Tserkov' Vlasiya

The Church of St. Blasius is located in such a small square opposite the building of the Administration of Veliky Novgorod. It used to be Volosova street. There is an assumption that the church was built on the site of the pagan temple of Veles (Volos). The first mention of the wooden church in this place according to the clerical records refers to 1111, according to the chronicles to 1165. The church is named after Blasius of Sebaste. He was a bishop of the city of Sevastia (now Sivas in Turkey) and during the persecution of Christians he was repeatedly tortured to renounce Christianity and executed for refusing to change his faith in 316, for which he was declared a holy martyr. He was a doctor by profession. His biography is replete with various fairy tales. For example, when the local ruler ordered the hunters to collect as many wild animals as possible to torture the Christians, they noticed a cluster of animals near the cave where Vlasius lived. The animals waited for him to come out to bless and heal them. But most of all I liked the story about the pig. When Blasius was seized and led to the ruler, a poor widow approached him, in whom the wolf dragged the only piglet. Blasius said that with her piggy everything would be fine and ordered to go home. She returned home and after a while the wolf in the teeth brought the living piglet back to the widow (I wonder where the wolf was carrying the living pig all this time). True, then all the same with the pig, everything was not so good. Surprised by the faith of Blasius, the widow stabbed the piglet, cooked it and took Blasia to prison. Blasius accepted a modest gift (that is, a whole single piglet from a poor widow). So, although it was not the wolf that ate the piglet, but Vlasiy ate it, I think that neither the widow nor the piglet would feel any better. There are many more in life. Blasius walked on the water and sat in the middle of the lake (on the water). The current stone structure of the church was erected in 1407. This is a cubic cross-domed, single apse, four-pillar, one-domed temple with a three-bladed completion. The church was rebuilt several times. For example, in the 17th century, it was made an eight-pitch roof, in 1852 the arches and a drum were shifted, a four-pitch roof was made, the dome was changed. At different times, two chapels were added to the church, which, apparently, were also rebuilt. In the mid-19th century, a two-tier bell tower was erected over the porch from the west (before that, a three-tier bell tower was built in 1775). In the 16th century, the Church of Blasia was part of the nine most important churches of Veliky Novgorod. During World War II, the church was badly damaged by fire. Apparently in the late 40s - early 50s, side altars (narthexes) and a bell tower were dismantled. Now you can see the remains of the walls of the aisles from two sides (western and southern). At the same time, they wanted to demolish the church itself, so as not to interfere with traffic and not act “depressingly” on residents. But there was a protest from the scientific community (it turned out to be such in Soviet times) and in 1954-1959 the church was restored, it is believed that in the forms of the 15th century. The churches returned the three-bladed completion, but it seems that the dome and vaults were recreated to a greater extent as a possible version of what happened, since there were almost no traces of the original construction. The restoration was probably not very successful, since in 1974 the middle part of the western wall collapsed. Now the church is closed to visitors, that is, you can’t get inside. Its status is incomprehensible, apparently, it is still a museum object. Therefore, it can only be viewed from the outside. On the north side of the church there is a niche with the remains of the fresco "Holy Martyr Blasius", but almost nothing is visible on it. In appearance, the church does not look as elegant as the church of the Twelve Apostles on the abyss or Peter and Paul in tanners. She seems squat, stocky and plump. But thanks to the surrounding area, it looks very good. The church is located in a clearing in such a rectangular square, surrounded on all sides by the carriageway of the streets. Around it is the Soviet buildings of the 60-70s, but the buildings are at a fairly large distance from it and their church background is not harmful.

Each historical architectural structure is beautiful and valuable in its own way! This church of Blasia was built in 1407.

So nondescript from afar, and so majestic when approaching

A small church in a typical Novgorod style. If it weren’t for antiquity, I would have passed by and didn’t pay much attention. Consecrated in honor of a certain St. Blasia, to whom cunning priests attributed patronage to livestock, in order to distract from worship the consonant pagan cattle god Veles. So this is also an additional phonetic monument.

In stone form built in 1407 and is an object of cultural heritage of Russia of federal significance.