Description of the attraction
The Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos is located on the territory of the Spassky Monastery in Murom. The two-story Intercession Church with a refectory was built in 1691 on the initiative of the Murom native of the Metropolitan of Sarsk and Podonsk Varsonofy (Chertkov). It replaced the older stone church. There is an opinion that it was rebuilt, although, in fact, then a new building was erected. In plan it had an "irregular" shape - the refectory on the north side in some way "protruded" beyond the perimeter.
In 1757, from the west, a three-tiered hipped-roof bell tower was added to the Intercession Church. Funds for its construction were donated by the Murom merchant Pavel Petrovich Samarin. He also presented the monastery with a bell weighing 120 pounds.
The church and the bell tower were surrounded by a gallery with vaults (at the end of the 18th century it was glazed), where a staircase made of stone led. This porch was destroyed after 1810, about which the inhabitants of Murom were very sympathetic. The first floor was originally adapted for household services. There worked "a bakery, a cookery, a flour plant, a baker's house, a bakery, and a chamber." At the end of the 18th century, a church was also built on the ground floor. In the middle of the 19th century, the Intercession Church had five thrones: three at the top and two at the bottom.
The church was warm. There were 3 stoves here, although, according to surviving documents, it was not heated very well. In 1881, new ovens were built in the church - "tiled" ones, which were altered in 1911.
In general, the whole history of the Murom Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos is, in fact, the path of her salvation. The reason for such a deplorable state of affairs, apparently, is that there were some flaws in her design, and the materials used in the construction were of poor quality. Less than a century has passed since its construction, it was 1759, when several vaults collapsed. At the end of the 18th century, cracks formed in the walls (they were "eaten" by dampness), the brick was crumbled.
By 1809, the monastery made a request to demolish the bell tower. But permission was not obtained, it was proposed to repair it. The cracks were repaired, the crumbling brick was replaced with a new one, the walls were pulled together with iron ties.
During the Soviet period, the position of the temple became completely catastrophic. The church was closed in 1918. In the 1930s, the bell tower was dismantled to the lower quadrangle. The vault above the first floor of the temple collapsed, the iron ties were cut, and the premises were converted for military needs.
After the Spassky Monastery was again transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church, the bell tower was restored. In the summer of 1996, the first bell appeared on it. In 2006-2007, an additional belfry was built for the large bell. Divine services began to be held in the temple in 1998.
The Church of the Intercession that has survived to this day is a "warm" two-storey one-domed stone church. The general composition of the building is 3 clear volumes: a rectangular refectory, elongated along the east-west axis, a quadruple of the main volume and a three-part apse - on a rectangular base. All volumes are of the same width, the refectory and apse are of the same height, and only the main volume is slightly raised and thus highlighted.
The refectory of the Intercession Church is located on the top floor and has the appearance of a one-pillar chamber. Its vaults are supported by an octahedral pillar offset northward. The basement of the church on the facades is not distinguished by anything, the basement is absent, it is not even separated from the upper tier by horizontal rods. There is one window each on three semicircles of the apses. The quadruple of the main volume is decorated with a cornice of a complex profile and false round kokoshniks. Bow windows located on the second floor are decorated with molded profiled tape on the facades.
