The original Church of Saint John the Baptist (Церковь Рождества Иоанна Предтечи) stood in Nizhny Novgorod since the 15th century. It was one of the first churches constructed outside of safety of Kremlin city walls. From the porch of Church of Saint John the Baptist Kuzma Minin turned to residents of Nizhny Novgorod in troubled and difficult times in the history of Russia. In 1676- 1683 original wooden structure was replaced by a current stone structure. The construction of the new house of God was funded by a local merchant Gavriil (Gabriel) Stepanovich Draschnikov and his brother Laurentius Draschnikov. In 1881- 85 Church of Saint John the Baptist was reconstructed and repaired including the main bell tower. During Soviet times Church of Saint John the Baptist was closed to Christians. It was reopened only in the 1990s after the fall of USSR.
The temple existed, presumably, as early as the 16th
century. It is known that for a long time at the Nizhny Novgorod market
in Nizhny Posad there was a wooden church in the name of John the
Baptist, after which the square-shaped travel tower of the Nizhny
Novgorod Kremlin, Ivanovskaya, was named. It is believed that during
enemy raids on the city, the temple was the first to “take a hit”: for
example, during one of the reconstructions of the church, a large
military burial was discovered.
XVII-XVIII centuries
For the
first time, the wooden church of St. John the Baptist "in the market" at
the Ivanovsky Bridge was mentioned in the Scribe Book of 1621-1622. The
building of the temple with all the decoration belonged to the township
community (city dwellers). In the Scribal Book it was reported that the
church was “drevyan, kletski with a meal and porches”, that is, it was
the most common type of chopped church in those days with a gable roof
and a spacious refectory surrounded by an open porch, which was led by
shoots. The church had handwritten and printed liturgical books,
including The Printed Apostle, the first Russian printed book by Ivan
Fedorov.
The church is associated with the events of the Time of
Troubles, when the zemstvo elder Kuzma Minin, elected to this position
in early September 1611, began calling for a liberation struggle among
the townspeople against the Polish intervention. Minin's proclamation on
the porch of the Church of John the Baptist is a historiographical myth.
Reliable information about the place and time of Minin's appeal to the
people of Nizhny Novgorod has not been preserved. In historical science,
there were many versions with guesses about where the appeal really took
place, but by the beginning of the 20th century, the version of
Alexander Gatsiski was established in historiography that Minin spoke at
the Ivanovo Gate and the militia began to take shape here. Although no
reliable evidence of this could be found, today the Ivanovskaya Tower
and the Church of John the Baptist are considered "places of memory"
associated with Minin and the militia.
The construction of the
stone temple is associated with the activities of the Nizhny Novgorod
industrialist Gavriil Dranishnikov, as well as with major historical
events of the 17th century: the peasant war led by Stepan Razin and the
Old Believer movement. The temple builder Gavriil Dranishnikov was born
in the 1630s, in 1663 he organized his own business - he took over the
tavern. In 1667, he was appointed to the post of Nizhny Novgorod customs
head. In 1670 he was sent to Astrakhan as a kisser of the state fish and
salt industries in order to restore them after being devastated by the
Cossacks, where he found himself in a difficult situation: the city was
captured by the Razintsy. Nizhny Novgorod secretly hid with friends and
witnessed the massacre of the Astrakhan poor against state clerks and
clergy. Astrakhan remained in the hands of the rebels until 1671.
Dranishnikov stayed in the fields until 1674, when the tsar allowed him
to return to his native city. Over the years of service, the Nizhny
Novgorod man managed to enrich himself noticeably.
During the
absence of Dranishnikov, his wife Anna converted to the Old Believers
and, in the conditions of the repressions against the adherents of the
old faith that swept at that time, fled with her son Yerofei to the
secret hermitages of the Trans-Volga region. Under these conditions, in
1676, Dranishnikov asked the blessing of Metropolitan Philaret for the
construction of the stone church of John the Baptist at the
Nizhneposadsky market with his own funds, in order to prove his
commitment to Orthodoxy. Having received permission, the ktitor
personally purchased building materials and entered into contracts with
masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, wood carvers, icon painters and
gilders. Gavriil Dranishnikov died on August 24, 1679, having bequeathed
all his property to his brother Lavrenty, with the obligation to
complete the stone church. Lawrence brought his brother's work to an
end, and in 1683 the stone church was consecrated. The southern aisle of
the church, from the side of the Kremlin hill, was consecrated in honor
of Anna the Prophetess, in memory of Dranishnikov's wife, who had "gone
into schism".
Initially, the temple was built according to the
type common in the 17th century called the “ship”, with a refectory and
a porch, but since the building was erected on a hillside, a brick
podium-podchurch was placed under it, inside which there were trading
shops that were rented out to merchants. The church repeatedly suffered
from fires in the XVII-XVIII centuries. During a major fire in 1701, the
roof burned down near the temple, but the icons, utensils and bells
survived.
19th century
In 1814, the Dukhovskaya chapel was
added to the north side of the refectory. During the town-planning
transformations carried out in Nizhny Novgorod in 1834-1839 by order of
Emperor Nicholas I, it was ordered to clear the territory adjacent to
the Kremlin from all buildings, "and to break the warm chapel of the
Forerunner Church in the Nizhny Bazaar and all the shops under it."
Construction work violated the structure of the temple building: if
earlier the pressure of the soil of the hill was extinguished by the
powerful walls of the chapel, then after its demolition and violation of
the ancient drainage system, underground springs began to erode the
foundation of the refectory chamber, and the basements were flooded with
water. Repair work in the temple in the 1830-1840s was carried out by
architects Anton Leer, Ivan Efimov and Georg Kizevetter. In 1843, to
protect the foundation, a terrace was erected around the church, as if
raising the temple on a kind of pedestal.
In 1855, a gatehouse
was added to the church on the right side. In 1870 the bell tower was
rebuilt. In 1881-1882, due to the diligence of the former warden of the
Baptist Church, K. S. Kolokoltsev, a chapel in the name of Alexander
Nevsky was erected next to the temple, built in memory of the martyrdom
of Emperor Alexander II.
In 1881-1885, major restoration work had
to be carried out again in the church, during which the bell tower was
rebuilt, which significantly changed the appearance of the ancient
temple. In 1887, another major overhaul began: in 1887-1888 the
refectory was rebuilt, and in 1899-1902, after the iron connection was
broken, the building of the temple itself (the altar was also
re-arranged). The southern wall, most affected by the action of springs,
was dismantled and rebuilt. At the same time, a new oak iconostasis was
installed in the refectory.
Soviet period
By the protocol of
the Presidium of the Provincial Executive Committee of June 8, 1923, the
chapel in the name of Alexander Nevsky at the temple was closed. In
1929, the question arose about the demolition of the church. The central
body for the protection of ancient monuments wrote to the Nizhny
Novgorod authorities that it had no objections to the demolition of the
temple, although it dates back to the 17th century, but due to
significant restructuring, it “radically” lost its original
architectural value. In addition, Moscow considered that the demolition
of the church would not affect the historical and architectural
landscape of Nizhny Novgorod. However, the church was not demolished and
services continued in it until 1937, when the entire clergy of the
church was arrested.
In 1938, the Kuibyshev District Executive
Committee decided to close the church, and the Presidium of the City
Council handed over the building to the Osoaviakhim Regional Council for
a club to work with pre-conscripts. In 1940, the district executive
committee terminated the contract with the regional council of
Osoaviahim and the premises were transferred to the Automotoclub. Later,
the management of the Krasny Shoemaker factory applied to the district
executive committee with a request to transfer the former building of
the chapel to a library and a reading room. After that, the DOSAAF
sports school for motorcyclists was located in the church building.
The buildings of the church and the chapel during the Soviet period
underwent significant restructuring, having lost their historical
appearance.
Modern period
The temple was returned to the
Nizhny Novgorod diocese in the 1990s, since 1994 services have been
resumed in it. The preliminary design of the scientific restoration of
the church was completed in 1993 by the team of the NIP "Ethnos",
consisting of architects V. A. Shirokov, I. S. Agafonova, L. M.
Moskaleva, and historian O. V. Degteva. In 2003, under the leadership of
the rector of the Nizhny Novgorod Civil Engineering University, Valentin
Naidenko, a concept was developed for the development of the Zapochainye
territory, which provided for the return of the historical appearance of
the temples located here, including the Church of St. John the Baptist.
The project of scientific restoration based on the sketch of 1993 was
developed by the same authors. Working design, under the leadership of
the chief architect I. B. Vidmanov, was carried out by the team of CJSC
TIK "Old Nizhny Novgorod".
In June 2004, it was decided to start
restoration work. Funds for the restoration were received from patrons,
out of 67 million rubles, 60 million were allocated by the Balakhna Pulp
and Paper Mill. In the same year, the sculptor Zurab Tsereteli made a
copy of the monument to Minin and Pozharsky Ivan Martos and the Moscow
government presented it to Nizhny Novgorod. Then it was decided to place
a copy on the square in front of the temple. A comprehensive project for
the improvement of the territory of the former market was carried out
(architect A. Gelfond, Yu. Kartsev, M. Dutsev). In the course of the
work, a new ensemble of historical territory was formed, which later
received a new name - National Unity Square.
On April 4, 2005, 3
crosses were consecrated for installation on domes (2 have already been
installed). On August 5 of the same year, a dome and a cross were
installed on the bell tower. During the restoration work, a retaining
concrete wall was built, and zero marks were returned to the level of
the 19th century. On November 4, 2005, the restored church was
consecrated by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus'.
In
2009, an Orthodox lecture hall began to operate at the temple.
The architecture of Nizhny Novgorod in the middle of
the 17th century was characterized by the penetration of the secular
principle into church architecture. With the construction in 1649 of a
large, cathedral-type Church of the Myrrh-Bearers, the gradual
replacement of wooden parish churches with stone ones began. They were
built at the expense of wealthy citizens or communities of townspeople,
which in the conditions of a feudal state led to the democratization of
church architecture. Almost all newly built churches were five-domed,
the walls of the main quadrangle were divided into three parts by flat
blades and ended with a wide brick cornice and kokoshniks. They differed
only in size and individual decorative details. In this spirit, the
Ilyinsky Church (1655), the St. Nicholas Church at the Market (1656),
the Trinity Church at Nizhniy Posad (1663), the Kozmodemyanskaya Church
at Nizhniy Posad, as well as later ones - the Nativity of John the
Baptist and Our Lady of Kazan at the Market (1687) were built .
The Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist built like a “ship” had
in the main volume a pozakomarny covering, above which towered a
powerful five-domed covered with green glazed tiles, topped with gilded
iron crosses. The bell tower initially rose up in a quadruple from the
base and only in the tier of the ringing did it turn into an octagon
with a hipped top, the dome of which was also covered with green tiles.
The artistic image of the building was determined, apparently, by the
builder Gavriil Dranishnikov himself, who was involved in all the
construction work. The tympanums of the zakomar church were painted with
frescoes.
Currently, the church picturesquely descends down the
relief of the Kremlin Hill along the Ivanovsky congress to the National
Unity Square. Two staircases are attached to the main entrance on both
sides, and the entrance itself is decorated with a porch protruding from
the plane of the wall in the form of a canopy with a triangular pediment
resting on two figured pillars, made in the spirit of Russian
architecture of the 17th century. The entrance to the temple is through
the bell tower topped with a faceted tent. On the sides of the main
entrance there are one-story cubic volumes: on the left - the chapel of
Alexander Nevsky with a sloping tent and dome, the entrance to which is
similar to the main entrance to the temple, only on a reduced scale; on
the right is a gatehouse. In the architecture of the temple, a
combination of the methods of Russian architecture of the 17th century
and the Russian style characteristic of the 19th century can be traced.
Shrines
Icon of the Mother of God "Kazan", donated
by Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II.
Icon of St. John the
Baptist with a particle of relics