Ilya Glazunov has a beautiful painting called "Mr Veliky Novgorod". The temple depicted on it, its location, the fields around are very reminiscent of the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa. No wonder, it is also located near Novgorod, and Volkhov flood meadows are spread around like in a picture.
Rurikids - the first Russian princes
In Russia, temples have always been built on the highest place - closer to God. The highest crust in the district is Nereditsa. On it stands the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. It is dedicated to the two dead sons of Yaroslav Vladimirovich. Some historians believe that they forgot to add "Cruel" to the nickname "Wise". There are not enough fingers on the hands to list the number of children of each of the ruling Rurikovichs in Russia. And the son of Yuri Dolgoruky, Vsevolod, because of the number of wives and children, received the nickname "Big Nest". Princes died, and during their lifetime, brother went to war against brother, son against father, father against son. The first Russian saints are Boris and Gleb, brothers of Yaroslav the Wise and Svyatopolk, who, according to the official version, killed them, for which he received the nickname"Cursed". There is an opinion that they fell at the hands of Yaroslav. One way or another, the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa was partly dedicated to them, because the unique painting of the church also kept the faces of the first Russian saints.
Temple location
The temple was erected near the residence of Yaroslav, three kilometers from Novgorod. He built a temple near his tower on the territory of the settlement. Now this place is an archaeological monument, known as "Rurik's Settlement", and is included in the list of historical heritage under the name "Veliky Novgorod", protected by UNESCO. The monastery, located a little later around the Savior of the Transfiguration on Nereditsa, was called "The Savior on the Settlement". In Novgorod, during the reign of Yaroslav, active church construction was carried out. In contrast to the large St. Sophia Cathedral, at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, temples of small size were actively built. The church is located on the banks of the Spasskaya River. The road to Moscow passed by the temple. Erected in one summer in 1198, the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa was Yaroslav's last building on this land. Novgorodians expelled him. But it also became the last princely building in general - Novgorod became a free city.
Special conditions
The church itself is small, although impressive. It is also part of the Veliky Novgorod historical heritage, like other surviving churches built by Yaroslav and his predecessors. Samples of Kyiv churches,taken as a basis, they were enriched by the local traditions of the trading city, the artistic taste of architects and craftsmen. They acquired originality due to the peculiarities of the building stone and the technique of masonry walls. It was peculiar - layers of plinths (bricks made of shell rock), local stone, which was difficult to process, mortar with the addition of brick chips and Volkhov limestone, were alternately laid. Due to the unevenness of the plinths, the walls were rough. All this originality singled out local construction in a separate niche called "architecture of the Novgorod land", a characteristic representative of which is the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa.
Similar temples
A small temple, to which the adjective “chamber” is applicable, was erected in memory of the murdered sons, and was conceived as a princely tomb. The construction was carried out at an accelerated pace, the terms were record-breaking - only 4 months, but the whole next 1199 the church was painted. In its form and architecture (a single-domed cubic church), the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa resembles other religious buildings erected at the same time. Very similar to it are the Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereyaslav-Zalessky, the Demetrius Cathedral in Vladimir, the Pyatnitskaya Church in Chernigov, the Church of the Annunciation on the Arkazh, Peter and Paul on Titmouse Mountain and others. All of them represent the main type of Orthodox church. The construction of stone cross-domed churches in Russia began with the construction of the Church of the Tithes in Kyiv at the end of the 10th century, active constructionchurches of this type are actively continuing even now. It is in our days that religious buildings destroyed by the Soviet government are being restored and new ones are being built. And it's good that they retain the form inherent in an Orthodox Russian church, and so resemble the paintings of Nesterov and Glazunov. Continuity is preserved, love for Russia is instilled in modern children from childhood, and the concept of "Holy Russia" becomes very close.
Purely national traits
The Church of the Savior on Nereditsa belongs to the cross-domed, with 4 load-bearing internal pillars of worship. It, like many similar buildings, has a pozakomarnoe coating inherent in Russian Orthodox church construction. Cellular or semicircular zakomaras are a curved roof, rather complicated in execution, repeating the shape of a church vault. The zakomara itself crowns the spinner - a vertical fragment of the church facade. These vertical fragments, on the one hand, decorate the temple, on the other hand, give it a unique national identity. Due to its small size, the Church of the Transfiguration on Nereditsa has small choirs, which are mezzanines to accommodate the choir.
Establishment of the church on Nereditsa
Usually, these rooms - choirs or patios - are located on an open gallery or balcony inside the church, and are always located at the level of the second floor on the wall opposite the altar. This church has very thick walls, a narrow staircase and the entrance to the choir, located on a wooden reel, cut through the western wall. On the floors theretwo aisles. The Church of the Savior of Nereditsa in Novgorod itself has irregular proportions, rough walls, but this does not spoil it at all, but gives the temple a certain sophistication and originality. The plasticity of the walls is considered amazing. Despite many analogues, the church is unique.
The church was erected quickly, and although it took a whole year to paint it, the terms for applying the frescoes were also relatively short. The painting covered the entire interior space - the walls, the dome, the supporting columns, and in this it had no equal. The largest pictorial ensemble, the most famous monument of monumental painting not only in Russia, but also in Europe - this is what the painting, which Spas on Nereditsa possesses, is like. Novgorod cannot boast of another such church.
Forgotten and preserved
For many centuries the church stood, surprisingly harmoniously fitting into the surrounding landscape, and there was not much excitement around it. Interest in it arose in the second half of the 19th century. In 1867, the artist N. Martynov received a bronze medal in Paris for watercolor copies of Nereditsa wall paintings. In 1910, the restoration and active study of frescoes began. All this continued more or less intensively until the 1930s. This work was pushed all the time by Nicholas Roerich, who wanted to preserve such a pearl as Spas on Nereditsa. The frescoes of the temple survived to those times in surprisingly good condition.
Brilliant insight
Only thanks to the work carried out at that time, these treasures have been preserved in photographs and copies to this day andpublished as a separate book. The frescoes themselves, and the temple itself, absolutely all died in 1941 from fascist shelling, since there was a firing point in the church. So great was the importance of this church that restoration work began in 1944. The temple has been restored so skillfully that few people recognize it as a post-war creation. It became possible to recreate the church only thanks to the measured drawings made in 1903-1904 by Academician P. Pivovarov.
One of a kind
From afar you can see the Church of the Savior on Nereditsa standing on a hill. Photos that exist in large quantities convey its amazing beauty. Outwardly, it is an exact copy of its predecessor, but the interior decoration could not be restored, since 15% of the original paintings were preserved, mainly the upper part - walls, vaults, dome.
The uniqueness of the original source lies not only in the fact that absolutely everything was painted, but the style of writing and the themes of the frescoes were striking.
Unusual for that time and was considered a relic of the image in the dome of the "Ascension" of the figure of Christ with six angels. At this time, the domes were decorated with "Pantokrat". It was, as a rule, a half-length image of Jesus. He made a blessing with his right hand, he held the Gospel with his left. Church frescoes were located in 9 tiers. There were compositions "Baptism", portraits of murdered princes and the first saints Boris and Gleb. There was a large portrait of Yaroslav and a large composition of the Last Judgment, in which there was a place for the plot "rich in hell." Gener althere was no painting program, as, for example, in St. Sophia Cathedral, there was not the slightest chronology of events, but this does not belittle the significance of Nereditsa frescoes.
Collective creativity
Many experts explain this lack of system by the presence of a large number of craftsmen and the rush to complete the order. And some suggest that Yaroslav, for the short summer months, when churches usually sign, invited specialists who were independent of each other, among whom was even a foreigner. Therefore, there is such discord.
The exact name of the artist is unknown, but (presumably) a lot indicates that he was the icon painter Olisey Grechin. Archaeologists have found his workshop, where much indicates his involvement in Nereditsky murals. Experts note that the style of writing is sweeping, close, rather, to the oriental style than to the strict Byzantine style.
Heritage Preservation
After the war, the Church of the Transfiguration on Nereditsa was completely restored in 1958, and in 1992 it was included in the World Heritage List.
It's a huge achievement that expositions are now being created in 3D. Using black-and-white photographs and sketches preserved in the archives, students of Leningrad University managed to recreate both the interior and exterior decoration of the temple, and it changes over time. And all this is true.
Currently, the church itself operates as a museum open to the public several days a week.
