The Church of the Ascension of the Lord is located in Vladimir on
Voznesenskaya Street. In ancient times, a monastery stood on the
site of the church, mentioned in 1187 and 1218 in the Laurentian
Chronicle. In 1238, during the invasion of the Tatars, the monastery
was destroyed. The mention of the church is found in the patriarchal
books in 1628, 1652, 1682.
The church was wooden until 1724,
then a stone building was built, which has survived to this day. In
1813, a cold chapel was added to the church in honor of the
Intercession of the Virgin. Most likely, at the same time, 2 upper
bell tiers were built on, as evidenced by the similarity of the
decorative solution of these two volumes. The church has a second
warm chapel in the name of the Annunciation. The nature of the
stylistic features indicates that the southern aisle was built later
than the northern one.
The Church
of the Ascension is located in the southern part of the city in the
middle of urban development dating back to the end of the 19th - the
first quarter of the 20th centuries. Shchedrin Street leads from the
city center to the temple, smoothly descending. Therefore, the church is
not visible from the side of the central part of the city, the view of
it opens from Shchedrin Street, which approaches the church building
from the north. To the west of the temple is a deep ravine. From the
east, the temple again goes around Shchedrin Street, from which, both
from the east and from the west, there is an active lowering of the
relief, which turns into a deep ravine. Shchedrin Street also runs from
the south side of the temple.
The best point for viewing the
temple is the floodplain of the Klyazma River.
Today the Church
of the Ascension includes the building of the original construction,
which, in turn, consists of the main volume, a vestibule with a porch, a
small refectory, a bell tower and two aisles from the north and south.
Together, these volumes create a fairly compact composition.
In
the composition of the ancient part of the temple, the quadrangle of the
main volume is especially distinguished, which has a cover of four
slopes along a bent vault. The original building in plan is a rectangle
elongated from west to east. A one-part apse adjoins the main volume
from the east. It is a softly expressed semicircles smoothly passing
into each other, separated from each other by shoulder blades. In the
western part, two aisles are connected to the refectory.
The main
volume is a one-piece single-light pillarless quadrangle with two flat
ceilings. The constructive solution of the vault of the main volume is
peculiar - at the level of the heels of the vault, strippings are
arranged in each face. They are located three on each side, their shapes
vary from smoothly rounded to acute-angled.
Paintings have been
preserved on the vault above the second ceiling. The vault is completed
with an octagonal light drum. The apse room is high and spacious,
covered with a duct vault and shoulder blades, above the middle window
and above the entrances it has stripping. The floor in the temple
building is wooden. On the vault and on the walls, a plaster base for
painting has been preserved.
Three arches connect the main volume
with the apse. Arched passages also connect the refectory with the
aisles. The low rectangular volume of the refectory overlaps a later
flat vault. The aisles and apse are of the same height, but the apse has
a higher roof.
The northern chapel in plan is a rectangle
elongated from east to west, which ends in a semicircular apse in the
east. It is a low building with a pitched roof. On the facade of the
northern aisle, the apse and the western part are highlighted with
decor. The side entrance to the northern aisle is decorated with an
empire portico having a triangular pediment with double columns in the
corners. A later annex adjoins the northern aisle from the west,
separated from the aisle by a wall.
The southern aisle, wider and
more spacious, is a rectangular building, which is elongated from east
to west and adjoins the old narthex. Now the southern wall of this
narthex is missing, and so the old porch is combined with the southern
chapel.
From the northwest, a slender, high, three-tiered bell
tower adjoins the refectory, which ends with a faceted drum with a
cupola. The first tier of the bell tower is a clearly defined
quadrangle, which has been preserved from the base of the old bell
tower. The next two tiers have cut corners. The bell tower has large
spans-ringings of different widths, which are much narrower on the
northern and southern sides.
The Church of the Ascension, in
general, is a typical example of the Posad pillarless temple, which is
typical for the late 17th - early 18th centuries, and widespread in the
Vladimir region.