Description of the attraction
In the city of Kostroma, on Nizhnyaya Debrya Street, house 37, there is the Znamensky Women's Monastery. It can be seen immediately at the entrance to the city, because it stands on the banks of the full-flowing Volga River, not far from tall lindens. The domes of the Church of the Ascension on Debra go high into the sky, which gives the right, in view of its majesty, to attribute it to the monuments of Russian folk architecture of the 17th century. For a long period of time, this temple pleases not only Kostroma residents, but also guests of the city.
The temple got its name "on Debra" due to the fact that it was originally built in the middle of a dense forest, which was in the possession of Vasily Yaroslavich, the Kostroma prince and younger brother of Alexander Nevsky. At first, two churches were erected in these places: St. George and the Resurrection, which existed until the middle of the 17th century, after which they were built of stone.
The money needed for the construction was donated by a wealthy merchant named Kirill Isakov. Masters from Veliky Ustyug and Yaroslavl were invited for the construction work; Kostroma icon painters were engaged in the painting of icons. Over the next two centuries, the temples have changed somewhat, but their inherent beauty has been fully preserved.
On the south side of the Resurrection Church was the Georgievskaya, which made up the architectural composition. On the west side, there was a refectory room, which was adjoined by a small tent-roofed bell tower, built in the 17th century.
At the end of the 18th century, the St. George Church and the bell tower fell into disrepair, which is why they were rebuilt by 1802, after which the temple received a new name - Znamensky. The temple had two side-altars - in the name of the miracle workers Damian and Cosmas.
A new five-tiered bell tower was added to the church, decorated in the Baroque style and painted in turquoise; its height reached 43 m. In the interior decoration, the bell tower had a chapel of Procopius of Ustyug, and its consecration took place in 1801.
Znamenskaya church with a bell tower are monumental structures with expressive grace, which is why they became the main components of the Znamensky monastery. Not only the Church of the Sign, but also the Resurrection Cathedral is very beautiful, which was noted by many contemporaries. At one time, Nicholas II visited the Znamensky Cathedral, who was especially struck by the picturesque view opening onto the Volga.
In the period of the coming revolutionary hard times, when the best buildings, built by the people for a long time, were destroyed by the hands of the communists, the end came to the Kostroma architectural monument. Throughout the 1920s, the Znamensky Church suspended its activities, after which in 1937 the hipped-roof bell tower was destroyed; the building of the temple lost all the domes, and the uppermost floor was converted into a granary. After a while, the temple turned into a stoker. Thus, for 60 years the city of Kostroma lost its main architectural object.
In 1993, the beginning of the formation of the Church of the Sign was laid, which happened during the stay of the Galich and Kostroma Bishop Alexander. It was this man who founded a women's monastery in Kostroma, consecrated in the name of the icon of the Mother of God "The Sign". The opening of the monastery took place at the working Resurrection Church, under the jurisdiction of which the Znamensky Church was given.
In mid-1995, a project was developed to restore the Church of the Sign and its bell tower according to the preserved old images and drawings. The author of the project was Leonid Sergeevich Vasiliev, an honored cultural worker, as well as the chief architect of the Kostroma diocese.
The restoration work continued for 6 years, after which a solemn ceremony of consecration of the Church of the Sign was held on September 26, 2001. Today the bell tower is the most important architectural object of the entire city of Kostroma.
The monastery pays great attention to charity and social service. It has a specialized medical center with eye and dental offices. The center considers its main task to be the restoration of the spiritual foundations of Russian medicine.
