Nikolaya Chudotvortsa Cathedral

Great architecture, beautiful views. No good toilet. 😉 Best way to get there - to grab a taxi. Would be very fast and cheap. You can buy cheap and authientic pictures of saints inside the church.

St. Nicholas Cathedral or St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Cathedral is located on the territory of the St. Nicholas and Vyazhischsky Women's Stavropegic Monastery. In the 17th century, the monastery flourished when it was under the patronage of the kings, and at the end of the 17th century, when the abbot of the monastery (1683-1697) was Bogolep Sablin, who shared Nikon's ideas about the superiority of spiritual power over secular, which apparently explains the magnificent and pompous character of the erected buildings were built by St. Nicholas Cathedral (1681-1683) and the refectory or refectory with two churches: the Ascension of the Lord and the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian (in 1694-1698), which were connected by a gallery two front porch. All these buildings form a single structure in the shape of the letter "G". Somewhat later (in 1708), at the junction of the refectory and the gallery, an octahedral two-tier bell tower was erected at right angles, above which five chapters rise. On the territory there are several economic buildings, corner towers of the fence and gates, built in the 18-19 centuries. In 1764, during the reform of Catherine II on the secularization of church lands, the monastery was not closed, but its lands were secularized. The monastery was closed in 1920 and its premises, except for the Nikolsky Cathedral, which operated until 1935, were transferred to the collective farm. During the war, many buildings were badly damaged and until the end of the 80s the monastery was a ruin in the restoration forests. In 1988, the monastery was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and became a nunnery. St. Nicholas Cathedral consists of two churches on its different floors. The church of Evfimi Vyazhischsky is located on the ground floor and is usually closed. There is the main shrine of the monastery - the relics of the archbishop of Novgorod Euthymius II, who died in 1458. Above the Church of Evfimi Vyazhischsky. The cathedral church is located. This is the only room in the monastery that can be visited. The congregational church was apparently completely restored, that is, it is a remake, and there is almost nothing of historical significance. The walls are covered with white plaster and there are no frescoes or some kind of painting on them. The upper church, unlike the lower, has high arches, a large and very high altar of a clearly modern work. In this case, the altar, and the decoration is made of some light wood (beige). Nikolsky Cathedral itself has two floors, three apses (three apses), three naves (three naves) and five domes (five domes). On three sides, galleries with vaults were attached to it, and on the west side, a porch was attached with two tents topped with tents. In addition, in the upper part of the facade of the cathedral there are semicircular niches with brick masonry. I initially thought that these were some niches that were simply bricked up. However, this was originally the case and on some of them murals of the 19th century are visible, at which the paints were laid directly on the bricks, which creates a curious effect. A distinctive feature of the buildings is the use of colored tiles. True, they are not at St. Nicholas Cathedral, but they are on the gallery and two main porches, and especially on the refectory, bell tower and church wing, which are encircled by tile friezes (these are horizontal stripes framing the building) in green or turquoise. Tiles also adorn the windows trim on the buildings. I got the impression that the monastery was not prepared for visiting tourists. Well, if someone has arrived, then you can walk along the lawn. I think that we should not say that since this is a monastery, there is nothing for the tourists to do there. All the buildings of the monastery are a national treasure, they are of cultural and historical value, and, as far as I know, are owned by the state, and the churches are only transferred to use and possession, so we all as citizens of the state have the right to access them as cultural values. The question is only in finding a reasonable balance of interests. In general, I expected more from visiting the monastery.

Beautiful monastery not far from the city