QR-35 - The Church of Saint Sergius of Radonezh

Object	The Church of Saint Sergius of Radonezh
Dating	1739–1747.
Type	A monument of architecture.
Status	a cultural heritage site of federal importance.
Address	1 Pervaya St., Dymkovo Sloboda, V. Ustyug, Russia.
A brief description	It is a warm church in the parish complex. The architectural look of the temple is determined by its composition in a form of a ship, specified by a tiered top of the central volume and a spacious refectory adjacent to it from the west. The decor of the shaped bricks of architraves, pilasters and cornices is sophisticated. The stoves of the mid-18^th century, covered with polychrome tiles, are preserved inside the church.
Condition	satisfactory.
Contemporary use	the church is used by the Veliky Ustiug State Museum-Reserve.
History The Church of Saint Sergius of Radonezh is part of the ensemble of the Dmitrievsky parish churches located at Dymkovo Sloboda. It is believed that the first wooden churches at Dymkovo were built in 1383 in memory of Ustiug people’s participation in the battle of Kulikovo. The warm church played a subordinate position in the ensemble of wooden churches at Dymkovo. Judging by the descriptions of the 17^th century, in the ensemble of the Dmitrievsky parish the large tent-roofed structures dominated: a cold church of Saint Dmitry of Solun and a bell tower. A warm stone church, which replaced the wooden one in the 18^th century, is also unmatched in sizes to the neighboring church of Saint Dmitry of Solun. The temple was built in 1739-1747. The lower church was consecrated on September 25, 1749 in the name of Saint Nicholas. On September 17, 1769, the second warm temple, located on the second floor, was consecrated in the name of Saint Sergius of Radonezh. In 1930 the church was closed. At present the building of the church of Saint Dmitry of Solun is assigned to Veliky Ustiug State Museum-Reserve.
Architectural description The church stands next to the summer temple of Saint Dmitry of Solun. The composition of the church in a form of a ship is typical to the local architecture of the 18^th century. The church represents a stretched from the west to the east two-storey building, which is almost completely symmetrical. On the first floor there is the temple with a pentagonal apse adjacent to it from the east. A square in plan refectory and a separate household chamber, connected with the premises under leading to the second floor porch, adjoin the temple in the west. The quadrangle of the temple on the church’s second floor is put above the refectory of the lower church. A five-sided apse and a square refectory are also adjacent to it. A porch with a wooden staircase leads to the adjacent to the refectory parvis. The church is topped with an octagonal drum with narrow windows, decorated with corner semi-columns and crowned with an octagonal tholobate. The bulbous head with an interception, having a broad basis - "a skirt ", is surmounted by a four-rayed forged cross with «a halo». Decoration of the facades is made of molded brick in the tradition of the Northern Baroque, but with the application of certain motifs typical of the preceding 17^th century. The corners of the first floor are decorated by panelled lesenes with catchy stellate rosettes, and the ones of the second floor by semi-columns. Horizontally the surface of the whitewashed walls is divided by expressive pilaster-sided divisions: a molded basement and a crowning cornice, a crenate intermediate cornice. The temple walls above the cornice are decorated with a row of semicircular corbel arches. Window openings are surrounded by developed architraves, over which there are hood-moulds on the first floor, while on the second - whimsical pediments. The entrance to the lower church is framed by perspective portal. The entrance to the refectory on the second floor is arranged from the galleries, originally based on the arcade. The pylons of the porch are decorated with rustication, the arches have keystones. The windows, that let light on the staircase, have "creeping" arched tops. The porch locker is covered with a spherical dome. The upper floors of the temple and the altar are made of white stone slabs. The other rooms have deal flooring.
Restoration Initially only the apse and dome of the temple were covered with iron, and other roofs were covered with deal. Arched openings of the gallery under the porch were laid. After closing the temple the iconostases were lost. From 1983 to 1986 restoration work was carried out under the guidance of the architect Eduard Nasedkin. Text by Alexander Suvorov. Translated by Olga Leonidova.
Information about the partner of the project In 2013, through the funding of our project partner, the communications and mobile operator Tele2, an information plate containing a QR-code was installed on the church.