Temple of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles (Tula)

Ground

According to the scribe book of 1625, at that time it was wooden and had a chapel of the Myrrh-bearing bearers . In Tula, then there was another St. George Church, “on the Rzhavets”, and the name of the Zarechensky church also included a clarification: “under the Uzhov swamp”. Later, other refinements appeared: “on Khopr”, “in Kazennaya Sloboda”, “on the arms settlement”. ^[one]

In 1696, a stone temple stood in this place in the name of the great martyr George with a chapel in the name of the Apostle John the Theologian . In 1757, due to dilapidation, the church was dismantled and a new, much more extensive and durable church was built - in the name of the Descent of the Holy Spirit , with the chapels of St. John the Theologian (right) and St. George the Victorious (left). In the chapels, services were held as early as 1766. The temple was completely erected by 1769; at the same time they set up a bell tower with 8 bells. The construction was carried out on voluntary donations of parishioners. One of the major donors was Anton Pastukhov. A special part in the design and decoration of the church was taken by merchants Velsky. In 1882, at the expense of the parishioners, a new iconostasis was placed in the Theological chapel, in 1886 - in St. George's. In the first half of the 1890s, the main iconostasis was renovated; at that time the church was painted on a loose basis.

In the 18th century, it was the largest of the parishes of the Goncharnaya and Kuznetsk settlements: it included about a third of the population of Zarechye, as well as residents of the nearest villages - Kurulovka, Klokova (in 1856 it moved to the parish of the village of Gorelki) and Protopopova. Among the parishioners were the Krasilnikov brothers - owners of iron and copper plants in the Kazan, Ufa counties and in the Orenburg province - and their children.

By the number and richness of jewelry, the Svyatoduhovskaya (St. George) Church exceeded all the Zarechensky churches. In the middle of the 19th century, there were more than 17 pounds of silver utensils in it, though mostly from base silver. In the “Tula Diocesan Vedomosti” in 1866, Archpriest G. Panov noted: “It is not necessary to consider it a rarity in our city that this whole church with altars is painted with paintings, that all the iconostases in it are lacquered; but the throne in a real church, shrouded in sheet silver, almost all the icons in the iconostases, decorated with silver and clad vestments, cannot fail to attract the attention of lovers of grandeur in the temples of God. ” The silver attire to the throne was made in 1847 by the zeal of benefactors, especially the church elder, the former gunsmith Ivan Ignatievich Samsonov.

Some vestments were of a memorial character. On the temple image of the “Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles” was a silver robe with the inscription: “This robe was built in 1814 on June 3 [nya], as a sign of deliverance from the universal enemy that was in 1812 both within and the capital of Russia.” The image of the appearance of the Holy Trinity under the Mamvri oak was decorated with a silver robe with an inscription below, on the enamel : “This garment is arranged by the zeal of the parishioners in memory of the two great fires that existed in Tula in 1834 on June 29 and September 5”.

The stone almshouse , which has long existed at the St. George Church, was demolished due to decay in 1830. Instead, at the request of the parishioners, a new two-story house was built in 1863-1864. This building housed a shelter for the elderly (at the beginning of the 20th century, four elderly women lived in it) and a parish school for children.

The Tula Diocesan Gazette provides a list of donors for the construction of an almshouse and school. There are 59 people in it. People contributed money - from 1 to 50 rubles, provided building materials. Many benefactors did not want to enter their names in the book. The largest contribution (600 rubles) was made by the churchwarden merchant Mikhail Ivanovich Tulyakov, although he had very limited own funds. According to the Tula Diocesan Vedomosti, he "himself procured building materials and hired artisans with all the severity of economic savings." The architect, a free artist of the Academy, I. Pastukhov, developed the building design for free and supervised the construction work for free.

The school was opened on July 4, 1865. The children in it were taught reading in church and civil press, studied the catechism, a brief Sacred History, calligraphy, initial arithmetic and “laying on the accounts”, a brief history of Russia, grammar. In 1895, a parish school began to operate at the church .

The street on which the church was located was named after its name - St. George's. Thus, before the revolution, there were two St. George streets in Tula. In 1924, Georgievskaya Street, located in Zarechye, was renamed Platon Lunacharsky Street .

Close

St. George's Church was closed according to the decree of the Presidium of the Moscow Oblast Executive Committee of February 16, 1930. Soon the bell tower was dismantled. For a long time in the former church there were various offices and warehouses. Now the appearance of this building is sad. Pre-revolutionary high-quality photographs of the St. George (Svyatoduhovskiy) temple could not be found. According to the wide pilasters of the main volume and the barely preserved rich stucco decoration of platbands, experts suggest that the church was built in Baroque forms. However, the surviving fragment of the wall decor refers, rather, to classicism. Perhaps the walls of the temple were decorated during later perestroika.

In 1991, the building of the St. George Church was put on state guard as a monument of history and culture of regional significance.

Temple Rebirth

In the summer of 2019, the dilapidated church building was transferred for free use to the Tula Diocese for use in accordance with the objectives of the activity and further repairs within the framework of the contractual obligations. Prayers were held on August 25 and September 8, 2019 for the beginning of the restoration of the temple. ^[2]

• Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles on the site "Russian Churches"