Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya Church (Kazan)

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

The temple, called "Nicola the Wonderworker Gostin", existed, according to scribe books , already in 1565 ^{[1] [2]} . Located at the Gostiny Dvor , “at bargaining”, the church was consecrated in honor of the patron saint of merchants St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The exact time of the construction of the stone temple is unknown, but the architectural forms suggest that this happened in the 16th century ^[3] .

Scribe books testify: “The Church of St. Nicholas, the miracle worker Gostin, is rudimentary behind the fish row, supply and the whole church structure of the priest Grigory and mundane. And at the church in the courtyard of the priest Grigorey, in the courtyard deacon Pyotr Isakov’s son, that there was a Rusinov’s court of Yaroslavl Rusanov in a posad place. In the cell, a nightmare, in the cell a marshmallow. Yes, two cells, and poor old people live in them, nourishment from the church of God. And sovereign's salary, the annual rugi of the priest, four rubles of money and bread, four quarters with osmino rye, and four quarters with osmino oats to a large extent. Yes, church cronies for wax, and for the palm, and for Temyan, and for church wine, fourteen altyn without two money. Yes, I’ll see half a half of the money and two cheeses with half-osmosis of rye, and two chethes with half-osmosis of oats to a large extent. From St. Nicholas the Wonderworker behind the Gostiny Dvor in the side street yards on both sides ” ^{[2] [4]} .

The future Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Hermogenes served as a priest in the church, whose name is associated with the acquisition in 1579 of the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God .

In 1594, the Metropolitan of Kazan and Astrakhan Germogen wrote in The Tale of the Appearance and Miracles of the Kazan Icon of the Virgin: “I then served in the rank of priest with St. Nicholas, called Gostiny; and no matter how stony-hearted, he nevertheless burst into tears, and fell to the image of the Virgin, and to the Eternal Infant the Savior Christ, and to the most miraculous icon, and then bowed to the archbishop and asked for his blessings: he will command me to take the beautiful icon of the Virgin. The archbishop blessed me and ordered me to take the “icon” ” ^[5] .

At the beginning of the XVII century, a chapel was added to the temple in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God . In 1634, a cold Transfiguration Church was erected next to the warm Nikolo-Gostinodvor Church ^[3] .

In the 18th – 20th centuries

After the fires of 1742 and 1774 and due to the decline of the Gostiny Dvor, the St. Nicholas Church of the Gostiny Dvor lost its former significance, services were rarely performed here. In 1790, due to dilapidation, the Transfiguration Church was demolished. In 1797, the parish of St. Nicholas Gostinodvorsky Church was abolished, and the church itself was assigned to the Peter and Paul Cathedral . In 1824 the temple was on the verge of complete destruction, in 1825 the porch was demolished ^[3] .

The main shrine of the St. Nicholas Gostinodvorsky Church, which attracted many pilgrims, was the icon of St. Nicholas , found in 1777 in the ruins of one of the churches burned by the Pugachevites . In 1830, during the cholera epidemic , there were no dead in the houses where this icon was carried. In 1842, it was considered that it was this icon that saved the St. Nicholas Church , located under the St. Nicholas Church , from a fire ^[3] .

At the beginning of the 19th century, the diocese several times decided to dismantle and completely abolish the Church of St. Nicholas, but each time the city authorities and hospitality merchants undertook to restore and improve the church. The project for updating the St. Nicholas Gostinodvorsky Church, drawn up in 1854 , was approved by Emperor Nicholas I , but there were no funds for the construction at that time ^[3] . Only in 1861, the Kazan merchants Fedor Egorovich Postnikov (1806-1881) and Evdokim Savvateevich Savvateev (died in 1886) took up the restoration of the temple.

In 1864-1870, at the expense of the funds donated by them, the Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya Church was rebuilt. Although the temple was actually rebuilt, the forms and decor of the 16th century were taken into account in the new project.

The iconostasis of the new church was designed by architect P.V. Tikhomirov. Since almost all the property of the old church died in fires, Postnikov and Savvateev acquired icons and utensils.

For the work in rebuilding the Gostinodvorsky church, Fyodor Postnikov was awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 3rd degree , and Evdokim Savvateev - a gold medal ^[3] .

In 1929, the St. Nicholas Gosinodvor Church was closed ^[3] .

Clergy

In 1889-1906, the rector of the church was Athanasius Fedorovich Voskresensky (1848-1906), a native of the village of Yandoba, Yadrinsky district of the Kazan province , a graduate of the Kazan Theological Seminary in 1872 . ^[3]

Before perestroika, the Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya church was a square building with a high hipped roof. On E. Turnerelli's lithography of 1839, it is depicted as a square building in plan - a massive cube of fours with four small chapters in the corners, on which stands a low octagon with a high tent. The tent was completed by a small scaly head. The tent pyramid was cut by two rows of window openings.

In the 1990s, the doctor of architecture G.N. Aidarova-Volkova ( Kazan ), referring to the peculiarities of the "architectural image" of the Nicholas-Gostinodvorsky church, hypothesized that "the church could have been a dyurbe or a Friday mosque with the Khan’s period a small cemetery and underground graves around. ” ^[6] However, this hypothesis does not find any documentary and historical-archaeological evidence.

As a result of the rebuilding, side aisles were attached to the enlarged refectory , and a tent bell tower with an octogon of the ringing tier on a high four was erected to the facade below the relief. The temple became three-altered: the main throne - in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker , in the right aisle - in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in the left - in honor of the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God . Under the church, benches and pantries were handed over for rent, the income went to the maintenance of the church. Later, a chapel was built from the western facade.

The temple was built in the tradition of architecture of the XVI century with elements of eclecticism .

The decorative decoration of the facades, made in the 19th century, has a stylistic character. The rectangular lower openings of the temple and the refectory are framed by half-columns and “cock scallops”. At the ends of the walls laid rows of square stepped widths . Under the arched openings of the ringing tier of the belfry and the temple tent, keel-shaped finishes were completed.

The upper under-tent volumes of the temple and bell tower were not preserved.

Currently, the building of the former Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya Church is deprived of both tents and deeply buried in the ground.

Until 2017, it housed archival services, including the apparatus of the Main Archival Directorate under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan (from May 31, 2016 - the State Committee for Archival Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan ). ^[7]

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  Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya Church ( 2015 )

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  Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya Church ( 2015 )

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  Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya Church ( 2015 )

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  Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya Church ( 2015 )

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  Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya Church ( 2015 )

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  Nikolo-Gostinodvorskaya Church (interior) ( 2017 )

Transfer of the Church of the Kazan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church

On December 26, 2016, the Tatar-Inform News Agency, citing the Secretary of the Kazan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archpriest V. M. Samoilenko and General Director of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan G. R. Nazipov, disseminated information that in the near future the building of the former Gostinodvorskaya church will be transferred to the church. ^[eight]

“We appealed to the President of our republic on the issue of transferring the church building,” noted Archpriest V. M. Samoilenko. “So far, no official decision has been made, because it is necessary to relocate the Archive Management of our republic , but the main thing is that during one of the rounds of the historical center of Kazan, the President of our republic followed a positive statement towards such a decision.” ^[eight]

“This is an architectural monument, and after the reconstruction of the Gostiny Dvor,” said G. R. Nazipova, “the church will definitely be transferred to the Orthodox Church , we don’t pretend to it. Our museum has materials on the history of the Gostinodvor Church, which during the Soviet era were saved by museum workers — we are ready to provide them and organize a joint exhibition. ” ^[eight]

In 2016, another building was allocated for the archival affairs of the State Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan at the address: city of Kazan , 44 Novo-Pesochnaya Street, in which repairs were carried out. ^[9]

On January 24, 2017, an expanded meeting of the collegium of the State Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan on archival affairs was held with the participation of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan R.N. Minnikhanov and the Head of the Federal Archival Agency A.N. Artizov , before which they visited the building of the State Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan on archival affairs ^{[10 ]}

According to the information and educational site of the Tatarstan Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church , on February 6, 2017, the Ministry of Land and Property Relations of the Republic of Tatarstan transferred the building of the Nikolo-Gostinodvorsky Church to the ownership of the Kazan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church “for use in accordance with its statutory activities”. ^{[11] [12]}

On February 14, 2017, the ceremony of the official transfer of the building of the former Nikolo-Gostinodvor Church of the Kazan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church , took place, at which the Head of the Tatarstan Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan of Kazan and Tatarstan Feofan (I. A. Ashurkov) and the Chairman of the State Committee for Archival Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan I. Kh. Ayupov signed the relevant documents. ^{[13] [14] [15]}

Church Restoration

On August 30, 2017, the "Fund for the Renaissance of the Church of St. Nicholas Gostinodvorsky" was registered, founded by the Kazan diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.