The Church of John the Baptist at the Lower Posad market is one of the oldest in Nizhny Novgorod. It stands on Narodnogo Edinstva Square at the beginning of Rozhdestvenskaya Street Street, near the Skoba. As was the custom in ancient times, the adjacent tower of the stone Kremlin — the Ivanovo Tower — was named after the church's altar dedication as early as the beginning of the 16th century.
History
The church was originally built of wood. A 1621 record states that the church was "of wood, of the cell type, with a refectory and porches" — meaning it represented the simplest and most common type of log-built church of the time, with a gabled roof and a spacious refectory surrounded by an open porch that led to the entrance.
The construction of the stone Church of John the Baptist is associated with the personality of the Nizhny Novgorod merchant and industrialist G. S. Dranishnikov, as well as with major events that took place in Russia during the 17th century: the peasant war led by S. Razin and the Old Believer movement. We therefore begin our account by reconstructing the key milestones in the life of the church's patron-builder — a vivid representative of the era of "primitive accumulation" in Russian history, although to his dying day he was known simply as a posad taxpayer.
G. S. Dranishnikov made a defining contribution to shaping the artistic character of the building, yet he did not live to see construction through to the end. On 24 August 1679, Gavrila Dranishnikov died suddenly, having managed only two days before his death to draw up a will by which he freed all his serfs and bequeathed his tangible property — four residential courtyards, salt warehouses, Volga barges, and various other "equipment" — to his brother Lavrentiy, on the express condition that Lavrentiy complete the stone Lower Posad church.
The estate of the wealthy Nizhny Novgorod merchant immediately attracted numerous claimants, among them Metropolitan Filaret. The protracted struggle over rights to G. S. Dranishnikov's property reads more like a detective story. Nevertheless, Lavrentiy brought his brother's work to completion. In 1683, the Nizhny Novgorod chronicler recorded that on the Lower Posad "without fanfare was consecrated a stone church of John the Baptist, built by a Nizhny Novgorod posad man, Gavrilo Dranishnikov, at his own expense." The chronicler's account should be supplemented with the note that on the south side a chapel was added in honor of the great martyr Anna, consecrated in accordance with the patron's spiritual testament in memory of his wife, who had "gone over to the schism."
Thus a stone church appeared in Nizhny Novgorod beneath the Kremlin hill — a church that must be regarded as a monument of posad culture from the second half of the 17th century, a turbulent and little-studied period of the city's socioeconomic flourishing, bound up with the events of S. Razin's peasant war and the Old Believer movement.
The church has survived. However, its present appearance does not correspond to the original. It was built according to the design of the widely used architectural church type known as the "ship," but since the building was erected on a hillside, a brick "podium" was constructed beneath it, inside which were shops rented out by the clergy to merchants.
The main volume of the church featured a zakomarny roof, above which rose a massive five-dome crown covered with green glazed tiles and topped with iron openwork gilded crosses. The bell tower rose on a square base from the ground and only at the belfry tier transitioned into an octagon with a tent roof, whose small dome was likewise covered with glazed tiles. The building was constructed solidly, to last for centuries; despite frequent fires, it served as an ornament of the Lower Posad until the early 19th century. But during the urban redevelopment of 1834–1839, when orders were given to clear the land adjoining the Kremlin of all manner of structures — and to demolish "the warm chapel of the Predtechin Church on the Lower Posad and all the shops beneath it" — alarming processes began to affect the building's fabric. Previously, the pressure of the hillside on the church had been absorbed by the chapel's massive walls, but after its demolition and the disruption of the ancient drainage system, underground springs began gradually to erode the foundations of the refectory chamber and to flood the vaulted cellars.
Repair work at the church in the 1830s–1840s was carried out at various times by A. L. Leer, I. E. Yefimov, and G. I. Kizevetter. Even so, major restoration works had to be undertaken again in 1881–1885, and the bell tower was entirely rebuilt from scratch, substantially distorting the appearance of the ancient church.
The building suffered still greater losses in the Soviet period. Yet this magnificent monument deserves to have its original appearance restored and its lost decorative elements recovered. The ancient church, standing alongside the venerable stone Kremlin, would recreate yet another historic zone in our city and, together with the churches of Ilyinka Hill, restore the unique character of this part of Nizhny Novgorod.
Contact Information
Address
- Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Rozhdestvenskaya Street St., 1"B"
Phone
- Tel. (831) 437-38-00