The Church of the Nativity of Christ in Yaroslavl

Church of the Nativity

The Church of the Nativity of Christ is a snow-white beauty of the 17th century - the "golden" century of Yaroslavl culture. It is located on the picturesque Volga coast. In the 17th century, ships sailed along the Volga - Yaroslavl was at the intersection of important trade routes - this is the Arkhangelsk-Moscow route and the Volga trade route. The money earned Yaroslavl merchants built temples - one more beautiful than the other. They wanted to preserve the memory of themselves and surpass other merchants in the beauty and grandeur of the temples being built.

The church is beautiful in that it first used irrigated tiles: diamonds and circles on the porch and the inscription under the roof are made of them. They are single-colored, green - ants. They're an ant grass. These are the first tiles in Yaroslavl, which will eventually bloom in elegant tiles, in colorful friezes (ribbons), in huge tiled mosaics. But the beginning of the tradition is here, in the decoration of the Christmas Church.

An unusual inscription encircles the temple under the roof. It indicates to us that the construction of the church was completed in 1644, and the temple builders were the merchants of Nazarev - Guriy and Ankidin, nicknamed Druzhina, as well as the children of Guria - Mikhail, Andrei and Ivan. This text is unusual: next to the name of the tsar and the patriarch, merchants “dared” to put their worldly names. The dynasty of merchants of the Nazarev-Guryevs was famous for enterprise - they traveled to the eastern countries, scouted the ways "to the rich Indian lands" and to Bukhara. Therefore, in the temple you can feel the influence of the mysterious architecture of the East.

On the border with the Horde, merchants built a stone fortress (now the city of Guryev), and in Yaroslavl - a Christmas church with a bell tower. These were expensive projects, and unfortunately the dynasty went bankrupt. But the city they built and the church are still standing today. Yaroslavl masters went to build the fortress, and the multicolored blue-turquoise and yellow-green tiles of the East were embodied in the decoration of the Yaroslavl church.

Initially, the temple was crowned with five domes covered with bright shingles of green and yellow colors. In the 19th century, the shape of the main dome was changed and four side chapters were removed to facilitate the vaults of the temple. And inside, the floor was covered in jasper.

In the 17th century, the Kazan chapel was attached to the main church. It was built by the sons of Guria. Above the chapel is a graceful openwork cross. This cross is a real miracle of blacksmith art. It is made with a subtle artistic taste and jewelry thoroughness. Ancient Yaroslavl blacksmiths were able to weave a transparent light lace from heavy, coarse iron. The Kazan chapel was connected with the bell tower erected in the middle of the 17th century.

You may ask whether the Guryevs invented the recipe for such a famous and delicious Guryev porridge. Let's remember the recipe: semolina, nuts, cream or milk foams, dried fruits. This wonderful dish was invented at the beginning of the 19th century by the serf chef Zakhar Kuzmin, whom Minister D.A. Guryev, who loved porridge, made his home cook. The recipe for porridge gradually began to master all the chefs of the Moscow nobility, it began to appear cookbooks even outside Russia and became very famous. That was Alexander 1's time. Later, the admirer of Guryev porridge became Emperor Alexander 3. The monarch also loved traditional tea parties with a samovar.

Church of the Nativity bell tower

Hidden bell tower, elegant and original, everything like a toy carved from stone.

This tent bell tower is an exceptional monument for Russian architecture. The bell tower serves as a passage gate, and a gate church, and a belfry. The gate is decorated with a double arch with a hanging weight in the middle.

Above the gate was the church of Guria, Samon and Aviv, patrons of the hearth. It's surrounded by an open gallery. The light openwork arcade of the gallery has unusual jug-shaped columns. Above the church is a stone tent of bell towers with windows of different shapes. Before, when the bells rang, the tent was full of sounds. Vibrating the stone edges, he intensified the ringing, and it was heard throughout the district.

To the bell tower closely adjacent to two towers-pyramids, similar to tents. There was a clock on one of them. Nearby are paired round pillars with patterned thickenings. In shape they resemble the eastern minarets, perhaps the ancient architect saw them in the East, where he went to build a stone fortress.

Who was the creator of this building? In the 17th century, masters almost never signed their works, and artists – icons, because it was believed that they create God.

The stones are silent, and the name of the ancient master is lost in the centuries.