The Nyonoksky temple ensemble has been located in the village of
Nyonoksa in the Primorsky district of the Arkhangelsk region since
1397, which is famous for its salt industries. It is located 100
kilometers from Arkhangelsk, 4 kilometers from the White Sea on the
Letny/ Summer Coast.
The first mention of the existence of a
parish in Nyonoksa dates back to the 16th century. Parish churches
have long been located in a high place in the center of the village.
Some of them have been replaced by others many times over the past
hundreds of years. An architectural ensemble of 3 monuments made of
wood has survived to this day: the cold Trinity Church with 2
side-chapels (1727-1730), the warm St. Nicholas Church with a
refectory (1762) and a bell tower (1834).
Trinity Church is
the only wooden 5-hipped temple in Russia. It was built in 1727. The
plan of the Trinity Church is compact and similar to the plan of the
Transfiguration Church on Kizhi Island. The compositional core of
the building is an octagon, to which, from 4 sides, adjoining cuts
directed to the cardinal directions and covered with tents. The
northern and southern side-chapels, as well as in the Kemsky
Cathedral, represent the side-altars of the church. The eastern
side-altar (in area equal to the side-altars) forms its altar, and
the western one forms the refectory. Once upon a time, the church
was surrounded on three sides by covered galleries, into which,
respectively, three porches led: the central (two-ascent) and two
side ones leading to the side-altars.
The height of the main
tent of the Trinity Church is over 20 meters. The central volume
consists of 2 eights, which stand one on top of the other. The tent
is not chopped, as in most northern hipped-roof buildings, but is
formed by a complex of rafter "legs", "struts" and "ties". The
suspended ceiling of the central volume is connected with the
structure of the tent. In the 19th century, Trinity Church was
sheathed with boards and wide windows were cut through in the
central octagon, but the galleries were lost.
Nikolskaya
Church (Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker) was built in
1762-1763. It was a warm wooden temple south of the Trinity Church.
The octagon with a tent is completed by the quadrangle of the main
volume, to which an altar covered with a barrel adjoins on the east
side, and a refectory on the west.
In the 19th century,
renovations were organized, during which the church was sheathed
with planks, extensions to the altar and the refectory were made. In
the 1840s, the Pyatnitsky side-chapel was created in the refectory.
Since 1994, restoration work has been carried out here (complete
bulkhead). Now they have been completed, and the services have been
resumed.
The bell tower was built in 1834. Its construction
is based on an octagon-on-four-frame log house. It has been
widespread in the North in bell structures since the 17th century.
The completion of the log house and its picturesque decoration with
external cladding are made in imitation of the forms of stylized
stone architecture.
In 1989, the bell tower was in emergency
condition. It was decided to organize the restoration of the
building. All the original architectural and structural elements of
the building, which have not lost their strength, have been
preserved. The structure and shape of a circled dome and an octagon
under the head, a drainage roof with a drain under the floor of a
ringing tier, a porch, decorative elements of a cladding and a color
scheme were recreated. In 1993, the restoration work was completed.
In 2008, restoration work was again organized (by the method of a
complete bulkhead).