Description of the attraction
The Barnaul Znamensky Women's Monastery is one of the attractions of the Altai Territory. In June 1754 in Barnaul, the consecration of the newly erected church in honor of the saints and righteous Zechariah and Elizabeth took place. Already by 1772 the church building was badly dilapidated. Then it was decided to build a new temple. A new wooden church was erected in 1778 with funds donated by local residents. The author of this project was I. Polzunov's student I. Chernitsyn.
In 1844, the famous architect Tursky developed a project for a new stone three-altar church, which he presented for consideration by the Tomsk provincial construction commission. However, this project was not implemented, and only in August 1852 the certificate for the construction of a new stone church was received. The foundation stone of the temple took place in 1853. The final project of the stone church was approved in 1856, and two years later, with donations from believers, an amazing temple with a three-tiered bell tower and twelve bells was erected on Sennaya Square. In 1916, a stone chapel was erected at the Church of the Sign in honor of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty.
After October 1917, the temple suffered the same fate as most other churches in Russia - it was closed. In October 1918, the parishioners decided to annually contribute a certain amount of money to maintain the church, but the new government did not support this initiative, and in 1922, under the pretext of helping the starving people in the Volga region, a campaign began to confiscate temple valuables.
In April 1939, by the decision of the Regional Executive Committee, the church was finally closed. In the same year, the dome was demolished, the bell tower was broken. A little later, a second floor was added to the building and other extensions were made. The church has lost its historical appearance.
At the end of 1992 she was returned to the Orthodox Church. Only the walls, distorted by the outbuildings, remained of the beautiful temple. Soon, work began to restore the destroyed temple. In 1994, a female monastery was founded at the Church of the Sign. Today there are 20 nuns in the monastery.
