Description of the attraction
The blessed letter for the construction of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" of the Holy Znamensky Monastery was issued by Patriarch Joasaph in the 1670s to the townsman S. Ershov. The church was built of bricks, it is one-domed, pillarless, with a chapel at the southern facade. Its main volume is cubic in shape, covered with a closed vault and ends with a hipped roof with a cylindrical drum and a squat onion dome. The apse of the temple is three-part, its eastern wall consists of three semicircles. In height, it is up to the middle of the quadruple of the main volume.
In general, the compositional solution of the church is asymmetrical. The high hipped bell tower is shifted to the south from the central axis. The volumetric-spatial structure of the building is dominated by a large cubic volume. The design of the bell tower is a monolithic high octagon on a low rectangular first tier. In the upper part of the octagon cut through the arched spans of bells, it is completed by a tent with a bulbous dome and rumors.
The southern side-altar also gives the building asymmetry, which has its own main volume, overlapped by a corrugated vault, a refectory, an apse, a covered porch; in height, it is almost equal to the apse of the main volume.
The decor, consisting of arched decorative kokoshniks, which rest on a strip of valance, consisting, in turn, of croutons and horizontal rods, gives the temple building a splendor. Segment windows are framed by curly platbands. Along the perimeter of all volumes of the southern aisle and the apse there are horizontal yags of the under-cornice decor and stripes of the curb. The main volume drum has a cylindrical shape and is decorated with an arcature-columnar belt. Keel-shaped false kokoshniks complete the arched openings of the bell tower ringing.
The Znamenskaya Church is the main building of the Znamensky Monastery. It is located in the center of the monastery grounds. The temple is almost square in plan. The apse consists of three semicircles. A porch adjoins the main volume at the back, a bell tower is located in its southwestern part, and in the northwestern part of the porch it smoothly passes into the chapel of John the Theologian, which ends in a semicircular apse from the east. The doorway of the porch is arched. The porch is white stone. There is an openwork metal canopy above the porch. An arched window opening is framed by a semi-roll and ends with a triangular kokoshnik. There are pilasters at the corners of the bell tower quadrangle. The cornice consists of two ledges. Each pillar of the belfry and the lintels between them are framed by a two-tier traction, which consists of a half-roll and ledges. Each side of the tent is divided by a half-column. There are two rows of dormer windows on each edge. The doors of the main volume are wooden double-leaf. The foundations of the church are lined with wild stone with lime mortar sprinkling. Facade decoration - whitewashed grout, inside - whitewashed plaster.
Znamenskaya Church is a typical monument of temple architecture of the 17th century with characteristic features that attribute it to pillarless one-domed parish churches with elegant decor and a hipped-roof bell tower.
