Spaso-Preobrazhensky (Staroyarmarochny) temple
There is another amazing temple in Nizhny Novgorod – the Transfiguration Cathedral, later called Staroyarmarkochny. It was erected for fair visitors to the Nizhny Novgorod fair created here in 1816.
O. Montferrand (creator of the famous St. Isaac’s Cathedral) took part in the creation of this temple. Interestingly, the iconostasis painted by the Italian Torricelli in European traditions was not accepted by Nizhny Novgorod. In this regard, the iconostasis was rewritten by the artist Stasov
Temple in the Name of the Most Merciful Savior
The temple was consecrated in 1903, again – in 1992, with the rank of Great Consecration – in 2003.
The Church in honor of the Most Merciful Savior was built in honor of the salvation of the family of Emperor Alexander III during the train crash in 1888. The Spassky Church in Nizhny Novgorod was laid nine years after the railway disaster, not only in memory of the miraculous salvation of the tsar’s family, but also to “perpetuate the memory of the Tsar the peacemaker, who reposed Alexander III in Bose,” who died on October 20, 1894.
An additional reason for the construction of the church precisely in the name of the Miraculous Image of the Savior was the fact that during the train crash, Sovereign Alexander Alexandrovich carried with him a copy of the ancient miraculous Vologda icon of the Miraculous Savior.
Almost immediately after the train crash, by order of the Governing Synod, a special prayer service was compiled and published in honor of the miraculous image of the Holy Savior.
The Nizhny Novgorod merchants decided to erect a temple in honor of the Savior near the city prison. In 1888, fundraising for construction was opened. The richest industrial financiers were included in the fundraising commission: N. A. Bugrov, N. E. Bashkirov, A. A. Blinov, A. M. Gubin, V. A. Sobolev and others.
In 1897, a construction committee was created, which was headed by Y. E. Bashkirov. The following year, a competition was announced among the members of the Imperial St. Petersburg Society of Architects to design a church for Nizhny Novgorod. It was attended by 18 of the most recognized architects in the country. The first prize was awarded to the project of architect A. M. Kochetov.
Alexander Mstislavovich Kochetov (1861–1912) shortly before received the title of academician, actively participated in competitive projects for Sevastopol, the Mineral Waters of the Caucasus, and built in St. Petersburg. It was planned that the Spasskaya Church in Nizhny Novgorod will be built in the 17th century Old Russian traditions, similar to the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Ostankino.
The construction of the temple was supervised by the academician of architecture V.P. Zeidler. On August 26, 1903, the last Big Bell was raised to the bell tower, and on October 12 of that year, Bishop Nazarius (1901–1910) consecrated the church.
The murals of the temple partially reproduce the murals of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev. They were made on cardboard by artists Semiradsky, Nesterov, Vasnetsov and others.
After the revolution, the Spassky Church remained one of the few active parishes of the upland part of the city.
For some time, from the beginning of the 1920s, a bishop’s chair was located here, then headed by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) (1924–1934). From 1924 to 1926, Vladyka was listed in the clergy of the Spassky Church.
The temple was closed in 1937, in the premises of the church were the storage rooms of the sewing enterprise Vesna. In 1991, he was returned to believers, and in 1992 the church was re-consecrated. The church was consecrated with full rank of bishop in 2003.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 7: 00-18: 30; Sat, Sun 6: 00–19: 00
Address: st. Maxim Gorky, 177A, Nizhny Novgorod
Church of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The temple was built by the merchants Stroganov, so it is often called Stroganov. By 1701, construction was completed, but there was a fire, and the church was restored by the wife of Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov, Maria Yakovlevna, nee Novosiltseva. The temple was consecrated in 1719 by His Grace Bishop Pitirim (1719–1738), Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod.
In Nizhny Novgorod, the Stroganovs settled in the 17th century. This was due to the favorable geographical position of the city and the economic advantages that it gave. At first, the Stroganovs settled across the river, in Gordeevka, and then they moved to the upland part, where the commercial life of the city was in full swing. It was here that Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov began to build a temple in honor of the feast of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated the day after Christmas. In total, the Stroganovs built five churches in Russia: in Solvychegodsk, Ustyuzhne-Zheleznopolskaya, Trinity-Sergius Lavra and two in Nizhny Novgorod.
Architecture historians speak of a special style – the “Stroganov baroque”, which characterizes the temples created by representatives of this dynasty. Among the temples built by G. D. Stroganov, the Nizhny Novgorod church in honor of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is distinguished by a special monumentality of image, exquisite, gorgeously executed magnificent decoration.
The Stroganov Church is two-tiered: at the top there is a three-apse altar, a prayer hall, a pillar-free refectory and a porch. The temple is five-domed, chapters are placed on the cardinal points, as in wooden churches. In the subchurch under the refectory were three isolated pantries. Outside and inside the temple is decorated with white stone carvings (windows, portals of entrances, attached columns).
The Christmas church on the peninsula above the confluence of the Oka and the Volga stood from ancient times. An unnamed chronicler in a record dating back to 1521, reported that during the attack on Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan “burned the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos and 240 yards along the Gremyachiy brook”. In 1653, the trade guest S.F. Zadorin built the Christmas Church for the first time in stone, and in 1685 Count Grigory Stroganov added a stone chapel to the Zadorin Christmas Church in honor of his heavenly patron Saint Gregory the Theologian. In the XIX century, the Christmas Church, which stood nearby and gave the name of one of the major shopping streets of Nizhny Novgorod, was dismantled. But Nizhny Novgorod, according to old memory, calls the church erected by Stroganov Christmas.
The temple in honor of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated in 1719, and three years later, Emperor Peter I arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, was at the Divine Liturgy in the Stroganov Church. After that, the temple was closed. Perhaps the reason for the closure was that in two icons of the local rank (they have survived to the present), the emperor recognized the icons that he ordered to master Karavak for the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Grigory Dmitrievich took care of decorating his church and, seeing them in the artist’s workshop, secretly bought them from the sovereign, asking Karavak to write others for the Peter and Paul Church.
There are clocks on the bell tower of the Stroganov Church, which, in addition to the passage of time, also show the course of the sun and the phases of the moon. This watch surprised the brilliant Nizhny Novgorod inventor, self-taught Ivan Petrovich Kulibin, and, perhaps, helped to arouse his interest in mechanics.
The temple burned repeatedly (in 1768, 1782, 1788). The bell tower, which used to stand separately, was connected to the porch with a covered passage at the level of the second tier.
In 1913 the temple was completely restored outside and inside, and in the 1930s it was closed by the Bolsheviks. During the Great Patriotic War, the pharmacy warehouse was located in the church premises, thanks to which the iconostasis was preserved – out of 46 icons of the end of the 17th century, 43 survived to our time. The rest of the decoration of the church was lost. In the 60s of the XX century, the Stroganov Church was transferred to the museum of local lore under one of the branches, which occupied it until 1993.
On June 3, 1993, the Stroganov Christmas Church was consecrated anew by the Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas Nicholas (1977–2001) with a host of clergy, with many people gathered. The consecration was attended by representatives of the city and regional administration, the Grand Duchesses Leonida Georgievna and Maria Vladimirovna Romanovs, the youth prince George, as well as the film director Nikita Mikhalkov who accompanied them, who subsequently repeatedly helped to rebuild the church.
Time: daily, 7 a.m.– 7 p.m.
Address: Rozhdestvenskaya St., 34A, Nizhny Novgorod
Transfiguration Cathedral in Sormovo
For the rapidly growing factory villages in Sormovo near the Sormovsky factory in 1882, a church was erected in honor of the Right Prince Alexander Nevsky. However, Sormovo continued to grow: by the end of the 19th century, more than 10 thousand people worked at the plant, and the small church could no longer accommodate everyone, especially on holidays. On March 29, 1898, the trustees of the parish schools of Sormovskiy Zavody decided to proceed with the drafting of the new church. The construction of the cathedral by the architect Pavel Malinovsky was approved. On December 17, 1899, a special building committee was established under the chairmanship of F. A. Foss, to build a cathedral in Sormovo, and donations began to be collected among workshop workers [].
On September 8, 1900, a solemn laying of the foundations of the temple took place. In 1905, the main throne was consecrated .
The temple was designed to attend more than two thousand parishioners, but later the capacity was further increased. A six-tier carved iconostasis was installed inside the main temple, which was crowned with an eight-pointed forged cross at the top, and seven marble steps were led to the Royal Gates from the prayer hall. In addition to the cathedral, the complex of buildings includes a clergy house, a baptismal house, and several outbuildings.
In 1927, the cathedral was closed, the roof was removed and church utensils confiscated. Initially, it was decided to blow up the temple, however, an orphanage of culture was opened in it, and later a warehouse and refrigerator were created []. Only in 1990, the temple was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and later restored.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 7: 30-18: 30; Sat, Sun 6: 30–18: 30
Address: st. Shcherbakova, 13A, Nizhny Novgorod
Cathedral in the name of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky
Orthodox Cathedral (since 2009) Cathedral on the arrow of the Volga and Oka, belonging to the historical center of Nizhny Novgorod. Built in 1868-1881 according to the project of architect Lev Vladimirovich Dahl.
Rector (keychain) Archpriest Sergiy Matveev since January 12, 2005. Located at the bottom of the city
Opening hours: daily, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Address: st. Arrow, 3A, Nizhny Novgorod
Orthodox church in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
In its architecture, the temple is similar to the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Diveevo Monastery. Distinctive features are the annexes: a chapel, a bell tower, a large multi-stage porch. In the lower level of the temple it is planned to place: a baptismal hall, a refectory for one hundred people, a conference hall, a Sunday school, a library, a bishop’s and priestly sacristy. The upper temple room is designed for three thousand people, the large altar is planned to be made three-altered. To move between the upper and lower floors, an elevator for the disabled is provided.
Construction began in 1999, on August 21, the ceremonial consecration of the bookmark of the future temple with the erection of the cross took place. Construction was carried out with donations from residents of the Avtozavodsky district, but due to lack of funds it was soon frozen.
In May 2006, Archbishop George’s decision to resume construction of the church was announced to parishioners by the head of the Avtozavodsky district administration, Vladimir Soldatenkov. In June, thanks to the Volnoe Delo Foundation, construction work was resumed, and in July, donations were opened. In August, they started laying bricks. By December 2007, construction progressed from 7 to 21 meters.
In 2010, it was reported that the Ark workshop was working on the iconostases of two cathedrals: in honor of St. Nicholas and in honor of the Resurrection of Christ in Dzerzhinsk.
As of 2011, the cathedral had not yet been finished inside, but in the summer, divine services were already held in it. In August 2012, the bells were installed on the bell tower of the cathedral, and on September 6, Metropolitan George consecrated them from the ski lift.] By winter, a heating system was installed.
On October 28, 2012, a wooden carved cross was consecrated, which is an exact copy of the Purekhovsky life-giving tree, donated to Nizhny Novgorod by Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. On December 19, Metropolitan George consecrated 24 icons specially written for the iconostasis of St. Nicholas Cathedral.
On November 10, 2017, the chapel was consecrated in honor of the holy martyr Lawrence (Knyazev), Bishop of Balakhna. The rank of Great Consecration was led by Metropolitan George of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas. The reigning bishop was served by the vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, Bishop Elijah of Balakhna.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 6: 30-18: 00; Sat, Sun 6: 30–19: 00
Address: st. Dyakonova, 15B, Nizhny Novgorod
Temple in honor of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God Nizhny Novgorod in Nizhny Novgorod
According to the locals of the village of Narodny, it is known that there was a temple on this territory, but there is no documentary evidence.
The building was built in 1962, until 1997 it was the cinema “Rainbow”. In 1997, by order of the head of the local government of Nizhny Novgorod I.P. Sklyarov, the building was transferred to the free use of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese.
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 6: 30-18: 00; Sat, Sun 6: 30–19: 00
Address: st. Dyakonova, 15B, Nizhny Novgorod
Christmas Church
The Church of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, better known as the Nativity or Stroganovskaya, is a functioning Orthodox church located on Rozhdestvenskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod. Built in 1696-1719 at the expense of the merchant Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov. It is one of the best examples of the Stroganov style, has the status of an architectural monument of federal significance.
Opening hours: daily, 7 a.m.– 7 p.m.
Address: Rozhdestvenskaya St., 34A, Nizhny Novgorod
Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist
One of the oldest Orthodox churches in Nizhny Novgorod, mentioned from the XV century. The stone temple was consecrated in 1683, re-November 4, 2005. By the name of the temple, the nearby Kremlin tower is called Ivanovo. The church is located on the Square of National Unity. In the Time of Troubles (in 1612), from the porch of this – then still wooden – temple of Kozma, Minin appealed to Nizhny Novgorod to liberate Moscow from Polish intervention.
Opening hours: daily, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Address: Rozhdestvenskaya St., 1B, Nizhny Novgorod
Ascension Pechersky Monastery
The most famous and oldest monastery of Nizhny Novgorod – Ascension Caves founded by the end of the 20s. 14th century. Its founder is Dionisy of Suzdal – a monk who left the Kiev-Pechersky monastery in search of solitude, which he found in a makeshift mountain cave on the Volga lime bank near Nizhny Novgorod.
Opening hours: Mon-Thu 7: 00-18: 00; Fri 7: 00-18: 30; Sat, Sun 7: 00–18: 00
Address: 108, Nizhny Novgorod region, Volga settlement, Nizhny Novgorod
