Tserkov' Paraskevy Pyatnitsy Na Torgu

Fantastic place, first democratic assembly in Rusia.

Stand out as the only church in the surrounding without the white facade, its natural brick color make it unique.

Cool

This is history!

The stone church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa on Torgu, which has come down to us in a rebuilt form, was built in 1207 by "overseas" merchants. These are not foreigners, but Novgorod merchants who traded abroad (overseas). It is located in the place where the Novgorod bargaining worked, which opened on Fridays. Paraskeva Friday was considered the patron saint of Novgorod merchants. This is a mythical image in the folk tradition, formed on the basis of the personification of Friday as the day of the week and the cult of St. Paraskeva. The word "paraskeva" in Greek means "preparation, preparation" for the Sabbath, like a half-day. This is such a combination of a person and a day of the week - almost a combination of space and time. The church was not built in the Novgorod architectural traditions. It is believed that the church was originally built by masters from Smolensk. A number of its elements (the shape of the apses, blades, columns) resonate with the architectural traditions of Smolensk. The Church of Paraskeva is one-domed, six-pillar (according to some sources, four-pillar, while four columns seem to be round, which is not typical for Novgorod) with three apses. At the same time, two apses are internal (they do not go beyond the main premises of the church with semicircular protrusions). The eastern part of the temple is elongated (because of this, it has a rectangular shape) and two lateral apses are hidden in this elongation. On three sides in the center of the facades, the temple had two-story vestibules (narthexes). Only the northern one has survived. The western one was completed during the restoration on the basis of the surviving elements. Now there is no vestibule on the south side, only its foundation. In 1670, a warm chapel of Mikhail Klopsky was added to the south side of the church. Above the entrances of the porches (portals) there are niches where fresco painting used to be, now lost from time. The roof of the Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa is now eight-pitched, but originally the roof was three-bladed, and this is the first known case of a temple with a three-bladed end in Novgorod. The Church of Paraskeva Friday was generally unlucky. It stood in a close building of the marketplace and there were about two dozen fires in it. It collapsed several times from fires or decay, and then rebuilt (for example, in 1345 and 1670). In the 16th century, the church was two-story. On the first floor there were utility rooms (that is, a sub-church). In 1572, Tsar Ivan the Terrible left the state treasury in Novgorod under the protection of 500 archers and they took it "on Friday", that is, kept it in the church where there was a sub-church. In the 17th century, the Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa owned the church shop land for sale, and the shops and barns (about 20) that stood on it were leased. Many of them were near the church itself or attached to it. In the pictures from the 19th century, the church is very difficult to recognize. It is plastered and white, but, besides this, the whole church is covered with various crooked, multi-level extensions, reminiscent of sheds and loggias, and partially falling apart. The church appears to have continued its business of renting out shops. During the war, the church did not suffer much, but then it was restored for a very long time. It is a museum object, but the church is closed and it is impossible to get inside. The church received its current appearance as a result of restoration work. The results of numerous reconstructions over the centuries have merged in it, and in general it is impossible to say to which architectural style it can be attributed. This is eclecticism. The lower part of the walls and interior furnishings belongs to the original construction, and then there are layers of the 13th, 16th and 19th centuries. The dome was erected in the 18th century, that is, the dome is not original. Masonry areas of the 13-16th centuries were freed from plaster. But on some parts the plaster remained, for example, on the apse and drum, in the upper southern part of the western facade and in the upper two-thirds of the southern facade. This mosaic makes the church look strange. Plastered areas and areas of exposed brickwork alternate haphazardly, asymmetrically and unevenly. Maybe from a historical and cognitive position, this is justified, but from an architectural and aesthetic point of view, this diversity is somehow not very good.