the construction of the temple has not reached us, but according to the opinions of most scholars, it was built no later than the 18th century. The earliest mentions of the temple date back to 1761, which is listed in the monastery inventory. During 1850, the lower building, intended for the abbots, was rebuilt and modified.
The building of the Church of St. John Climacus is two-story and is made of bricks. In the plan it is designated as a rectangle with several apses, which are placed on a rectangular basement. The premises of the church have an ordinary structure for that time, which is represented by the refectory, the temple itself and the porch. The overlap is decorated with a closed vault. From the south-west side, the building has a staircase built on arches, as well as a porch that leads to the second floor. The base of the pillars and the parapet of the stairwells are finished with flys with graceful inserts of tiles. The altar and the refectory are of the same height, but the main volume is slightly higher.
The wall planes are framed in all corners with blades. The walls are cut through with small window openings, which are decorated with platbands in a shape reminiscent of semi-columns intercepted by beads with front-like ends. The jagged cornice is very wide and separates a long row of decorative kokoshniks that encircle the upper area of the main volume. The main volume has a four-pitched roof, while the refectory and the altar have a three-pitched roof. The total height of the volume is 11.5 m, the refectory and the altar are 8 m.
Next to the building of the Church of St. John Climacus there is a rector's building, built in two floors. The building is rectangular in plan and covered with a hipped roof made of metal. Church facades are constantly segmented in the form of blades. The division of the floors among themselves is highlighted by horizontal rods. The windows in the temple are quite simple and rectangular in shape. There is no decor on the windows.
Due to the fact that the building was adapted for housing, the primary interior solution was violated, after which it acquired a modern look. The floors in the rooms are wooden, the doors have a modern look - they are wooden and single-floor. There are no bars on the window openings; the ceilings are painted with whitewash and whitewashed, pre-plastered.
From the outside, the facades of the temple are whitewashed on top of a brick covering. The roof is made of iron and painted brown. The ceilings are vaulted, but today they are broken, which is why there are vaulted ceilings on the first floor of the spacious abbot's building in several rooms. The temple stairs are made of wood. Heating in the temple is carried out from the stove. There is no plinth in the church, and the foundation is not visible. All the heads of the church have been completely lost for a long time.
The windows to the interior of the church are opened with sloping rectangular deep niches. There is a passage between the building and the church, in which there is a box vault. On the second floor, in the apse, there is also a corrugated vault with stripping structures located above the entrance. In the apse of the basement, it is equipped with formwork above the entrance door in the main volume.
The building intended for the abbots is made of bricks and fixed with mortar.
It should be noted that, in general, the Church of St. John of the Ladder is an extended building. It is this temple that plays an important role in the ensemble of the Nikolo-Trinity Monastery, since it is located to the nearest high hill located at the entrance to the city.
The temple has become a real symbol of the combination of residential and religious buildings, built in the first half of the 18th century. An uncommon look is given by a ceremonially elegant porch, which fully corresponds to the traditions of ancient architecture of the 17th century. Unfortunately, the decor of the facades has been largely lost, and the internal layout does not correspond to the original.
