VIII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2016

The Nativity (Stroganov’s) church was erected in 1719 by G.D. Stroganov in the settlement below the same temple constructed by a merchant-industrialist of S.F. Zadorin in 1653 on a terrace of the Dyatlov`s hills. Nowadays the Nativity church is a magnificent and outstanding object of the cultural heritage of our city. The Rozhdestvenskaya street used to be the main business street of the Lower Market: here a guest’s yard, trading firms, banks, stock exchanges, hotels, and all kinds of shops were placed. It remains a valuable monument of the European baroque architecture of the end of the XVII th - the beginning of the XVIII th century but at the same time it reproduces the forms of the Russian woodcraft. The structures of the complex are the perfect examples of the «Russian Baroque» style [1]. The disposition of the temple is amazingly picturesque. The church looks very expressive with two rows on the side facing the river with the belfry and a spacious dinner house. The belfry stands separately and has a weathercock and a clock. The interior of the church is stunning: a magnificently carved wooden iconostasis and skillful paintings are definitely worth looking at. The iconostasis with the thinnest groove and the paintings of the Stroganov’s isographs remains to one of the most highly artistic in Russia. Despite the significance the Nativity church with its carved four-leveled iconostasis hasn`t been completely studied yet. The researchers still have no answers to many questions: whom, when and where the icons were written and what iconographical methods lay in their basis [2].

The Rozhdestvenskaya street begins in the western part of the Kremlin from the Ivanov’s gates, passes through the Sofonov’s area and ends on the Lower Blagoveshchenskaya, or the Gremyachaya area, near the Kanavino. The Rozhdestvenskaya street is one of the oldest streets of Nizhny Novgorod which has preserved its merchant flavor. The biggest banks, a number of city hotels, taverns, inns, barber's shops and mansions were located there. Also many handicraftsmen, tailors, shoemakers and lived there. There were little wooden buildings here, no more than five houses, and some shops, named the Passad’s market; the other buildings were all made of stone, huge, mostly two or three storied. The Rozhdestvenskaya street incorporates with the upper part of the city, except for the Kremlin, the Kremlin parkway, the Zelenskys lope, the Pochainskaya, the Iljinskaya and the Suetinskaya streets, the Kazan and the Troitsky lanes, the Uspensky and the Sergievsky ravines, the several lanes going from the Starobogorodskaya church the Gremyachy and the Pohvalinsky slope, and from the quay with two roads and lanes the Troitsky, the Kozmodemyansky and the Nativity and the Sofonovskaya areas.

The shops of the merchant Pyatov and Gorbachev served as the main places of meetings between the bargains and ship manufacturers; the Bubnov’s and Yermolaev's hotels also served as a place of the number of the commercial deals. They were the best hotels in the lower part of the city. The Nativity church was a pearl of the Rozhdestvenskaya street centuries ago and it is still great today.

Despite the frequent fires devastated the whole areas of the city (in 1768, 1782 and 1788), the Stroganov’s Nativity church was kept down in a good condition to the beginning of the 19th century. The important, but practically unknown to the researchers historical fact of the Nativity church is connected with the name of the prominent engineer, the builder of the Nizhny Novgorod fair A.A. Betankur. In summer 1817 he designed a trading complex on the spot where the Oka and the Volga come together. After the decades passed the underground waters threatened to the monument. Originally, the bell tower stood in the territory of the ancient country churchyard and was threatened to fall too. In the beginning of the 1870s the building was examined by the academician of architecture lived in Nizhny Novgorod L. V. Dal, and its assistant R.J. Kilevein and the construction was restored.

So, speaking about the Nativity temple, we should call the names of many people, whose work, talent and love to this rare monument: A. S. Stroganov and S. Klimov, A.A. Betankur and I.E. Yefimov, L.V. Dal and R.J. Kilevein, V. Y. Chashchina and 0. I. Braytsev who put a lot of efforts to research and restore the Stroganov’s temple.

The luxury of the decor elements, the magnificent patterns of the cutting-out crosses, the marshiness of their figure, the relief of the forging and the richness of the color (due to gilding) in the top part of a building are the final touch of many compositions of the Stroganov’s churches.

Cognitive and thematic excursions of the city begin exactly from the Nizhny Novgorod Fair and the Rozhdestvenskaya street. It is necessary to note, that the Nativity church is sure to be the "card" of the Rozhdestvenskaya Street. Nowadays sightseeing excursions of the historical-thematic character are of a big interest and popularity. Nizhny Novgorod is one of the most attractive cities for the tourists. It is unique not only for its history, but also for a cultural heritage. Visiting of the Nativity church is included practically in every thematic excursion because it settles down in the one of the most ancient and main streets of Nizhny Novgorod. The history of the church closely connected with the history of Nizhny Novgorod whose merchants brought the wealth and prosperity to the city.

Also it is necessary to mark, that the church is functioning nowadays. Every morning and evening the services are held for the parishioners, and also the church has the wedding and christening ceremonies. Also in the territory of the Nativity church it is possible to organize an exposition with the Stroganov’s church photos of the last and of the present. It will help the tourists to compare the object of a cultural heritage throughout different epochs.

In 1986 the restoration of the iconostasis of the Nativity church was made. By 2006 the restoration of the church which lasted for 2 years had been completed. The temple is sure to be Nizhny Novgorod's visiting card. It is a unique masterpiece of the Russian masters which has no equal samples almost in all Russian architecture. The current issue is to preserve and save this monument of architecture to the future generations.

Bibliography:

1. Hrancovsky, N.I. A short sketch of the history and the description of Nizhny Novgorod. - N.Novgorod, 1998.

2. Filatov, N.F. Domes, looking in heavens. - N.Novgorod, 1996.

3. Kessel A.A. The monuments of history and culture of the Gorky area: the directory/Gorky, 1987.

4. The Nativity or Stroganov’s church // Archimandrite Makariy. Monuments of the church antiquities / Archimandrite Makary. - N.Novgorod, 1999.

5. Agafonov S. The Nativity church // Agafonov, S. Gorky - Nizhny Novgorod / S. Agafonov; edited by V. А. Vesnin. - М, 1947.

6. Strelkov, Е. The Nizhny Novgorod walks. The illustrative guidebook with schemes and figures. N.Novgorod, 1999.

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