Description of the attraction
The Church of the Ascension of the Lord is located in the city of Kalyazin, on Engels Street, 1. It was built in 1783. According to the original idea, it was a cemetery church belonging to the Nikolsky (Nikolaevsky) Cathedral. It was erected when the cemetery of the Nikolsky parish was moved from the cathedral to a place farther from the city center. Eminent residents of Kalyazin, clergy, merchants, intelligentsia, burghers were buried in the cemetery.
Initially, there was one altar in the temple - in honor of the Ascension of the Lord. Over time, two more side-chapels were added to the church: Makariy Kalyazinsky and Tikhvinsky. In the Makaryevsky side-altar, an icon of St. Macarius with a particle of relics was kept, in Tikhvin - a very revered icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God - a copy from the famous miraculous icon.
The main volume of the Ascension Church was 5-headed. The facades of the side-chapels were decorated in the eclectic style, with elements of pseudo-Gothic, which was very popular in the second half of the 19th century. Impressive is the majestic 3-tiered bell tower, made in the style of "classicism". It is richly decorated with paired columns, rustication and pediments. A thin high spire is the final element of the structure. As if, it is designed to echo the bell tower of St. Nicholas Cathedral, elegant, in the same style, which now rises in the middle of the Uglich reservoir, over the flooded part of Kalyazin.
During the Soviet years, the Ascension Church was abolished. A bakery was located here, and a stadium appeared on the site of the ancient cemetery. The temple gradually fell into disrepair, and only in the 1990s its new life began. Another church building is still in ruins - most likely a cemetery chapel at the Holy Gates, which has not survived to this day. The interiors of the church are also lost.
The temple itself has for the most part been restored, although a lot of work remains. However, services are already being held in the restored church, notably - not in the chapel, but in the central part.
In 2009, a monument was erected to the south of the temple, dedicated to the victory won by Russian soldiers in 1609 at Kalyazin over the Polish-Lithuanian regiments. The authors of the monument were sculptors A. G. Komlev and E. A. Antonov. The funds were raised by the townspeople. The interventionist troops plundered and destroyed Kalyazin, and this victory for the Kalyazin people is not only a glorious event in history, but also an act of retaliation. The name of the leader of the Russian troops, Prince Mikhail Vasilyevich Skopin-Shuisky, is engraved on the memorial plaque; there are also the names of the Polish-Lithuanian commanders - Zborovsky and Sapieha. The symbolism of the monument is very clear - the eagle symbolizing our country is on the defeated banners of the Polish-Lithuanian troops. Below, on a stone block, there is a portrait of Skopin-Shuisky.
