The St. Nicholas Church in Voronezh and its history

Among the Orthodox churches, which in the yearsatheistic hard times safely avoided the misfortunes that befell most of the Orthodox holy places of our country, and continued to operate during the most difficult periods of the history of the 20th century, there is one which will be discussed in our article. This is a Voronezh temple, consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

Wooden precursor of the stone church

Before the stone Nikolsky was erecteda temple in Voronezh, and this event happened, judging from the surviving documents, in 1720, in its place was a wooden church. It was consecrated in honor of St. Demetrius Uglitsky ─ the innocent murdered young son of Ivan the Terrible. Its main shrines were the ancient altar cross, and also the icon of St. Nicholas, created not later than the middle of the XVII century.

In 1703, the church where they were kept burnt,and only two of these ancient relics could be saved from the fire. Fires in that era were frequent visitors to Russian cities, built mainly from the most accessible material - forests. At the same time, the pious inhabitants of the city were filled with the desire to erect a stone church on the site of the burnt church, and the next 9 years were devoted to the collection of voluntary donations.

Creation of a stone temple

Its construction began in 1712 (about thisthe surviving archival documents testify), and was completed in 8 years. In its architecture, he was close to the well-known Moscow church of John the Warrior. In the new church, the altar cross, once saved from the fire, was placed, as well as the icon of St. Nicholas, which became the reason for the consecration of the building in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. These values ​​were kept there until the rebellious events of the early XX century, after which they were lost, and, apparently, irrevocably.

In 1748, the St. Nicholas Church in Voronezh receivedsignificant damage as a result of a fire that burst from the lightning struck in it. The roof of the refectory and most of the dome were destroyed by fire. Internal premises also suffered. To restore the building required significant funds, but this time they were collected thanks to the generosity of voluntary donors.

The prosperity of the temple in the 18th and 19th centuries

A year later, the work was completed, andthe former building was supplemented by the limit of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica, consecrated by Bishop Theophylactus (Gubanov). Over the following years, the temple was repeatedly refurbished and decorated.

In 1768, a stone fence was built around it,and later changed the iconostasis and painting of the interior. During the following XIX century, the Nikolsky Church in Voronezh was one of the most famous religious centers in Russia.

This in no small measure contributed to miracles,They were shown through the miraculous Tolg Icon of the Mother of God preserved in it, which, as it is commonly believed, saved the city from the terrible plague epidemic of 1831. To external beauty, the temple was largely due to the bounties of the local merchants, among which two families, Meshcheryakovs and Lyapins, stood out.

Years of Atheistic Ill-Reach

Unlike many Orthodox shrines in Russia,closed or destroyed by the Bolsheviks, such a bitter fate, fortunately, passed the Nikolsky Temple. In Voronezh, at times, he remained the only one acting, and his history of those years knows many bitter pages.

In the twenties, the authorities handed over the temple to thethe order of the so-called Renovationists, representatives of the schismatic movement in the Russian Orthodox Church, who declared his support for the new regime and tried to make changes in the course of the services. A year before the war began, the authorities generally closed it, but in 1942, forced to partially re-examine their attitude to Orthodoxy, reopened.

At the same time the decision of the diocesan authoritiesThe St. Nicholas Church in Voronezh was given the status of a cathedral. In the subsequent period it was closed only for a short time, when in 1943 on the opposite bank of the Voronezh River, which gave the name to the city itself, fierce battles with fascists were going on, and the temple was in the zone of shelling of enemy artillery.

New life of the ancient temple

In the post-war years, as well as the entire periodcommunist rule, the church remained active and periodically updated. But large-scale restoration work was carried out only in 1988, when in the country the trends of the future perestroika were already in full swing. His new decoration he received for the celebration of the Millennium of the Baptism of Russia.

In it, a significant part of theinterior murals, but at the same time restored and preserved frescoes, painted by masters of the past centuries. A bright decoration of the facade of the temple were two mosaic icons, made in 1966 and 2005. artist KD Yasin and his colleague AS Cheryumov.

Today, St. Nicholas Church (address in Voronezh - st. Taranchenko, 19 a), as in previous years, is visited not only by the residents of the city, but also a pilgrimage site for believers from many parts of Russia. They strive there to worship the holy icons and relics of such pillars of Orthodoxy as St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Theophanes the Recluse, the Monk Euphrosyne of Suzdal, and many other saints of God who intercede at the Throne of the Most High about the well-being of the people he keeps.