In 1345, the construction of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on Kovalev began in Veliky Novgorod at the expense of the boyar Ontsifor Zhabin. His sons built 3 more churches, and in 1395 his descendants completed the construction of the church at the monastery, which had begun 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.
Catholikon of the monastery
The Church of the Savior on Kovalev was designed as a katholikon of the monastery of the same name, located within Veliky Novgorod. The monastery was small, we althy residents of the city donated to it.
Katholikon at monasteries is usually built as the main cathedral, surrounded by several additional smaller temples. This is what ismonastery complex. In 1764, during the reign of Catherine II, the monastery ceased to exist, but divine 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 reverse side of the wall. And from it it was possible to learn that with the blessing of Archbishop Alexei, the boyar Afanasy Stepanovich (a descendant of Ontsifor Zhabin) and his "friends" Maria began painting the Church of the Savior on Kovalev. To be precise, the couple ordered the painting of the temple, as evidenced by the inscription.
The area of the painting, according to the researchers, was approximately 450 square meters. m and was made by invited Serbian artists. They performed the order in the style of Byzantine traditions, adapted to the Slavic environment.
The first attempt to restore ancient paintings was made by NP Sychev, who adhered to the canons of the "old school". The restorer took many photographs of the frescoes of the Church of the Savior on Kovalev, documenting the process of working on them. However, already at that time, many images could not be restored. Due to the First World War, and then the revolution, work was stopped, and later N. P. Sychev was repressed.
Temple destruction
During the construction of the katholikon, 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 abroadcities.
The first damage to the Church of the Savior in Novgorod suffered 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 until the Second World War. During the defensive battles of the Soviet Army for Nizhny Novgorod, the Church of the Savior was chosen as a strong foothold, as it was on a hill. The Nazis methodically shelled the temple, destroying it to a five-meter level…
Temple Restoration Efforts
As mentioned above, the first restorer of the church was NP Sychev, whose efforts can hardly be overestimated. Thanks to the photographs he took during the work, the subsequent restoration of the temple, which seemed to have been irretrievably lost during the Nazi shelling, became possible.
Only ruins remained of the church, and it stood like that for 15 years, until in 1965 the artist-restorers spouses Alexander Petrovich Grekov and Valentina Borisovna Grekova began a long work to restore the Church of the Savior on Kovalev. Their efforts restored unique frescoes of the 14th century, made by Serbian masters.
In 1970, the architect Leonid Krasnorechyev designed a new temple, part of which were the surviving fragments of the ancient walls.
Changes in the face of the church
The construction of the Church of the Savior on Kovalev happened 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 monument.history.
During its existence, the temple has changed many times to suit the trends and styles that have replaced each other for almost seven centuries. At some point, shell rock, slabs and bricks, from which the walls were built, disappeared behind a layer of whitewash. The lime coating also covered the unique frescoes. The dome, canonical for the architecture of the XIV century, was also changed along with the ceilings and vaults of the aisles in front of the entrance to the church.
What's left
In terms of safety, the northern and western walls of the temple were more fortunate. From the surviving photos of the early 20th century, you 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. Next are 8 prophets and other scenes from Scripture. The restorers, having studied the style of writing, came to the conclusion that three artists were engaged in painting, each of whom contributed to the uniqueness of the frescoes.
The church was practically rebuilt. Today it is possible to 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, scrupulous accuracy did not work out.
For example, after the restoration, there were 8 windows around the perimeter of the dome instead of the original four. The quality of the masonry is also average due to the poor quality of the bricks.
Restoration of frescoes
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 content of cement to ensure the permeability of the walls: they must breathe.
It turned out that when building a new version of the ancient temple, they did not pay attention to these conditions. The brick was also not tested for the percentage of s alts in it, which caused a characteristic white coating to appear on the surface of the walls. And it would show up even through the plaster. Therefore, the builders had two options: to dismantle the walls and make everything in accordance with ancient technologies, or leave everything as it is and donate the frescoes.
Today we have what we have: the Church of the Transfiguration in Novgorod has been restored, but without painting, with the exception of a few fragments preserved at the bottom of the old walls and in some places on the arches.
Heritage of ancient times
So, this is what we have left from ancient times: the Church of the Savior on Kovalev near Novgorod, restored almost from scratch, standing on a hill near the Moscow highway. The village of Kovalevo has long since sunk into oblivion, and this place is now outside the city.
The temple is not striking in size or sky-high height: the parameters of this cubic structure are 11.5 x 11 m. 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-Mongolian era with its discreet decoration of facades and an internal stone staircase, typical for those times, along which they climbed to the choirs.
As for the frescoes, the work on their restoration was not in vain. Since the 60s of the last century, these monuments of temple painting have been painstakingly restored. Fully recreated works can be viewed at a themed 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 their compositional independence and the hesychast spirit noted by many researchers. One of the main virtues of this teaching is silent immersion in oneself and connection with the Almighty through "intelligent doing".
It can be said that the conciseness 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 an image of the pre-Mongolian era was created.
