In 1345, in Veliky Novgorod, the construction of the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Savior on Kovalev was started with the funds of the boyar Ontzifor Zhabin. His sons built 3 more churches, and the descendants in 1395 completed the construction of the church at the monastery, which began about half a century ago. In the southern part of the Church of the Savior on Kovalev there is a tomb of the boyar family of the Zhabins, which is confirmed by archaeological research: ancient wooden and later stone burials were found. Let's talk about the history of the temple and its second birth.
The catholicon of the monastery
The Church of the Savior on Kovalev was designed as a catholicon of the eponymous monastery located within Veliky Novgorod. The monastery was small; wealthy residents of the city donated to it.
The catholic at monasteries is usually built as the main cathedral, surrounded by several additional smaller temples. This is a monastery complex. In 1764, during the reign of Catherine II, the monastery ceased to exist, but services were held in the Church of the Savior on Kovalev until the 20th century.
The interior of the temple
The temple was painted in 1380, which is confirmed by the inscription found on the back of the wall. And it was possible to learn from her that with the blessing of Archbishop Alexei Boyar Afanasy Stepanovich (a descendant of Oncifor Zhabin) and his "girlfriend" Maria began painting the Church of the Savior on Kovalev. To be precise, the couple ordered a painting of the temple, as evidenced by the inscription.
The area of the mural, according to researchers, was approximately 450 square meters. m and was performed by invited Serbian artists. They executed an order in the style of Byzantine traditions, adapted to the Slavic environment.
The first attempt to restore the ancient murals was made by N. P. Sychev, who adhered to the canons of the "old school". The restorer took many photos of the frescoes of the Church of the Savior on Kovalev, documenting the process of working on them. However, even at that time, many images could not be restored. Due to the first World War I, and then the revolution, the work was stopped, and later N. P. Sychev was repressed.
Temple destruction
During the construction of the catholicon, the territory of the monastery on Kovalev was part of Nizhny Novgorod, located in its easternmost part. Today the temple, preserved from the monastery, is located outside the city.
The Church of the Savior in Novgorod suffered the first damage as a result of a fire in 1386. Then the army of Dmitry Donskoy approached the city limits. The temple was restored, and it stood without destruction before the Second World War. During the defensive battles of the Soviet Army for Nizhny Novgorod, the Church of the Savior was chosen as a reference bridgehead, as it was on a hill. The Nazis methodically fired at the temple, destroying it to a five-meter level ...
Temple restoration efforts
As mentioned above, the first restorer of the church was N.P. Sychev, whose efforts can hardly be overestimated. Thanks to the photographs taken by him during the work, the subsequent restoration of the temple, which would seem to be irretrievably lost during the Nazi shelling, became possible.
Only ruins remained from the church, and it stood like this for 15 years, until in 1965 the artists-restorers of the couple Alexander Petrovich Grekov and Valentina Borisovna Grekova began a long work to restore the Church of the Savior on Kovalev. Their works restored unique murals of the XIV century, made by Serbian masters.
In 1970, architect Leonid Krasnorechiev designed a new temple, part of which were surviving fragments of ancient walls.
Church Changes
The time of construction of the Church of the Savior on Kovalev fell at the crossroads of eras, when pre-Mongolian architecture intersected with elements of new forms that would determine the direction of architecture until the middle of the 15th century. This is the uniqueness of this historical monument.
During its existence, the temple was repeatedly modified to please trends and styles that replaced each other for almost seven centuries. At some point, a shell rock, slabs and bricks, from which the walls were folded, disappeared behind a layer of whitewash. Limestone covering and unique murals. The canonical architecture for the 14th century was also changed along with the ceilings and arches of the aisles in front of the church entrance.
What's left
In terms of safety, the northern and western walls of the temple were more fortunate. From the surviving photos of the beginning of the 20th century, one can get an idea of the beauty of the dome, in which you can see the image of Christ and the figures of the archangels. The following are 8 prophets and other scripture scenes. Restorers, having studied the style of writing, came to the conclusion that three painters were engaged in painting, each of which contributed to the uniqueness of the frescoes.
The church was practically recreated anew. Today we can consider the border separating the remake from the historical masonry. The reconstruction was carried out taking into account the general similarity with the original plan, however, meticulous accuracy did not work.
For example, around the dome perimeter after restoration there were 8 windows instead of the initial four. The quality of the masonry is also performed at an average level due to the low quality of the brick.
Fresco Recovery
Wall painting technology requires compliance with many conditions. This is, firstly, the creation of the necessary humidity and temperature conditions. Secondly, the requirements for plaster require a low cement content to ensure the permeability of the walls: they must breathe.
It so happened that during the construction of a new version of the ancient temple did not pay attention to these conditions. The brick was also not tested for the percentage of salts in it, which caused the appearance of a characteristic white coating on the surface of the walls. And he would appear even through plaster. Therefore, the builders had two options: to disassemble the walls and do everything in accordance with ancient technologies, or leave everything as it is and sacrifice frescoes.
Today we have what it is: the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Savior in Novgorod has been restored, but without painting, with the exception of a few fragments preserved in the lower part of the old walls and in some places on the arches.
Legacy of ancient times
So, here's what we have left from ancient times: the Church of the Savior on Kovalev near Novgorod, restored from scratch, standing on a hill near the Moscow highway. The village of Kovalevo has long sunk into oblivion, and this place is now located outside the city.
The temple is not striking in size or sky-high: the parameters of this cubic structure are 11.5 x 11 m. A distinctive feature of the architectural solution is a large chapter and apse, that is, a special part in the temple, which is a recess of the altar part, covered with a separate roof. It could be made both in the form of a semicircle, and in the form of a polygon.
The temple rests on four pillars and is made of masonry. The church is a typical architectural monument of the pre-Mongol era with its discreet design of the facades and the internal stone staircase, characteristic of those times, along which they climbed to the choirs.
As for the frescoes, the work on their restoration was not in vain. Starting from the 60s of the last century, these monuments of temple painting painstakingly restored. Completely recreated works can be seen at the thematic exhibition.
According to historians, the creators of the frescoes could be artists who arrived with the future Metropolitan Cyprian from Athos. A distinctive feature of the paintings is compositional independence and the hesychast spirit noted by many researchers. One of the main virtues of this teaching is silent immersion in oneself and union with the Supreme through “smart doing”.
We can say that the laconicism of the architectural solution was combined in the Church of the Savior on Kovalev with the asceticism of spiritual practice, expressed in artistic creativity, as a result of which the image of the pre-Mongol era was created.