The Church of Cosmas and Damian on Rozhdestvenskaya — a 17th-century Orthodox church that stood at the corner of Rozhdestvenskaya (now Markin Square) in Nizhny Novgorod. The precise date of the stone building's construction has not been established: in the 1620s a wooden "church of the holy wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian" still stood on the Lower Posad, and most researchers place the stone church's appearance in the second half of the 17th century.[2] The complex ceased to function as an active church in the late 19th – early 20th century: the main volume was demolished after a new building was constructed, but the 17th-century bell tower survived and was preserved into the early 20th century as a monument of ecclesiastical architecture.[2]

History and Dating

The question of when the stone church was built long remained a subject of debate. Nikolai Khramtsovsky believed that "the unheated Kozmademyansky church was built at the beginning of the 17th century," yet noted its architectural resemblance to the later Church of St. Sergius. Archimandrite Macarius attributed the stone building to the late 17th century. Members of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocesan Church-Archaeological Commission and the Nizhny Novgorod Guberniya Learned Archaeological Commission, who inspected the church in 1895, concluded that "the stone Cosmo-Damiansk church appears only in the second half of the 17th century" and that "no particular historical memories associated with this church have been preserved."[2]

The dating of 1531, proposed by I. A. Bondarenko and S. M. Shumilkin, is considered untenable by researcher A. I. Davydov. He likewise dismisses the version put forward by N. F. Filatov, who dated the church to 1630–1640 and linked its construction to the memory of the Nizhny Novgorod Militia, characterizing it as conjecture unsupported by references to sources.[2]

In terms of its floor plan, the old church belonged to the "ship" type. In 1825 the main volume was rebuilt and acquired a Classicist appearance, with a spherical dome and entrance porticoes that contrasted with the bell tower and short refectory, which remained unchanged. The building's roof was wooden, and its single cupola was covered with tiles and topped with an iron cross.[2]

Restoration and the Fate of the Bell Tower

Between 1872 and 1890 a new, more spacious church building was erected nearby. After its consecration, the old main volume was demolished. The 17th-century bell tower was restored in time for the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod and preserved as a monument of ecclesiastical architecture; the refectory was retained alongside it and converted into a diocesan library-reading room. This information is provided by Protopriest M. V. Dobrovolsky in his guidebook to Nizhny Novgorod's holy sites.[2] The story of the old bell tower's 19th-century restoration is one of the few documented examples of pre-revolutionary architectural restoration in Nizhny Novgorod.[2]

Sources

  1. opentextnn.ru — Davydov A.I. On the History of the Restoration of the Old Church of Cosmas and Damian on Rozhdestvenskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod — OPEN TEXT
  2. Nizhny Novgorod Pravda — Temples of old Nizhny Novgorod: remembering the churches that did not survive the 20th century