Description of the attraction
The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Galeiskaya was built in 1735. It is located in Vladimir on Nikolo-Galeiskaya street. In ancient times, there was a wooden temple on this site, mentioned in the chronicles of the 12th century. According to N. I. Voronin, on the site where this church once stood, there was a pier. The wooden church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker behind the talus in Galea is also mentioned in the patriarchal books of 1628.
In 1732, on the site of a wooden church, at the expense of Ivan Grigoriev Pavlygin, a wealthy townsman, a coachman, they began to build a new stone church, which was consecrated in 1738. In the same year, a warm side-chapel was added to the church in honor of Saints Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom. In 1880, the church was repaired, buttresses were installed and underground walls were laid under the foundation of the bell tower.
The Nikolo-Galeiskaya church is located in the old southern part of the city of Vladimir, behind the city buildings dating back to the late 19th - early 20th centuries, in the midst of wooden houses. There is practically no free space from the south and west of the church, so there is almost no panoramic view of the temple from these sides.
The church looks much better from the northeast, where the street on which the church is located descends steeply. The best point for viewing it is the floodplain of the Klyazma River.
Today St. Nicholas Church consists of an old building, a side-chapel adjoins its southern side, and a three-tiered high hipped bell tower to the western side. The old building includes an altar apse, the main volume and a refectory with a narthex, to which a tent is attached. In the spatial-volumetric composition of the temple, a strictly proportional ratio of different volumes is emphasized. In the overall composition, the main volume stands out, since the altar apse and the refectory are significantly understated in relation to it, and the three-tiered bell tower. The overall composition of the temple emphasizes its tiers, each volume has its own shape and height. The main volume of the building is a three-height high quadruple on an octagon, which has a cover of eight slopes and ends with an octahedral three-tier drum with a bulbous head.
In terms of the plan, the main volume is a square, with a one-part powerful altar apse adjoining it on the east side, which occupies almost the entire width of the quadrangle. The altar is semicircular in plan, covered with a conch. The apse room is high and spacious. The transition to the octagon from the quadruple is carried out due to two-stage tromps. The vault of the main volume is closed, octahedral. The altar apse is connected to the main volume by an arch, and the refectory - by three arches, while the central middle arch is higher and wider than the two lateral ones. Now the arched openings have been laid. The refectory is covered with a closed four-slot vault with trays that run from the arches. Above the central arch, which connects the refectory and the main volume of the temple, there is a stripping, corresponding to the stripping on the other wall, above the arch that connects the refectory and the vestibule. The octagonal, quadruple and main volume windows will be filled with wooden panels.
The general solution of the decoration of the temple is distinguished by expressive plastic, in which there are echoes of the 17th century pattern. The window frames of the main volume of the temple end with a three-center arch. On the upper tiers of the drum, there is a row of etched tiles.
The arches of the first bell tier are shifted to the east. The curb, which runs at the base of the ringing, together with the cornice curb create a slender symmetry.
The spatial compositional solution of the temple, the general drawing of its decor bring the temple closer to typical examples of Suzdal architecture of this period, namely, the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist. The temple is built on red brick mortar.
