The Church of the Transfiguration of God

The Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord is the oldest building in Penza, preserved to this day. Its history goes back to the XVII century, when Penza was already a fairly large settlement. And so in 1689, at one of the slopes of the mountain, on which there were city fortifications, a men's Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery was founded. As the urban area grew, more than a hundred years later, the monastery was moved to the southeast, beyond the city limits. The main building of the complex was the Transfiguration Church, built in 1735-1750.

The Temple of the Transfiguration consisted of two rooms - a heated lower and cold upper church, each used at different times of the year. Decorative design of the church is very picturesque - on the windows keel-shaped casings lined with curly bricks, the upper parts are decorated with "rebetric" and four pairs of semi-columns. The building is crowned by five onion heads. The Transfiguration Church had three thrones: the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Kazan Mother of God and the Beheading of Head John the Baptist.

In the 30s, the Transfiguration Church did not pass the fate of many churches - it was closed. The building was supposed to house a hostel, but later the decision was changed, and the church was converted to the needs of the archive. After the relocation of the archive in 1984, the collections of the regional library were located in the church building, and ten years later it was restored and transferred to the diocese.