The Nikolo-Kremlin Church is located on the site where the
ancient Vladimir Kremlin is located. Judging by the surviving
historical information, St. Nicholas Church once stood here, because
in the description book of the Vladimir Kremlin for 1626, the temple
is referred to as "the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with
a refectory room and a side chapel." There is information about the
presence of a warm church in honor of Simeon the Stylite. Both
temples at that time were built of wood. Patriarchal books for 1628
mention the Church of St. Nicholas. It is also known that in 1719
the Nikolo-Kremlin Church was burned down.
In the middle of
1721, numerous parishioners purchased a wooden church in the village
of Pogrebishchi, from which a winter church was made. Nikolskaya
Church was built in 1747, which is proved in the topographical
description of the city of Vladimir in 1761. In 1761, construction
work began on the construction of a stone church with a chapel.
According to the surviving documents for 1762, only in 1769 the
chapel was built and work on the four-tiered bell tower was
completed. During 1850, a chapel was added to the Nikolo-Kremlin
Church, consecrated in the name of Simeon the Stylite.
At the moment, the temple is located in the central part of the city
of Vladimir on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street. On the east side, the wall
of the large Nativity monastery adjoins it, and on the south side there
is a small square.
The Nikolo-Kremlin Church consists of the main
volume, the refectory room, which is adjoined by a four-tiered bell
tower. There are two aisles on the south and north sides.
Initially, the temple building consisted of the main volume, a refectory
and a high bell tower with a northern aisle. Particular attention is
drawn to the four-tiered bell tower, which stands out clearly in the
entire spatial and volumetric composition. The bell tower has a covering
along the vault and ends in the form of a high spire.
The main
volume is a pillarless quadrangle, which is indicated by a square in
plan and is covered with a four-tray vault, ending with an octagonal
double drum with an onion-shaped cupola. Painting has come down to us,
preserved in the main volume. The space of the altar apse adjoins the
main volume, which is covered with a conch.
The refectory room is
represented by a rectangular room covered with a box vault with small
formwork over the eastern and western arched openings.
The bell
tower is adjacent to the refectory. Its lower tier is a square, covered
with a vault with strippings that lead to the refectory room, and then
to the northern aisle. The existing aisles are combined with each other
in the form of arched openings. The refectory room is connected with the
aisles into a common room, which has a rectangular shape, somewhat
elongated on the north side. On the same level with the refectory and
the main volume, the aisles somewhat block temporary walls.
The
window openings of the aisles are located at the level of the refectory
room. The window frames are double and made of wood. Window openings
have deep slopes. The walls of the temple are plastered with lime.
Paintings are still preserved in the main volume of the quadrangle. The
altar part is connected to the volume with the help of three arched
openings, while the central part is slightly wider and higher than the
others. To date, the arches have been laid.
The floor in the
temple is cement and has floorings in the form of boardwalk, on which
linoleum is laid. Konkha participates in the overlapping of the altar
part located on the south side of the aisle. The northern aisle is
designed in the form of a rectangle. On the north side, there is a porch
made of white stone. Lime mortar can be seen between the brick seams.
The pattern of decorative design is distinguished by plastic
expressiveness, but at the same time it has a graphic dryness and rigor
in the processing of some details. For example, the pilaster aisles,
which correspond to the girth arches, are reflected with the pilasters
of the apses.
The Nikolo-Kremlin Church is a typical example of
the Posad pillarless church of the middle of the 18th century.