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Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Church in Usolie

Фото 1
From 1804 to 1808, under the last two priests, a stone five-domed two-story church with a tall four-tiered bell tower was built using funds collected from parishioners. Later, it was surrounded by a massive stone fence with three gates: eastern, southern, which now serves as the main entrance, and western, now leading to the cemetery, as well as corner towers and two attached stone houses. The construction was carried out by monks from the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, and the bricks were made in the village itself. The church was consecrated in 1808, equipped with three altars: on the lower floor, in the warm church, in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and on the upper, cold floor, in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Construction continued until 1817. In the second half of the 19th century, the church was partially rebuilt: a covered porch appeared on the second floor with an entrance through the first tier of the bell tower, replacing the original staircase and leading to the refectory of the cold church.

According to the Description of Churches and Parishes of the Vladimir Diocese from 1896, the church owned several buildings: a chapel in the village of Ob'yedovo, a wooden burial vault, and two stone houses, one of which had been used since 1886 for the church parish school, and the other for the residence of the church watchman. The church's land holdings included about ten desyatinas of estate land, 4 desyatinas of hayfields, and up to 35 desyatinas of arable land. Copies of metric books and confession lists have been preserved intact since 1829, and an inventory of church property was compiled in 1885.

The painting on the vaults of the first floor was updated in the mid-1950s by the last representative of the old school of icon painters, Shorokhov, Pyotr Ivanovich. Who painted the cold church and when remains unknown. The iconostasis of the second floor and its icons, dating from the mid-19th century, are made in the style of Russian classicism and have many analogies in the Vladimir region. All icons are painted in oil on wooden boards in a manner characteristic of large icon-painting workshops of the Moscow and Vladimir provinces. The oldest icon, the Kazan Mother of God with a double-sided image, on the reverse side of which is the icon of the Three-Handed, is now covered with a metal cover. It is kept in the altar of the cold church and is taken out during the procession.

Of interest is also the 18th-century icon of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The icon of the Vladimir Mother of God has an inscription: "This holy icon was written and consecrated on Athos in the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery at the end of the 19th century." The church has 8 icons painted on Athos in the 19th century. Notably, there is a three-tiered chandelier in the cold Kazan church, made of brass in the mid-19th century. Before the electrification of the church, candles were lit using a ladder.

The church houses books with autographs of the deacon of the Moscow printing house Andrei Vasilyev and monks of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, many of which are in a deplorable state.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the church was repeatedly subjected to robberies. Thieves, having sawed through the window grilles on the first floor, took away many unique utensils and almost all the icons of the winter church. The second floor was saved thanks to oak doors and strong locks.

Since March 18, 1974, the church has been recognized as a monument of architecture and urban planning of regional significance.

Geo point

Церковь Казанской иконы Божией Матери в Усолье

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