Nikitskaya Church in Vladimir
Nikitskaya Church is located in the city of Vladimir on Knyagininskaya Street. It was erected in 1762-1765 on the site of an old wooden church of the XVII century and is dedicated to the memory of the holy martyr Nikita – the pillar of Pereyaslavl.
Highlights
The building belongs to the type of traditional refectory churches and has a three-part plan. However, the church more resembles an ornate three-story palace, as its external forms, as well as its internal structure, bear the 18th century aesthetic tastes associated with Baroque architecture. Inside, each floor had its own iconostasis.
.The bell tower is unusually beautiful, with its strong bundles of corner pilasters and the volute motif in the upper tier, which is also evident in the treatment of the top of the church.
.In 1938, the church was closed for services.
.In the 1970s, the design departments of the Vladimir Scientific Restoration Production Workshop moved from the Knyaginin Monastery to the Nikitskaya Church, and the church building underwent internal changes and became secular in its interiors. A third floor with a spacious room for the designers is added to it and a fourth, attic floor with a wooden spiral staircase appears as a service repository for icons, ancient vessels, archaeological objects, wooden peasant utensils and architectural details of small plastics. At the end of the 1980s the platform of the belfry bell tower was glazed and made a viewing platform, and the heads and crosses were gilded again.
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Interesting facts
- The high vertical of the temple in the old wooden city served as an excellent landmark, and therefore the street leading to it from the Golden Gate was named Nikitskaya.
- In the city of Dmitrov built in 1801 Tikhvin’s Church in composition and details is very similar to the Nikitskaya Church. Probably, the architect of the Tikhvin church saw the Vladimir temple of Nikita and managed to almost exactly repeat its forms.
- The decoration of the Nikita church was the iconostasis, made during the reign of Catherine II. The form of its carved royal gates was similar to the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral.
- Originally in the Nikitskaya Church there were two thrones: below – in the name of Kozma and Damian and above – in honor of the beheading of John the Baptist. .
- Nikitskaya Church has a basement, which was first used for heating the church with wood or coal, and then as a warehouse, recreation room and room for storing inventory.
