The Nizhny Novgorod Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary has an unusual appearance for Catholic churches. The fact is that it is located in a small building where once there were stables, on the territory of the former possessions of the Shchelokovs. However, its interiors are decorated with beautiful sculptures and stained-glass windows, and an organ plays during services.
The emergence of Catholic settlements
Starting from the 17th century, Panskaya Sloboda began to form in Nizhny Novgorod - a part of the city where Germans, Poles and Lithuanians have long settled, once captured during numerous wars and left to live in Russia. Given its ethnic composition, it can be said with certainty that among them were people professing Catholicism, although there is no information about holding such religious services in archival documents of that era.
After the war of 1812, for four years, a large number of Poles, French and Germans were forced to accept Russian citizenship in order to find work in Russia, in particular, in Nizhny Novgorodprovinces. Often, only the heads of families changed their religion, while the wives and children remained Catholic.
Since 1833, the first elite educational institutions began to appear in the city, such as the Mariinsky and Alexander Institutes. Representatives of many nationalities came here, who preferred to keep their religion, be it Muslim, Lutheran or Catholic. for this reason, the mandatory presence of spiritual mentors in educational institutions for each of the religious groups was introduced. From time to time, visiting priests visited the city, holding services either in rented premises or in private houses. But, as it turned out, this was no longer enough.
First Temple
In 1857, Catholic merchants decided to submit a collective petition to build a chapel on the city's fairground. Not without effort, but they still managed to achieve their goal. By the time of construction, other local parishioners also added their donations to the amount collected by the merchants, so instead of the chapel, it was decided to erect a small, but stone church without a bell tower. She was consecrated in 1861.
This was the first Catholic church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nizhny Novgorod. Then Father S. Budrevich became his rector, who also performed the duties of a chaplain. In addition to the main building of the church, a house was built nearby, where the priest lived, and an outbuilding for the organist. Also, a wonderful garden was laid out behind the temple.
Increase in income
After the uprising that took place in Poland in 1861-1863, an influx of settlers professing the Catholic faith began again in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The fact is that the most active rebels were usually sent to Russia, so the parish grew rapidly. Before the start of World War I, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was already visited by about 5.5 thousand Catholics.
By that time, in addition to the church, several more chapels had been erected in the city. According to documents that have survived from that time, they were listed as separate Catholic parishes, and their priests sometimes traveled to county towns for worship. Through the efforts of the rector Father Peter Bitna-Shlyakhto, the Lithuanian and Polish charitable committees were organized at the church, dealing with the problems of refugees, as well as prisoners of war soldiers and officers. In addition, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary had its own public library, Sunday school and choir.
Second Temple
In 1914, the parish again replenished with a large number of people. On May 16 of the same year, the Novgorod Catholic community received as a gift a piece of land with a house and a garden from the priest P. V. Bitna-Shlyakhto, who bought it at his own expense from the noblewoman A. Mikhailova. This estate was located on Studenaya Street (now it is house number 8). It was planned to build a new church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary here.
Nizhny Novgorod could then be decorated with a huge pseudo-Gothic church with high spire-like towers. The project of this majestic building was already ready. Its developer wasarchitect M. I. Kuntsevich. But these plans were not implemented, as the First World War began. As a result, it was decided to build the simplest and lowest church without towers, with an ordinary ceiling instead of numerous vaults. Services were held in this building until 1929, until most of the parishioners were repressed, and the priest A. Dzemeshkevich was completely shot. The same fate befell almost all Catholic churches in Nizhny Novgorod. Repressions in the country were just beginning then.
In the late 1940s, the second church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was almost completely rebuilt into a hostel. A little later, a radio center was also located here. In the 1960s, the building again changed its owners, this time it housed a technical research center. As for the first temple, located on Zelensky Spusk, it was first closed, and then completely demolished during the years of Stalinist repressions.
The revival of the parish
In the spring of 1993, five believers, future parishioners of the new Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, gathered for a joint prayer for the first time. It was then that the decision was made to restore it. At the same time, it turned out that about 300 Lithuanians, more than 600 Poles, as well as representatives of other nationalities, most of whom professed Catholicism, lived in Nizhny Novgorod at that time.
The first Mass in the city was performed in a private apartment in November 1993 by Father Ralph Philipp Schönenberg, who arrived from Switzerland and brought with him the first statue for the future temple - the Fitim Mother of God. Coming soon newparish was officially registered.
Third Temple
Since there was no way to transfer the previous church building to the believers, the city administration allocated them another building located on a neighboring site. It turned out to be the building of the former stables of the Shchelokov estate. A little later, the dilapidated building, which belonged to the organist, also passed into the possession of the parish. It has now been renovated and a priest currently lives there.
The building that once housed the stables has since been radically rebuilt. Now the temple itself, the office of the parish and the premises of Caritas are located there. On the second floor are Sunday school classrooms and a library.
Reconstruction
Since outwardly the new building of the temple did not look much like a religious building, much attention was paid to the interior decoration. The altar in the temple is set in the center in the same way as the first Christians did when they left the catacombs. Behind is a semicircular asp, decorated with stained-glass windows.
A little later, an openwork cross, a tower clock were installed on the temple, a bell was hung in the dormer window, and a color image of the Holy Family appeared above the main entrance to the church. All these attributes clearly testified to the purpose of this building.
It is worth noting that almost all construction work was carried out by local craftsmen, with the exception of the cross and the bell, which were made in Voronezh. In 2004, the city administration gavepermission to expand the temple. A lot of work has been done to make the church more comfortable and spacious for parishioners.
Currently, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary officially belongs to the Archdiocese of the Mother of God, headed by Archbishop Paolo Pezzi. Address: Studenaya street, 10 b.
